The Burmese military regime's latest attempt to permanently remove opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from the political scene, on the most ridiculous of pretexts (an unwanted American visitor who swam across a lake and broke into her residence, one of the most guarded locations in the entire country), is an indication of the threat she still poses to the corrupt and violent military junta. She is well known in the West, but it is her popularity among fellow Burmese that poses the biggest risk to the junta, which added 18 months to her house arrest, effectively barring her from campaigning in next year's national election.
In September, 2007, at the peak of the country's largest demonstrations in two decades, thousands of monks forced their way past Aung San Suu Kyi's machine-gun-toting jailers to march in front of her house. As grainy photos of the incident show, Ms. Suu Kyi was able to walk into the street for the first time in years to watch. That the monks risked their lives for this was an indication of the respect she still has in the country the regime calls Myanmar.
Recent articles in The Economist, The Guardian and other publications have questioned whether the determined 64-year-old, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest or in jail, is out of touch with fellow Burmese. Echoing similar criticism levelled at Nelson Mandela during his lengthy stint on Robben Island, her detractors say she is no longer relevant in Burma and owes her prominence to an increasingly out-of-touch coalition of exiles.
In reality, it is Burma's generals, ensconced in Naypyidaw, the recently constructed military base they call the national capital, who are out of touch with their fellow citizens.
Ms. Suu Kyi could have long ago accepted one of the many countless offers of asylum from Western countries and lived a comfortable life in exile, joining the likes of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair on the lucrative global lecture circuit. The generals would certainly be delighted by her departure. Instead, she remains determined to oust the State Peace and Development Council, enduring years of lonely confinement and an assassination attempt in the process.
She was thrust to prominence after the massive nationwide student-led protests of 1988, when General Ne Win's military regime massacred thousands of demonstrators. The relatively unknown daughter of Burmese independence hero Aung San became immediately famous for her frequent and blunt public criticism of the military rulers, labelling them a “handful of corrupt fanatics whose powers and privileges are dependent on the survival of the present system.” Her calls for non-violent resistance as a way to bring about change were a sharp contrast to the ideas of her father, whose outlook was closer to that of Che Guevara than to her Gandhi-inspired politics.
In May, 1990, despite having been detained for nearly a year, the opposition party Ms. Suu Kyi led and had helped to create, the National League for Democracy, won an overwhelming 80 per cent of the popular vote in nationwide elections, crushing the party created by Ne Win and his allies. The generals, unwilling to relinquish power and the spoils that came with it, instead arrested many of the opposition's successful candidates and continued the war on their own people.
Despite the regime's best efforts, Ms. Suu Kyi remains popular in Burma. Crucially, she is the most prominent member of the Buddhist Burman majority to be held in high regard by many in the country's significant ethnic and religious minorities, which make up at least 25 per cent of the population. Were a free and fair election to be held, the NLD would likely repeat its 1990 victory.
