WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 Okay, let's get into this. Welcome back to the 00:00:02.839 --> 00:00:05.540 Deep Dive, where we take these incredibly complex 00:00:05.540 --> 00:00:08.919 global stories, cut through all the noise, and 00:00:08.919 --> 00:00:10.740 really just hand you the insights you need to 00:00:10.740 --> 00:00:13.759 be properly informed. And today, we are tackling 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:18.019 a figure who is, well, she's almost a study in 00:00:18.019 --> 00:00:21.129 political tragedy. Bung San Suu Kyi. Her story 00:00:21.129 --> 00:00:24.469 is just defined by these whiplash -inducing reversals 00:00:24.469 --> 00:00:27.109 of fortune. It's almost unbelievable when you 00:00:27.109 --> 00:00:28.870 lay it all out. It really is. I mean, you have 00:00:28.870 --> 00:00:30.690 the full spectrum. She starts as the daughter 00:00:30.690 --> 00:00:32.789 of the father of the nation. Then she becomes 00:00:32.789 --> 00:00:35.250 the world's most famous political prisoner, a 00:00:35.250 --> 00:00:37.729 Nobel Peace Laureate. The icon of democracy. 00:00:37.969 --> 00:00:40.530 The absolute icon. Only to then, you know, find 00:00:40.530 --> 00:00:42.350 herself leading a government that's being accused 00:00:42.350 --> 00:00:45.359 of complicity and genocide. And then the final 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:47.799 turn. She's right back where she started. A political 00:00:47.799 --> 00:00:50.460 prisoner locked away by the same military she 00:00:50.460 --> 00:00:53.219 once seemed to have overcome. It is a dizzying 00:00:53.219 --> 00:00:56.060 trajectory to say the least. And that's our mission 00:00:56.060 --> 00:00:58.859 today for you, the learner. We're going to use 00:00:58.859 --> 00:01:01.780 the sources we have to trace that path step by 00:01:01.780 --> 00:01:04.400 step. We need to understand not just what happened, 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:06.900 but maybe get a sense of the political calculations, 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:09.359 the pressures that took her from this global 00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:12.340 beacon of democracy to, well, an international 00:01:12.340 --> 00:01:14.980 pariah and then back into the military's grip. 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:17.719 And before we even jump into the timeline, there's 00:01:17.719 --> 00:01:19.599 some really crucial context we have to establish, 00:01:19.700 --> 00:01:22.200 and it starts with her name. Right. It's a uniquely 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:24.959 Burmese structure, and it's a key to understanding 00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:27.019 her connection to the nation's history, isn't 00:01:27.019 --> 00:01:30.359 it? It is. We see the name Aung San Suu Kyi, 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:32.900 and it feels like a full name with a surname, 00:01:33.180 --> 00:01:35.599 but she technically has no family name in the 00:01:35.599 --> 00:01:37.980 Western sense. So how does it work? It's essentially 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:39.920 a composite. It's a tribute to three foundational 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:42.670 family members. Aung San is from her father, 00:01:42.769 --> 00:01:45.090 the national hero. Of course. Su comes from her 00:01:45.090 --> 00:01:48.030 paternal grandmother. And Ki is from her mother, 00:01:48.150 --> 00:01:52.370 Kin Kin Ki. So her name is, in a way, a biographical 00:01:52.370 --> 00:01:55.049 roadmap. It's her entire legacy embedded in her 00:01:55.049 --> 00:01:57.629 identity. That's fascinating. It's like she carries 00:01:57.629 --> 00:02:00.609 her lineage with her in every mention. And for 00:02:00.609 --> 00:02:02.709 anyone who follows news from Myanmar, you'll 00:02:02.709 --> 00:02:04.790 often hear her referred to with these specific 00:02:04.790 --> 00:02:08.610 honorifics. Yes, absolutely. In any formal context. 