At last, a hero for democracy
By Frida Ghitis, Special to
CNN
June 22, 2012 -- Updated 1716 GMT
(0116 HKT) http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/22/opinion/ghitis-aung-san-suu-kyi/index.html
Aung San Suu Kyi, here at an event
in London, made a triumphant return to the world stage this week.
- Frida Ghitis: Aung San Suu Kyi's quest for democracy inspires with its apparent success
- Ghitis says others struggling with dictatorships can look to her as reminder they can win
- She says Suu Kyi's charisma and sacrifice made her a leader that drew world to her cause
- Ghitis: Suu Kyi has proven that she's among few who deserve to be called a hero
Editor's note: Frida Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami
Herald and World Politics Review. A former CNN producer/correspondent, she is
the author of "The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live
Television." Follow her on Twitter: @FridaGColumns.
(CNN) -- Sometimes, when you least expect it, the good guys win.
Sometimes, the good guy is a woman -- a strong, wise and extraordinarily brave
woman, such as Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi, 67, has led her people in a
decades' long quest for democracy in Burma, the country renamed Myanmar by a
brutal military dictatorship, which now appears ready to usher in democratic
reform.
At a time when the struggle against
dictatorships elsewhere in the world seems to bring nothing but disappointment
and bloodshed, Suu Kyi's freedom and the richly deserved accolades
she is receiving are a welcome reminder that nonviolence, smartly deployed and
backed by powerful international supporters, can become a most powerful weapon.
This week, Suu Kyi made a triumphant
and stirring return to the world stage, traveling to the West, her home for 24 years
before she became an accidental leader of the revolution and the regime's
prisoner in her home in Yangon, the generals' new name for Rangoon. Suu Kyi was
received as a hero in world capitals. She spoke to the British Parliament and received
an honorary degree at Oxford University.
Frida Ghitis
But the most poignant moment of her
five-country trip came when she delivered the Nobel Peace Prize
lecture in Oslo, Norway. She gave the speech more than 20 years
after her chair had stood empty
on the stage during awards ceremony in 1991, the year she won the prize, as she
languished in isolation, enduring years of house arrest.
"The Lady," as she is
known among her countrymen and women, stands as one of the few genuine heroes
of our time, someone in the mold of Nelson Mandela and Mohandas Gandhi, who not
only inspired by their ideals and sacrifice but, just as importantly, who
prevailed in achieving their goals against powerful foes.
There was always something mystical
about the way the small, willowy woman struck fear in the hearts of the
generals -- humorless men in starched uniforms, leading one of the world's
largest armies and most ruthless regimes.
Her family name was well-known at
home before she became an activist. Her father, Gen. Bogyoke Aung San, was the
hero of Burma's battle against British colonial rule and a revered
statesman.
During the first quarter-century
after the military took power, Suu Kyi lived abroad, as a
mother, wife and academic. But then her mother became ill. She traveled to
Burma from her home in Oxford to care for her. Suddenly, she was in the middle
of a revolution. When anti-junta protests broke out in August 1988, she
addressed a crowd of hundreds of thousands at the iconic Shwedagon Pagoda
Buddhist shrine in Yangon. She unexpectedly became the movement's leader and
her life changed forever.
She would spend 15 of the next 22
years as a prisoner in her own home.
The regime put down the uprising
(known as 8-8-88) killing some 3,000 protesters. Suu Kyi found herself as a top
target of the regime. Even under arrest she managed to lead efforts to topple
the dictatorship. The West looked to her for guidance. She looked to her
Buddhist faith, learning to understand and endure
her own suffering and keep her focus not on herself but on the larger goals of
human rights and freedom for all. She told the West to maintain strict sanctions.
She feared the world would forget
her, as she lived out her life in isolation under heavy guard on Yangon's
University Avenue.
In 1999, when her husband was dying of cancer in
Britain, the junta refused to let him come to Burma to say goodbye,
offering instead to let her leave. She knew if she traveled abroad she would
never be allowed to return. She stayed a prisoner in Burma and never saw her
husband again.
Suu Kyi's unique brand of
"realistic idealism" appears to have succeeded in pressuring the
junta to start relinquishing power. She won a seat in parliament in
April elections, part of a slow process of promised democratization. She is
preparing her party, the National League for Democracy, for general elections in
2015.
Her personal story, closely braided
with that of her country, proves that nonviolence is not just a philosophy, not
just a moral stance. Instead, it is a tool that can bring heavily armed
opponents to their knees.
The technique worked because her
charisma, spirituality and moral courage inspired not only her people, but the
rest of the world. That created the pressure to build international economic
sanctions that eventually forced the regime to fold. There's more to it, of
course. China, the junta's protector, overplayed its hand in
exploiting Burma's vast natural resources.
But the bottom line is that without
international support, the strategy probably would not have worked. Without Suu
Kyi, the world would not have known about the misery and repression that the
junta had foisted on the Burmese people.
Nonviolence is not always a viable
course of action -- its slow methods can run out of time, or simply fail
against despotism -- but sometimes it can work.
I had counted myself as a skeptic --
until I traveled to Burma during the days when it all seemed hopeless and
finally understood what her presence there meant to the Burmese people. In
Burma and in the Burmese refugee camps on the Thai side of the border, I
discovered just what Suu Kyi's strength and personal sacrifice meant to her
people.
She had become their only source of
solace, their only reason for hope.
She was also their movement's
brilliant strategist.
In recent months, the generals who
have ruled Burma since 1962 have declared their commitment to democratic change
and have started loosening restrictions on political activity. The world is
taking its cue from the woman who has become a moral compass. For years she was
the one who insisted the West should not lift economic sanctions, even when
that meant more hardships for her and her people. But now she says she cautiously believes the generals are serious
about reform.
Ever the realist, Suu Kyi has warned
against overconfidence, calling for "healthy
skepticism" about reforms. But if she and her supporters do, in
fact, forge democracy in their country, as now seems probable, it is because
she was able to leverage her appeal to bring harsh international sanctions
against Burma.
Suu Kyi has proven her wisdom. She
has proven she is one of the few people who truly deserve to become a hero, an
icon of their time. And she has shown, just when we needed it most, that even
in a time of grim realities, heroes can win in the end.
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