Aung San Suu Kyi: The Choice This World

APPLAUSE

On June 16th, 2012, Burmese Opposition Leader, Aung San Suu Kyi,

was finally able to receive her Nobel prize.

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

Often, during my days of house arrest,

it felt as though I were no longer part of the real world.

There was a house, which was my world.

There was a world of others, who also were not free,

but who were together in prison, as a community.

And there was the world of the free.

Every day for 20 years, Aung San Suu Kyi, faced a terrible choice...

To stay imprisoned in her house in Rangoon,

or to rejoin her family in Oxford,

knowing she might never be allowed to return to lead her people.

We, her family, are denied any contact with her, whatsoever.

And we know nothing of her condition, except that she's quite alone.

I would like to have been together with my family.

I would like to have seen my sons growing up.

But, I don't have doubts about

the fact that I had to choose... to stay with my people here.

After over two decades as the world's most famous

prisoner of conscience, Suu Kyi has again captured the imagination

of the world, by choosing to engage with her former captors.

We can only tell them what our experience has been

and they can decide for themselves what they think is best.

Why did Nelson Mandela trust de Klerk?

Why did he decide he was going to engage in a discussion about

a political transition with the leader of the apartheid regime?

It's a feel, there's no scientific formula for it.

But for authentic leaders, such as she is, you have to listen to yourself

and you have to say, "is this a risk worth taking?"

And she decided it was and I'm going to give her every bit of support I can.

CHANTING

JAUNTY MUSIC

Alongside North Korea, Burma is one of the most isolated,

repressive and savage regimes in the world.

Suu Kyi has become the symbol of resistance to a military dictatorship

that has ruled for over half a century.

20 years ago, the military crushed the democratic movement

led by Suu Kyi, killing thousands and imprisoning thousands more.

Now, these same military leaders are permitting her

to campaign in a series of by-elections

to a parliament over which they retain control.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Suu Kyi's decision to participate in the elections has lifted

decades of fear.

Her picture, banned for years, is on sale at every street corner.

We knew that something remarkable was going on.

We were all aware of the fact that this was a very,

very unusual time for Burma. This is an extraordinary moment

for our country.

Under her patronage, an unofficial film festival

is staged, at a moment's notice.

-CAMERAMAN:

-Freedom Film Festival, take one. Go!

CHATTER

Audiences are hungry for information about decades of repression

against the opposition and Burma's ethnic minorities.

Years of repression seemed to be coming to an end.

Hillary Clinton became the first US Secretary of State

in over 50 years to visit Burma, meeting the

new reformist president and then Suu Kyi.

I just felt like I was seeing someone that I had known

for a very long time and I felt a real sense of elation

about the moment and it was like talking to a girlfriend.

I can't describe it any other way. We sat down alone, the two of us

after, you know, the niceties and the kind of chit-chat

that the whole group participated in and for three hours, we just talked.

'And I also deeply admired and empathised with the personal cost

'of what she has done. She doesn't like to talk about that.

'She doesn't like to have people feel sorry for her

'because she made decisions.'

Suu Kyi has been touched by tragedy all her life.

Her father, the founder of independent Burma,

was assassinated when she was only two.

Now, for the first time in years, Suu Kyi is able to publicly honour

her father's birthday, which the government recognises

as National Children's Day.

General Aung San first fought with the Japanese

against the British Empire and then switched sides.

After World War II, he led negotiations for independence.

My colleagues and I have come to London

in response to the invitation of His Majesty's Government,

in order to discuss the constitutional questions of Burma.

The demand of our people is complete independence.

Today, children are encouraged to learn the General's speeches

by heart.

For all the inspiration of her father, it was her mother,

an ambassador, who shaped Suu Kyi's world.

You must remember that I grew up with my mother,

so I took it for granted that women could do anything,

because although I always knew about my father

and I was very proud of him

and looked up to him, not just as my father, but as the great hero

of our country, actually, it was my mother who was the head of the

household and she, as far as I could see, could do anything men could do.

