BOSTON — Burmese pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi enthralled students
and journalists on Thursday at Yale and Harvard university’s where she
re-emphasized her position on the importance of the rule of law in Burma, but
avoided getting involved in a debate about the conflicts in the country’s
ethnic areas and the controversial crisis in Arakan State.
“Once we can say that we have
been able to re-establish rule of law, then we can say that the process of
democratization has succeeded,” Suu Kyi said at Yale. “Until that point I do
not think that we can say that the process of democratization has succeeded.”
Calling the current system of
judiciary “practically non-existent,” Suu Kyi continued: “Until we have a
strong, independent, clean judiciary, we cannot say that Burma is truly on the
road to democracy.”
She introduced her new role as
the chairperson of the Rule of Law Committee at the House of Representatives in
Naypyidaw, saying she deplored that rule of law is “fundamentally lacking” and
that corruption is “endemic” in Burma. She said that the restoration of rule of
law is the most important and urgent task ahead for her country.
The two lectures she delivered on
Thursday underscored both Suu Kyi’s strengths and vulnerabilities. Her
extraordinary skills as a public speaker were clearly on display. Above all, it
is her ability to speak with passion and in plain terms about basic principles
of democracy that makes Suu Kyi an exceptionally appealing democracy
campaigner.
It is also characteristic of her
to advocate democracy in moral terms. Indeed Suu Kyi’s voice is most confident
when she talks about normative values such as responsibility and duty. She
concluded her talk on rule of law with the remark that education and training
would not be enough, because ultimately the goal would be achieved only when
citizens’ “attitude and mind-set” changed.
While many of the Ivy League
students drew inspiration from her moral philosophy, it was also evident that
Suu Kyi was not going to be simply adored and worshipped, and several questions
focused on Suu Kyi’s perceived reticence on Burma’s majority-minority issues.
“It is explicitly feared by some
that she might effectively end up reinforcing majority rule,” said one Harvard
student.
Despite attempts by Harvard
students to debate the topic of the Kachin, the Rohingya and other ethnic
issues, Suu Kyi repeated the same answers that she had been giving for weeks:
that she would not take one side over the other, and that she is opposed to all
human rights abuses.
She went a step further in
suggesting that there were “people trying to make political capital” by fueling
an international outcry about the plight of minorities.
Yale’s president introduced Suu Kyi
as “a great unifier.” But immediately after her talk an undergraduate student
wrote an article titled “Promise still to be filled in Burma” for the school
newspaper The Daily Yale, which criticized Suu Kyi’s for “remaining largely
silent” on issues of ethnic minority.
Masao Imamura
Business & Investment Opportunities
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