Aung San Suu Kyi: A Story of How “the Lady” Fell from Grace.
Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of Myanmar’s (Formerly Burma) independence hero, General Aung san. General Aung San who helped fight for the Emancipation of Burma from colonial rule was assassinated a day to the independence of Burma, Suu Kyi was two years at the time. Ms. Suu Kyi who is 76 years as of 2021 was born on June 19, 1945. In 1960, Suu Kyi went to India with her mother Din Khi Kyi who was sent to New Delhi as Myanmar’s ambassador. Four Years later she went to United Kingdom to study Philosophy, politics and Economics at the Oxford University. There she met her future husband Michael Aris with whom they had two children. She settled in the United Kingdom after working in Japan and Bhutan for awhile.
She decided to go back to Myanmar in 1988 to look after her ailing mother. Upon her return to Yangon in 1988 she found the country in a political upheaval. The students and working class took to the streets to demonstrate against General Ne win’s regime. She joined the protests and soon she became the leader of the protests. Inspired by the Non-violent campaigns of civil rights activist Michael Luther King Jr and India’s independence hero Mahatma Gandhi, she organized protests and rallies across the country to agitate for integration of democratic system into Myanmar’s political system and free elections.
The demonstration were suppressed brutally following the change of regime. In September 1988, the ruling government was overthrown by a coup d'état and Aung San Suu Kyi was put under House arrest the following year. The military government organized an election in 1990 which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won convincingly. The military junta refused to hand over power to Ms. Suu Kyi despite every indication that NLD had won the elections.
She was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while still under house arrest. She was hailed as an outstanding example of the power of the powerless.
Suu Kyi was again put under House arrest for six years in Yangon and was subsequently released in July, 1995. In 2000, she was again put under house arrest after defying the travel restrictions imposed against her, when she tried to travel to Mandalay. She was again released in May 2002 but imprisoned a year later under unclear circumstances. She was again put under house arrest but she could meet NLD party official once in a while, unlike in the past house arrests where she could not meet anyone including his two sons and husband. Her husband Michael Aris died of cancer in 1999 while her movement was still restricted.
Ms. Suu Kyi was restricted from participating in Myanmar’s 2010 and was released two days later. In fact her son Kim was allowed to visit her for the first time since 2000. This was Myanmar’s first election in two decades. Suu Kyi and her party rejoined politics amid government’s reforms. The NLD party won 43 of 45 seats contested in April 2012 by-Elections and Suu Kyi was sworn in as an MP and official leader of the opposition. The following month she traveled out of Myanmar for the first time in 24 years.
In the 2015 general elections, Suu Kyi and her party witnessed a landslide victory. Unfortunately, Myanmar’s Constitution forbade her from being the President since her two sons are foreign nationals. Nevertheless, she was given the title State Counselor and was widely considered as the de facto leader of Myanmar. However since becoming the State Counselor, her leadership has become defined by her administration treatment of the minority Rohingya Muslims.
In 2017, several thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled to Bangladesh upon military crackdown. Several of them were killed in the crackdown and as such Myanmar faces a lawsuit accusing it of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating it for crimes against humanity. Suu Kyi’s former international allies accused her of keeping quiet while the Rohingya Muslims faced rape, murder and genocide under the strong military establishment. Others defended her as being pragmatic in her administration of a multi-ethnic community.
However, her personal defense of the actions of the military against the Rohingya Muslims at the ICJ was seen as a new turn in her International reputation. However, among the Buddhist majority she is still popular since they were less sympathetic about what was being done to the Rohingya Muslims minority.
Her time in office has also led to some criticism from the international community. Her regime has been accused of cracking down on Journalist and activists using colonial era laws. In August 2018, she described the military as rather sweet than portrayed by the media. In early 2021, barely after winning elections by a landslide she was ousted from power a day before making her first address to the Parliament. She now faces trial for winning the elections fraudulently and owning walkie-talkies against the country’s rule. However, the opinion poll still shows that she is still popular among Myanmar’s citizens.
