Hero #012: Aung San Suu Kyi … (05/22/16)
Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese diplomat, author, and peace activist. She is the leader of the National League for Democracy, which she had newly formed in Burma with the help of several retired army officials who had criticized the failed 1988 military junta there … In the subsequent 1990 elections, her party (the NLD) won 81% of the seats in Parliament, and yet the results were nullified, as the military refused to hand over power. Not surprisingly, Suu Kyi had already been detained under house arrest before the elections, and she remained under house arrest for almost 15 years (even though she could have left the country and returned to her ailing husband – who had been repeatedly denied an entry visa — at any time), and thereby became one of the world’s most controversial – and most prominent – political prisoners.
Undeterred by her unjust imprisonment, her party steadily gained more & more political influence, and in the 2015 elections won a landslide victory, taking 86% of the seats in the Assembly of the Union. Although she was prohibited from becoming the President due to a clause in the constitution – her late husband and children are foreign citizens – she assumed the newly created role of State Counsellor, a role similar to a Prime Minister or other head of government. For her dignified perseverance in the face of such overwhelming odds, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
“The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear … You should never let your fears prevent you from doing what you know is right … Within any system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day — fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of ‘might is right’ to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.” ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
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