I don't think she ever expected me to go into politics.

I think she just wanted me to be,

erm, well-educated person,

who was worthy of my father.

Studying at Oxford in the 1960s,

Suu Kyi took little part in radical student politics of the time.

But she did meet a scholar in Tibetan Studies, Michael Aris, -

a relationship that would test her commitment to her country.

He came to see me at Oxford on the pretext

that he'd come to visit some Tibetan Lamas.

Perhaps this is killing two birds with one stone.

I think he'd come to see the Lamas and come to see me, as well.

He didn't catch me that easily.

It took...it took quite some time!

So, I'm not quite sure what it was.

I think it was persistence, probably, that...that got him there.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Was his persistence?

-His persistence, of course!

Marriage to a foreigner was a brave step for the daughter of the hero

who'd brought Burma independence from Britain.

She predicted what would happen to us as a couple 20 years ago,

on the eve of our marriage.

And it wasn't a flash of intuition or...insight,

it was a knowledge that she would have to render service to her people

at some time.

I wanted to make sure that he knew from the very beginning that, er,

my country meant a great deal to me and should the necessity arise

for me to go back to live in Burma,

he must never try to stand between my country and me.

Over the next 15 years,

she and Michael settled into Oxford academic life.

They had two boys - Alexander and Kim.

I spoke only Burmese to them when they were small.

I'm afraid I couldn't keep that up once they went to school,

because their English vocabulary increased so quickly that I couldn't

keep up and they... Then, of course,

the fact that Michael didn't speak Burmese did not help.

My wife and I used to go and stay with them in Oxford

when they had small children.

She often talked about that she was

perfectly content doing the ironing,

her husband's socks and this sort of thing.

She was bringing up two small children.

She was an Oxford housewife.

She was petite, formidable, fixed you with her eye

and obviously had a very strong set of principles

by which she led her life. There is a quality to her

which is like steel, but not grandstanding, you know.

She didn't say, "Well, look at me, I'm the daughter of Aung San

"who founded modern Burma."

A phone call to their Oxford home on March 31st, 1988

was to change everything.

My aunt rang me from Rangoon and said my mother had a stroke

and that it was quite a bad one and she thought that I should come.

It was very, very simple,

the sort of thing that I think goes on every day in this world.

COCKEREL CROWS

When Suu Kyi returned to look after her mother,

Burma was known as the Hermit Kingdom.

30 years of military rule had turned it

from one of the richest countries in the region,

into one of the most backward in the world.

STREET TRADERS CHATTER

In the spring of 1988,

economic hardship had brought demonstrators onto the streets

of the capital for the first time in decades.

In response to the unrest, the dictator, General Ne Win,

stepped down and proposed elections.

But he made clear this would be done on his terms.

The threat did nothing to stop the demonstrations.

GUNFIRE

CLAMOURING VOICES

Based in the hospital in central Rangoon, looking after her mother,

Suu Kyi became a magnet for dissident leaders.

I don't think that I would have come back

just to take part in the demonstrations.

The first bout of shooting started while my mother was

at the hospital and I was at the hospital. People were going in

and out all the time, talking about it, running in and out,

and they were all sorts of pamphlets floating around.

Everything was happening all around me.

CROWDS CHANT AND SING

Little was known of the 43-year-old daughter

of the legendary General Aung San.

When she agreed to speak at a demonstration,

to be held at the Shwedagon - the Golden Temple -

Rangoon came to a standstill.

Her husband, Michael,

and her children, 11-year-old Kim, and 16-year-old Alexander,

had to smuggle her through the crowds.

Michael was not there all the time.

He came when the children's holidays started. He came over with them.

We talked about my getting involved in politics.

And he said, he thought I should.

VOICES CLAMOUR

There were so many people, and I had to shout...er...

..and even then, I don't think many could hear me.

Three weeks later, the military declared martial law.

Troops cleared the streets, killing over 3,000 people.

At the same time, the military promised elections.

