By Robert Weiner and Abby Paras
Aung San Suu Kyi, the deposed democratic leader of Burma, not Myanmar as the military coup government refers to the country, now has reason to fear for her life after the latest February 2021 military coup. Though Suu Kyi currently resides in solitary confinement, the Washington Post reported on July 25, 2022, that four pro-democracy activists in Burma were executed. As the face of Burma's democracy, Suu Kyi is surely next on the list.
Suu Kyi was once regarded as a hero of democracy, as the former leader of Burma, but is now currently imprisoned in her own country after a February 2021 military coup. As the leader of the former ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), she was instrumental in bringing Burma to a new age of democracy after years of military rule. However, the years following her initial foray into politics were tumultuous.
Suu Kyi's legacy in both Burma and internationally is closely related to her father, Aung San, who helped to found the Burmese military and worked for Burma to gain independence from Great Britain. Though he was assassinated before his goal succeeded, his legacy as the "Father of the Nation" of Burma has shaped the way his daughter has been perceived both domestically and internationally.
To most world leaders, Suu Kyi was seen as a hero. In 1988, she formed the NLD and advocated for a nonviolent transition to a more democratic system of government. She spent several periods under house arrest, most significantly a stretch from 1989 to 2010. During her time under house arrest, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights." After she was released, she continued to campaign for a movement toward democracy for Burma and peaceful negotiations.
However, one of the most significant controversies of her career was her handling of the Rohingya genocide by the Burmese military. She refused to acknowledge Rohingya people as Burmese citizens and was considered complicit in the persecution of Muslims in her country. Due to this, she was stripped of several awards, and calls were made to revoke her Nobel Peace Prize.
For this, her reputation as a humanitarian and pro-democracy advocate was called into question. According to the Harvard International Review from October of 2016, "more than one million Rohingya have been rendered stateless due to the government's refusal to recognize their citizenship", and Suu Kyi seemingly did not take action against this, though she did oversee "significant reforms--and ceasefire agreements with several of the ethnic minority armed groups who had been fighting the military-led government for years".
The Washington Post, however, took a more critical stance in an article from December 2021, claiming that she "failed to speak for the human rights of a group of her fellow compatriots while they were being slaughtered and terrorized by the military" but instead "expressed her explicit support for the military even as its operations were driving 750,000 Rohingyas from the country of their birth."
In 2021, another military coup led to her government being overthrown and placed again under house arrest. She was then charged with taking bribes, inciting dissent against the military, breaking public health Covid rules, having contraband radios, breaching the Official Secrets Act, and electoral fraud, among several others. If she is found guilty of all her charges, she could face up to 100 years in prison.
Despite Suu Kyi's failures in terms of human rights activism, several countries have spoken up in support of her release. The Human Rights Watch has called her trials a "courtroom circus of secret proceedings on bogus charges". In the majority of the world, she seems to remain a hero, despite her shortcomings with the Rohingya genocide. According to the Guardian in "[military chief Min Aung Hlaing] hoped that international reaction might be muted by the Nobel peace prize laureate's tarnished reputation".
It seems as though the majority of disapproval comes from within Burma. Thinzar Shunlei Yi, an activist in Burma, wrote in the New York Times in 2021 that Suu Kyi "has done her part" and that "this is the time for the younger generations and the ethnic leaders to take the leadership positions." Wai Wai Nu, the daughter of one of Suu Kyi's political allies and Rohingya woman, stated in a 2019 Newsweek article that "[her] hero has fallen, and so much hope has been lost with her."
Despite the many polarizing opinions on Aung San Suu Kyi, her leadership style, and her actions with Rohingya, the junta government of Burma is much worse. They are taking away the rights of citizens, not just those who opposed them like Suu Kyi. The junta government is explicitly anti-democracy as the citizens of Burma should not be subjected to their oppressive rule. Obviously, her role in the silencing of the Rohingya people must be examined, but that is no excuse for her imprisonment and the oppression of the population of Burma.
Robert Weiner was a spokesman in the Clinton and Bush White Houses, the U.S. House Government Operations Committee, and senior staff for Cong. Conyers, Rangel, Claude Pepper, Ed Koch, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and Four-Star Gen. Barry McCaffrey. Abby Paras is senior policy analyst at Robert Weiner Associates and Solutions for Change.