Aung San Suu Kyi
Born 1945
Political leader, nationalist
In 1988 Aung San Suu Kyi became the preeminent leader in Burma (now Myanmar) of the movement toward the reestablishment of democracy in that state. In 1991, while under house arrest, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Aung San Suu Kyi was internationally recognized as a vibrant symbol of resistance to authoritarian rule. On July 20, 1989, she was placed under house arrest by the military coup leaders, called the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), who came to power in Myanmar on September 18, 1988, in the wake of a popular but crushed uprising against the previous, and also military-headed socialist government. The nation's name had been changed from Burma to Myanmar in 1980.
Father leads in independence from Britain
Aung San Suu Kyi came from a distinguished Burmese family. Her father, Bogyoke (Generalissimo) Aung San, is known as the founder of independent Burma in 1948 and is widely revered in that country. He negotiated independence from the British and was able to weld the diverse ethnic groups together through the force of his personality and the trust he engendered among all groups. He was assassinated, along with most of his cabinet, by a disaffected Burmese politician, U (Mr.) Saw, on July 22, 1947, prior to independence on January 4, 1948. That day remains a national remembrance holiday in Myanmar. His loss slowed the realization of state unity.
Aung San Suu Kyi was born in Burma on June 19, 1945. She spent her early years in Burma and then joined her mother, Daw Khin Kyi (all names in Burma are individual; there are no surnames), who was appointed as Burmese ambassador to India in 1960. She was partly educated in secondary school in India and then attended St. Hugh's College, Oxford University, where she received her bachelor's and master's degrees studying politics, economics, and philosophy. For two years she worked in the United Nations Secretariat in New York.
In 1972 Suu Kyi married Michael Vaillancourt Aris, an Englishman and a well-known scholar on Central Asia, Tibet, and Bhutan. They had two sons, Alexander (born in 1973 and also known by his Burmese name, Myint San Aung) and Kim (born in 1977 and also called Htein Lin). Although the couple did not raise their family in Myanmar, Suu Kyi's heart was never far from her homeland. According to Anna Husarska in the New Republic, Suu Kyi had made a request to her husband before they were married: "I only ask one thing, that, should my people need me, you would help me to do my duty by them."
During 1985 and 1986, Aung San Suu Kyi was a visiting scholar at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, and in 1987 she was a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in Simla. Most of the rest of her time was spent living in Oxford, England, with her family.
Return to Myanmar
Daw Khin Kyi, Suu Kyi's mother, had a stroke in 1988, and the daughter came back to Rangoon, Myanmar, to help nurse her. While there, the tumultuous events of 1988 that convulsed the country took place. General Ne Win had been in control of the country since the military coup of 1962. In 1988 a popular uprising against the militarily led Burma Socialist Party regime led to Ne Win's stepping down. For a couple of months democracy seemed imminent, but on August 8, 1988, the military cracked down, tightening its hold on the country with a powerful and violent grip. Within a month, thousands of dissidents had been killed and many more were detained.
On August 26, 1988, Aung San Suu Kyi made a speech in Rangoon: "I could not, as my father's daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on. This national crisis could, in fact, be called the second struggle for national independence." With her speech she gained national recognition as the effective leader of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), later opposed to the military-led SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council). Aung San Suu Kyi became the general secretary of the National League for Democracy and was a charismatic and effective speaker in favor of democracy throughout the country. She was placed under house arrest by the SLORC for attempting to split the army, a charge she consistently denied.
House arrest
Although Suu Kyi was not allowed to run for election in the May 27, 1990, election, her party, the NLD, much to the astonishment and chagrin of the military, won 80 percent of the legislative seats. They were never permitted to take office. For the first years of her house arrest Aung San Suu Kyi was not allowed to have any visitors, but later her immediate family was allowed to be with her on occasional trips to Myanmar. In January 1994 the first visitor outside of her family, U.S. Congressman Bill Richardson, a Democrat from New Mexico, was allowed to meet with her. She was recognized as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. The United Nations and a large number of other national and international groups called for her unconditional release.
Awards in absentia
While under house arrest, Suu Kyi has won many awards for democracy and human rights, including the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought (European Parliament, 1991), the Nobel Peace Prize (1991), and the International Simon Bolivar Prize (UNESCO, 1992).
Suu Kyi remained officially under military surveillance and house arrest until 1995. Since then, the government has continually restricted her movement within the country and abroad. During Suu Kyi's first year of "freedom," she was only permitted brief travel in and around her home city of Rangoon and did not travel outside of Myanmar. in early 1999 journalist Anna Husarska was able to visit Suu Kyi only by going through secret midnight meetings with go-betweens. She noted that "193 — almost half — of the NLD parliamentarians elected in 1990 are in detention or, as the junta puts it, "sequestered" in "guest houses." Husarska learned after her visit that Suu Kyi's husband, who she had not seen since 1995, was dying from prostate cancer. If Suu Kyi had left Myanmar to see him, it was clear that the junta would not allow her to return to fight for her country. And they refused to issue him a visa. She was never able to see him before his death on March 27, 1999.
Suu Kyi stays on in her "sequestered" life in Myanmar in nonviolent protest of the military regime. She hopes to draw the world's attention to the oppression of the junta and the conditions in her country, to exert pressure on the military government to relax its harsh control. The military government of Myanmar would like to see Aung San Suu Kyi leave the country. They have persistently criticized her to the public, saying she is heavily influenced by the West. But the people of Myanmar hold her in high esteem and place their hopes for their country in her presence there. According to an article in the New Economist: "Nobody who has seen Miss Suu Kyi address a crowd of her compatriots could think she had lost touch with her people. In fact, many ordinary citizens recognise that there can be few greater sacrifices for one's country than to forsake husband and children for an unequal struggle against tyranny."
On January 9, 2001, Aung San Suu Kyi meet with senior representatives of the Burmese military government. It was the first reported contact in five years between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi. She was released from prision in May 2002.
FURTHER READINGS
Aung San Suu Kyi has written extensively on the life of her father, on a variety of events in Burma, on intellectual life in Burma and India under colonialism, and on literature and nationalism in Burma. These and other works and speeches, including several appreciations of her life and accomplishments, were published in English in 1991 as Freedom From Fear and Other Writings. See also David I. Steinberg, "The Future of Burma, Crisis and Choice in Myanmar," Asian Agenda Report #14 (1990). More information about Aung San Suu Kyi is contained in "Stalking the Stunt Princess" Time International (July 8, 1996).
Parenteau, John, Prisoner for Peace: Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's Struggle for Democracy, Greensboro, N.C.: Morgan Reynolds, 1994.
The Economist, April 3, 1999.
Husraska, Anna, "Burma Dispatch: Lady in Waiting," The New Republic, p. 16, 1999.
Source: Biography Resource Center. Gale Group, 2003.