00:02:09.210 --> 00:02:12.830 It's almost always Da Ong Sensu Ki. Dog gets 00:02:12.830 --> 00:02:15.889 translated as aunt or madam, but really it's 00:02:15.889 --> 00:02:19.169 a deeply respectful title for an older, revered 00:02:19.169 --> 00:02:20.870 woman. And then there's the more personal one. 00:02:20.969 --> 00:02:24.199 The one her supporters use, Amai Su. Which means 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:27.340 Mother Sue. Mother Sue. And that simple moniker, 00:02:27.340 --> 00:02:29.659 it says so much about the emotional connection, 00:02:29.740 --> 00:02:31.879 the loyalty she commanded from so many people. 00:02:32.060 --> 00:02:34.680 It's that loyalty that made her such a threat 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:37.159 to the military for decades. And it's what eventually 00:02:37.159 --> 00:02:39.939 propelled her party to that huge victory. It 00:02:39.939 --> 00:02:42.719 was a political asset almost unmatched anywhere 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:45.120 else in the world. But to really get the weight 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:47.060 of that name, we have to start at the very beginning 00:02:47.060 --> 00:02:50.020 with the legacy she was born into. OK, let's 00:02:50.020 --> 00:02:52.259 do that. Part one, foundations and early activism. 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:55.539 So we're covering 1945 through 1988. She was 00:02:55.539 --> 00:02:58.719 born in Rangoon, British Burma, June 19th, 1945. 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:01.500 So right at the end of World War Two, just as 00:03:01.500 --> 00:03:04.379 independence is on the horizon. And she is born 00:03:04.379 --> 00:03:06.840 directly into the heart of that story because 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:10.060 of her father, Aung San. He is, as we said, the 00:03:10.060 --> 00:03:11.960 father of the nation of modern -day Myanmar. 00:03:12.479 --> 00:03:14.539 He's the architect of independence from Britain. 00:03:15.580 --> 00:03:19.780 But his story is cut tragically short. He's assassinated. 00:03:19.780 --> 00:03:22.500 She was only two years old. Just two. The assassination 00:03:22.500 --> 00:03:26.060 happened in 1947, only six months before independence 00:03:26.060 --> 00:03:29.319 was actually finalized. So she grows up her entire 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:33.000 life in the shadow of this martyred hero, never 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.259 really knowing him but constantly living up to 00:03:35.259 --> 00:03:37.460 his legend. And that must have given her a kind 00:03:37.460 --> 00:03:40.580 of political legitimacy that was just untouchable. 00:03:40.780 --> 00:03:43.039 Exactly. It gave her this powerful counter -narrative 00:03:43.039 --> 00:03:45.159 to the military dictatorships that came later 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:47.759 because they claimed to be the heirs to the revolution. 00:03:48.180 --> 00:03:50.259 She was the legacy. She was the living legacy. 00:03:50.500 --> 00:03:52.780 And that... Right there is the primary source 00:03:52.780 --> 00:03:55.719 of the military's fear of her. So with her father 00:03:55.719 --> 00:03:58.520 gone, her mother, Kinkie, becomes the central 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:00.860 figure in her life. And she was a pretty formidable 00:04:00.860 --> 00:04:04.219 person herself. Oh, absolutely. Kinkie was a 00:04:04.219 --> 00:04:06.979 social activist, politically active, and she 00:04:06.979 --> 00:04:09.099 went on to represent Burma on the world stage. 00:04:09.539 --> 00:04:12.319 In 1960, she was appointed the Burmese ambassador 00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:15.860 to India and Nepal. Which is what leads to Suu 00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:18.560 Kyi's early international exposure. She follows 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:21.279 her mother to New Delhi. Right. But even before 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:24.259 that, back home, she was already getting a very 00:04:24.259 --> 00:04:27.040 strong academic foundation. She was at the Methodist 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:29.439 