Amid Rohingya crisis, Nobel laureate
treasures strong family link to the military
BANGKOK -- Few people have enjoyed more uncritical press
coverage or been the subject of so many fawning biographies as Aung San Suu
Kyi, Myanmar's de facto leader and the 1991 Nobel Peace laureate.
But many believe Suu Kyi's aura is gone, and that she has
feet of clay. Both aloof and imperious, her infrequent encounters with the
press have become "lectures and platitudes," according to one Burmese
editor. Of late, Myanmar's 73-year-old state counselor has made one tone-deaf
statement after another to foreigners.
Addressing a half-filled gathering at the World Economic
Forum on ASEAN in Hanoi last week, she dashed hopes for a presidential pardon
for two young Reuters journalists. The two have been sentenced to seven years
in prison for breaking a 1923 British colonial law designed to enforce the
presence of a foreign occupying power. The journalists had been investigating
atrocities committed last year against the Rohingya Muslim minority in the
northwestern state of Rakhine. United Nations officials have described the
killings as textbook ethnic cleansing.
"I wonder whether very many people have actually
read the summary of the judgment, which had nothing to do with freedom of
expression at all -- it had to do with an Official Secrets Act," Suu Kyi
said, responding to a question about the journalists' conviction. "If we
believe in the rule of law, they have every right to appeal the judgment and to
point out why the judgment was wrong."
Suu Kyi's words met a ferocious response, particularly in
light of strong evidence of entrapment by the arresting police officers.
"This is a disgraceful attempt by Aung San Suu Kyi to defend the
indefensible," said Amnesty International's Minar Pimple. "From start
to finish, the case was nothing more than a brazen attack on freedom of
expression and independent journalism in Myanmar."
Others were equally vocal. "She fails to understand
that real 'rule of law' means respect for evidence presented in court, actions
brought based on clearly defined and proportionate laws, and independence of
the judiciary," said Phil Robertson, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch's
deputy director for Asia.
Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,
condemned Suu Kyi's remarks on Twitter. "First, in denial about the abuse
the Burmese military placed on the Rohingya, now justifying the imprisonment of
the two Reuters reporters who reported on the ethnic cleansing.
Unbelievable," she wrote.
"Many observers saw this trial as a test of freedom
of the media, democracy and the rule of law in the country," Federica
Mogherini, who leads the European Union's foreign policy, told the European
parliament. "It is pretty clear that the test was failed."
Suu Kyi's comments in Hanoi rekindled the severe
criticism of her last month in Singapore when she described three generals in
her cabinet as "rather sweet." The three include Lt. Gen. Kyaw Swe,
the minister of home affairs. His ministry controls the police, and is
therefore directly linked to the Reuters case.
For decades, Myanmar has been criticized for failure to
establish the rule of law. A hodgepodge of pre- and post-independence laws has
been used to suppress opposition and criticism. Myanmar's juntas always claimed
to be doing things "according to the law."
"To argue that the letter of the law was followed is
to willfully ignore all of these glaringly obvious shortcomings," Pimple
said after Suu Kyi's Hanoi comments. "It's also eerily similar to the line
taken by the military generals when Aung San Suu Kyi herself was locked
up."
Suu Kyi built her reputation after a mass pro-democracy
uprising in 1988. With bows to Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., she
called for peaceful resistance, political reform, national reconciliation and
respect for human rights. As a pro-democracy icon, she was always stronger on
Buddhist and humanitarian principles than clear policies.
During about 15 years of off-and-on house arrest by the
military in her lakeside villa in Yangon, the few correspondents occasionally
able to reach her tended to place her on a pedestal, overlooking her political
and economic inexperience. She was hailed by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton and President Barack Obama, among many others, and showered with awards
and accolades. A growing number of these have been withdrawn following the
exodus to Bangladesh of over 700,000 terrified Rohingya, but not the Nobel.
Despite the military's evident enmity toward her, Suu Kyi
over the years has shown herself to be more than conciliatory. She makes
frequent rose-tinted allusions to her father, Gen. Aung San, the
pre-independence hero and founder of the Burma Independence Army in 1941 backed
by Japan but her father who was assassinated in 1947 by a jealous political
rival, played very little role in the development of the military.
The armed forces were developed by Aung San's nemesis,
Gen. Ne Win, whose coup in 1962 set the nation on a regressive, xenophobic and
economically disastrous path. The nation's modern history has been further
blighted by more than a dozen ethnic insurgencies.
Even in the darkest times over the past three decades,
Suu Kyi often referred to her military oppressors somewhat deferentially as
"the authorities." She has been open about her weakness for men in
khaki. "I was taught that my father was the founder of the army, and that
all soldiers were his sons, and that therefore they were part of his
family," she told Desert Island Discs, a popular BBC radio program, in
2012.
"I am fond of the army," she said. "People
don't like me saying that. There are many people who have criticized me for
being a poster girl for the army -- very flattering to be seen as a poster girl
for anything at this time of life."
Asked about military atrocities that include recruiting
child soldiers, planting land mines as well as rape and murder, Suu Kyi said:
"I don't like what they've done at all. But if you love somebody, I think
you love her or him despite, not because of, and you always look forward to a
time when they will be able to redeem themselves."
Suu Kyi also clearly signaled her position on the
Rohingya issue in 2012 following an earlier round of strife.
"I didn't come into politics to be popular,"
she said. "If I were to take sides in the situation in the Rakhine ... it
would create more animosity between the two communities. Violence has been
committed on both sides. People who are afraid of being burned in their beds
are not going to talk to one another and try and find a way out of the
situation. I have been saying all along what we need is security and the rule
of law."
The BBC's Fergal Keane, a longtime admirer of Suu Kyi who
had reported ethnic cleansing in Rwanda and the Balkans, challenged Suu Kyi on
developments in Rakhine State in April 2017, a few months before the main
Rohingya exodus. "Do you ever worry that you will be remembered as the
champion of human rights, the Nobel Laureate, who failed to stand up to ethnic
cleansing in her own country?" he asked.
"No, because I don't think there's ethnic cleansing
going on. I think ethnic cleansing is too strong an expression for what's
happening," said Suu Kyi.
"It's what I think I saw there, I have to say,"
said Keane.
"Fergal, I think there's a lot of hostility
there," said Suu Kyi.
With so much opprobrium now being heaped upon her, and
having lost so much international support, at least Suu Kyi cannot be faulted
for inconsistency. The rule of law in Myanmar remains as elusive as ever,
however.
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