article 8: aung san suu kyi - myanmar democracy icon who fell from grace
who is she?
- a beacon for human rights
- activist who gave up her freedom to challenge the ruthless army generals who ruled Myanmar for decades
- hailed as "an outstanding example of the power of the powerless"
path to power
spent 15 years in detention between 1989 and 2010
despite landslide victory in 2015, Myanmar constitution forbade her from becoming president. however, she was seen as the de facto leader. she was called the state counsellor
on the day the parliament was to sit for the first time, she was arrested by the military who then declared a state of emergency
political pedigree
she is the daughter of general aung san. he was assassinated just before myanmar gained independence from british colonial rule in 1948.
in 1960, she went to india with her mother, who had been appointed myanmar's ambassador in delhi.
four years later she went to oxford where she studied philosophy, politics and economics.
she went back to yangon in 1988, leading the revolt against then dictator, general ne win.
house arrest
aung san suu kyi organised rallies calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections. however, demonstrations were brutally suppressed by the army, and they seized power in a coup on 18 sept 1988
she was placed under house arrest the next year
the military govt had national elections in may 1990, which the NLD won, but the junta refused to hand over control.
she remained under house arrest in yangon for 6 years, until she was released in july 1995
she was put under house arrest in 2000 again, after trying to travel to the city of mandalay in defiance of travel restrictions
she was released unconditionally in 2002, but was imprisoned after a clash between her supporters and a government-backed mob
re-entering politics
she and her party re-entered political process, and won 43 of 45 seats contested in the april 2012 by elections. she was sworn in as an MP and leader of opposition
the rohingya crisis
since becoming myanmar's state counsellor, her leadership has been partly defined by her treatment of the country's mostly muslim rohingya minority.
myanmar faces a lawsuit accusing it of genocide at the international court of justice (ICJ)
her former intl supporters accused her of doing nothing to stop rape, murder and possible genocide by refusing to condemn the still powerful military or acknowledge accounts of atrocities
few initially argued that she was a pragmatic politician, trying to govern a multi-ethnic country with a complex history, but her personal defence of the military's actions at the ICJ hearing in hague was seen as a turning pt for her intl reputation
she is however, still largely popular among the buddhist majority in myanmar who hold little sympathy for the rohingya
stalled reforms
- NLD faced criticism for prosecuting journalists and activists using colonial-era laws
- myanmar's democratic transition seemed to have stalled in 2018