Following with the theme of political heroes from last week, democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was released from house arrest on November 13th, 2010 after 21 years of house arrest. Born in 1945, she quickly became a national hero in the country of Burma, now known as Myanmar, when she became the leader of the Burmese opposition in the general elections of 1990 during the military-run regime.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s passion for politics was not surprising since her entire family was a very prominent force in Burmese politics. Her father, for instance, founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated the independence of Burma from British rule in 1947; unfortunately, he was assassinated by rivals in the same year. Her mother, even after the death of her husband, became a prominent political figure in the new Burmese government. In fact, she was appointed Burmese ambassador in 1960 where her daughter followed her and continued to pursue her studies in political science. After graduating in 1969, Aung San Suu Kyi worked in the United Nations for three years and met her future husband, Dr. Michael Aris, when she wrote to him daily primarily on budget matters. She eventually married him and had two children after which she pursued her PhD in Political Science at the University of London.
In 1988, Suu Kyi returned to Burma to help tend to her sick mother after which she began to lead the pro-democracy movement, especially after the military leader of the ruling party stepped down from power. The sudden change in the political atmosphere sparked mass demonstration for democracy in that year where Suu Kyi addressed over 500,000 people to rally for a democratic government. Unfortunately, the military junta returned to power; Suu Kyi retaliated by forming the National League for Democracy (NLD) party later that month.
In July 1989, Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest by the military junta in power with the offer of freedom if she left the country. During the general election in 1990, the NLD party won 59% of the votes and 80% of the seats in parliament. Under normal circumstances, Suu Kyi, being the NLD’s party leader, would have assumed her position as the Prime Minister of Burma. However, the military power nullified the results of the election and refused to hand the power over to the NLD party. This turn of events resulted in international outcry; thus, the world was caught in attention to the plights of this democratic advocate. As a result, Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Over 21 years of Aung San Suu Kyi’s political career, she has been under house arrest for at least 15 of those years. Despite the option of leaving the country in exchange for freedom, she continued to stay under detention in Burma. She was not allowed to meet members of her party, media, international supporters or family during this time. In fact, the last time she saw her husband was in 1995 after which he died from prostate cancer. The government, after learning of Aris’ ailing condition, released Suu Kyi with the condition that she couldn’t return to Burma henceforth. Suu Kyi decided to stay in Burma despite the death of her husband. Her sentence continued under Burmese law that allowed the government the power to detain any persons for five years without trial. The official reason for her arrest was cited under the Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts (Article 10a) as Aung San Suu Kyi was most “likely to undermine the community peace and stability” of Burma.
Over this time, many nations and organizations, including the UN, called for her release. Unfortunately, under this pressure, the military power in Burma extended the sentence of her arrest for a total of three and a half years; this extension without reason was found to be a direct violation of both International Waw and Burmese law. As seen by this trend exhibited by the military in power in Burma, Suu Kyi was continually placed on house arrest for reasons that would be deemed, by other democratic nations, as nonsensical. In fact, in August 2009, Suu Kyi was sentenced for three years of imprisonment with hard labour for a “trespassing” violation that occurred in 2008. After hearing the verdict, world leaders began to pressure the Burmese government to release not only Aung San Suu Kyi, but all 2100 political prisoners held in detention at the time.
Around the time of the Burmese general election held in early November 2010, the first in over two decades, the pressure on the Burmese government to release Aung San Suu Kyi increased exponentially. In the event of rigged elections, democratic countries put forth consequences of “diplomatic isolation and economic stagnation” and incentives of foreign aid if all the political prisoners were released. The Burmese government succumbed to this pressure and announced the release of Aung San Suu Kyi for November 13th, 2010. Unfortunately, the release occurred just six days after the general elections; on the other hand, the Burmese government’s response to this pressure was viewed as encouraging on this nation’s struggle to become a democratic institution and implement rule of law.
The impact that this one woman made on this country is unfathomable; with her resilience, character and passion, she captured the world’s attention in alerting the world about the political plights that plagued this otherwise unknown country. The personal and professional sacrifices that Suu Kyi made for the betterment of Burmese politics and human rights are not only awe-inspiring, but tragic as well. Her non-violent struggle for a democratic political scene and her unlawful detainment for over 15 years is an extraordinary story that should be reverberated in the hopes of alerting the world to the political struggles of this otherwise, unknown nation.
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