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The lady of Burma

Aung San Suu Kyi is 53 today and her determination to bring democracy to
her homeland is still as fiery as when she returned to Burma 10 years ago.
In her honour, pro-democracy groups have chosen her birthday today, June
19, to be Women of Burma Day

 Sanitsuda Ekachai

In 1988, the daughter of Burma's independence hero General Aung San
returned to Burma to care for her dying mother. Since then, Aung San Suu
Kyi has become Burma's democracy leader to free her motherland from
military misrule.

Despite six years of house arrest, separation from her family who live in
Britain and constant intimidation from the authorities, the 1991 Nobel
Peace laureate stays put to bring multi-party politics to Burma.

Last month, Suu Kyi held a party congress to mark the National League for
Democracy's landslide victory in the 1990 general election, declaring that
NLD would set a target date for the military junta to implement the
election results.

In honour of her courage and vision, the pro-democracy movement has chosen
Suu Kyi's birthday, June 19, to celebrate Women of Burma Day which is also
a tribute to the women's roles in their struggle.

To show solidarity, a group of representatives from the women's movements
in ASEAN countries recently met with the charismatic Suu Kyi to wish her a
Happy Birthday.

After interrogation at checkpoints in front of Suu Kyi's blockaded home,
and after being repeatedly photographed, the visiting group was eventually
allowed to enter No. 54 University Road, Burma's most famous residence.

There is no mistaking the house. Although hidden behind big shady trees,
the fence is marked with the NLD's flag and "The Lady" was waiting
patiently in her old, family home overlooking the lake.

Looking regal, Aung San Suu Kyi's 160-cm and 48-kg slender frame is radiant
in a traditional, silky green dress with orange embroidery. The steely lady
looked like a princess with pink roses and jasmine-like garlands in her hair.

"Welcome everyone!" Her vivacious greeting with a big smile immediately
restored a sense of normalcy for the guests who were still shaken by the
authorities' intimidations which are routine in Burma.

To relax her guests, the youthful-looking Suu Kyi showed them around the
living room, answering questions about family pictures and paraphernalia
while urging them to take more snacks and tea.

"The Burmese don't like it when you don't eat as much as the hosts ask you
to," she said jokingly.

When complimented for her beauty, the Opposition leader gave a shy smile
and played it down by pointing at reddish areas on her forehead and neck.
"You must see this, though. It must be some kind of allergy. Something I
ate, do you think?"

With a wall-sized painting of her father behind her, Suu Kyi and guests
sipped tea and ate Burmese snacks on the living room floor. She beamed and
thanked them for the birthday gifts. But it was apparent that what pleased
her more was a chance to have some "normal" moments with a group of women.

The following is a shortened version of Suu Kyi's conversation with the
ASEAN women visitors.

How did you convince the military to allow this tea party?

Maybe because I'm stubborn. I also told them that if they don't allow me to
receive guests in my own home, I would have the tea party out in the street.

How free are you?

Well, if I wanted to go out of Rangoon, they would probably fell a tree
across the road or something. I can go around but there are always two cars
following me.

Why there are so many restrictions?

That's exactly what I want to know. Those men in my garden always says it's
an order from the top to stop any visitors from coming in.

How's your life now?

Busy!

What are NLD plans now?

We want to implement the resolutions of the party congress. We should be
able to go through the agenda in a month. It's going to be quite a big job
as we have to do it in quite a short time.

What if the military does not follow the target date you set?

We have plans. But I can't tell you.

What's the situation of female political prisoners?

On the whole, there's no problem of sexual harassment. But they are
detained with criminals and prostitutes. Sometimes they were even put in
the same cell as male prisoners who actually protested against it.

Male and female political prisoners face the same persecution. But women
tend to be treated a little bit better.

Can you go see them?

No, only their family members can visit them once every fortnight. But this
visiting right is often cut and becomes irregular.

How can women in ASEAN help?

Help is needed for women and men. Actually, female political prisoners are
much fewer.

How to improve their situation?

Political prisoners must be treated differently and kept separately from
ordinary prisoners. Even during the colonial period, political prisoners
got lots of rights. They had access to the library, for example.

Now they are treated very badly. Legal assistance is not allowed. They
cannot meet even their own relatives until they are sentenced as guilty.

Why are there very few women out of about 1,500 political prisoners?

It's something I haven't worked out if it's a question of women not doing
enough or because women are being very careful.

What are the impacts of military dictatorship on women?

Oh, that's terrible, especially for our ethnic women. You must have heard
of murder, rape and torture.

Does that happen to Burmese women too?

