Aung San Suu Kyi is the World's most famous political prisoner. "The Lady" as the Burmese people call her, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and has been under 'house arrest' by the military dictatorship in Burma/Myanmar for 13 of the past 19 years. Unlike Nelson Mandela, who was elected President after spending many years in prison, Suu Kyi was imprisoned in in 1989 after her Pary won 82% of the vote as the General's were alarmed by her fearlessness & the support she commanded. A founded member of the National League of Democracy(NLD), an alliance of 105 opposition groups, Aung San Suu Kyi is the essential figure of the Myanmar's democracy struggle.
Myanmar is one of the World's most oppressive regimes as their paranoia in refusing international aid for the recent devastating cyclone attests. Ruthlessly putting down a democracy uprising in 1988 & another Buddhist monk led protests this past Spring, the junta has thousands of political prisoners besides 'The Lady'. Recently, the government gave 65 year prison terms to young democracy activists for sending information on the internet among other 'crimes'.
Not only is the government ruthless to activists but they have also committed 'ethnic cleansing' to hundreds of tribal villages in the Shan State along the Thailand border. The junta is also incompetent in governing as 32% of children under 5 are malnourished & 57% of children in primary school have to drop out before graduating. Although the Burmese people are extremely poor the military elite is doing well. Most of the governments income comes from natural gas sales to China, Thailand, & India.
I recently felt called to visit the northern state of Mandalay, where 60% of the monks in the country live(although there are reports that the military is emptying the monasteries after the recent monk-led protests) Unfortunately, I was denied a visa by the embassy in Cambodia, probably as I have a U.S. passport as the U.S. supports strong sanctions against the military regime.(there was a huge stack of Japanese passports on the desk that were approved) Shocked that I was denied a visa for the first time ever(I have visited 13 countries) I shouted "Aung San Suu Kyi. Free the Lady!" as I was leaving. Ironically, I read in the Phnom Penh paper the Myanmar Ambassador died of a stroke the next day.
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I'm considering to visit Myanmar soon but recently I was told that Aung San Suu Kyi requested foreigners not to visit the country because this would mean approving the junta regime! I can see her point that paying 10 dollars or the visa and the taxes in the country supports the regime but if we are careful how we travel the people of Myanmar would also earn some much needed cash, wouldn't they?
The way I see it, it is important to visit people under opressed regimes who do not have much voice. Meeting them, talking to them (not necessarily on political issues), sharing with them turns them into real people on our consciousness, instead of those far away people we hear about on the news. I believe we can actually help them be more understood in the world by visiting their country. I would expect the lady to be more specific and perhaps she was. Do you know about this?
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