Nobel winner Aung San Suu Kyi has broken her silence on the Rohingya crisis. She called it ‘fake news.’
Myanmar leader defends her government
YA NGON, MYA NMAR • Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi was once hailed as “Myanmar’s Joan of Arc” and spoken of in the same breath as Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.
But now the international community and former ardent supporters are turning against her, even calling for her Peace Prize to be revoked. They accuse Suu Kyi of ignoring state violence against ethnic minorities and Muslims, continuing to jail journalists and activists, cowing to Myanmar’s stillpowerful generals, and failing to nurture democratic leaders who could step in when she, now 72, exits the scene. Instead, they say her government is creating a power vacuum that could be filled again by the military.
Some conclude that Suu Kyi, who espoused democracy with such passion, always possessed an authoritarian streak which emerged once she gained power.
For years, Suu Kyi had courageously defied the military, suffering 15 years of house arrest and separation from her British husband and two sons to helm her National League for Democracy to a landslide victory in 2015 elections. Often referred to as “The Lady,” she retains popularity among the public as the liberator from half a century of military oppression.
As Suu Kyi launched her national struggle, one medical student worked tirelessly at her side, facing down gun-wielding soldiers trying to crush the surging prodemocracy movement.
Now a medical doctor and recipient of international human r i ghts awards, Ma Thida has few kind words for the former mentor.
“We can’t expect her to change the whole country in 1 ½ years, but we expect a strong human rights- based approach,” Ma Thida said.
International criticism has focused on Suu Kyi’s lack of action or condemnation of violence targeting the country’s million Rohingya Muslims, who have been brutalized since 2012 by security forces and zealots among the Buddhist majority in western Myanmar.
More than 1,000 Rohingya have been killed, while some 320,000 are living in squalid camps in Myanmar and Bangladesh, according to estimates by the U. S.based Human Rights Watch and the United Nations.
After a new wave of viol ence and humanitarian crisis erupted l ast week, with Rohingya militants attacking police posts and leaving 12 security personnel and 77 Rohingya Muslims dead, her office said military and border police had l aunched “clearance operations.”
As usual, address t he she did not i nsurgents’ counter- allegations — that the attacks were aimed at protecting Rohingya vill agers f rom “i ntensified atrocities” perpetrated by “brutal soldiers.”
Since violence broke out on Aug. 25, Suu Kyi has been silent. But on Wednesday she blamed fake news and a misinformation campaign for fuelling a crisis that the UN says has now pushed more than 125,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh with tales of atrocities at the hands of security forces.
Suu Kyi t old Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone call that her government was defending “all the people” in western Rakhine state, according to a government statement.
Since assuming office in April 2016, Suu Kyi has earned a reputation for being aloof and controlling of information.
Explanations f or why she’s changed, or faltered i n upholding previously avowed goals, are starkly disparate: she is variously cast as a t ragic heroine fighting impossible odds, and a closet authoritarian with a soft spot for the military.
Suu Kyi herself has often said she inherited an affinity for the armed forces from her father Gen. Aung San, a military hero who fought for i ndependence from Britain.
Perhaps the most widespread view is t hat she s i mplycan’t push her democratic agenda or human rights demands, lest the military oust her from power. Although her post as government leader places her above the president, the military retains its grip on three key ministries controlling law enforcement, local administration and embattled frontier areas as well as a mandated 25 per cent of seats in Parliament.
“She may shake hands with the military across a table, but under it they are kicking her,” said Thant Thaw Kaung, executive director of the Myanmar Book Aid and Preservation Foundation, an initiative to improve the country’s woeful education system.
Some disagree, and say her popular mandate gives her the force to challenge the generals who are unlikely to upset an arrangement that allows them to wield power with seeming impunity.
“The litany, the excuse that is repeated, ‘ Oh, the military is still in politics, still dominates the Constitution ... so we are hamstrung.’ I don’t buy that argument,” said Khin Zaw Win, a political prisoner for 11 years who now heads the Tampadipa Institute, a civil society think-tank.