Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi

comparison between Aung San Suu Kyi and Rosa Parks

Both Aung San Suu Kyi and Rosa Parks have become enduring and vivacious symbols of the civil rights movements in their respective countries. By refusing to give up her seat to a white person and to move to the back of the bus, Parks ignited a firestorm of race-related protests that galvanized civil rights crusades of later leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. And Malcolm X In the beginning, Parks was not a civil rights leader. She was a citizen who had decided to take a stand against the social oppression that was predominant against African-American people.

Like Parks, Suu Kyi did not start out as a leader of the Burmese people. Though she had an influential father, Suu Kyi was living in England with her family prior being involved in Burma's fight against the military regime. Upon her involvement, however, the petite, quiet woman has fought tirelessly on behalf of her home country's democratic movement. She has generated publicity for her cause and has enlisted international help against the Burmese military junta. Her efforts have even earned her the Nobel Peace Prize.

This paper examines Aung San Suu Kyi's role in the political and democratic movements in Burma. The first part of the paper examines the political climate in Burma prior to Suu Kyi's arrival. The next part then details Suu Kyi's influence, particularly with regard to her work with the National League for Democracy (NLD). The next section evaluates the results of the NLD's efforts, and looks at what remains to be done. In the conclusion, this paper recommends courses of action that could be taken by Western nations in helping the cause of democracy in Burma.

Post-liberation Burmese history

Since achieving limited autonomy from British rule in 1935, Burma has had a tumultuous history of different factions competing for political rule. The nationalist movement held sway through the 1940s. After World War II, the nationalist movement was controlled by a group called the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League. This faction was led by Aung San, whose efforts to fight Japanese imperialism had made him into a local hero. Aung San was also the father of Aung San Suu Kyi.

In 1947, Aung San had persuaded England to recognize Burmese independence. In the 1948 election, Aung San's Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League won majority of the seats for the constitutional convention. However, Aung San and six cabinet colleagues were assassinated by political rivals (Thadithil).

By 1948, independent Burma was under the leadership of U. Nu. However, the new democratic government could not address country's disparate problems, from the rebellious Karen minority to the inflation and corruption that resulted in instability.

In 1962, a military faction headed by General Ne Win took advantage of the instability and staged a coup. The new military government instituted a "Burmese Way to Socialism," a system of government that closed itself off to foreigners and did not tolerate any form of domestic dissent. The military government silenced many of its critics, the bulk of whom were Buddhist monks and pro-democracy students. The new government also instituted a state-controlled economy (Kurlantzick).

Since then, Burma has always been under military rule. The repressive practices have fueled protest from a wide swath of Burmese society. In 1988, a protest between students and a teashop owner escalated into riots lasting over several months. As a result, the military government was overthrown by yet another military faction.

This new government instituted important changes. First, it changed the country's name to Myanmar, a change that has not been adopted by other countries. It abandoned the state socialism in favor of a free market economy. The government was controlled by the official State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which was in charge of the country's political and military affairs upon the arrival of Aung San Suu Kyi back to her home country in 1988.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Biography

To her detractors, Suu Kyi is a troublemaker and a destabilizer, whose Burmese identity is called into question by her marriage to an Englishman and her two "tainted" mixed-race children (Straub).

However, her supporters believe otherwise. By virtue of birth alone, Suu Kyi's Burmese heritage runs deep. After all, she is the only daughter of Aung San, a staunch fighter against colonialism in Burma and one of the country's most beloved national heroes.

Aung San was born and spent her early years in Burma in 1945, before moving to India where her mother was appointed ambassador. She then attended Oxford University's St. Hugh's College, where she studied politics, economics and history. In 1972, she married Oxford scholar Michael Vaillancourt Aris, with whom she has two sons. Throughout the 1980s, Suu Kyi continued her scholastic career, working as a visiting scholar in institutions like Kyoto University's Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the Indian Institute for Advanced Studies in Simla (Pederson 26).

