Today is the 62nd birthday of Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Like so many previous years, she will mark the occasion alone in her lakeside prison.
Suu Kyi has spent more than 11 of the last 17 years under house arrest. As most of the world knows by now, her oÂnly crime was in trying to restore democracy to Burma. The international community has, by and large, shown unanimity in its call for her release. But the voices calling for her freedom-in and outside the country-continue to fall oÂn deaf ears.
And what about those voices? They come from Suu Kyi’s own party, the National League for Democracy, and other opposition organizations. Year after year, they make their calls in a strategy that has begun to wear thin.
What about the international community, led by the US, perhaps the most vehement critic of Burma’s military rulers? They never miss an opportunity to blame her captors, though she remains a captive. What about Asean? They make occasional rumbles more to deflect criticism of their ineffective “non-interference†policy than out of any sincere effort to pressure Burma’s ruling junta.
Observers note that since China supplied a crucial veto of a proposed UN Security Council resolution oÂn Burma in January, it might be the oÂne nation that could potentially wield the most influence oÂn Burma. Instead, China insists oÂn staying out of its neighbor’s internal disagreements.
And so the wheel turns.
In the opinion of some dissidents and observers, Burma’s military rulers hold the key-figuratively and literally-to Suu Kyi’s release, and opposition groups, including the NLD, must join the government’s “seven-step roadmap†to democracy. Others see this as a sham solution-one that concedes all the power to the junta.
Politics in Burma is not a black-and-white affair. Many of Burma’s 57 million people, and millions more around the world, believe that Suu Kyi’s release is essential to resolve the country’s decade-long political deadlock.
But to ask for it and wait for sympathy from the country’s stubborn military leaders has also become a foolish strategy.
Every group or individual-in or outside Burma-that desires the release of Suu Kyi must review past approaches and rely less oÂn calls for freedom and more oÂn acts for freedom