Daw Aung San Suu Kyi: West should act together

The Yomiuri Shimbun

These are excerpts of an interview with Aung San Suu Kyi held by The Yomiuri Shimbun on Wednesday.

The Yomiuri Shimbun: You said it’s best to have a dialogue with the military government. Have you made a formal request to meet with them?

Aung San Suu Kyi: No, not yet.

Q: And if you have a chance to meet with Gen. Than Shwe, what’ll your message be?

A: I don’t think it’s right to say what I’m going to say to him in an interview before I even meet him.

Q: You haven’t made any plans to meet him?

A: No, as I said already. I’ve not even mentioned this or persuaded them to see us.

Q: Some National League for Democracy (NLD) members left to form the National Democratic Force (NDF) and some other political parties that participated in the election. What do you think about their decision to contest the election?

A: That’s their decision. I think you’ve got to ask them why they made the decision. It’s not for us to comment on why they made this decision. We certainly think that it’s their right to decide what they want to do, and it’s not our decision.

Q: You don’t have any ill feeling against them?

A: It’s their right to decide what they want to do.

Q: What’s your plan to reconcile with them?

A: We’ve invited those political groups and individuals interested in cooperating with us to come and see us. We keep the door open for them to contact us, and some of them have made contact with us already.

Q: You said you would like to form a democratic network. Can you elaborate on this?

A: I think I did speak about it in some detail. What I mean is for the people all over the country and all over the world to be engaged in the movement to bring democracy and human rights to Burma, and this network would include social and humanitarian issues as well as political ones.

Q: How about the second Panglong Conference, have you made any contact with ethnic groups?

A: It was the ethnic nationalities who drew up the proposal for the second Panglong Conference, so obviously after this, I’ll contact them. They were the ones who drew up the proposal.

Q: The high court declined to hear your case on whether dissolving the NLD was legal or not. How will you continue the NLD as a political party?

A: We’re going to appeal that decision because we did nothing that isn’t right under the law.

Q: You’re going to launch another petition?

A: We’re going to contest the decision because we do nothing that isn’t correct according to the law.

Q: You’re going to continue the NLD as a political party?

A: Of course.

Q: About the economic sanctions by the West, you mentioned ordinary people will suffer. What’s your advice to Japan and Western countries?

A: I’ve not said ordinary people will be suffering from sanctions, but what I said was that if the people feel, and if the people are justified in feeling that sanctions are hurting them, then we’ll review the situation.

Q: What should Western countries and Japan should do to help Myanmar achieve democracy, in your opinion?

A: I think they should be more aware of the problems within this country, and I think for the help, [what we need] most of all is their coordinated effort.

Q: Are you interested in using the Internet and mobile phones as a method of communication?

A: Of course, I’m interested in using the Internet. I’ve made an application to link up to the Internet. Whether that application will be got or not, I do not know.
(Nov. 26, 2010)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/T101125003264.htm

Burmese Dedicated Music Video for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Sons

Burma's evolving opposition

Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters will find they are not the sole voice of opposition

With Aung San Suu Kyi released and elections completed in Burma, South Asia specialist and Chatham House associate fellow Marie Lall argues that the political landscape for opposition forces could now be very different.

On 7 November, Burma went to the polls for the first time in 20 years.

A total of 37 political parties stood for more than 1,100 seats across two houses of parliament and 14 local legislative assemblies for the seven states and seven regions.

The parties included the pro-regime USDP, the NUP representing the regime which had ruled the country between 1962 and 1988, and a plethora of other, smaller parties, including the NDF - the splinter party from the pro-democracy NLD which had withdrawn from the elections and advocated a boycott.

They also included a large number of ethnic minority parties which were focused in particular on the representation of their ethnic group and were standing not across the whole country, but primarily in states where they had potential constituents.

Advance voting

The playing field was seriously tilted in favour of the USDP, which was able to field candidates in almost all constituencies, whilst the pro-democracy parties were limited to much fewer candidates, largely because they had so little time to raise funding for registration fees and election expenses and to set up and organise their parties and secure membership.