In 1988, Suu Kyi returned to Rangoon, Burma to nurse her ailing mother. She was thus a witness to the massive protests that shook the country during that year, as well as the SLORC regime's brutal and bloody repression of these demonstrations. In later interviews, Suu Kyi would recall how she had always steered clear of political activism, especially among the Burmese exiles in England. However, she states that the 1988 events changed her view, since "this is not a time when anyone who cares can stay out" (Straub).

Burma in 1988

The cause for democracy in Burma was shattered in 1962, with New Win's coup. It was during this regime that the government instituted isolationist policies that focused inward and fostered antagonism towards anything foreign. This suspicion towards foreigners and foreign ideas such as democracy continues to dominate the Burmese military government today (Kurlantzick).

The Burmese way to socialism, the Ne Win government's strategy, had resulted in a bankrupt economy and widespread discontent. The country's black market had grown enormous and was doing more business than the state-run economy. By 1987, the United Nations classified as one of the world's least-developed nations (Kurlantzick).

To address this problem, Ne Win declared all of Burma's high-denomination bank notes as worthless, as a form of "shock therapy" for the country's economy. Instead, this action triggered widespread revolt. Various groups protested in the streets, demanding political liberalization, an end to the state-run economy and a market-style economy. These protests grew more frequent and more violent (Kurlantzick).

The first protesters were mostly student activists, who took to the streets to agitate for radical political reform. In March 1988, Ne Win's troops arrested and locked students in an airtight police van. As a result, 41 wounded students suffocated to death (Clements).

On July 23, 1988, Ne Win surprised Burmese citizens by announcing his resignation and calling for a national referendum regarding the country's political future. However, any hopes for a peaceful transition to democracy were dashed, as the ruling Burma Socialist Program Party opposed Ne Win's pronouncement. This set off another series of protests, which the ruling party met with violence. Between September 18 and September 21, the army killed thousands of students, monks and other civilians to quell the burgeoning rebellion (Thadithil)

In an event later known as the "Massacre of 8-88," infantry troops were dispatched to a protest with orders to kill. Survivors later recalled kneeling in front of the solders, calling them brothers and exhorting them to join the fight for freedom. The troops fired into the protesters, killing an estimated 3,000 people. Thousands more were imprisoned. Witnesses to the Burmese bloodbath likened it to Tiananmen Square in China (Clements).

Initial involvement

It was during this time of intense turmoil when Suu Kyi stepped into Burma's political arena. On August 26, 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi spoke before an estimated 500,000 people and announced her decision to join Burma's movement for democracy and to agitate for a parliamentary system. For Suu Kyi, the decision was political as well as personal, explaining, "I could not, as my father's daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on" (Clements).

In the aftermath of Ne Win's resignation and the SLORC repressions, the military formed the SLORC. Under the leadership of the General San Yu, the government of the renamed Myanmar abandoned Burmese socialism. To pump much-needed investment into the ravaged economy, the San Yu government instituted a free market economy (Thadithil).

However, the SLORC also reinstated martial law. During this time, the military junta imposed a curfew, replaced civil courts with military tribunals and prohibited any public gathering of more than four people. Those who flouted these rules were rounded up and imprisoned (Myoe).

To appease critics like Suu Kyi, the SLORC dangled the promise of "free and fair multiparty elections" slated for the spring of 1990. As a result, over 200 parties registered with the SLORC's election committee. The most popular party by far was the National League for Democracy, which was co-founded by the charismatic Aung San Suu Kyi and several pro-democracy colleagues (Myoe)

Though initially cautiously optimistic, many democracy activists and international observers realized that the promised elections were a way for the military to root out its detractors. The military placed the democracy groups under surveillance and subjected members to harassment. From 1989 to 1990, over 500,000 citizens were forcibly evacuated from their urban residences into disease-ridden "satellite towns" (Clements) Many of those evacuated were supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD party.

NLD and the Elections

During this time, Suu Kyi continued speaking before large crowds, drawing people to defy curfew laws to attend NLD meetings.

During many of her talks, she faced down troops who had been ordered to shoot her. While many people initially listened to her out of curiosity, many were won over by her courage and passion.

She spoke eloquently about the need for democracy and advocated various ways to conduct acts of non-violent civil disobedience (Kurlantzick).