Suu Kyi and her colleagues formed the NLD -

The National League for Democracy.

Overnight, the military stormed her compound,

imprisoning her in her house.

Few could have imagined how long this would last.

A housekeeper lived with her

and most of the time, both were completely cut off from the world.

The prisons in Burma are terrible

and life is very hard for political prisoners,

and other prisoners, as well. But house arrest, well,

this is my house, it's not the most luxurious place in the world,

but it's perfectly all right. It's comfortable.

I had my books around me. I could listen to the radio.

After locking away the NLD leadership,

the military allowed elections to go ahead, confident they would now win.

On polling day, the general responsible for the mass killings

in 1988 made a rare appearance in front of the cameras.

The generals were in for a shock.

DISTANT GUNFIRE

The generals ignored the landslide for Suu Kyi's Party.

They continued to rule as before,

imprisoning nearly all of the newly-elected MPs.

And they kept Suu Kyi locked away in her house.

BELLS CHIME

20 years after the election which caused her house arrest,

Suu Kyi is back on the campaign trail.

She's fighting by-elections to a parliament in which the military

has a huge guaranteed majority.

She is not a person who wants to just to be pontificating

from the sidelines. She wants to help make the change.

She wants to help create a sustainable, democratic,

political system in her country. And that means rolling up your sleeves,

running for office and getting into the messy business

that parliaments have to do to make decisions. Dealing with people

who she knew had been oppressive, even killers.

Her campaign takes Suu Kyi

to every corner of the country on a punishing schedule.

It's a country scarred by decades of military rule,

where the generals stand accused

of committing terrible human rights crimes

and repressing ethnic minorities.

Everywhere, she speaks of reconciliation,

not confrontation or revenge.

GENERAL HUBBUB

They made a concession to Suu in allowing her NLD Party

to re-open their offices.

Concession to allow her to contend local elections. So she is free,

but the legacy of brutality, the legacy of the number of people

who have been in prison, the legacy of the number of people

who have lost their lives, the legacy of the relationship between

the ethnic groups and the majority of Burmans, is a poisonous one.

I mean, it's an extremely difficult legacy to step into.

So, if you're looking to a future for Burma,

there's an awful lot of unfinished business. And central to that

unfinished business are the generals who have actually run Burma

all these years.

As election day approaches,

foreign journalists are allowed into the country en masse

for the first time in decades.

Suu Kyi invites the press to the garden of the house

that was her prison for so long.

CROWD CHATTERS

-PRESS:

-The military continues to commit

some terrible human rights abuses, use of child soldiers, kidnapping,

rape as a weapon of war.

Given that situation, what kind of compromises are you going to have

to make to bring the military on board, while at the same time

having to address these very grave human rights issues?

What the military will learn, I am sure, is to realise

that the future of this country, is their future and that reform

in this country means reform for them as well. And why all these abuses

that you mention have been going on, these are because there has been

no genuine reform in the situation, in the system of this country.

We hope to win the military over,

to understand that we have to work together.

BELLS CHIME

These are the same military leaders who, 20 years ago, locked her away

and then deliberately set out to exploit

what they thought was her weak link - her family.

The parting of the ways, as it were,

came when I was placed under house arrest. Then, of course, I knew

that my relationship with the family

was going to change considerably, because we would not be able

to be in touch with each other.

The first Christmas after I was placed under house arrest,

Michael was allowed to come to see me,

but they wouldn't let the children come.

She is in good health and in very good spirits.

She's completely isolated from the world

by the presence of armed guards.

It's very difficult to tell what will happen from now on,

because of the lack of contact.

There are things that you do together that you don't do with other people.

It's very special. A family is very special.

So when a family splits up, it's not good, it's never good.

He became a very dear friend

and someone I had an immense admiration and friendship

and love for.

I helped him with letters and, you know,

the sort of tides of Burma's struggle ebbed to his door

in Park Town and, you know, he carried on a very brave,

very lonely, very courageous,

you know, struggle to bring up his children in an air of normality,

to do what he could for Suu.

