The Price of Democracy: Freedom

As Aung San Suu Kyi  looks set to finally have a seat in the Burmese parliament for the first time in her political career, I re-visit an article written 16months ago in my previous blog at the time of her release in 2010 from two decades house of on and off house arrests which started as far back as 1989.

"Human beings the world over need freedom and security that they may be able to realise their full potential". Aung San Suu Kyi.

These are the words of a woman who spent fifteen years of her life in detention( mostly under house arrest) having very limited encounters with the outside world. There was no access to a TV,phone, or the added luxury of e-communication (email,etc). Newspapers and a radio were allowed whilst all visitors heavily screened by Burma's junta.Letters were fine combed before submitted to Suu Kyi and in most instances never passed on. Whilst in detention, her English husband Michael Aris died of cancer in 1999.They last met in the Christmas of 1995 as the Burmese junta repeatedly denied giving the dying Mr Aris a Visa to see his wife.Instead Aung San Suu Kyi was "encouraged" to leave the country to visit Micheal Aris in London. However she feared never being allowed back into Burma on grounds of her political discourse towards Burma's junta. Suu Kyi refused to leave the country and Aris died without seeing his wife.It will be eleven years before she will see the youngest of her two sons: Kim Aris on November 23rd 2010. She has never met any of her grandchildren. 

Like Mandela; Suu Kyi paid the ultimate price in the belief of democracy (a government for the people, by the people and with the people): her freedom. 
Was this a price worth the personal sacrifices foregone for the people of Burma? 
Lost moments with loved ones which will never be re-captured given up for the pursuit of one's belief?. 
To deny the opportunity(albeit presented in a shark's murderous jaws) of saying the last good-bye to a dying husband because of faith in one's belief?. 
A life spent in almost solitary confinement because of optimism in one's belief?.

What motivates a wife and a mother to give up all she must love so dearly(seeing her children grow,missing out on all the important milestones in their lives,etc) because she dared to hope for change in a country with a poor democratic record? 
Is it inner strength and outer resilience which forms such formidable characters that make history from time to time?

Like cliffs formed from rocks resistant to erosion and weathering: so too are these political fighters who have been incarcerated in one way or the other-yet come out standing tall and strong like the Trango Towers of Pakistan; more determined than ever to pursue their fight for justice and equality. The love for their country people and patriotism made them"obstinate" in the eyes of their political opponents; with "correctional" facilities such as  prison,detention, etc regarded upon as suitable measures to "straighten" them out. However I believe prison, detention, etc hardens political "offenders" rendering them more likely to commit "political crimes".

I marvel at Aung San Suu Kyi's walk of political fame admiring her strength of character yet  wonder immensely if she has any personal regrets? Is she haunted by an image of her dying husband feeling neglected that she chose the people of Burma over him...at his most vulnerable?

Do her children perhaps resent their mother for "abandoning" them in the pursuit of her political aspirations? Or perhaps she considers herself  a matriarch to Burma and its people thus the need to fulfill her matriarchal services not only at a personal level but on a national level to all Burmese.

No doubt Aung San Suu Kyi believes in her fight for political freedom  and democracy else her fifteen years in detention would have been futile.She may likely not regard her personal sacrifices and her freedom as the ultimate price for democracy for her father, Aung San was assassinated in 1947; two months into his new post as  new leader of the Union of Burma, when Suu Kyi was just two years old.

"Despair is not the right word, but there were times that I would worry … a lot, not so much for myself, for my situation, but for the future of the country." Aung San Suu Kyi. November 2010.

Suu Kyi by portrait of her father Aung San