In an effort to quell her growing popularity, the SLORC placed the charismatic leader under house arrest in 1989. However, this move made Suu Kyi into an even more sympathetic figure for democracy, both in Burma as well as the rest of the world. Bowing both to internal pressure as well as international criticism, the SLORC junta decided to hold the promised elections in May 1990 (Thadithil).

Prior to the elections, SLORC troops rounded up several thousand more NLD supporters from the cities and transported them to the satellite areas. With most of her supporters put away and Suu Kyi under house arrest, the SLORC felt confident it would win the elections (Thadithil).

To the SLORC's chagrin, however, the NLD won 392 out of the 485 seats for parliament (Kurlantzick). Initially, the SLORC party promised to honor the results of the election. The SLORC leaders even invited NLD elected representatives to assume power as soon as possible. Observers believe that this stance arose from the SLORC party's desire to blunt international criticism and to help encourage foreign investment into the country.

This stance, however, was short-lived, as the SLORC regime annulled the results of the polls soon after. The military junta assumed power and further tightened its control. More NLD members were arrested. Instead, the SLORC re-instituted Martial Law and vowed to remain in power until a pro-military government could be installed in its place. The government also refused to release Suu Kyi despite a growing international clamor.

The growing international support was particularly evident in 1991, when Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. The Nobel Committee heralded Suu Kyi as "one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent years" (Straub).

Despite this prestigious recognition, the military government refused to let her leave the country to accept the award. Nevertheless, human rights activists around the world hoped the award would lead to other governments to impose sanctions against the military junta. Others hoped that this award and the resulting international attention would serve to protect Suu Kyi from harsher repressive measures, such as arrest or even execution.

In January 1993, the military junta finally convened the long-overdue Constitutional Convention. However, instead of the duly elected government representatives, the convention members were mostly people selected by the military. Despite the election results, the NLD was only allotted 88 seats. Over the next three years, there was much debate, though no constitution was drafted. Frustrated over the charade, the NLD delegates withdrew from the constitutional convention in 1996 (Thadithil).

Throughout this time, the SLORC continued its systematic repression of civil rights. Since Buddhism was a central part of Burmese life, monks and religious figures were a frequent target. In one incident that occurred in Mandalay in September 1990, SLORC troops entered a monastery, disrobed, beat and imprisoned several religious leaders. To escape imprisonment, torture or execution, some opposition leaders fled to border areas that were beyond SLORC control (Silverstein 440).

Despite their stranglehold, the SLORC continued to face vocal opposition, from both Suu Kyi and her supporters. Muslim groups that were initially vocal about religious repression were forced to flee to Bangladesh after several leaders were arrested and tortured. Ethnic minorities such as the Karen seethed with unrest over their exclusion from the government's policy-making (Silverstein 440). In the urban areas, student groups and Buddhist leaders continued to protest.

Together with the ethnic minorities, Burmese opposition leaders joined together to form a national coalition, called the Democratic Alliance of Burma. This coalition created a mirror democratic government to rival the SLORC. Since Suu Kyi was still under house arrest, her cousin Dr. Sein Win assumed presidency of the opposition government (Silverstein 441).

Cosmetic changes

In the mid-1990s, the military junta initiated several important political changes. In 1997, the country's military leaders dissolved the SLORC and formed a new governing body called the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Under the SPDC, a new cabinet was convened. However, like the SLORC, the new cabinet was composed mostly of military personnel. General Than Shwe served as both the prime minister as well as the chairperson of the SPDC. Instead of a move to a more moderate government, many observers saw this change as an attempt to emulate the authoritarian Suharto regime in Indonesia (Thadithil).

One of the most important came in 1995, when Suu Kyi was freed after six years under house arrest. However, Suu Kyi remains under constant surveillance, and is viewed by the government as a traitor both in her calls for democracy and her marriage to a British citizen. She declines invitations to speak abroad for fear of not being allowed to return to Myanmar. In many instances, even her movements around the country are restricted. When her husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer, the SPDC authorities to grant him permission to visit his wife. When he died in 1999, Aris had not seen Suu Kyi since 1995 (Pederson 27).