He's an academic.

But he had a dry sense of humour...

..and very sort of broad-minded,

having lived in Bhutan for five years

and taught the Royal Family there. And obviously being married

to my mother, he had to be pretty flexible.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Flexible, in what way?

Well, allowing her to get on with what she needed to do.

And supporting her and looking after us and...

..keeping his own work going.

It's a lot on his plate, really.

APPLAUSE

Michael's tireless work to keep Suu Kyi in the public eye

was rewarded in 1991.

Father and brother Kim looked on as 18-year-old Alexander

accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his mother.

Speaking as her son,

I personally believe that, by her own dedication

and personal sacrifice, she has come to be a worthy symbol, through whom

the plight of all the people of Burma may be recognised.

'He's not acknowledged as much as he should be in the role he played.'

Getting support for my mother from people overseas...

..and promoting her to be a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and whatnot,

and always...just being there to support her and saying,

"You go for it."

Looking after us. Allowing her to do that.

BIRDSONG

PIANO PLAYS

It takes me to a different place. If I'm absorbed in trying to play

something as well as possible, it's a challenge because I'm bad at it.

So I have to work very hard at it. And it's also joy, because sometimes

you find I, your fingers going the way you think they should

and not the way THEY think they should! And then you enjoy it.

I listened to the BBC Burmese language service assiduously.

I think, in some ways I was better informed about what was going on in

Burma than many people who were not under house arrest, because they had

no time to listen to the news. You hear, er, about every little thing

that here seemed to be going on in the country. And then, of course,

there are lots and lots of interviews with, er, not just with

the politicians, but with social workers, with artists,

with professionals.

I meditated regularly. I still meditate regularly.

I think it...it's to develop a sense of calm and a sense of awareness

and that certainly helps a lot.

In September 1994, she was seen for the first time for five years,

shown on TV, meeting the head of the military junta, Than Shwe.

-NEWSCASTER:

-'The Chairman of the State Law and Order Restoration Council

'and commander-in-chief of the defence services, Than Shwe,

'met Aung San Suu Kyi this morning at the number one

'defence services guest house.'

One should never forget that she was in Burma all this time

at her insistence, not theirs.

She refused to leave.

They wanted her to leave and then they wouldn't let her back.

So all these years of house arrest and everything,

everything else, this was, this was her decision to remain.

The people of Rangoon became used to the fact that The Lady,

as she was known, was sitting locked away in her house.

Then suddenly after six years, she was released with no explanation.

The gate of her compound immediately became a regular meeting place

for opposition supporters.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Michael and Kim were allowed to visit

their now-famous wife and mother for the first time in years.

She had now become a favourite of the world's media.

-ROBIN WARE:

-Oh, we're back here again.

Yes, that's fine. What do you want me to do?

-ROBIN WARE:

-I want you to sit in this chair...

-Yes.

..like this and put your hands here like this and we'll work out

-something comfortable with your hands and then...

-OK.

Yeah, that's great.

I like this...very much.

INAUDIBLE CHATTER

Do you want to take a black and white? Does that feel good?

You've grown your hair!

I'm Robin Ware. We've, er, communicated once before.

THEY SPEAKS BURMESE

Thank you very much.

You've grown again.

'He brought his music with him. He had all these little tapes'

and he would say, "Now, do you know who that is, Mummy?" And I'd say,

well, at first, of course, I'd get it all wrong, but later, I began to

learn who was...who was who. He plays a lot of Bob Marley,

so I learned to like Bob Marley.

"Stand up, stand up for your rights." Perfect for us!

# Get up, stand up Don't give up the fight #

Suu Kyi was not allowed out of Rangoon

and was attacked when she tried to test her restrictions.

# I know you don't know

# What life is really worth

# Is that all that glitter is gold

# Half the story has never been told

# So now you see the light

# Hey, stand up for your rights Come on! Get up, stand up... #

They kept, barricading off the street and then they'd open it up again

and the street was, it was just going like this,

open, shut, open shut, open, shut.