Not so often with Burmese women. The troops are a bit more careful. Also,
our ethnic women are in the border areas and the troops can do what they do
and get away with it.

Because our country has been ruined by the military regime, many women fled
and are forced into prostitution in Thailand and they are treated like
animals.

What do you think of the current economic crisis in ASEAN?

The governments once believed they would go from strength to strength. The
economic crisis will make them realise, though, that everyone is vulnerable.

How does it effect democracy movements in Burma?

Before, there was a belief that a government could bring economic
development without political change. Now I think a lot of ASEAN countries
are realising that this is not possible.

What can the Burmese military learn from Indonesia?

The Burmese authorities must learn that they they can't go against the will
of the people forever. That it's time to accommodate the people's will.

On the other hand, there is a possibility some hardliners will use it as a
reason to be even more tough and repressive.

What do you want to see?

For us, settlement is dialogue. The military must open a dialogue with NLD
because we represent the will of the people. We shall stand by the results
of the 1990 election.

Anything you want to say to the Indonesian government?

They can help encourage the Burmese government to come to a settlement
because they have seen for themselves the problems that emerge when the
government is not in harmony with the people.

Peace will prevail in the region if there is peace in Burma.

And to the newly-elected President of the Phillipines?

The Philippines is among few democracies in the region. It'd be of great
help if there are more democracies in Asia, to help the cause of democracy
in Burma.

Are there differences of opinion within the military junta?

To a certain extent. After all, they are not robots. No two thinking people
think alike all the time. With the Indonesian experience, some of them must
start thinking.

Why did the military allow you to organise a party congress?

At first they didn't. But we insisted on our legal rights. We then had
discussions. It's a good thing to have discussions.

Is it true that the constitution your father wrote also prevents those with
foreign ties from taking national leadership?

At that time, Burma did not yet win independence. All Burmese were British
subjects. That clause was to sort out who would choose to be British and
Burmese citizens, to make sure only the Burmese citizens were allowed to
run in elections.

In your case?

The military disqualified me on the grounds that I received foreign
assistance because the BBC and VOA had broadcast programmes in my favour.
This is simply silly.

They also try to put a clause in the new constitution that a head of state
cannot be married to a foreigner. But we will not accept the constitution
which is written under an undemocratic process.

How do you view foreign investment in Burma?

Foreign investment hurts us because it helps the authorities. The vast
majority of profits go to the military and those connected with the
government. The trickle-down effect is negligible.

What will you say to the investors?

For the sake of your profits, don't invest in Burma now. Because the
necessary framework to sustain economic development does not exist. Or you
will come across problems.

Actually, many businesses are losing money now. If they don't want to go on
losing money, they should help us come to a settlement which would lead to
a democratisation of the country.

Will there be punitive measures against these investors when NLD comes to
power?

No. We'll deal fairly by everybody. We have no intention to punish them nor
to grant undeserved privileges (to companies not dealing with the military).

Under a democratic government, there'll be transparency and accountability.
Investors will be better off because they don't have to bribe their way to
get where they want to go.

What kind of meditation are you practicing?

I'm using vipassana, or awareness meditation. It has taught me a sense of
awareness. That's very important. It's what keeps you in check. It keeps
you from going astray. Or when you do, you don't do it again.

What about loving kindness and your policy of non-violence?

For loving kindness, that comes to me from my own experiences. In our
struggles, what else do we have? We only have people who support our cause
out of a sense of sympathy, a sense of solidarity. That's loving kindness,
feelings for others.

This is what our whole movement is based on. We don't have any weapons, no
money, no rights. The laws in this country are used to crush us. What can
we rely on? How can we keep together? We keep together because we believe
in what we are doing.

Some people get burnt out. We have to help each other keep going. And we
cannot do that unless we have some basis of loving kindness.

How do you cope with separation from your family?

I cope, to a large extent, because my family is very good about it. If they
are a sort of family who keep getting at me, it would be very difficult.
But they are very, very supportive.

How does it affect the children?

Well, they take it in their stride. For them, that's life. They are now 24
and 20.

They must be proud of you.

A lot of children think their life is quite normal. (laughs)

Do you know their girlfriends?

Of course, I know about their girlfriends. (laughs.) I know who they are
and what they're like, at least from what I heard for them. I only get one
side of the picture, though. (laughs.)

Is it really that easy to cope?

Don't forget that I lived alone for six years under house arrest. Put
simply, I got used to it.

There was only a girl who came to prepare my food. The only visitors were
my family when they were allowed to come see me. And there was a doctor who
came to check me from time to time.

How often do you get in touch?

I used to get phone calls from them regularly once a week. But for about
six-seven-eight months, my phone has been cut off so often that phone calls
from my family are very irregular.

