Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi Envies Arab Uprisings

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Burma's government told pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi that her political party was acting "against the law" and warned her to stop its activity, the same day she expressed "envy" for the Arab uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

Mrs. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has spent more than 15 years under house arrest during the past 22 years.

If found guilty of any violations, the frail 66-year-old widow would most likely be imprisoned in her home again in Burma, the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia and also known as Myanmar.

"Do we envy the people of Tunisia and Egypt? Yes, we do envy them their quick and peaceful transitions," Mrs. Suu Kyi said in a lecture secretly recorded by the British Broadcasting Corp. and released on Tuesday (June 28).

"But more than envy is a sense of solidarity, and of renewed commitment to our cause, which is the cause of all women and men who value human dignity and freedom," Mrs. Suu Kyi said in the first of two 2011 Reith BBC lectures. Her second lecture is to be broadcast on July 5.

The BBC said it "smuggled her words out of Burma" after evading the country's "secret police," and gave Mrs. Suu Kyi a code name -- "Maggie Philbin" -- while arranging the two lectures in her home "under the noses of the Burmese authorities."

Mrs. Suu Kyi invited BBC's listeners to visit her NLD offices, which may have irked the regime into warning her that the party is illegal.

"Come any week day to the headquarters of the NLD, a modest place with a ramshackle rough-hewn air of a shelter intended for hardy folk. More than once it has been described as the NLD 'cowshed'," she said in her lecture.

"Since this remark is usually made with a sympathetic and often admiring smile, we do not take offence. After all, didn’t one of the most influential movements in the world begin in a cowshed?" Mrs. Suu Kyi said, apparently referring to the legendary birthplace of Jesus.

"I have never seen so many young people supporting the NLD. They are not necessarily members of the NLD, which is what I really like.

"They’re not members of the NLD, but they support our movement very enthusiastically and they are in many ways better qualified than the young people of the 1988 generation, because they have had better access to modern education and it’s all part of the communications revolution too," she said, referring to Burma's 1988 urban insurrection which was crushed by the military, resulting in 3,000 deaths.

"We certainly feel in a stronger position [now], in spite of the fact that we’re supposed to be an unregistered party."

Burma's Home Affairs Ministry sent a warning letter to Mrs. Suu Kyi the same day her first lecture was broadcast by BBC Radio and posted on Internet, but there was no immediate way to determine if the regime issued the warning in reaction to the broadcast.

The government's warning said Mrs. Suu Kyi led her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in a boycott against nationwide elections during November 2010.

Mrs. Suu Kyi viewed the polls as undemocratic and a scam to enable the military to maintain its control over a pliant government.

But during the election, the regime decreed that any party not participating in the polls would no longer be allowed to exist after 2010.

"The NLD did not apply for continued existence of a political party and registration...so the NLD became null and void according to the law," the government-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Wednesday (June 29), describing the sharply-worded letter sent by the Home Affairs Ministry to Mrs. Suu Kyi on Tuesday (June 28).

"It is also mentioned in the letter that despite being dissolved as a political party, the NLD is found to have kept opening its party headquarters and branches in states and regions and other towns, erecting the signboards and hoisting flags at some offices, issuing statements, publishing periodicals and videos, meeting with other organizations and holding meetings and ceremonies.

"Such acts are not only against the law but also tantamount to opposing the 'hluttaws' (Parliament's assemblies) at various levels," the paper said.

"If they really want to accept and practice democracy effectively, they are to stop such acts that can harm peace and stability and the rule of law," it warned.

"We are deeply concerned that if [Mrs.] Aung San Suu Kyi makes trips to countryside regions, there may be chaos and riots, as evidenced by previous incidents," a columnist writing in the New Light of Myanmar on June 29 said.

Mrs. Suu Kyi had expressed interest in touring the country to meet the public, but she was wary because in 2003 her entourage was attacked in northern Burma, resulting in the deaths of several of her supporters.

Dissidents blamed the military for orchestrating the attack on her convoy, but the army denied involvement.

"The government has said that [Mrs.] Aung San Suu Kyi is just an ordinary public member, so it will not restrict her from traveling and doing things in accordance with the law, but she shall honor the laws for the rule of law," the columnist said

On June 2, Mrs. Suu Kyi met U.S. Senator John McCain in her two-story lakeside home in Rangoon, a port city also known as Yangon, and they discussed ways of supporting democracy in Burma, she said.

Mr. McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, also met Vice President Tin Aung Myint Oo and Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin.

Shortly after the November 2010 election, Mrs. Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest, having completed her most recent seven-year sentence which began after her convoy was attacked.

Earlier, in 1990, her NLD won a nationwide election, which should have allowed her to become Burma's leader, but the military cancelled the election results.

In 2008, the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon said her NLD party was run by a "sclerotic leadership of the elderly" members, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks.

"Without a doubt, Aung San Suu Kyi remains a popular and beloved figure of the Burman majority, but this status is not enjoyed by her party," said the "confidential" cable dated July 14, 2008, which was titled: "Continuing the Pursuit of Democracy in Burma."

It was classified by the U.S. Embassy's Political Officer Leslie Hayden, and gave "her candid observations on the current political situation, and her recommendations." It was signed by the then-U.S. Ambassador Shari Villarosa.

"The way the Uncles [senior leaders] run the NLD indicates the party is not the last great hope for democracy and Burma The Party is strictly hierarchical, new ideas are not solicited or encouraged from younger members, and the Uncles regularly expel members they believe are 'too active'," the U.S. Embassy cable said.

"Many of the younger political activists are turning away from the NLD."

Mrs. Suu Kyi's party has not "made any effort to join forces with the technically sophisticated bloggers and young, internet-savvy activists, who have been so clever at getting out the images which repeatedly damaged the regime and undermined its international credibility.

"Instead, the Uncles spend endless hours discussing their entitlements from the 1990 elections and abstract policy which they are in no position to enact," the cable said, referring NLD politicians who were elected to Parliament in 1990 but forbidden by the military from forming a government.

"Additionally, most MPs-elect show little concern for the social and economic plight of most Burmese, and therefore, most Burmese regard them as irrelevant."

America should offer "security guarantees" to the country's military leaders and their families to remove them from power, the U.S. Embassy cable suggested.

"We should not expect an imminent coup to save us from the hard-line senior generals," the cable said.

Burma has consistently denounced Mrs. Suu Kyi as a "puppet" of the U.S., Britain, and other governments.

The regime claims foreigners want to install her in power so they can gain access to Burma's vast minerals and other natural resources, and occupy its strategic location bordering India, Bangladesh, China and Thailand.

The U.S. is currently reconsidering its decades-long economic sanctions against Burma which have failed to bring democracy.

Burma's partners, including Beijing, New Delhi and Bangkok, have benefited from the sanctions by being able to do business in the country without having to compete against most U.S. and other Western corporations.

Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist who has reported news from Asia since 1978. He is co-author of "Hello My Big Big Honey!", a non-fiction book of investigative journalism. His web page is http://www.asia-correspondent.110mb.com

(Copyright 2011 Richard S Ehrlich)

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