English High School. And even then, people noted 00:04:29.439 --> 00:04:31.800 her talent for languages. She speaks quite a 00:04:31.800 --> 00:04:34.399 few, doesn't she? Burmese. English with that 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:37.100 very distinct British accent, but she later added 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:40.199 French and Japanese. And that fluency, that comfort 00:04:40.199 --> 00:04:42.740 in Western diplomatic circles would become so 00:04:42.740 --> 00:04:44.759 important later when she becomes the face of 00:04:44.759 --> 00:04:46.839 the democracy movement. So living abroad, it 00:04:46.839 --> 00:04:49.079 really shapes her worldview, leading to her higher 00:04:49.079 --> 00:04:51.339 education. After New Delhi, she went on to the 00:04:51.339 --> 00:04:52.920 University of Delhi, got a degree in politics 00:04:52.920 --> 00:04:56.120 in 64. And then she moves to England, to St. 00:04:56.199 --> 00:04:58.480 Hugh's College at Oxford. Studying philosophy, 00:04:58.519 --> 00:05:00.759 politics, and economics, the classic training 00:05:00.759 --> 00:05:04.060 ground for so many world leaders. Exactly. And 00:05:04.060 --> 00:05:05.959 that immersion in Western democratic thought 00:05:05.959 --> 00:05:08.300 is crucial. It gives her the political framework 00:05:08.300 --> 00:05:10.680 she would later try to apply back in Myanmar. 00:05:10.899 --> 00:05:13.100 And she even worked for a time in the U .S., 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:15.160 right? At the U .N. Yes, for three years in New 00:05:15.160 --> 00:05:16.819 York. Yeah. And what's interesting is what she 00:05:16.819 --> 00:05:18.899 did there. It wasn't high level diplomacy or 00:05:18.899 --> 00:05:22.379 human rights. Her focus was on budget matters, 00:05:22.560 --> 00:05:25.519 internal administration. That's surprising. It 00:05:25.519 --> 00:05:27.759 shows a very different side to her, a technical 00:05:27.759 --> 00:05:30.459 administrative capability that sort of contrasts 00:05:30.459 --> 00:05:33.600 with the later image of this ethereal moral icon. 00:05:33.699 --> 00:05:36.300 It does. And it's during this international period 00:05:36.300 --> 00:05:39.740 that she meets and in 1972 marries Michael Aris. 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:42.199 He was a scholar of Tibetan culture. And this 00:05:42.199 --> 00:05:44.579 relationship, this marriage. while being a source 00:05:44.579 --> 00:05:47.300 of great personal support, would become the central, 00:05:47.439 --> 00:05:49.819 agonizing point of leverage the dictatorship 00:05:49.819 --> 00:05:52.560 used against her. It's the deepest personal tragedy 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:54.939 woven into her political story. They had two 00:05:54.939 --> 00:05:57.920 sons, Alexander and Kim, but the family was torn 00:05:57.920 --> 00:06:00.639 apart when she returned to Burma in 1988. She 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:02.420 went back to care for her ailing mother, fully 00:06:02.420 --> 00:06:04.980 expecting it to be a temporary trip. But then 00:06:04.980 --> 00:06:07.180 the political situation just explodes, and she 00:06:07.180 --> 00:06:10.269 stays. And the military immediately weaponizes 00:06:10.269 --> 00:06:12.870 her family. The fact that her husband and sons 00:06:12.870 --> 00:06:16.110 were foreign citizens. Precisely. Michael Ayers' 00:06:16.209 --> 00:06:20.029 last visit to her was Christmas of 1995. After 00:06:20.029 --> 00:06:22.709 that, the Tatmadaw, the military, refused him 00:06:22.709 --> 00:06:25.629 any more entry visas. They knew that by isolating 00:06:25.629 --> 00:06:28.629 her from her family, they were forcing an impossible 00:06:28.629 --> 00:06:32.430 choice on her, your country or your family. The 00:06:32.430 --> 00:06:35.290 true horror of that choice really comes to a 00:06:35.290 --> 00:06:38.269 head in 1997. Eris was diagnosed with terminal 00:06:38.269 --> 00:06:41.660 prostate cancer. And despite this just avalanche 00:06:41.660 --> 00:06:44.120 of international appeals from the U .S. government, 00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:46.379 