Many observers also point out how the media-savvy Suu Kyi used the publicity generated by her Nobel win to further her cause, and to illustrate how the SPDC is as repressive as its predecessor. In July 1998, for example, she attempted to visit NLD offices outside the capital city. When soldiers blocked her way, Suu Kyi sat in her car for six days, refusing to move. When SPDC leaders realized that she would not be starved into submission, a soldier was ordered to commandeer her car and drive her home (Pederson 27).

One month later, Suu Kyi attempted to visit party offices in Bassein. The SPDC interpreted her actions as a calculated attempt to embarrass them in the eyes of the international community. The Burmese media was banned from covering the event, though diplomatic sources later reported that her van was forcibly towed back to Yangon (Pederson 27).

With such restrictions, it soon became clear that Suu Kyi enjoyed, at best, a limited freedom. While she could receive visitors, talk to the press and converse with people who assemble around her compound, she could not travel out of the country. She was banned from attending political meetings. When she told investors to adopt a "wait and see" attitude regarding foreign investment, the military authorities charged that her comments were contrary to Buddhist principles and were therefore detrimental to the country's interests (Silverstein 443).

The illusion of Suu Kyi's freedom was lifted when she was re-arrested in 2000 for attempting to travel outside Yangon to meet with NLD workers. During this time, the SPDC junta tripled the size of its armed forces, giving Myanmar the second-largest army in Southeast Asia. By 2000, the government was spending give times more on acquiring weapons than towards health and education for its population (Kurlantzick).

Throughout the 1990s, Suu Kyi continued to head the NLD, agitating for democracy during secret planning sections and conducting covert talks around the capital. She also banked on her global support by calling for sanctions against the SPDC regime, arguing that most of the investments were pocketed by members of the SPDC. She believed that this source of funds made political change even more difficult for the NLD and its supporters (Kurlantzick).

Attempts at reconciliation

In 2000, Suu Kyi was freed once again. The SPDC announced a lifting of all restrictions on Suu Kyi's movements, stating that this release marks "the start of a new page for the people of Myanmar and the international community." More significantly, the SPDC regime promised to allow all citizens to "participate freely in the life of our political process." They further stated that the era of confrontation had now given way to the era of cooperation" (Myanmar Information Committee).

Towards this goal, the SPDC regime even agreed to conduct talks with the NLD and other pro-democracy leaders and activists. This represents a complete reversal of its previous stance of repressing critics and dissidents.

Unfortunately, dialogues were not always forthcoming. Under Suu Kyi, the NLD pursued a policy of confrontation, while the SPDC continued to maintain law and order through methods that violated human and civil rights. In 2001, when a United Nations envoy promised Myanmar authorities U.S.$1 billion in aid in exchange for a dialogue with Suu Kyi, SPDC officials refused. By 2002, however, SPDC representatives said that "the ongoing process (of national reconciliation and dialogue)...is a steady and sure process where success is imminent"

Myoe).

For her part, Suu Kyi engaged in dialogue with SPDC representatives. For the moment, she has chosen to comply with the SPDC's request for secrecy regarding the proceedings, and maintains that she is acting on her own and not on the basis of advice from foreign governments.

By May 31, 2003, Suu Kyi was placed under arrest yet again. On her way to a speaking engagement in northern Burma, an SPDC-backed mob attacked her motorcade with iron bars and sharpened bamboo clubs. During the melee, dozens of NLD supporters were killed, arrested and beaten. Many of the female supporters were stripped naked and sexually abused (Pederson).

This time, however, the SPDC terms her incarceration as "protective custody." For six weeks after her arrest, supporters both in Burma and around the world lost contact with Suu Kyi, as the SPDC government refused to divulge her whereabouts. Only after concerned inquiries from leaders like Kofi Anan and President George W. Bush did the military regime relent. In July, a special envoy from the United Nations was allowed to visit Suu Kyi, to verify that she was alive and that she was in good health. However, Suu Kyi continues to remain in custody (Pederson).