Woman for freedom

Aung San Suu Kyi, the eponymous ‘lady’ is leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Burma, which won a landslide election victory in 1990, but has never been allowed to govern. Suu Kyi was in Burma to nurse her critically ill mother in 1988. When she arrived in Rangoon, Burma was in political upheaval. Burmese people took to the streets in protest against military rule and demanded democratic reform. “I could not as my father’s daughter remain indifferent to all that was going on”, she said during a speech in 1988.

The daughter of Burma’s independence hero General Aung San, and inspired by the non – violent campaigns of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King and India’s Mahatma Gandhi, Suu Kyi organised rallies and travelled around the country, calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections. The protests and rallies were brutally suppressed by the army and Aung San Suu Kyi herself was placed under house arrest.

Since then, as the courageous leader of a campaign against one of the world’s most brutal dictatorships, she has spent almost eleven years under house arrest. She isn't allowed to see her two sons, grandchildren, family, friends or colleagues as all visitors are banned. Her phone line is cut and her post is intercepted. In 1999 Suu Kyi’s husband, Michael Aris died of cancer - the Burmese authorities refusing her a visit from him prior to his death. They have two children, Alexander and Kim. Many of her supporters have been jailed or killed, notably in the Depayin massacre of May 2003, when up to a hundred were beaten to death by the Burmese militia. The military junta’s policies have led to an approximated 1100 political prisoners and up to one million people internally displaced.

Suu Kyi has called for people around the world to join the struggle for freedom in Burma. In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, she has won the Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament and the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom. (COURTESY - www.burmacampaign.org.uk)

CRITICISM - Where is freedom for woman? At least will there be any freedom or independence given for woman around us. There is no meaning in celebrating world's woman day by keeping woman as house workers.