Yesterday, 11 November 2010, the Supreme Court of Burma rejected a special appeal against the continued detention of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, following the trespassing onto her premises of an American citizen in 2009. The Asian Human Rights Commission, among other groups, previously pointed to the contradictory, unlawful and absurd elements of the case that was brought against her and the manner in which it was conducted. The contents of the appeal and the reasons for its rejection need not be rehearsed here. It is sufficient to note that the so-called legal process was contrived, in the same manner as the pathetic electoral process last Sunday, November 7, so as to reach a desired result through a ritual performance, rather through any kind of legitimate undertaking.
Legal counsel for Aung San Suu Kyi brought the appeal as a matter of principle, since the term of her detention is anyhow due to expire tomorrow, November 13. At time of writing the military government has not made any announcement about her release. The lawyer of Aung San Suu Kyi has indicated that she will not accept any conditions being attached to it.
The anticipated release of Aung San Suu Kyi from detention will not change most things in Burma, and certainly not in the short term. Most people will continue to live in abject poverty, while a small number become increasingly wealthy through military connections, massive corruption and cronyism. Most people will continue to live in heavy fear of government officials, who can at any time make arbitrary decisions with profound consequences for their lives. Most people will continue to place more hope for change in the prospects held by a lottery ticket than a ballot paper or any other caricature of democratic political process.
However, the symbolic importance of Aung San Suu Kyi, the only prisoner of conscience in Burma who is a truly global figure, is not lost on anyone. Her captivity symbolizes the captivity of her country: the captivity of over 50 million others to the whims and dictates of army officers who have shown manifestly, time and again, that they hold office to serve only themselves and theirs. The prolongation of her unlawful detention–the latest period that she has stayed locked up is her fourth since 1989, totalling over 13 and a half years across two decades of struggle–likewise symbolizes the prolonged suffering of her country under self-centred, greedy, egotistical hypocrites.
Therefore, the release of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest is a symbolic step that the military regime has no option but to take, since the symbolism of her release is integral to its project for conversion from uniformed dictatorship to plain-clothed pseudo-parliamentary authoritarianism. The regime must take this step before it can fulfil this project, since regional partners and groupings like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations need it to do so in order to claim that the worst is now behind and that Burma is finally moving ahead with everyone else in the region.
The unanswered and unanswerable question for the regime is whether or not it has succeeded in reducing the popular political authority of Aung San Suu Kyi to little more than symbolism, or whether she still has the capacity to excite millions not only to aspire for change but also to act for it. The Asian Human Rights Commission knows from its own work over the last decade that there is an enormous reservoir of strength and courage in the people of Burma, a reservoir which no military or authoritarian regime can locate, let alone tap. That task falls to the likes of Aung San Suu Kyi. Therefore, the AHRC looks forward to the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi not simply for its symbolic importance but because of the potential that remains deep in the people of Burma to end, at long last, the military excess, abuse and misrule that they have been forced to endure in one form or another for the last half a century.
