The Lady’s Turn

Here in Thailand, history was made on July 3 when the Pheu Thai Party’s landslide victory left Yingluck Shinawatra, a woman who had just recently entered politics, primed to become the country’s first female prime minister. But back in Burma, the Lady who has been leading her country’s pro-democracy struggle for two decades appears unlikely to ever reach the same pinnacle of the political system.

While many, if not most, believe that Yingluck’s victory can be attributed to the fact that she is the sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand’s former prime minister who was ousted in a 2006 military coup, the fact remains that she is a dynamic new political presence who will join a small group of women among the leaders of the world’s 190 countries.

“I like that she is a woman,” Suu Kyi said when congratulating Yingluck on her overwhelming victory. “We also have to welcome the government democratically elected by the people.”

Kyaw Zwa Moe is managing editor of the Irrawaddy magazine. He can be reached at [email protected].

Thailand’s political environment favored its first female prime minister-to-be: the election was free and fair; the ruling Democrat Party accepted defeat when it lost at the polls; and the military promised not to proceed with a rumored coup.

In contrast, Suu Kyi was excluded from Burma’s 2010 election, which was anything but free and fair, and previously, when she and her party won the 1990 election in a landslide even greater than Pheu Thai’s, the military refused to honor the results, imprisoned Suu Kyi and began 20 years of oppression that has no end in sight.

In both 1990 and 2010, the chance for Burma’s people to have a woman leader before Thailand was stolen from them by a clique of ruthless men with no compassion for their country’s citizens. And in the 20 years in between the two “elections,” it became clear that the courage, confidence, commitment and compassion of a female opposition figure could not win out in Burma when the nation’s male leaders refused to give her an opportunity to compete on anything approaching a level playing field.

While that's true in many countries around the globe, it’s truer in Burma, and Suu Kyi is but one of many deserving women who have been actively repressed by the men controlling the country.

Among Burma’s 2,100 political prisoners, there are at least 145 woman political activists serving lengthy terms, according to a statement recently released by the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners—Burma (AAPP). Suu Kyi herself spent 15 years under house arrest after 1989, and the AAPP estimated that since the 1988 nationwide uprising, several hundred women activists have been placed in a cell.

Most of these women were put in prison by the former military regime, but the current quasi-civilian government is keeping them incarcerated. All of them are in prison for the simple fact that they hold different political views than the ruling leaders.

One of the female political prisoners, Nilar Thien, is a courageous activist and the wife of Kyaw Min Yu, who is a leading member of the 88 Generation Students group, which joined the monks in leading the 2007 Revolution and whose membership includes activists that have been at the forefront of the country’s democracy movement since the 1988 nationwide uprising.

I spoke by telephone with Nilar Thein after she went into hiding following the 2007 uprising. At the time, she was the mother of a four-month-old baby daughter who she left behind when the authorities began hunting her.

“I desperately want to get rid of this evil system,” said Nilar Thein. “Only if we end this system will the future of Burma’s people, including my daughter, be bright. I love my daughter, but I had to leave her. I believe she will later understand why.”

Nilar Thein did have a choice about whether to stay away from politics in the interests of her family, or join the movement to bring democracy to Burma. She was well aware of the risks—she had spent nearly nine years in prison in the 1990s—but still took the gamble of participating in the protests.

Sadly, she ultimately lost the bet.