Suu
Kyi on a new collision course By Richard Ehrlich
BANGKOK - Myanmar's
government has told pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyi that her political party was acting
"against the law" and warned her to stop its
activity the same day she expressed "envy" for the
Arab uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Suu Kyi,
a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and daughter of the
country's independence hero, Aung San, has spent
more than 15 years under house arrest during the
past 22 years. If found guilty of any violations,
the 66-year-old widow would most likely be
imprisoned again in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"Do we envy the people of Tunisia and
Egypt? Yes, we do envy them their quick and
peaceful transitions," Suu Kyi said in a lecture
secretly recorded by the British Broadcasting Corp and
released on June 28.
"But more than envy is a sense of
solidarity, and of renewed commitment to our
cause, which is the cause of all women and men who
value human dignity and freedom," Suu Kyi said in
the first of two 2011 Reith BBC lectures. Her
second lecture is to be broadcast on July 5.
The BBC said it "smuggled her words out of
Burma [Myanmar]" after evading the country's
"secret police" and gave Suu Kyi a code name
"Maggie Philbin" - while arranging the two
lectures in her home "under the noses of the
Burmese authorities."
Suu Kyi invited
BBC's listeners to visit her NLD offices, which
may have irked the regime into warning her that
the party is illegal.
"Come any week day
to the headquarters of the NLD, a modest place
with a ramshackle rough-hewn air of a shelter
intended for hardy folk. More than once it has
been described as the NLD 'cowshed'," she said in
her lecture.
"Since this remark is usually
made with a sympathetic and often admiring smile,
we do not take offence. After all, didn't one of
the most influential movements in the world begin
in a cowshed?" Suu Kyi said, apparently referring
to the legendary birthplace of Jesus. "I have
never seen so many young people supporting the
NLD. They are not necessarily members of the NLD,
which is what I really like.
"They're not
members of the NLD, but they support our movement
very enthusiastically and they are in many ways
better qualified than the young people of the 1988
generation because they have had better access to
modern education and it's all part of the
communications revolution too," she said,
referring to Myanmar's 1988 urban insurrection
which was crushed by the military, resulting in an
estimated 3,000 deaths.
"We certainly feel
in a stronger position [now], in spite of the fact
that we're supposed to be an unregistered party."
Myanmar's Home Affairs Ministry sent a
warning letter to Suu Kyi the same day her first
lecture was broadcast by BBC Radio and posted on
Internet, but there was no immediate way to
determine if the regime issued the warning in
reaction to the broadcast.
The
government's warning said Suu Kyi led her National
League for Democracy (NLD) party in a boycott
against nationwide elections during November 2010,
which military affiliated candidates
overwhelmingly won.
Suu Kyi viewed the
polls as undemocratic and a scam to enable the
military to maintain its control over a pliant
government. During the election, the military
regime decreed that any party not participating in
the polls would no longer be allowed to exist
after 2010. A former general, Thein Sein, was
elected the new "democratic" government's
president.
"The NLD did not apply for
continued existence of a political party and
registration ... so the NLD became null and void
according to the law," the government-run New
Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Wednesday,
describing the sharply-worded letter sent by the
Home Affairs Ministry to Suu Kyi on Tuesday.
"It is also mentioned in the letter that
despite being dissolved as a political party, the
NLD is found to have kept opening its party
headquarters and branches in states and regions
and other towns, erecting the signboards and
hoisting flags at some offices, issuing
statements, publishing periodicals and videos,
meeting with other organizations and holding
meetings and ceremonies.
"Such acts are
not only against the law but also tantamount to
opposing the hluttaws [parliament's
assemblies] at various levels," the paper said.
"If they really want to accept and practice
democracy effectively, they are to stop such acts
that can harm peace and stability and the rule of
law," it warned.
"We are deeply concerned
that if Aung San Suu Kyi makes trips to
countryside regions, there may be chaos and riots,
as evidenced by previous incidents," a columnist
writing in the New Light of Myanmar said on June
29.