How often do they come to visit?

After they arrested me (in September 1988) my family was still here. But
they left in December. After that none were allowed to come for more than
two years, until April 1992. After that, they were allowed to come
sometimes once or twice a year. There were even times when it became three
times. My husband and eldest son have not been here since January 1996.
They have not been given visas. That's two years now. My youngest son came
last September but they wouldn't give him a visa for Christmas.

One of the ASEAN leaders once commented that you are comfortable in your
home, that you don't look strung-up or anything.

I don't think you wait until people are strung up to help them.

Compared to a lot of Burmese, I'm very comfortable. But then again, I'm a
lot less free.

If they brought up some sort of law to detain me, that will be legal,
though unjust. But what they're doing right now is illegal. They have no
right to stop me from going anywhere I want to go or stop people from
seeing me.

When in power, what will NLD do?

One of the first things is to do something about our education system. The
universities have been closed for about two years now. You cannot go on
like that.

The government must also do something with the economy. We should be
practical. We should not go for big, ambitious projects. What we need to do
is meet basic requirements of our people. And security.

Our health system is in ruins. We have to do something about that too.

About 80 percent of our people are in rural areas. We'll do what we can for
this 80 percent. It will be irresponsible to do things only for the 20
percent in the city. Also, in the long run, it will create a lot of
discontent which leads to social upheavals, even revolutionary situations.

What's your thoughts on education?

Students now have to pay for computers. The joke is that they must keep
computers like a shrine. Nobody can touch it. That's very silly when a lot
of children don't even have books.

What I'd rather do is concentrating on children in having adequate books
before I look at computers. It just doesn't make sense.

There are schools without enough teachers. Many even without desks. This
morning someone told me about a pupil having to pay 4-500 kyats for his chair.

What about your foreign aid policy?

We're confident that we'll get all the aid we need. But we're not going to
be greedy. We'll only receive what we can cope with.

What about getting some development aid now?

We don't encourage any kind of aid now, either from NGOs or UN agencies.
Because the military can influence how the aid money is spent in a way to
help sustain their power.

Won't development aid help strengthen the grassroots movements?

No, I don't think so. Because the aid is not given to every one equally at
the grassroots. The NGOs cannot work freely either.

Not even programmes to help improve women's reproductive health? It doesn't
have to go through the military.

Who says so? If the programmes concern women, they will have to go through
SLORC wives group.

I also need to ask who runs the programme, who chooses them, how they are
chosen.

We must separate short-term and long-term results. The NGOs projects are a
mere drop in the ocean, if its long-term result is to strengthen the
stranglehold of the authorities. It's not worth it.

The NGOs and UN agencies won't be able to bring sustainable development to
Burma. We've got to do it ourselves. We don't want NGOs to help our people.
What we want is our people to be able to help themselves. We want to be in
the situation that we can help ourselves.

Are you against all kinds of foreign aid now?

We reject direct financial aid to the authorities. The aid from NGOs and UN
agencies has to be scrutinised very carefully.

Even in family planning, you will never know if they will use money to buy
a few tanks. The system is so opaque that you won't know what happens to
the money.

We've come across projects in which the activities were assisting the
authorities' influence.

For example, digging wells. The authorities is in the position to decide
who gets the contract to dig the wells and where. All these details are
overlooked.

Do you think parliamentary politics is a panacea for Burma?

Whether it is presidential or parliamentary system, there'll still be
problems. What you need is responsible politicians. A lot depends on
parties and leadership of parties concerned.

It also depends very much on public awareness. Political education of the
people is very important.

Burma seems to slip from world attention. What makes you carry on?

There is still a tremendous awareness of Burma all over the world. There
are always articles about Burma in major newspapers. Burma may not be at
the top of CNN news all the time. But then you cannot expect it. In fact,
if you are in the top news of CNN, it means you are in serious trouble.

When we first started this movement to bring democracy to Burma, we were
not thinking of support of the world. Although we welcome the support, we
thought of what primarily needs to be done in Burma.

If we have the support of the international community, it's a great help.
But we don't depend on it. We keep on going with a belief that we can
create change in this country.

The Burmese people are practically paralysed by fear of the military. How
to fight that?

It's not an easy, quick process. People have lived for a long time under
the military regime. They have become fearful by nature. They think that
it's a natural state of affairs, to be frightened.

It's an educational process, not something to be achieved overnight.

Do you think Buddhism makes people resigned and passive?

There is a lot of violence in Sri Lanka. And I don't think the Sri Lankans
are passive.

