NEW DELHI: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi urged India not to be
over-optimistic about political changes in her homeland, as she began her first
visit to New Delhi in a quarter of a century on Tuesday.
Suu Kyi, who was a student in the
city where her mother served as an ambassador, spoke in a newspaper interview
of her sadness at the Indian government's ties with Myanmar's former junta,
which kept her under house arrest for 15 out of 22 years before her release in
2010.
Her invitation to India is an
attempt by its government to rebuild the relationship with Suu Kyi. New Delhi
was once one of her staunchest supporters, but changed tack and sought
engagement with the junta in the mid-1990s.
Suu Kyi said she had been
saddened by India's decision to engage with the junta which was treated as a
pariah by the West, although not surprised.
"I think rather than
disappointment, sad is the word I would use because I have a personal
attachment to India... because of the closeness that existed between the
countries," she told The Hindu.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
visited neighbouring Myanmar in May to try to strengthen trade links and
counter the influence of regional rival China.
The two governments signed 12
agreements covering an array of issues including security, development of
border areas, trade and transport links.
But Suu Kyi said India should not
get carried away by recent developments in Myanmar, which is now run by a
quasi-civilian government and where elections are due in 2015.
"It's (got) to be able to
take a good hard look at what is really happening," she said.
"Not to be over-optimistic,
at the same time to be encouraging of what needs to be encouraged; because I
think too much optimism doesn't help because then you ignore what is going
wrong, and if you ignore what is not right, then from not right it becomes
wrong."
Suu Kyi acknowledged that
businesses were keen to tap the opportunities across India's eastern border in
competition with Chinese counterparts but added that "investment has to be
done in the right way".
"And also we have to keep in
mind that we are just at the beginning of the road to democracy, and as I keep
saying, it's a road we have to build for ourselves. It's not there ready and
waiting," she said.
Suu Kyi arrived Tuesday
afternoon. Her official programme begins Wednesday when she will meet Singh and
deliver the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru memorial lecture.
On Friday she will visit the Lady
Shri Ram college in New Delhi, from which she graduated with a degree in
politics.
Suu Kyi last visited India in
1987 when she travelled to Simla to join her husband Michael Aris, who was
pursuing Himalayan studies at an institute in the picturesque hill station.
- AFP/ir
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