Burma Interview: Aung San Suu Kyi on Opposition, Talking with the Regime, and Joining Facebook

National League of Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, recently released from seven years of house arrests, speaks with Steve Finch of the Phnom Penh Post:

We were watching the dramatic end to your 7 ½  years of detention from outside. What was going on inside your house at the time?

For the morning, I just carried on as usual but, of course, I knew that this was the day that I was supposed to be released. Things started moving at around 1 o’clock when they asked to come and see me. That’s when I knew that this was going to happen. The security officers came to see me at 1 o’clock and I told them what I wanted arranged, but they came at 1 o’clock only for an appointment. They did not come to let me out until 5 o’clock. 

At any stage did you think they would simply extend your house arrest again?

I had always kept that in mind that they might extend the detention for whatever reason. That I had always kept in mind because one cannot tell until the last moment whether or not one is going to be released. From the way they spoke when they came to see me at one point I had a pretty good idea that I was going to be released.

Some people were surprised by the extent to which the junta’s party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, felt it had to manufacture an election result. Are you surprised?

But you see I’m surprised that people were surprised. You are not the only ones. It’s hard to believe that people would go to such lengths....I think this is why people thought that it could not be that bad. Did you see what happened at the 2008 referendum? This was crucial as well because, until the first assembly is called, the Constitution does not really come into force. So it is just as crucial as the 2008 referendum.

Do you think that it’s possible the opposition can gain increasing ground and space to operate under the forthcoming parliamentary system?

How do you see the coming Parliament? How do you see it? Out of a joke comes another joke, I suppose.

Do you think the elections and the fact that you are free will provide more impetus for change?

We will have to work at it. I don’t think that things just happen. We have to make it happen. We want to use this. We want to use this as an opportunity for greater unity and greater understanding between the various groups that all want a democracy. It’s not that they choose a different way of getting to democracy but there are those that are prepared to try anyway and those that feel that trying anyway is not really the answer. They have to be certain that certain basic requirements have to be met.

If you have a chance to meet regime leader Senior General Than Shwe what will you say?

I think firstly we have to start taking affably. Real genuine talks not just have some more tea or this or that. We have got to be able to talk to each other. Some say you have to be able to find a common ground but we also have to be able to argue with each other without enmity. I would not say that we have to argue amicably, that would be going too far – but without enmity. You have to be able to talk to each other in a civilised way.

Have you ever had that?

Not on many occasions but a little bit. I have met him several times and in bits of those sessions we were able to --– shall we say –-- crack the shell a bit.

How do you reach young members of Burma’s armed forces, the future of the military regime?

The age is on our side in that sense because it is the age of technology. They cannot keep even these young people, boys, cut off completely from the rest of the world. And I think they are going to have many opportunities now that we never had in the past simply because of the technological revolution if you like.

We have seen a lot of countries like South Africa and Cambodia, countries that have suffered dire human rights situations, use different methods for reconciliation and justice. What would you recommend?

I think in South Africa they tried to come to some sort of compromise between accountability and forgiveness, and I think that accountability is a good thing, that is to say, that you accept responsibility for what you have done. But that is different from meting out grave punishment in a vengeful manner for what has been done.

So I think the South Africans worked up to this compromise that –-- for whatever people did –-- they must take responsibility for that based on a principle of accountability. We all have to live together and one has to compromise. We have got to think about the future of the nation rather than about immediate gratification in the form of taking revenge. I have to say that I have suffered so much less in the hands of the regime than many others. So it is easier for me to talk perhaps about forgiveness and reconciliation. And yet that is the direction in which my mind as well as my heart takes me.

Do you sense that the junta fears accountability?

It is possible, but I have to say that the people with whom I have dealt, I never felt that fear greatly with them but it may be perhaps that I was out for vengeance.

You have always been fearful of travelling overseas in the past based on the likelihood the authorities would not let you back into the country. Do you plan to go overseas this time round?

That is always a possibility, and I really cannot take that risk.

You said before you would start up a Twitter account. How’s that going?

Just before I saw you....I was discussing this matter with our young people who are experts with these things and Twitter may not be very practical to use here....[because of] its accessibility. A lot of young people here said that Facebook is easier for them. So the old are in favour of Facebook. It’s the one thing that never gets shut down.