Walk On or Walk Out?
I am writing from the West, but in the East, specifically in Yangoon, Burma (Myanmar), it is already Friday, November 12, 2010. You may not know why this is an important day, but it could be the beginning of something great or something terrible.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s Democracy Leader, Nobel Peace Laureate, subject of U2’s song “Walk On,” and whom many Burmese Nationals call “The Lady,” is still detained, having spent 15 of the last 21 years under strict house arrest.
Her detention is a result of her speaking out against the cruelty of Burma’s ruling party, which uses military force to control the government and imprison the people. This is the same ruling party whose injustices are too numerous to mention and more horrific than most will ever know. Burma is one of only a handful of countries with a Tier 3 classification, as stated by the U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons report. (Tier 3 is reserved for countries that are not doing the minimum efforts to decrease the despicable act of trafficking humans.)
Not since Nelson Mandela has a political prisoner captured the hearts and minds of the public like Aung San Suu Kyi. Musicians, artists, actors, politicians, writers, film makers, NGO’s, and people like you and I have campaigned for her release. We have succeeded, at some level, on raising awareness, but time will tell if awareness will translate into abolishing Suu Kyi’s forced apartheid from her people.
November 12, 2010 is the eve. We know it is the eve of her latest detention period coming to an end, but it is the eve of other events we have less certainty about.
If she is released, November 12 is the eve of a world-wide celebration. Although for the Burmese, it is bound to be a cautious celebration, where many will have one hand lifted high in revelry, while the other hand prepares for fight or flight, that visceral reaction to an unknown threat.
Many Burmese have already fled to Thailand, due to the violence in their home cities and villages following the Burmese elections earlier this week. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs applauded the elections as “peaceful and successful,” while President Barack Obama more accurately described the elections as “neither free nor fair.”
Burma’s military would like Aung San Suu Kyi herself to flee the country, but she refuses to leave her people. She made an unwavering commitment to the Burmese on January 2, 1989 at the funeral of her mother. Her commitment was modeled after her mother, Daw Khin Kyi, who became active in politics after the assassination of her husband, General Aung San in the summer of 1947. Their daughter, who bears the General’s name, was only two years old when her father was murdered.
If the military-led government does not release “The Lady,” November 12 may be the eve of future bloodshed. According to my contacts in Burma, the threat of a full-on civil war is real. Both sides have intensified their preparation and rhetoric in this simmering feud, but the simmer became a slow boil this past summer, and now the feeling in-country is the increasing heat is bringing everything to its boiling point.
“The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity. It is a struggle that encompasses our political, social and economic aspirations.” -Aung San Suu Kyi
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