Suu Kyi had expressed interest in
touring the country to meet the public, but she
was wary because in 2003 her entourage was
attacked in northern Myanmar, resulting in the
deaths of scores of her supporters. Dissidents
blamed the military for orchestrating the attack
on her convoy, but the army denied involvement.
"The government has said that Aung San Suu
Kyi is just an ordinary public member, so it will
not restrict her from traveling and doing things
in accordance with the law, but she shall honor
the laws for the rule of law," the columnist
wrote.
On Thursday, Suu Kyi told reporters
at NLD headquarters that she intended to proceed
with the planned tour.
"I will go ahead
with my plan. If they (the authorities) are
worried, we will have to co-operate with them on
the tour," she said, reported Deutsche
Presse-Agentur. She added that a fixture for the
tour was yet to be drawn up as it largely depended
on the weather.
Since her release Suu Kyi
has met with several international groups and
delegations. On June 2, she met US Senator John
McCain in her two-story lakeside home in Yangon
and they discussed ways of supporting democracy in
Myanmar, she said.
McCain, the ranking
Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee,
also met Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo and
Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin.
Shortly
after the November 2010 election, Suu Kyi was
freed from house arrest, having completed her most
recent seven-year sentence which began after her
convoy was attacked. Earlier, in 1990, her NLD won
a nationwide election, which should have allowed
her to become Myanmar's leader, but the military
cancelled the election results.
Her party
has since lost popular traction, according to
certain diplomatic assessments. In 2008, the US
Embassy in Yangon said her NLD party was run by a
"sclerotic leadership of the elderly" members,
according to a cable released by WikiLeaks.
"Without a doubt, Aung San Suu Kyi remains
a popular and beloved figure of the Burman
majority, but this status is not enjoyed by her
party," said the "confidential" July 14, 2008
cable entitled: "Continuing the Pursuit of
Democracy in Burma."
It was classified by
the US Embassy's political officer Leslie Hayden,
who gave "her candid observations on the current
political situation, and her recommendations". It
was signed by the then-US charge d'affaires Shari
Villarosa.
"The way the Uncles [senior
leaders] run the NLD indicates the party is not
the last great hope for democracy and Burma. The
Party is strictly hierarchical, new ideas are not
solicited or encouraged from younger members, and
the Uncles regularly expel members they believe
are 'too active'," the US Embassy cable said.
"Many of the younger political activists are
turning away from the NLD."
Suu Kyi's
party has not "made any effort to join forces with
the technically sophisticated bloggers and young,
Internet-savvy activists, who have been so clever
at getting out the images which repeatedly damaged
the regime and undermined its international
credibility.
"Instead, the Uncles spend
endless hours discussing their entitlements from
the 1990 elections and abstract policy which they
are in no position to enact," the cable said,
referring to NLD politicians who were elected to
parliament in 1990 but forbidden by the military
from forming a government.
"Additionally,
most MPs-elect show little concern for the social
and economic plight of most Burmese, and
therefore, most Burmese regard them as
irrelevant."
America should offer
"security guarantees" to the country's military
leaders and their families to remove them from
power, the US Embassy cable suggested. "We should
not expect an imminent coup to save us from the
hard-line senior generals," the cable said.
Myanmar's military has consistently
denounced Suu Kyi as a "puppet" of the US, Britain
and other governments. The regime claims
foreigners want to install her in power so they
can gain access to Myanmar's vast minerals and
other natural resources, and occupy its strategic
location bordering India, Bangladesh, China and
Thailand.
The US is currently
reconsidering its decades-long economic sanctions
against Myanmar. Myanmar's partners, including
Beijing, New Delhi and Bangkok, have benefited
from the sanctions by being able to do business in
the country without having to compete against most
US and other Western corporations.
Richard S Ehrlich is a
Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco,
California. He has reported news from Asia since
1978 and is co-author of the non-fiction book of
investigative journalism, Hello My Big Big
Honey! Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their
Revealing Interviews. His website is
www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com.
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