America Sleeps Tight While Aung San Suu Kyi Suffers a Slow Death in the Hands of Dictators

The America that I know is a friend of the oppressed and a fierce enemy of dictators. I have also known America as a great defender of freedom and home to people who value human dignity. Most of all I have known America to be the home of the brave and the land of the free.

But what is America doing in the case of Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner for promoting peace and espousing freedom in her country? There is not much really. America is busy with domestic affairs like the forthcoming elections and a faltering economy. America is also busy with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan where the country is spending millions of dollars everyday of taxpayer’s money. Sure, America is fighting for freedom of the oppressed in these Middle Eastern countries but at what prize?

Here is a country in Asia where its people have been oppressed for decades by martial law dictators who get away with their whims and caprices by making endless promises to Uncle Sam and the United Nations that transition to democracy is in place. This same promise has been put forward by the Myanmar martial law administrators to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) where Myanmar (formerly Burma) is a member. It has been almost 50 years and the promise to freedom is still far from reality.

Here is one concerned citizen, a principled lady who is fighting for the freedom of the oppressed in her country, through non-violent means. Is this not what the great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and John F. Kennedy want, fighting for a cause through non-violent means? But why is America, the most powerful country in the world, not responding to the call from the people of Myanmar, to at least work for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi from years of captivity? Your answer is good as mine.

Who is Aung San Suu Kyi and why is she being detained for the longest time? Aung San Suu Kyi is a freedom fighter. She was born on July 19, 1945 in Rangoon, Burma. His father, Aung San was a General in the Burmese Army who negotiated for the independence of Burma from the United Kingdom in 1947. He was assassinated by his rivals in the same year. She has two brothers, one died in an accident when she was eight years old. The other brother migrated to the America and became a US citizen.