My meeting with Suu Kyi
My meeting with Suu Kyi
My meeting with Suu Kyi
My meeting with Suu Kyi
by Martin Lacey of
Burma Action Ireland
At a meeting of Burma Action Ireland's political committee on 18 July
last, we were informed of a confidential invitation to attend a National
League for Democracy seminar in Rangoon on 21 August 2000. I de-
cided on the spot to go, and next day started preparations to get
flights etc. Four weeks later, I was standing in the Burmese junta's
embassy in Bangkok applying for a visa.
Along with 13 other pro-democracy activists from Australia, Canada, Indone-
sia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Thailand and the USA, I was
to spend four days in Burma - three as a tourist and the fourth as an open
supporter of the democracy movement. Arriving in Rangoon airport, one is
struck immediately by the contrast of smiling people and suspicious, glowering
officials and security personnel. After years of isolation, the airport is more
like a domestic airdrome than an international one. The endemic corruption is
seen as soon as one changes dollars for the so-called Foreign Exchange Cer-
tificates. After Bangkok, the traffic on the road from the airport seemed very
light and most vehicles would probably not pass the National Car Test. We
spent three days exploring Rangoon, visiting pagodas and talking to people,
always avoiding politics. But politics kept coming up in the form of complaints about the economy, the closed
schools and the new rich, who have derived their new-found wealth from their links with the lucrative drug
trade.
The collapse of the economy brought about by the military's mismanagement and corruption is clearly seen in
the Rangoon markets, more reminiscent of parts of Africa than of Asia. We were very careful at all times not
to compromise any of our newly found friends by telling them of our real purpose.
On Monday 21 August, the fourth day of our visit, all 14 of us arrived within minutes of each other at the
NLD's rather run-down headquarters for a 10am seminar start, to be greeted by 200 surprised NLD delegates
and a composed and business-like Secretary General, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The secret policemen outside
were, to put it mildly, somewhat taken aback. Only a select group had known in advance of our visit and the
delegates were clearly pleased at our presence. We were to spend the next eight hours discussing the need
for educational change in Burma and the conclusion of the impossibility of such change until the realisation of
democracy. One of the things that struck me was how ordinary this discussion was in such extraordinary con-
ditions - we were talking about the role of parents, teachers and students and the need for a more child-
centred approach. Hardly the stuff of the barricades and yet this discussion was to be described later by the
regime as "treasonous and involving foreign terrorists". Daw Suu Kyi's position as Chairperson and translator
for the day gave me a great deal of hope. She may be an icon in the West but here in Rangoon she was
firstly a politician, and, subject to the ordinary political disagreement of her colleagues. In one discussion I
attended, a young woman delegate disagreed with Suu Kyi's proposals for parental involvement. I think even
Suu Kyi herself was pleased at this show of independent thinking.
I was very happy to be able to present Daw Suu Kyi with a number of presents from Ireland, including a
brooch from Dublin's Lord Mayor, Alderman Maurice Ahern. Later the regime would refer to the bags brought
to the seminar by the foreign activists as possibly containing bomb-making equipment! We had already
booked our flights back to Bangkok that evening and for a few hours after the seminar, wondered if we would
be allowed leave. The regime were clearly unhappy at our activities and we had police attention right up to
take-off. Our discomfort however was as nothing compared to the daily oppression of ordinary people in
Burma. Our relief arriving in Bangkok was palpable but we wondered what the reaction of the junta would be.
Three days later, Suu Kyi was stuck on a bridge on the outskirts of Rangoon. The military are still determined
to smash the NLD. My visit to Burma has increased my support for the democratic movement and given me
new resolve. The path to freedom will be long and dangerous but these courageous and beautiful people will
be free. They deserve all our support.
Martin Lacey is one of the founding members of Burma Action Ireland
Pictured is Burma Action Ireland member Martin
Lacey with children at their refugee camp school
near Chiang Mai on the Thai/Burma border. In
Burma today more than 70% of children do not
complete primary school education.
38
