Suu Kyi urges students to help Myanmar democracy
By Andrew Marshall
BANGKOK:- Opposition leader and Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi urged the world's
students to put pressure on their governments to push for democracy in Myanmar in a
rare interview released on Tuesday. In a videotaped interview obtained by Reuters, Suu
Kyi said during a forum on education in Myanmar's capital Yangon on Monday that the
recent reopening of universities in Myanmar did not represent progress. ``The consen-
sus of opinion is that the universities have been reopened because of pressure, external
and internal, and this is a mere surface job to make people think that there has been
progress,'' she said ``But in fact there has been no progress. The students have been
made to give undertakings to the effect that they will not engage in politics, in short
that they will do whatever the authorities require them to do.'' She said there had been
complaints that curriculum had been changed and there was uncertainty about the
length of university terms and when exams would take place. ``So there are more
questions than answers about the reopening of universities,'' she said.
GOVERNMENTS CRUCIAL FOR CHANGE
Suu Kyi said students around the world should keep up pressure on their governments
over Myanmar. ``It's governments which are crucial in bringing about political change,
but the people are crucial in putting pressure on their governments to do the right kind
of things, and this is where students come in,'' she said. ``Students everywhere, all
over the world, are very effective in getting their government to see what should be
done, what ought to be done, especially with regard to such basic needs as human
rights and education and development.'' Suu Kyi said education in Myanmar would not
improve until the country adopted democracy. ``Democracy in Burma first, and every-
thing else follows,'' she said. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won elec-
tions in May 1990 by a landslide but has never been allowed to govern. Its members
have been jailed, placed under house arrest or restricted by the ruling generals, who say
the country is not ready for Western-style democracy. Suu Kyi and her party have run a
high-profile but so far unsuccessful campaign to bring change to the country and the
military government appears as firmly in power as ever. Last month around 60,000
Myanmar students restarted classes after the reopening of campuses shut down more
than three years ago after pro-democracy rallies. Yangon's ruling generals ordered the
closure of more than 30 universities and colleges a few days before final examinations in
December 1996, after student demonstrations at campuses and on the streets of the
capital. More than 100,000 students were affected, and hundreds of thousands more
who finished school since 1996 are still awaiting the chance to start university studies.
Tuesday, 22 August 2000
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