THANK YOU, AUNG SAN SUU KYI, AND COLLEAGUES

(This thank you message is addressed to Aung San Suu Kyi, but meant for her and all her colleagues who have sacrificed so much for the people of Myanmar)

The first time I came to a ‘face to face’ situation with Aung San Suu Kyi was in 1980, when I was on a school-organized field trip to the General Aung San Museum (the home where she grew up and later turned into a museum by then government). I was looking at the family portrait photograph hung on the wall of the darken upstairs corridor of the castle-like ‘home’ while the August monsoon rain outside was drumming down hard on the zinc roof of the museum. The room was filled with the sound of old arousing speeches by General Aung San that we only got to listen on the radio once a year on the March 27^th national holiday when the Burmese army had annual parade.

She, possibly 2 years old in the black and white photograph, was staring right back at me innocently from her father’s arm.

That was in 1980.

That was when the Burmese socialist government did nothing for Burma. Yes, they ruled; they bullied; they raped and killed; they ran businesses with their family members; they stole natural resources for their own benefit;

The museum was in the neighborhood of Yangon where I grew up. 10 minute walk from my house through the narrow wooded path between hill-top monasteries, abandoned lake, and the back fence of technical college campus, in a long shadow of the ‘8-Storey Building’ which was the tallest building in the country that time.

Then, 1984.

Not quite George Orwell’s novel 1984 nor Animal Farm. But, it was the summer of 1984 when I visited the same museum again, looking at the same family photograph, again. No rain this time. But rather a dry and dusty summer heat outside, quite a contrast to inside the museum where a wailing ceiling fan and still air without any other visitor around me kept it quite comfortably cool, for there was electricity supply on that day. The same powerful and rousing speech of General Aung San was being played in the room, occasionally interrupted by creaking sound of the old cassette tape. I was back in Yangon for summer school holidays from boarding school after my high-school exams.

Burma, in 1984, was materially more decrepit than it was in 1980, possibly similar to the scene in George Orwell novels. Hungrier, poorer, less educated, more pessimistic, more corrupt, and you couldn’t tell the politicians from the roadside fortune tellers. We normal Burmese living a normal life of survival, less esteemed than ever, seemed to be the most lied-to people on earth – manipulated by our government, burned by business people from richer neighboring countries, be fooled by charities and NGO’s in fancy white cars, given false hope by our religious leaders, and cheated at every turn. To be a Burmese leader then was probably to be a thief and self-serving conman.

In reply, we dragged our feet or tried to survive locally or to emigrate. We pleaded, but the customs and immigration officers, soldiers and police demanded money and gifts with a rude, weird sense of entitlement. That was 1984.

Then, 1988.

The year I left Burma for further studies in a foreign land. I did not know that a big student-led democratic movement was coming a few months later, in August 1988. I would not have guessed that two of my close friends would lose their lives, among thousands that the same army the General Aung San founded, under different leadership and different principles by then, shot and killed. More importantly, I did not know that Aung San Suu Kyi would return to Burma to care for her ailing mother and accidentally, but rightfully, became the symbol, icon and undisputed leader of the Burmese democratic movement.

Now, 2015.

Nearly 28 years have passed since 1988. During those 28 long years, I have done my management, finance and IT related studies, qualified as US certified accountant, earned my masters, got married to my college sweetheart and eventually started a family to a very bright and cheerful son, travelled the world and climbed corporate ladder with various public-listed and world-leading MNCs in major Asian hubs.

During those same 28 years, Aung San Suu Kyi has chosen to take a different path, an unconventional path. Much greater and meaningful path, similar to the paths that Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, among selected few, had taken to make the biggest possible dent, not just in the community or country, but in the whole world, and undeniably in the history of humankind.

She had faced many years of imprisonment, abuses, name calling, falsified tarnishing act, near death experiences, hunger strike, and much much more. She had also lost her loving husband to cancer without being able to care for him. She chose to be separated from her two young sons for 28 long years, to stay focus on the path that she so strongly believe in.  

But more importantly, during those 28 long years, she had, in her own unique ways, challenged the status quo in Burma and changed the country, slowly but surely, from one of the most oppressive and controlled hermit kingdoms towards a free, fair, democratic and open society.

Just like King, Gandhi and Mandela of the past, she has re-confirmed once again that human will is stronger than the guns and ammunition. That peaceful progress is more powerful than the violent confrontation. Most important of all, she has taught us that the rights will prevail over the wrongs in the end.

I visited Burma many times for personal and work related reasons since 1988. I have not visited the Museum again since 1984. And no, I have never gotten the opportunity to meet Aung San Suu Kyi in person, nor have I sacrificed myself and family by joining in the Burmese democratic movement, unlike her and thousands others.

But I, along with million others in the world, have followed her every move and every word through TV news, books, newspaper, Internet and Youtube. I have been so powerfully touched, greatly moved, and endlessly inspired by her. I have been able to dream, along with millions of fellow Burmese living in the country or overseas, for freedom, progress and a better life for the whole society in Burma, for generations to come.

This would not have been possible without the selfless sacrifice and persistent conviction of Aung San Suu Kyi and her many colleagues.

Thank you, Aung San Suu Kyi and Colleagues, for making a big positive dent to this generation by giving Freedom, Progress, and unlimited Hope, in Burma and around the world.