It is clear that the great Burmese democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s courage, and her implicit faith in the credo of Gandhian non-violence, have not dimmed. Released on Saturday from seven years’ house arrest by her country’s military rulers, and having spent the last 15 years of her life in detention, Ms Suu Kyi told

thousands of cheering supporters that she would continue to fight for human rights and the rule of law. These are tasks that the military rulers are not likely to be pleased about. They had first arrested her in 1990 precisely because she had resolved to work to restore democracy to her country which has been under continuous military rule since 1962. It is thus far from clear how the country’s military rulers read the declarations of the world’s most famous political prisoner who was honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. At any rate, now the results of Burma’s sham November 7 poll — only the second national election in 20 years in which Ms Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, refused to take part and was promptly de-recognised by the rulers — will smell even more, considering that the famous democratic protester has chosen to seize the opportunity to speak her mind. After meeting international diplomats in Rangoon following her release at the end of her detention term, she noted that the basis of democratic freedom was freedom of speech. She also told the people that even if they were not political, “politics will come to you”.
In the 1990 election, Ms Suu Kyi’s NLD had won 59 per cent of the vote and 80 per cent of the seats in Parliament, but the military refused to hand over power to her and locked her up. In the 2010 election, the NLD did not contest the polls. It was held when Ms Suu Kyi was still in detention and the political stasis established in the country by the 1990 poll result remained unresolved. The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), a creation of the military, won it. In 2003, when this entity was an association (USDA), not a party, some of its cadres had mounted a physical attack on the NLD leader’s convoy. As the Army-backed ruling party now, it can be relied on to oppose NLD protests with physical force. Indeed, the election was conveniently held shortly before the expiration of Ms Suu Kyi’s detention term with a view to creating a rival civilian centre of power to the moral authority NLD possesses. This will fool no one of course, but a facade of democratic rule has been erected, as we have seen often in places like military-controlled Pakistan.
The West has condemned Burma’s obviously rigged election, but has not put forward any clear demands after the NLD leader’s release. Sanctions imposed by it on Burma continue. China, Burma’s powerful neighbour, backed the recent election and has had warm ties with the military junta. It has always been silent about Ms Suu Kyi. India is in a bind. Instinctively it supports Ms Suu Kyi, and gave her the Jawaharlal Nehru Award in 1992. But it has maintained links with the military rulers. It has cautiously welcomed the recent election hoping this would lead to the freeing up of political processes. If New Delhi did not engage Rangoon, China can use Burmese territory for strategic purposes against India and draw Burma irrevocably under its sphere of influence, as it has done North Korea. The US and the West pretend not to understand this although they have supported dictators around the world. In our Parliament recently President Barack Obama deigned to lecture us to support human rights in Burma. We must only do that which serves our essential national interest.