The playing field was seriously tilted in favour of the USDP

The elections also had the controversial feature of advance voting, whereby many officials and members of the armed forces were instructed to vote before the 7th. The elections were therefore not expected to be in any sense fair.

On the day reports from across the country show that on balance the behaviour at the polling booths allowed for a free choice.

There were also reports of infringements, and the USDP is heard to have offered new clothes, coffee and snacks as incentives.

Mostly however, especially in the urban areas, people were able to vote as they pleased. The counting in each polling station, in many but not all cases held in front of party representatives and members of the public, registered wins for opposition and ethnic minority candidates alongside those of pro-regime candidates. On the night of the 7th there was cautious optimism.

On the morning of the 8th, a number of constituencies reported that the counting of the advance votes, largely cast for the USDP quite possibly under pressure had nullified a number of wins.

Whilst the official constituency based results are still unknown, the regime has announced winning 80% of the seats, and a number of those who believed they had been elected the night before have found that they have lost to the advance ballots.

Campaign groups, the NLD, and other anti-election forces will say that this is no surprise. Yet despite this the elections still matter. Those in Rangoon report that people are upset - but they also say that the teashops are buzzing with political talk.

Politics is legal again, people are openly supportive of legally accepted opposition parties. Some parties, including the NUP, are considering taking the matter of overturned wins through advance votes to court.

'Third force'

The main outcome of the elections has been that the new opposition parties - who decided to try to bring change within the structures allowed by the regime, have gained popular support.

One outcome of the election is that political talk is buzzing again

Loosely known as "the third force", they were considered of little importance until now. They are cautioning that people need to press on and remind that no-one ever thought the process of change would be easy.

Their leaders are now waiting to see how the institutionalisation of the new structures will play out. Their role is to maintain the existing political space open whilst preparing to use it for the next elections in five years.

What about Aung San Suu Kyi? If she is allowed to move about now she is free, she will draw crowds of supporters.

But she will also find a very different political landscape from the one she encountered after her last release.

Whilst it can be expected that she will draw a hard line in opposition with the regime over the legality of the new constitution and the new government, it would be wise to take into account the fact that the NLD, now defunct as a political party, is no longer the sole voice in the opposition.

This mantle will have to be shared with the third force. In fact, co-operation with the new opposition forces would probably be the best strategy to unite those fighting the regime, albeit from different political positions.

Whilst Aung San Suu Kyi is unlikely to compromise, she risks marginalising the NLD movement in the long run with an uncompromising stand.

Those who are fighting for change within the new structures will ultimately be able to find some common ground with the regime, leaving the NLD out in the cold.

What does this scenario mean for the rest of the world, and most importantly for those outside the country or on the border?

What is fast becoming Burma's greatest fault line is the rift between the anti-regime groups inside and those outside of the country.

They want the same thing but cannot reconcile their positions.

Today this is the biggest challenge for society in Burma - the need for a convergence between the two opposition groups.

This will start only when those abroad and the NLD acknowledge the role of the new opposition parties in the struggle.

Failing this, the fight will not end up being against the regime, but against each other rendering the opposition meaningless.

Marie Lall is a South Asia specialist at the Institute of Education, University of London, and an associate fellow at Chatham House.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11750330

Suu Kyi Does Not Support War Crimes Trial for Generals

Published Thursday, 25 November, 2010

Aung San Suu Kyi said she does not support efforts to bring the Burmese military generals in front of the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity and war crimes. “I’ve never said I want them to be brought into the international court,” she said in an interview with The New York Times. “I don’t think there is any solid reason for the generals to fear for their safety. We are not after them personally. I certainly do not wish them ill.” The U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in Burma has called for the establishment of a commission of inquiry into possible crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma.

http://www.irrawaddy.org/

Notes to all: We must follow our leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, without wavering.

Dedicated Music Video for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Ko Htein Lin [HD]