I don't think it has to do with Buddhism. Life in my country is so easy.
It's always easy to get enough, to live on. Even poor villagers don't
starve to death in Burma. Sometimes, I think it has something to do with
the weather. It's so hot you don't want to do anything. (smiles).

The Thai government is launching a crackdown on illegal Burmese workers.
What do you think?

The crackdown is understandable because of the problems of the Thai
economy. But we have to look at the problems of migrant workers; why are
they forced to flee across the border to find work or to be some kind of
political refugees.

It's because the situation is not right in Burma. The government cannot
manage the economy to give people enough opportunities.

So if they are not happy with the problem of Burmese migrant workers, they
need to look at the source of the problem and try to do what they can to
help us resolve our political problems.

What do you think of the roles of UNHCR for refugee camps in Thailand?

The UNHCR should do more. We would like the UNHCR to take more
responsibility for refugee camps. It will be of great help to our refugees.
They are in a very difficult situation, especially the children.

But the stance of Thailand is not very clear on allowing in the UNHCR to
work with Burmese refugees.

Why do you think women's rights always take a back seat in liberation
movements?

It is so because in such circumstances, men have no rights, either. Nobody
has any rights at all. We have to think in terms of human rights because
women's right are part of human rights. This is how NLD sees it.

Of course, we see special vulnerability of women, especially our women in
the ethnic areas. But human rights have to be our top priorities.

Most political prisoners are men. They were arrested because they don't
have basic rights. The women they left behind, their wives and daughters,
are suffering.

Unless we can do something with this situation, we cannot start talking
about women's rights.

If we ask the wives of political prisoners what they think of women's
rights, they'd probably say: I want my husband back first. I want my
husband to be free.

Does being a woman make it more difficult to work in male-dominated politics?

I don't think so. It's almost an Asian phenomenon, women leaders. I don't
think being a woman makes that much difference.

Of course, there are disadvantages. In most societies of the world, we are
still underprivileged compared to men. There are those who tend to think
men would do better, especially men. But that's something we have to cope
with.

Will it help if there are women in all levels of decision making, not only
at the top?

There is a small percentage of women in parliament even in western
countries. It's a world situation.

If men are not used to working with women, won't it give women leaders a
more difficult time?

Well ... There's something of that problem. But that's not such a major
problem. There are some who feel that women are inferior and therefore
there's something not quite right about giving her a superior role. But I
don't think it's such a serious problem.

It's common for female politicians to face smear campaigns. What is your
advice?

Ignore them. Don't get entangled in it.

Do you think the military treat you differently because you are a woman?

I think one of the reasons they don't put me in straight away in prison is
because I'm a woman.

Does your mother have a big influence on you?

Of course, she brought me up. My father died when I was two. She was a
disciplinarian.

What would your mother have said if she were still alive?

Keep regular hours! Eat your meals on time!

You don't have regular hours now?

I used to when I was under house arrest when everything went like
clockwork. But now it depends on how much work I have to do.

Six hours of good sleep is enough for me. But the rains are so noisy. I am
a light sleeper. It keeps me awake, especially when it comes down suddenly
in the middle of the night. (smiles.)

Do doctors come to see you regularly?

Yes, I have two doctor friends who come see me twice a week to give me a
regular check.

Do you have visitors often?

I have visitors all the time. Diplomats. Visitors from abroad. But the
authorities don't like journalists to come. It doesn't make any sense
because I can always meet them somewhere else.

But they are doing this to discourage people so that they stop coming.
That's why they keep cutting my phone off. No journalists can get me on the
phone. it get immediately cut off.

Is it always tapped?

 Of course. Another reason why the phone is not working for a long period
of time is those people just get bored. They cut it so that they can go out
to have lunch or whatever. No calls. No reason for them to sit there.

What do you to relax?

I exercise regularly, about 20 minutes a day, on an exercise machine my
husband gave me. It's for my back actually. During house arrest, I sat
sewing and reading too much and developed back injuries. Now, they no
longer trouble me.

I also meditate an hour every day.

Meditation is extremely difficult.

Keep practicing. It's difficult at first. I was so frustrated that I wanted
to cry. I didn't want to go on. But I read the advice of a meditation
master, that meditation is what you must do whether you like it or not. So
I gritted my teeth and did it.

It gets easier now?

It's never what you call easy. It's never like siting there doing nothing.
It's never like that. Well, it's not meant to be easy.

Have you ever cried?

Oh, yes. I'm not a weeper, but yes I've cried in my life.

No, not during your childhood. In the past few years?

Yes, there have been occasions like that. I was wondering whether I cried
at my mom's funeral. Yes, but not too much.

What's your birthday wishes.

A peaceful settlement in my country.