Burma's heroine debuts in Parliament

Hla Hla Htay, AFP

Daw Suu appeared calm as she arrived to take her seat as an elected politician for the first time in the capital. "[I will] try my best for the country" (AFP/Soe Than Win).

NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar - Burma's opposition leader [the Lady Daw] Aung San Suu Kyi made her historic parliamentary debut Monday [July 9, 2012], marking a new phase in her near quarter century struggle to bring democracy to her army-dominated homeland.

Suu Kyi, whose unswerving campaigning saw her locked up for years by the former junta and earned her a Nobel Peace Prize, appeared calm as she arrived to take her seat as an elected politician in the [relocated] capital Naypyidaw.

"I will try my best for the country," she told AFP as she embarked on her first day of active public office.

Suu Kyi joined fellow members of her National League for Democracy (NLD), as both the party and its charismatic leader transform from [radical] dissident outsiders to [minor] mainstream political players in the wake of [rigged] landmark April by-elections.

The democracy champion's entrance into the legislature comes at an uncertain time for Burma, after recent communal violence and a series of student arrests cast a shadow over promising [whitewash] changes in the former pariah state. More

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Speaking Freely in the New Burma (audio)

TheWorld.org (PRI, Public Radio International); Wisdom Quarterly

This summer, [The Lady] Aung San Suu Kyi will be stepping out onto an international stage.

  

She will finally be picking up her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize and speaking her mind in various European capitals.

   

It will be a far cry from the 15 years she spent under house arrest, unable to participate in elections or speak to her Burmese compatriots. 

  

Suu Kyi, now a member of the Burmese parliament, recently completed her first trip out of Myanmar [Burma as renamed by its military dictatorships after their coup] in 24 years.

  

In a speech in Thailand, she praised President Thein Sein’s efforts to bring democracy to the country. But she didn’t shy away from criticizing more entrenched [authoritarian] forces that are less open to change, in particular the military which she called a “force to be reckoned with.”

Buddhist monastics rose up protesting police state dictators during the Saffron Revolution.

   
Next, Suu Kyi heads to Paris, Oslo, London, and elsewhere for a series of high profile appearances.

   

Her words will be closely analyzed back home -- by those who love her and those who fear her. It’s clear that the government of Myanmar is giving Suu Kyi freedoms that it previously denied her... More

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