Aung San Suu Kyi was one of the world’s most famous political prisoners.
Now she is a beloved politician in Myanmar.
She helped the country restore democracy...
After 62 years of British colonial rule…
3 years of Japanese occupation...
And another 50 years under the rule of an oppressive military junta.
And she did it while being locked in her home.
This is how a political prisoner won the esteem of the international community, got elected
leader of her country, and is now at risk of losing the respect of the world.
Aung San Suu Kyi was born in 1945 in Rangoon, now Yangon, to Buddhist, Bamar parents, Myanmar’s
dominant ethnic group that makes up nearly 70 percent of the population.
Her father, Aung San, was a general who led the push to end British colonial rule.
In 1947, during an executive council meeting to discuss the transition to independence
a group of gunmen burst in and opened fire.
No one knows exactly who sent these gunmen, but they shot dead, seven or eight people.
One of them was Aung San, Suu Kyi's father.
She was only two years old at the time.
That’s Bloomberg Editor Jason Koutsoukis.
I’m the Southeast Asia Government Editor for Bloomberg News.
After the death of her father, the country completed the transition to become a democratic
republic, with the official name Union of Burma.
When she was 15, Suu Kyi moved to New Delhi after her mother was appointed ambassador
to India.
After finishing high school, she went to Oxford University, where she studied philosophy,
politics and economics.
She graduated in 1968 and moved to New York City, where she worked at the United Nations.
In 1972 she married British academic Michael Aris, they had two sons, later returning to England.
One of the conditions Aung San Suu Kyi had set at the start of the marriage was, if ever
she felt that her country needed her, she would go back.
In 1988 Suu Kyi did return to Burma after her mother suffered a stroke.
While there she became involved with the student protest movement that was rising up against
the military regime.
What we want the military to do… is keep out of politics.
We don’t want the military to split up.
We want the armed forces to keep together but keep out of politics.
This movement was building and you could see which way the wind was blowing.
It wasn't just luck.
She didn't just happen to be there.
This was definitely something that she always felt deeply about.
The liberation leader’s daughter tapped her father’s contacts and formed a political
party - the National League for Democracy.
Soon afterwards she was elected its secretary general.
Seen as a threat to the junta, Suu Kyi was put under house arrest.
And there she stayed for almost 15 of the next 21 years.
Her husband died in 1999.
while she was locked up.
She received the international media when she was under house arrest and she was very
successful in creating a brand, She is one of those real stand out figures from the 1980s
and 1990s who won a Nobel Peace Prize.
Propelled by international pressure, the government finally released Suu Kyi on November 13, 2010.
Five years later the NLD swept to power in elections and she finally took charge of the
country.
Constitutionally barred from becoming president for being the mother of foreigners - a provision
apparently inserted by the military specifically targeting her - Suu Kyi instead
took the title of State Counselor.
I think it's probably no longer applicable to say she's the de facto leader of Myanmar
because in practice she really is the leader of the country.
Her popularity and authority has not been questioned.
Until now.
The Nobel Peace Prize she won in 1991 while under house arrest was “for her non-violent
struggle for democracy and human rights."
Although the scope of her control over the military is unclear, she is facing calls from
petitioners to be stripped of the award for not doing enough to stop the military repression
and forced exodus of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority living near the Bangladesh border.
More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh since August.
The United Nations has called it ethnic cleansing, while Suu Kyi and the military say they are
seeking to root out terrorists.
I think there is a sense of bewilderment among most people
in Myanmar at the response to the Rohingya crisis.
They see the Rohingya as people who don't belong in their country.
They just cannot understand
why Myanmar is being criticized so harshly overseas.
Suu Kyi is resisting growing international pressure to denounce the alleged human rights
abuses being committed against the Rohingya.
Instead, she’s showing a more ruthless determination to hang onto power no matter what cost to
her international reputation.
The government has been making every effort to restore peace and stability and to promote
harmony between the Muslim and Rakhine communities.
She's come down decisively in favor of majority public opinion on this issue.
That's one of the reasons she has remained so popular at home throughout this crisis.
The same global audience that transformed her into a political star is now demanding
she take a stand.
This security council and the United Stations to take strong and stiff action to bring this
crisis to an end.
Whether she can stem the tide of international condemnation and once again become a symbol
of human rights remains to be seen.