The name Aung San Suu Kyi became known to the wider world after
the 8-8-88 incident in Burma on August 8,1988 when hundreds of thousands Burmese students and citizens rose up to demand democracy from the military dictatorship that has been ruling Burma for 26 years.
That political incident propelled Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Burma's independence movement leader, General Aung San, to follow a similar political path to her father. She abandoned her academic career and lovely family behind in order to dedicate herself to the struggle for peace and democracy of her motherland by fighting against dictators amidst doubt expressed by the public about her other responsibility as a wife and a mother.
Aung San Suu Kyi returned to her homeland to eventually carry out the fight in March 1988. She would not have a chance to step out of Burma again because of her realization that if she chose to leave Burma, the military junta would never allow for her return again as long as they are in their illegitimate power. Suu Kyi chose to sacrifice her personal freedom in order to remind the world of Burma people's continued sufferings under the harsh military rule and she does it in a non-violent manner.
She told the power that be that: "Love and truth can move people more than coercion."
She said to the Burmese people: " I think many people in Burma will recognize the instinct that makes us look up toward the heavens and the confident inner voice that tells us that behind the deeply banked clouds there is still the sun waiting to shed its light and warmth at the given hour."
Then she conveyed this message to the world community: "Prison may break the body but not the spirit."
Seventeen years of Struggle Against Dictatorship
In the end of March 1988, the 43-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi returned to her home in Rangoon from abroad to care for her ailing mother, Daw Khin Kyi. This coincided with the economic crisis and political turmoil in Burma which led to the resignation of General Ne Win from the chairmanship of The Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) which has seized political control over Burma for the past 26 years.
The dissatisfaction of people towards Ne Win's rule, especially his
economic policy, has been building up continuously and became more intense by September of 1987 when the 25 kyats, 35 kyats and 75 kyats banknotes have been discontinued without allowing people to convert it with the government. This led to the sudden loss of about 75 per cent of the money circulated at that time and Rangoon University students protested by ransacking many shops.
The first major violent incident occured in March 1988 after a feud
between students at a tea house occured. Police arrested those engaged in the brawl but students pressured the authority to release them. This demand was met with brute force unleashed by the authority as many were shot to deaths. Thousands were subsequently arrested and the incident led to massive dissatisfaction among students and citizens. As protests spread nationwide, it became one of the reason behind Ne Win's eventual resignation.
The resignation of Gen. Ne Win on July 23 was followed by a demonstration and call for democracy by hundreds of thousands of people and students in Rangoon. The rally spread nationwide by August 8, 1988 and reached a turning point when millions of Burmese people, including Suu Kyi, took to the street.
Though the duty to her mother ended with Daw Khin Kyi's death on December 27 of that year, the duty to her motherland remains. It's been 17 years since, now that she's turning 60 this year on June 19, 2005.
Over the past 17 years of struggle, Suu Kyi traded her personal freedom in order to remind the world of the on-going suffering of the Burmese people under the junta's iron-fist rule. Her non-violent struggle has not only tarnish the reputation of the junta but also foreign governments which directly or indirectly supported the junta.
As Suu Kyi herself said: "When we ask for democracy, all we are asking is that our people should be allowed to live in tranquility under the rule of law, protected by institutions which will guarantee our rights, the rights that will enable us to maintain our human dignity, to heal long festering wounds and to allow love and courage to flourish. Is that such a very unreasonable demand?"
From Hometown to the Wider World: Building a Loving Family
Aung San Suu Kyi was only two when her father Gen. Aung San, the man Burmese regarded as their "hero of independence" was assassinated in July 1947.
Gen. Aung San led the struggle against the British and Japanese, finally gain independence for Burma on January 4, 1948. After he was assassinated, Daw Khin Kyi, his wife, had to shoulder the responsibility of looking after their three children alone, Suu Kyi being the youngest and the only daughter.
Soon after her father's death, the second son died in a drowning accident while Suu Kyi and her eldest brother, Aung San Oo, grew up under the care of his mother and friends of his late father.
In 1960, Daw Khin Kyi was appointed Burmese Ambassador to New Delhi and Suu Kyi was enrolled at Lady Shri Ram College in that city. Suu Kyi later went up to Oxford to read Philosphy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at St Hugh's College. It was at that ancient university that she met her love and future husband Michael Aris who was reading Tibetan civilisation at the same university.
The year when Aung San Suu Kyi graduated was the same year that her mother completed her term in New Delhi and return to Rangoon. Suu Kyi left for New York to work as assistant secretary to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions at the United Nations. During those three years, Suu Kyi devoted her evenings and weekends as hospital volunteer reading and consoling financially-deprived patients.