# Get up, stand up Stand up for your rights... #

On one occasion, she was blocked by the military on a bridge

for five days. But no amount of defiance got her through.

When she's angry, she can be really quite ferocious.

You could see her eyes flashing, you know, and, and, er, no wonder

she was held in such awe and dread, I think, by the generals

and she was, sort of, depicted as endowed with some sort of

supernatural power - that she cast spells, you know,

over the country, as a whole.

Today, she is no longer exactly a prisoner in her house

after six years of house arrest, she was released from the prison

that was her home into the prison that is her country.

All the while, her husband Michael travelled the world,

ensuring Suu Kyi, and Burma, remained in the news.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Did his commitment to the cause mean he often wasn't available to you?

Well, it wasn't just the cause. It was his own work, as well.

And I think fathers aren't as... motherly, are they? So...

I don't think it was necessarily just the cause that, sort of,

put distance between us. It was just a father and son relationship,

rather than a mother and son relationship.

And it was, I think, on the 6th of January or so,

when Michael called me, saying, "Can you come and help me?

"I'm ill."

Michael said, "Well I've got two pieces of news for you, Peter.

"One good, one bad. The bad thing is that I got cancer and the good thing

"is, I'm going to beat it."

Michael kept telling both us and Suu

that he is going to overcome the disease. That he will beat it.

I don't quite know whether he genuinely believed in it.

And I think that, you know, that the cancer and its very swift path

was to some extent, in my mind, linked to the very lonely road

he'd had to take, you know, in the '80-...in the '90s

as the standard-bearer, the white knight, for Suu.

They refused a visa for Michael

and then piled on extra,

sort of, psychological torment in the media,

by saying, what a bad wife she was, not to do the decent thing

that all wives would have done in her situation and go to the bedside

of her dying husband. And just to rub salt into the wound,

they then said, "Of course, this sort of calumny that she's not going

"because she's worried she might not be allowed back in

"is complete fabrication.

"We give our word that she would be allowed in."

The only message that was conveyed to me was that if I wished to leave,

they would provide me with passport.

-INTERVIEWER:

-And what was your response to that?

I said, "No, thank you."

She and Michael were talking every day.

And they discussed it at great length.

And it was Michael's insistence

that she must stay, in the circumstances.

And the circumstances were, then,

that if she had left and not been able to come back...

..a great many people would have been rounded up.

How were you able to communicate with him?

Er, I spoke to him on the phone, several times.

From here, from...?

No, I couldn't, because my phone was cut off,

so I would go to friends' to get in touch with him.

She would come round to the residence,

not the embassy, as such, but the residence,

and she would have her conversation with Michael, completely privately,

and then, after that, you know,

sometimes my wife would need to, sort of, comfort her a bit.

I remember her saying,

"Karma, there must be something we can do.

"There must be."

Was there a point at which you thought of going home?

No, no, there never was a point when I thought of going.

I knew that I wouldn't go. And he knew, too.

In his final day, I remember he said,

"Karma, tell Suu we have done our best."

A few days before Michael died in March, 1999,

Suu Kyi was filmed at an NLD meeting.

'I immediately went to Burma, to be with Suu.'

I think there was a sense...

..that that chapter of my life is over,

is closed.

I will now focus totally...

on the future and my country.

The generals tightened and loosened their control on her at will.

Then, in 2003, for the first time in a decade,

they allowed her to travel the country.

Her trip turned into an almost regal progress.

VOICE OF AUNG SAN SUU KYI:

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

The more people responded,

the greater the provocation from the government.

Until one evening, in May 2003, her convoy was attacked

when she stopped to talk to some monks.

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

You start calculating, you start thinking...

what you should do?

You know, what should you do and what could happen if you do this,

or what could happen if you do that?

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

TRANSLATION:

That night in Depayin

was seen by her colleagues as a clear attempt to kill Suu Kyi -

an attack that left four of her party members

and an unknown number of local villagers dead.

