SCORE! for FREEDOM - Aung San Suu Kyi - the power of the powerless!

By Khmer Democrat, Phnom Penh
Expanding our Mind Series

Freedom always wins. Read history. We in Cambodia will also get our demand of freedom and human rights. Keep going. In demanding for freedom, respect for human rights, rule of law... Excerpts from article:

Burmese Dissident is Freed After Long Detention
International Herald Tribune
Nov. 13, 2010

She had spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest, and her release had been the leading demand of Western nations seeking to pressure the ruling junta on questions of human rights and political freedom.

The junta did not make a public statement regarding her release. But her lawyer, U Nyan Win, was asked by someone in the crowd whether Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi was really free. “Yes,” he said. And shortly afterward, the barricades around her compound were removed, and the security men walked away. said in a statement that the United States welcomed “her long overdue release,” adding: “She is a hero of mine and a source of inspiration for all who work to advance basic human rights in Burma and around the world.”

But he continued his criticism of Myanmar’s junta. “Whether Aung San Suu Kyi is living in the prison of her house, or the prison of her country, does not change the fact that she, and the political opposition she represents, has been systematically silenced, incarcerated, and deprived of any opportunity to engage in political processes that could change Burma,” he said from Japan, where is winding up an Asian trip. “It is time for the Burmese regime to release all political prisoners, not just one.”

... she intended to plunge again into political activities, no matter what restrictions might be placed on her. The possibility remained of future confrontations that would bring further condemnation from the West.

Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, 65, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has come to symbolize nonviolent resistance both within and outside Myanmar, and what the playwright called “the power of the powerless.”

Though she long has had almost no contact with the world outside her lakeside villa, she has remained a symbol of hope for many in Myanmar, formerly Burma, that the generals could not overcome.

“She will be linking up with the people, who very much desire her release to work for democracy and human rights,” said U Tin Oo, deputy leader of the party, the National League for Democracy, who was himself released in February after seven years of detention.

“She will again lead the N.L.D.,” he said in a telephone interview. “She is already the democratic leader of Burma and an icon.”

The junta has released her twice before, in 1995 and 2002, calculating that her extended absence from public view had weakened her appeal. They were proved wrong. Huge, enthusiastic crowds greeted her wherever she went, particularly in 2002.

In both cases, she was returned to house arrest.

This time, said Josef Silverstein, a Myanmar specialist and professor emeritus at Rutgers University, “I think they feel pretty confident that they so controlled the election, that there was not much violence, a quietude, that they can take a chance on her freedom.”

But he added, “This woman didn’t go through hell to remain silent at this particular point.”

The parliamentary elections on Sunday were the first in 20 years. In the last, the National League for Democracy won in a landslide.

“We at the N.L.D. still consider ourselves to be in existence,” said Mr. Tin Oo, the party deputy leader. “We still honor the result of 1990 and we will respect this. Nobody can hold an election until the problem of the 1990 election is resolved. This was the mandate of the people.”