Aung San Suu Kyi, a Name for the Ages

The National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar, or as we usually call it, Burma, has said that its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has won a seat in the Burmese national parliament during Sunday’s elections.
Not only did she win, but she took 99% of the vote in her district according to the NLD.
It is difficult to fully appreciate, to take in, this momentous event.
We are used to hearing that Aung San Suu Kyi has been arrested…been sentenced to years of house arrest…been denied the right to see her family…been denied even the right to go to London for her husband’s funeral without knowing that she could never return to Burma…been refused visits by her sons for years…in short we are used to Aung San Suu Kyi being deprived of all the human events and joys that make life liveable in the best of times and worlds.
But, for this frail woman, now 63, life has been anything but good or joyful.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been the lone image confronting a Burma scorched by a military junta that has tried everything to defeat her, whose stance for democracy and personal liberty has been the one support of her people, whose quiet voice and smile have inspired us for twenty years and made us all a little ashamed of our small annoyances and inconveniences.
But, she has won...not the last step but the first. She is now a minority member of a parliament controlled by the same junta that has martyred her time and again.
News of her victory sent the Burmese people to the streets of Rangoon, far from her rural district, where they shouted their joy at the gates of the NLD headquarters.
Led with indefatigable conviction by the Nobel Peace Laureate, her party has apparently won not only Aung San Suu Kyi’s seat, but a total of 43 or 44 seats. The NLD can now take its rightful place in the corridors of Burmese power.
This just two years after Aung San Suu Kyi was declared Public Enemy No. One by the military junta. What has happened?
For unexplained reasons, but pushed by Aung San Suu Kyi to do so, the junta gave its public governmental powers over to a group of former military men who for whatever reason have decided to liberalize the country. Some say it is because Burma is now, because of junta policies, so poor that it cannot continue as it is. Some say that these former military men are more democratic than their allies. Some say that Burma cannot stand the pressures placed on it by the economic successes of its Asian neighbors, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Malaysia.
But, if Aung San Suu Kyi had not stood her ground during these long years of isolation, the junta would have had little pressure from within to change. It was Aung San Suu Kyi who held them up to criticism, who told the truth about their vicious regime, who quietly but persistently demanded that the world support her people.
The path in front of her now is possibly even more difficult.
She must be a part of the government without supporting it. She must go about her duties as a member of parliament without forgetting that she is the sole voice of Burma to the outside world and cannot seem to be supporting the junta. Most of all, she must continue to push for democracy and personal liberty for all Burmese in what will surely be a very hostile environment.
But, Aung San Suu Kyi, the Lady of Rangoon as she is lovingly called in Burma, will prevail. Her people, those peaceful, kind and loving Buddhists who are so prone to smile and accept instead of becoming angry and violent, will prevail.
Together, they have taught us a monumental lesson. Determination, combined with civility and a leader worthy of the name, will always win. Even in the Burma of the junta.
Aung San Suu Kyi. A name for the ages.