When they reached the nearest town,

Suu Kyi and those who had escaped were arrested.

TRANSLATION:

With Suu Kyi still alive,

the military leaders simply put her back under house arrest,

ignoring international outrage

and continuing to rule their isolated kingdom as they chose.

'Crush all internal and external destructive elements

'as the common enemy.'

Any dissent, whether from monks or minorities seeking independence,

was crushed with the same ferocity used in 1988,

driving millions of Burmese into exile in Thailand.

RUMBLING

Even when cyclone Nargis hit the country in 2008,

leaving millions homeless and over 100,000 dead,

the military refused to accept international aid for weeks.

CHEERING

When Suu Kyi was once again released,

her 20 years of stubborn resistance to the generals

seemed to have achieved little,

except bring international attention.

Her son, Kim, now in his 30s

and divorced, with two children she had never met,

was allowed to visit her.

'Of course, I regret not having been able to spend time with my family.'

One wants to be together with one's family.

That's what families are about.

Of course, I have regrets about that,

personal regrets.

I would like to have, er...

been together with my family,

I would like to have seen my sons growing up.

But I don't have doubts

about the fact that I had to choose, er...

to stay with my people here.

I think she's genuinely strong.

And, you know, even if she's sad at something,

she knows she's got to get on with things.

She's not going to waste time crying about it.

She knows I drink whisky and stuff, anyway.

Kim has become a regular visitor.

His older brother, Alexander, now living in America,

has chosen not to visit his mother, though he speaks to her weekly.

The first hint that things might be changing

came when the regime approached Suu Kyi,

inviting her back into the political process.

TRANSLATION:

Within weeks, Suu Kyi met the new president,

himself a former leading general.

He proposed her party contest a limited number of seats

for a parliament still completely under military control.

There was a promise of real democratic reform to follow.

It went well.

I thought he was somebody who could be trusted

and that he was genuine about wishing to...

bring reform to the country.

'We've said very, very openly

'that the military needs to be behind the reform process,

'if it's to be irreversible.'

I would not have thought of it as a reckoning,

I would think of it as a co-operative effort.

As in 1988, 1996 and 2003,

Suu Kyi was rapturously received wherever she went.

On the campaign trail, she repeated that this was just the beginning,

that dialogue, not revolution, will bring change.

'I think she's taken a gamble. There's no doubt about it.'

But I think she had to do that

if she wanted to test the sincerity and to support the reform efforts.

She knows what the alternative is.

The alternative is more of the same.

A new generation of military leaders

take over from the outgoing generation

and there's no development of the country,

there's no opening up.

There's no real path

that is going to lead to a better future.

She understands that, completely.

When given the opportunity, as in 1990,

the Burmese seized their chance to vote.

For those who had sacrificed their lives to the cause,

this compromise with the regime is a risk,

after 20 years of principled resistance.

TRANSLATION:

The NLD celebrated victory in almost every seat up for election.

Across town, Suu Kyi remained alone...

in the house where she'd spent

so many of the past 20 years locked away.

Even if this a false dawn in Burma,

the fact that Suu has actually been there, done it,

and maybe she dies in prison,

you know, I mean, everything doesn't come to a happy ending,

it's still a very important example which is set.

And, you know, that's there as a beacon on the hill

for a future generation.

On May 2, 2012, Suu Kyi joined

her new colleagues in Burma's parliament.

Everywhere, she remains a symbol of hope and change.

But this dissident-turned-politician now has to try to reform

one of the most intransigent regimes in the world.

Some of our warriors fell at their post.

Some deserted us.

But a dedicated core remains strong and committed.

At times, when I think of the years that have passed,

I'm amazed that so many remain staunch,

under the most trying circumstances.

Their faith in our cause is not blind.

It is based on a clear-eyed assessment

of their own powers of endurance

and a profound respect for the aspirations of our people.

EXCITED SHOUTS AND CHATTER

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd