Suu Kyi's shocking fall from grace
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron strongly condemned the attacks on the Rohingya minority by the Myanmar army, calling it "genocide". Earlier, UN Secretary-General António Guterres had admonished Aung San Suu Kyi, saying it was her last chance to stop the Myanmar military offensive against the Rohingya in Myanmar. "Otherwise," he suggested, "the tragedy will be horrible." Other leaders have stated she is encouraging ethnic cleansing.
How power changes people! How things have changed for this once brave, guiding light of democracy in the thuggery that Myanmar had become.
When Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, was elected to form the government by an overwhelming majority of the people of Myanmar in 1988, she was prevented from doing so by a de facto military coup. The resulting crackdown by the junta resulted in a fractious civil war which went on for years. She and many of her compatriots were subjected to house arrest and many Myanmar democracy activists died in prison. For over 25 years, she was a brave rallying point, a beacon during a very dark time. Her persistence and courage under repression inspired an international movement and among other awards, she was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
A year prior to that, the Parliament of Canada created the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development (ICHRDD), an agency whose purpose was to use financial assistance and citizen diplomacy to work with NGOs and governments to further its namesake objectives. Suu Kyi's release from house arrest and the restoration of rights and democracy to her beleaguered country became a prime objective.
The Centre funded and worked with elected representatives in exile who had formed the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, her government-in-exile at the time of her incarceration. The Centre urged governments around the world to secure her release. The Centre's staff, at great risk to their personal safety and health, travelled to conflict-ridden Myanmar, meeting with members of her party and the military leaders of the ethnic communities in Myanmar who were repelling the attacks of the military junta.
In 1993, the Centre organised the Mission of the Nobel Peace Laureates in Bangkok. The mission was led by Ed Broadbent, the former leader of the opposition in the Parliament of Canada and then President of the Centre. It included the participation of eight Nobel laureates including the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Oscar Arias, the former president of Costa Rica. The purpose of the mission was to travel to Yangon to seek the immediate release of their fellow laureate.
The laureates were refused entry by the military junta. Unbowed, they travelled to a number of Myanmar refugee camps in Thailand, met with the Thai foreign affairs officials and representatives of ASEAN. They then travelled to Geneva and reported their findings to the UN Commission on Human Rights, following which they travelled to Washington to debrief President Clinton, Vice-President Gore and senior US state officials. The mission brought worldwide attention to Suu Kyi's plight and her cause. We would argue that in no small way, the mission and the international publicity it garnered contributed to her eventual release and her election as the de facto leader of her country.
But now, we all question if that work was for naught.
Not only is she doing nothing to stop the policy of persecution and harassment of the Rohingya minority in her own country, but her inability to stem the tide of violence also suggests that she may be actually encouraging it. We can understand why the persecution perpetrated by the Myanmar military forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya to flee Myanmar and seek refuge and asylum in neighbouring Bangladesh, but for her to purposely or even benignly promote this mass injustice and violation of human rights by her inaction is unconscionable and betrays her own promises, not to mention the supportive efforts of all who believed in her and the restoration of democracy to Myanmar.
It is tempting to believe the words of British politician Lord Acton when he said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Before the ongoing persecution, harassment and massacre of her fellow Rohingya countrymen and women become an indelible stain on her position as the de facto leader of the government, those who worked so hard on her behalf must insist that she immediately instruct the Myanmar military to cease and desist from their murderous actions against the Rohingya minority. Gloss-over speeches at the United Nations will not cut it.
Aung San Suu Kyi must stop kowtowing to her military and move to fully reintegrate the Rohingya into a pluralistic Myanmar society. Until she does, her honourary Canadian citizenship and her Nobel Peace Prize should be placed in suspended animation pending further review.
Peter Andre Globensky was the first director of programmes and advocacy at ICHRDD and is a former senior policy advisor, Office for the Prime Minister of Canada, and chief of staff to the Canadian minister of external relations and international development. Email: [email protected]. Iqbalur Rahman FCA is a former project director of various initiatives funded by the Canadian International Development Agency in Bangladesh and was an advisor on Asian affairs to the president of ICHRDD Ed Broadbent. Email: [email protected]
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