Lessons from Aung San Suu Kyi

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Late last week, Aung San Suu Kyi, acknowledged icon of democracy from Myanmar, was presented the 2012 Global Citizen award at the United Nations in New York City. Earlier, she had received the Congressional Medal of Honor, also in the United States, and, before that the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo Norway, an honor granted her several years ago, but which she could not accept, then being under house arrest in her country.

Now the whole world cannot seem to honor her, or grant her enough awards to show their admiration for her tenacious belief in her country’s future and her resistance to the forces that were holding back her people from claiming the freedom and privileges they deserved, while under the oppressive military rule.

For more than 15 years, before which she was also in and out of detention Suu Kyi stuck it out, never giving up in her belief that what she and her people keep dreaming about would eventually be theirs. She bore the loneliness of being away from her family stoically, and even turned down the “magnanimous” offer of the ruling junta to let her go abroad when her husband was seriously ill, because she knew it was only a ploy to send her off, with no chance of ever returning.

She was known to her people as “The Lady”, and so long as she was around, so were their hopes for deliverance. And she persisted, while the world watched and held her up as a model for all oppressed people.

As she and her loyal compatriots had hoped and prayed, deliverance came to them with the assumption of a reformist leader, who freed political prisoners and even allowed Suu Kyi to run for public office, where she handily won.

And so now, she is free to travel and further inspire all peoples who are in similar situations as what her country had gone through. Hopefully, more and more oppressive leaders will realize that, armies and firepower may not succeed against them, but they should never underestimate what the persistence and indomitable spirit of a frail woman can do.*