From Nobel Peace Prize Winner to an Ignoble Pariah
By Mohajer Ansari
Pasadena, CA
Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) has been long accustomed to military rule. So, the rise of democracy seemed too good to be true from the very beginning. The arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi – an ardent and once revered democracy crusader - and her allies, shows that the dream of democracy in that part of South-East Asia was only a fantasy. The demise of her political career following the current gambit by the army junta, marks a stark contrast to the optimism of the past few years.
But before the international community jumps to rally for the Daw, some historical context of events in Myanmar is warranted. Aung San Suu Kyi, who suffered unspeakable miseries at the hands of her own people for two decades, opted to remain quiet on the thorny issue of ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minorities by the Myanmar army. She declined to offer support for Rohingyas. When asked whether they should be regarded as Burmese citizens, her coy answer was: ‘I do not know’. In response to the concerns raised by the UN, a Myanmar representative blatantly said, ‘There is no such group as Rohingya in Myanmar’.
With all her clout regained after release from exile, she could have shown at least a flicker of compassion for the persecuted Muslim minority. On the contrary, her hubristic ignorance towards the plight of the oppressed Rohingya minority, during her freed years and political climb, exposed the real Aung San Suu Kyi to the world. Her continued silence on this subject vexed advocates of human rights all over the world. It threatened her credibility as a true leader of a free democratic country. Her humanistic legacy once recognized and admired by the UN, the US and Nobel Foundation for Peace, became questionable.
Under the watchful eyes of the global media, she refused to acknowledge, support or protect the Rohingya. She remained unfazed as the coveted titles, awards, prizes and accolades she had amassed, were slowly yet steadily rescinded by horrified universities and charities worldwide.
The European Parliament honored Suu Kyi with Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990. In 1991, Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her commitment to non-violence and support for freedom and democracy in Burma. She was the world's only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient and was not allowed to attend the ceremony. She donated her prize ($1.3 million) towards the establishment of a health and education fund.
While declaring her a winner of the prize, the Noble committee in its glorious citation praised the recipient for the ‘non-violent struggle for democracy and human right’, and, ‘the desired conciliation between the sharply divided regions and ethnic groups in her country’.
That was thirty years ago.
If any of the Nobel Peace prize committee members is alive today, he/she would be chewing on the committee’s very words, wondering how the once-admired peace activist in Burma became an insensitive and creepy abettor of crimes against humanity in her own country – against ethnic minorities.
In 2000, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom - nation's highest civilian award - by President Bill Clinton. In May 2007, First Lady Laura Bush joined with the Senate Women's Caucus on Burma to express solidarity with Suu Kyi.
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Mitch McConnell successfully lobbied and bestowed on her in 2012 the Congressional Gold Medal - thus placing her in the company of Sir Winston Churchill, Bob Hope, George Washington, Robert Frost, Pope John Paul II, Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Elie Wiesel and Nelson Mandela. The award citation read: Aung San Suu Kyi is a woman of unrivaled courage and commitment. Her vision of democracy, peace and hope resonates throughout Burma and around the world. And she has never wavered from her principles, even in the face of harassment, intimidation, and threats on her life. Ironically, senators Feinstein and McConnell did not say a word about what has been going on in Myanmar under the stewardship of Suu Kyi. So much so, the number of Rohingya Muslims displaced after fighting with Myanmar’s majority Buddhists (monks included) in 2012 alone - the very year of Congressional Gold Medal conferment - was estimated to be about 125,000.
In 2018, a year after the world watched the horrific persecution, rape, torture, mass murder and expulsion of the Rohingya - a genocide according to UNHRC - the very same Suu Kyi used the endearing phrase “rather sweet” to describe the generals in her cabinet. Barely two years on, her decision to defend the army seems to be exacting a heavy price.
At the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2019, Aung San Suu Kyi decided to be the face of the effort to justify the crimes of Myanmar's army against Rohingya. She chose to defend Myanmar's army from the charge of genocide, herself. It boosted her popularity tremendously at home. She was praised for protecting the country's honor. But this euphoria turned out to be short-lived.
As she glided from her executive car into the cold arena where accounts of the world’s worst imaginable crimes are kept, a BBC reporter asked her: “Will you ever say sorry, Ms Suu Kyi?” Expectedly, no answer came from her.
Following the atrocities of 2017 in Rakhine province and her failed charm tactics in The Hague in 2019, the Western world abandoned Suu Kyi for her deafening silence in the face of the undeniable truth. Reacting to last week’s events, Bill Richardson, a former US Ambassador to the UN, had this to say: “After making a pact with the devil, she has been outsmarted.” She used to be a friend of him. But, they fell out in 2018 after he implored her unsuccessfully, to stand up to the military junta and protect the Rohingya.
To make its intentions of ethnic cleansing clear, her government had the temerity to ask the then US ambassador to Myanmar to not even use the term ‘Rohingya’, but to call them simply ‘Bengalis’ – the decedents of Bangladeshi migrants who have lived in Rakhine province for several decades. Ironically, a person who herself was persecuted by the ruthless army junta and was denied minimum human decency for decades, became an heir-apparent of persecution of minorities in her own country.
What is more pathetic is that someone whose name has been synonymous with human rights for the past thirty odd years, and, who has exhibited unflinching courage and unwavering defiance in the face of isolation and ostracism, succumbed to the utterly unacceptable policy of the very military junta she had managed to defeat.
It is appalling that even the United States was blind-sided in according her honors such as the US Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest national awards to a civilian.
What a fall.... from Nobel Peace Prize recipient to pariah!
In her criticism of the handling of the situation in Myanmar, Nobel Peace Laureate Malala Yousafzai had tweeted: “Every time I see the news, my heart breaks at the suffering of the Rohingya Muslims. Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment. I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same.”
Apparently, a 76-year old tyrant has a thing or two to learn from a 20+ year old!
Statement from the White House said that the US opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede Myanmar’s democratic transition, and will act against those responsible if these steps are not reversed. Secretary of State Antony Blinken pointedly referred Myanmar as Burma while urging its military to release all government officials and civil leaders and respect the will of the people.
This is not enough. Suu Kyi is implicit is the crimes of the army junta all the way and should not be spared of global reprimand for her negligence and actions. After all, it was under her watch that as many as 400,000 Rohingya were made to run for their lives towards the Bangladeshi border with no certainty that the country of their ancestors will shelter and protect them and for how long. The survivors – men, women and children – have told harrowing tales of their plight, eating dead animals and drinking muddy water en route. Refugees, who made to Bangladesh, narrated horrific stories of massacres in their villages that were raided and burned by government soldiers.
Perhaps, if Su Kyi speaks out and acknowledges the crimes committed under her watch, against the Rohingya people with sincerity, honesty and credibility, and most importantly, if the international community and particularly Rohingya believe it, she might regain some - if not all - of her lost luster and honor. Only that might rally the world into action against this coup.
