A Modern-Day Hero သို ့မဟုတ္ ေဒၚေအာင္ဆန္းစုၾကည္

By Ray M. Wong Created: Apr 7, 2010 Last Updated: Apr 7, 2010 . Facebook Digg del.icio.us StumbleUpon | |
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Aung San Suu Kyi (C) smiles following a meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell (L) at a hotel in Yangon on November 4, 2009. The most senior US official to visit Burma for a decade and a half held talks with Aung San Suu Kyi after the ruling junta allowed the detained Nobel laureate to make a rare public appearance. (Hla Htay/AFP/Getty Images) What is the most important thing in your life? What would it take for you to give it up? For me, it’s my family, and no one is touching that.

I want to tell you about a remarkable woman who has sacrificed the most precious things in her life, even a last meeting with her dying husband, to help her country.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been imprisoned by a brutal military regime in Burma [officially called Myanmar] for 14 of the past 20 years. Since 1988, the military junta has massacred thousands of people in Burma to suppress any form of political dissent.

The dictatorship has perpetrated beatings, arrests without trial, rape, and murder. Their victims have included monks, students, protestors, refugees, women, and children. The junta forces kids to become child soldiers in its ruthless campaign for power and control.

In 2008, Cyclone Nargis ravaged Burma and left 138,000 people dead or missing. The junta refused access to the affected areas by humanitarian aid groups. It stood in the way of food and medicine for its own people after a devastating disaster.



Ray M. Wong Aung San Suu Kyi is Burma’s hope for salvation. She was born in Rangoon, Burma, in 1945. Her father was a commander in the Burmese army and helped establish Burma’s independence from Great Britain. Her mother served as Burma’s ambassador to India.

Suu Kyi’s father was assassinated when she was 2. She later went to New York for graduate school and postponed her studies to join the United Nations Secretariat as assistant secretary for the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions. She married a man named Michael Aris, and they had two sons.

In 1988, Suu Kyi’s mother suffered a severe stroke, and Suu Kyi went back to Burma to care for her mom. That same year, political unrest erupted in Burma and led to the resignation of a military dictator who had been in power since 1962.

Suu Kyi established the National League for Democracy (NLD) and called for political reform and a democratic government in Burma while promoting a philosophy of nonviolence and civil disobedience.

The military dubbed itself the State Law and Order Restoration Council and proceeded to kill thousands of demonstrators and political opponents. In 1989, Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest by the junta.

In 1990, the NLD took 82 percent of parliamentary seats in an election, but the military refused to recognize the results.

Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and used the $1.3 million award for a health and education trust for the Burmese people. The junta offered Suu Kyi’s release if she promised to leave the country and abandon politics. She declined.

When Suu Kyi’s husband became critically ill with cancer, he asked the Burmese authorities for permission to see his wife one last time. They refused, but urged her to leave Burma to be with him.

Suu Kyi knew that if she left, she would never be allowed back, and the Burmese people would suffer, so she didn’t go. Her husband passed away in 1999. She has grandchildren she has never even seen.

The U.N. and numerous human rights groups have appealed for Suu Kyi’s release to no avail. The junta cannot afford to let her move freely. She is too much of a threat to their power.

Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu has proposed a U.N. Commission of Inquiry into Burma and supports an international arms embargo to prevent weapons from entering the country.

Last year, President Barack Obama instituted a more flexible U.S. policy of dialogue and negotiation with Burma but indicated that sanctions would only be softened if he saw progress on democracy and human rights issues.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for Suu Kyi’s freedom in November but considered it unlikely to happen soon.

I’m not a politician, so I don’t know what it’s going to take for the junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi. But as a husband and father of two children, I am touched by what she sacrificed for her country. As a human being, I am inspired by her strength, courage, and dedication to a vision of a free and democratic Burma.

Visit http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html to read more about Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ray M. Wong lives with his wife and children in California. Please visit Ray’s Web site “Family Matters” at: www.raywong.info. Ray has two nonfiction anthologies in “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom” (March 2010) and “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad” (April 2010) from the bestselling book series. The books are available for purchase through his Web site www.raywong.info.