Aung San Suu Kyi

Have you ever been locked inside your room for a punishment? You guys were probaly locked for a few hours, but have you ever thought about being locked inside your house for more than 15 years? Well let me tell you this, Aung San Suu Kyi, a buddhist burmese politician, was under house arrest for more than 2 decades! 21 years to be exact! Aung San Suu Kyi was born on June 19, 1945, now 65 years old. She was born in Burma, or now known as Myanmar(Myanmar is located in Southeast Asia). Her father, Aung San, was a Burmese soldier, and helped fight for the country's independance in 1947, and was assinated also in 1947 by his enemies. Myanmar's government is Republican, but San Suu Kyi was a Democracy leader. She made speeches about how she thinks Burma should have a Democratic government. One of her most famous speeches was the "Freedom From Fear" speech. It starts off as,"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." In 1988, NLD, or National League of Democracy was formed, with San Suu Kyi as general secretary.

Suu Kyi entered politics to support Democracy, and was then put under house arrest in her house in Rangoon, Burma on July 20, 1989. House arrest is like federal prison, but instead of being in a jail cell, your locked inside your house, but food is still served. The country offered her freedom if she left the country, but Suu Kyi refused the offer. She believes that one fear of the many world leaders' is to lose sight of their purpose. "Goverment officials are amazing," Suu Kyi had once said, "So often it seems that they're the last to know what people actually want." Still during her arrest in 1990, Suu Kyi recieved the Sakharov Prize, for "Freedom From Fear". Just the year after, she recieved the Nobel Peace Prize, in which her 2 children recieved both of these awards on her behalf. Suu Kyi used the 1.3 million USD prize money to arrange a health and education trust plan for all of the Burmese people. Suu Kyi did an interview (after she was released, of course), and said that during her time under house arrest, she read about philosophy, politics, and biographies that her husband had sent her. Occasionally, she was allowed to have visits from foriegn diplomats, and her personal doctor. On September 22 2007, she made a breif apperance in front of her house in Rangoon, Burma to accept the blessings of the Buddhists monks, who were marching to support their beliefs of human rights.

On May 3, 2009 there was a tresspass incident. An American man, identified as John Yettaw, swam across the Inya lake to go to Suu Ky's house without being invited. He was arrested when 3 years later he attempted to do the same thing. Suu Kyi was arrested for violating the terms of her house arrest, on May 13, 2011, because she let John Yettaw into her house when he was exhausted from swimming across the lake, and was supposedly swimming back home.

She was finally released on July 10, 1995 after more than 5 years, but continued doing protests and speeches, so was put back under house arrest on September 23, 2000. After 19 months, she was released on May 6 2002. On May 30, 2003 she was put under house arrest for the same reason. On May 27, 2005, her sentence was extended by 1 year. And now here's the checkpoint, on October 24, 2007, she has reached 12 years of house arrest. During that time, there were protests held in 12 different cities around the world. Now, just because you have the checkpoint, the game isn't over. On May 27, 2008, her sentence was extended for a WHOLE 'NOTHER YEAR, which is illegal by international law, AND the Burmese law, because a sentence can only be extended 1 time. Okay, I'm almost done, on August 11, 2009, her sentence was EXTENDED FOR ANOTHER 18 MONTHS, because of a violation of arising from the May 2009 tresspass incident, as I mentioned before. Now, finally, on November 13, 2010, she was released from house arrest, and was NOT put back. Yeah, do the math, she was put in house arrest for 21 years, but due to many gaps of putting back in and out of house arrest, it is technically a little bit more than 12 years. Suu Kyi then recieved 20 other awards, because the organizations of those awards wanted her to make a big acceptance speech. Suu Kyi also wrote a lot of books after her release, about what it was like to be under house arrest.

I really want to follow Aung San Suu Kyi's foot steps. I want to send a message to everyone just like she did, to not give up, and show all others that you will keep fighting, even in the darkest times. I hope that Suu Kyi will have a great and happy future, with her husband and 2 children, because I think she's already been through enough. And that's the end of my speech about Aung Sang Suu Kyi, thank you.