Suu Kyi's Silence Troubles Followers

Nobel peace prize winner doing nothing as country slides further into squalor

By Nick McMaster, Newser Staff

Posted Nov 11, 2008 3:26 PM CST

(Newser) – Aung San Suu Kyi, who’s spent 20 years under house arrest, is an almost sainted symbol of democracy to the people of Burma, the Guardian writes. But since 2003, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has offered no practical leadership for her party, the National League for Democracy, and has remained inexplicably silent as a monks' uprising was brutally crushed, and a cyclone killed 170,000 Burmese. Some within the party are seriously questioning her legacy.

The NLD’s strategy of self-isolation squandered its opportunities, and international sanctions didn’t seriously affect the junta. Suu Kyi, who now communicates only with cryptic messages on a signboard outside her house, recently posted, “All martyrs must finish their mission.” The message is widely interpreted as acknowledgment that she now more a symbol than a leader of the Burmese struggle.

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

Protesters from Burma's National League for Democracy rally for the immediate release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi near the Myanmar Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 4, 2008. (AP Photo)

Members of Burma's opposition party, the National League for Democracy, look on during ceremonies, Sept. 27, 2008, in Yangon. (AP Photo)

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No one can deny that we are on the side of truth and the people. But what we also have to consider seriously is whether our sacrifices alone will actually bring victory.
- Tun Myint Aung, student leader during the 1988 uprising

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Suu Kyi's Silence Troubles Followers