Aung San Suu Kyi:  Democratic heroine
by Susan J. Hughes
     Aung San Suu Kyi's "Freedom from Fear" speech published in 1991 begins "It is not power that corrupts but fear.  Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it; and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it."
     In 1991, Aung San Suu Kyi (pronounced ong san soo chee) received the Nobel Prize for Peace in absentia for her nonviolent struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma. She is heavily influenced by Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolent protest because her mother was ambassador to India when she was a child. Her Buddhist faith is the foundation for her belief in human rights.
      Aung San Suu Kyi's political background includes founding the National League for Democracy on September 27, 1988. She also holds degrees in philosophy, politics, and economics from Oxford University in England. In 1972, she married British academic Michael Aris and has two children.
      In 1990, the National League for Democracy won decisively (392 of the 495 seats in Parliament) in the general elections despite the fact that Aung San Suu Kyi had been detained without trial or charge since July of the previous year.  The military regime refused to acknowledge the win of the NLD party. In 1991, the military regime told her if she left Burma and withdrew from politics, she would have her freedom. She steadfastly refused.
      This resulted in an international outcry and is partly the reason Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 as well as the Sakharov Prize. She used the $1.3 million Nobel prize money to build a health and education trust for the Burmese people.
      She continues to be a symbol of  struggle against oppression to the Burmese people as she sits under house arrest today. As of November 2005, this 60-year old freedom fighter?s detention was extended for six more months. As a result, a special envoy of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), including Malaysian foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar, has demanded that they meet with Aung San Suu Kyi during their planned visit to Burma in January 2006.
      Suu Kyi discourages tourists and investors from visiting and investing in Burma until it is free from the military regime that is currently in control. As a result, the U.S. applied economic sanctions against Burma in 1997 which included no new investment. In 2003, yet another economic sanction was imposed by the U.S. which bars imports of Burmese products into the U.S. As a result, 100,000 Burmese lost their jobs, mostly young women, and according to a New York Times 2003 article, many of them will end up in the sex trade and will die from HIV.
      The U.S. government reviews sanctions policy every six months.  According to the U.S. State Department, "since the investment ban was imposed in 1997, the State Department has found no measurable progress toward political liberalization in Burma," so the sanctions remain. In fact, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told Voice of America reporters on November 29, 2005 that  "the United States deplores the extension of Aung San Suu Kyi's detention. Since the brutal attack on her convoy in May 2003, after which she was imprisoned and subsequently transferred to house arrest, the regime has failed to charge Aung San Suu Kyi with any criminal offense, instead making the incredible assertion that she is being held for her own protection." U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice told Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation foreign ministers at a conference in November 2005 that "it is the responsibility of all free nations to condemn repression by 'tyrannical' governments like Burma's."
      Economically, Burma bears the brunt of a closed regime with skyrocketing fuel prices, a plunging currency, and rising national debt throughout the course of 2005. Burma was once one of Asia's richest nations. Currently, it is one of the poorest. According to the U.S. State Department, "Burma is a country blessed with extensive natural resources, low labor costs, and great potential for tourism."
      According to the United Nations, Burma's dire situation is sadly accompanied by some of the highest rates of malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV in the region. Furthermore, one child in 10 dies before his or her fifth birthday, 44 percent of children are malnourished and 58 percent of pregnant women are so poorly fed that they have anemia. Fewer births are attended to by a trained nurse now than back in 1982.
      Aung San Suu Kyi is hoping to continue fighting to reverse Burma's downward trend.
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