In January of 1972, Suu Kyi married Michael Aris and they both left for Bhutan. Suu Kyi got a job as a researcher for the Bhutanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs while Michael headed the translation Department and tutored members of the Royal Family.
They both return to London in 1973 and stayed there for five years. Michael got a lectureship at Oxford in Himalayan and Tibetan Studies while Suu Kyi gave birth to her first son, Alexander, in 1973 and followed by the second son Kim in 1977. Beside spending time looking after the two children, Suu Kyi became involved in writing and doing research on her late father's life as well as helping Michael with his work.
They both went their own ways between 1985 and 1986 when Suu Kyi received a research grant from the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University to work on the lives of her father while Michael received a scholarship from the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in Simla, Northern India. Suu Kyi took Kim with her to Kyoto while Michael was joined by Alexander. Suu Kyi later received a scholarship from Indian Institute of Advanced Studies and went to join the family in Simla. It was around this time when Suu Kyi has to fly back to London to care for her mother who was under going an eye surgery.
By 1987, both Suu Kyi and her family returned to Oxfordshire. Suu Kyi enrolled at London University's School of Oriental and African Studies and was working on her doctoral dissertation on Burmese Literature when fate would thrust her into politics and world-wide fame.
Returning Home to Fight for Her Father's Unfulfilled Mission
Towards the end of March 1988, Suu Kyi learnt of her mother's severe illness. She left for Rangoon at once to be near her mother. In her mind was also a plan to set up a chain of libraries but things would soon take a drastic turn.
"When I returned to Burma in 1988 to nurse my sick mother, I was planning on starting a chain of libraries in my father's name. A life of politics held no attraction to me. But the people of my country were demanding for democracy, and as my father's daughter, I felt I had a duty to get involved," Suu Kyi told Edward Klein on Vanity Fair (Oct, 1995).
Her first foray into political activism began on August 15, 1988. It was a week after the Burmese military junta resorted to the use of force to crackdown and kill scores of demonstrators who were calling for democracy on August 8. The incident, which became known internationally as "the 8-8-88 incident" led Suu Kyi to write an open letter to the military junta, calling for the setting up of an independent commission to carry out a general election.
Suu Kyi gave her first political speech on August 26 in front of hundred of thousands who gathered outside the sacred Shwedagong Pagoda with both her sons and her husband at her side providing moral supports.
During that speech, Suu Kyi called for the restoration of democracy and peaceful coexistence among various ethnic groups in Burma which was her father's unfulfilled dream when it was denied by the military and later with the setting up of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) on September 18, 1988.
On Sept 24 of that year, Suu Kyi and her late father's friends along with a group of young students with similar ideology retaliated by forming the National League for Democracy (NLD) in which Suu Kyi was elected as the secretary general of the Party. The NLD then declared the commence of their struggle against dictatorship through peaceful resistance.
The Birth of a Legend of Non-Violent Struggle
The legend began on April 5, 1989 when Suu Kyi, facing with harassment by the ruling military junta during NLD political campaign decided to confront the might of the guns.
Amidst hundreds of watchful eyes, Suu Kyi walked calmly but steadily towards the military barricade with rifles pointing at her in order to prevent her from continuing her journey.
In the end, the military commander on the spot relented and ordered his troops to put the guns down and instead of confronting Suu Kyi, provide her with protection from possible assassination attempt.
Honour and House Arrest
Although the dictatorial regime did not dare using outright violence against Suu Kyi, it resorted to invoking martial law to place her under house arrest for three years beginning July 20, 1989.
Many key party members were also arrested and sent to Insein Prison, notorious for torture of its inmates. Suu Kyi started a hunger strike and demanded that she be sent to the prison to join others as well. Alexander and Kim was with Suu Kyi at that time and Michael flew in from London. Suu Kyi ended her hunger strike only when the junta promised to humanely treat jailed NDL party members.
On May, 1990, despite Suu Kyi being still under house arrest, the NLD Party won a landslide victory in the general election. However, the junta refused to hand over power and demanded that Suu Kyi ended her political career and leave for abroad at once. When Suu Kyi refused, her house arrest order was extended to five and eventually six years.
On October 14, 1991, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Being under house arrest, her two sons instead flew to Oslo to receive the award on her behalf. The two children carried their mother's photograph to the ceremony amidst thunderous rounds of applause.
Alexander told the Nobel Committee and guests that: "I know that if she is free today my mother would, in thanking you, also ask you to pray that the oppressors and the oppressed should throw down their weapons and join together to build a nation founded on humanity in the spirit of peace."
Suu Kyi soon announced that the monetary prize of 1.3 US million dollars would go to the setting up of a fund towards health and education for Burmese people.
By July 10, 1995, Suu Kyi tasted freedom from house arrest for the first time.
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