It is known that despots imitate each other. Here is a glaring example. The ethnic apartheid junta in Ethiopia released the leader of a major opposition party, Birtukan Mideksa, shortly after it conducted a fake election in May 2010. Similarly, the military junta in Myanmar (Burma) has decided to release Aung San Suu Kyi, the popular leader of the country’s opposition party, after conducting and winning a fake election last week.
The following is a report by The Telegraph
Aung San Suu Kyi release: the lady goes free but nothing changes
By Ian MacKinnon
On the face of it, Burma will have experienced a tumultuous seven days.
The woman known simply as The Lady to her fellow Burmese will taste freedom. Her worldwide following will cautiously rejoice.
But the more significant event has already happened. Last Sunday’s nationwide election provided the junta with a civilian face for the first time since it seized power in 1962.
It was an outcome that Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been relegated to the sidelines since her National League for Democracy (NLD) dominated the last elections in 1990, was powerless to prevent. Now the generals, many of whom have exchanged their uniforms for lounge suits, are confident they can curtail Mrs Suu Kyi despite her enduring appeal as the rallying point for Burma’s opposition.
When Mrs Suu Kyi’s NLD contested the 1990 poll it was the only serious opposition and it won by a landslide. Now the opposition in Burma has been fractured by Sunday’s elections. A splinter group of the NLD broke away to form the National Democratic Force (NDF) after Mrs Suu Kyi and her party decided to boycott the “sham” poll.
The NDF has so far only garnered a handful of seats out of the 164 it contested, but the divisions in the opposition ranks may dilute the voices raised against the pro-military government.
The Burmese people have been so cowed by years of repression that culminated in the brutal crackdown on the 2007 monk-led “Saffron Revolution” that they would not take to the streets again even if Mrs Suu Kyi issued the call.
Similarly, her impact abroad will be limited by her continued refusal to travel outside her country. The former Oxford housewife fears that she would be permanently exiled if she did.
In common with the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, she was conspicuously absent from a gathering of Nobel laureates in the Japanese city of Hiroshima yesterday.
9 thoughts on “Aung San Suu Kyi released… following a fake election”
It is good for the individuals who suffered a lot for their rights.
But for the community and the nation as a whole such copycat behaviors of brutal dictators(Burma & Ethiopia) first robbing the entire voices of the enslaved and then as a cunning fox dressing itself with sheep skin start using cheap tactics and trying to wash its dirty face by releasing an individual who shouldn’t have been in jail even to start with. It is just for publicity and propaganda victory while the entire country is still effectively in prison. Shame on them!
Melese of Ethiopia has no comparison. Melese is not only a dictator but also a traitor. There are many dictators around the globe. Burma may not be as worse as is portrayed.
I was really very happy when I learned the news of Aung’s release.I will be happier if she gets the chance to lead her own people.Aung,I wish you good luck and all the best!The measure taken by Buremese leaders to release her is also praiseworthy,as it can help the process of democratization and reconcilation in the country!Bravo!
Burma’s military govt. and our ethnic weyane are just the perfect match…..they are a collection of idiots.
I hope meles would be angry because some dictator use the same technique as he is now may be the world eye on both of them!!
good news our aung Sansuu kye also must send cngrajulation msg
That sounds familiar!
Birtukan’s and Aung san Suu Kyi share similar story, any yet, the international community has totally ignored the release of our Ethiopian hero Birtukan, who was locked up for no reason for two years separated from her young child and elderly mother. The only reason I can come up with is that, Burma don’t have good political relationship with United States, and unfortunately the bloody hand Meles somehow has created good relationship with US with the help of his PR firm–DLA PIPER at the expenses of poor Ethiopian Tax Payers.
First of all, we, all peace loving people are happy she get out of jail. As #6 pointed out, the case of the Burmese hero and our own hero Birtucan is identical, but the difference is how the west handled each case in two different ways. There is no other glaring example than this one which shows the West’s hipocracy and double standard when it comes to human rights and democracy. In the eyes of the West Aung Sansuu kye is more important to them than our opposition leader Birtucan. After all, they don’t care about democracy and human rights but their own selfish interests. meles is their valuable servant and they will do their best to protect him, and that’s the only difference.