from the U .N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, 00:06:46.459 --> 00:06:49.000 even Pope John Paul II, the Tatmadaw, refused 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:51.319 him a visa. But they made her an offer. A deeply 00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:53.600 cynical one. They told her she was free to leave 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:56.120 Burma to go visit her dying husband abroad. And 00:06:56.120 --> 00:06:58.139 she refused. She knew if she left, she'd never 00:06:58.139 --> 00:07:00.019 be allowed back in. It was a well -established 00:07:00.019 --> 00:07:02.240 tactic they used against all political opponents. 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:04.839 If she had left, she would have effectively abdicated 00:07:04.839 --> 00:07:06.720 her role as the head of the democracy movement. 00:07:06.939 --> 00:07:09.220 Her refusal to leave was a brutally cold. but 00:07:09.220 --> 00:07:11.579 from a strategic standpoint, a necessary political 00:07:11.579 --> 00:07:14.519 calculation. It cemented her status as a martyr 00:07:14.519 --> 00:07:16.980 in the eyes of her people. It transformed her 00:07:16.980 --> 00:07:19.860 personal sacrifice into a political weapon against 00:07:19.860 --> 00:07:24.100 the junta. He died in March 1999 on his 53rd 00:07:24.100 --> 00:07:26.480 birthday. He hadn't seen his wife in over three 00:07:26.480 --> 00:07:28.680 years. And she was just left there, alone in 00:07:28.680 --> 00:07:32.120 Burma. It's an unimaginable sacrifice. And she 00:07:32.120 --> 00:07:34.079 later reflected on it. saying that while the 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:36.600 separation from her husband was agonizing, the 00:07:36.600 --> 00:07:38.860 greater sacrifice was giving up, seeing her sons 00:07:38.860 --> 00:07:41.740 grow up. But she always tried to contextualize 00:07:41.740 --> 00:07:43.680 her pain within the broader suffering of the 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:46.079 nation, pleading to colleagues in prison facing 00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:49.120 far worse. This whole personal tragedy, it's 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:50.959 the backdrop for her political birth, which, 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:52.819 as you said, was almost accidental. She went 00:07:52.819 --> 00:07:55.819 back in 88 for purely family reasons. Purely. 00:07:56.000 --> 00:07:58.930 To care for her mother, who'd had a stroke. But 00:07:58.930 --> 00:08:01.069 her arrival just happens to coincide with the 00:08:01.069 --> 00:08:03.290 resignation of the longtime military dictator, 00:08:03.569 --> 00:08:06.750 General Nguyen. And that resignation unleashes 00:08:06.750 --> 00:08:09.550 this national explosion of discontent. The 88 00:08:09.550 --> 00:08:12.790 -88 uprising. Correct. Mass demonstrations for 00:08:12.790 --> 00:08:15.350 democracy erupt across the country, starting 00:08:15.350 --> 00:08:18.990 on August 8, 1988. For a moment, it really looks 00:08:18.990 --> 00:08:21.089 like a popular revolution might actually succeed. 00:08:21.329 --> 00:08:24.189 But the Tatmadaw, the armed forces, respond with 00:08:24.189 --> 00:08:26.850 brutal force. They violently suppress the movement. 00:08:27.209 --> 00:08:29.910 Thousands are killed. killed. Martial law is 00:08:29.910 --> 00:08:32.909 imposed. It's a bloodbath. And her lineage, her 00:08:32.909 --> 00:08:34.809 timing, it just thrusts her to the forefront. 00:08:35.029 --> 00:08:37.210 She's instantly seen as the natural leader. She 00:08:37.210 --> 00:08:39.889 makes her first public appearance on August 24th. 00:08:40.149 --> 00:08:43.070 And then just two days later, she gives this 00:08:43.070 --> 00:08:45.830 landmark speech to half a billion people at the 00:08:45.830 --> 00:08:48.690 Shwedagon Pagoda calling for a democratic government. 00:08:48.889 --> 00:08:51.490 Which was an incredibly brave thing to do, given 00:08:51.490 --> 00:08:54.269 what had just happened. Audacious. And she quickly 00:08:54.269 --> 00:08:56.470 channels that moral authority into a political 00:08:56.470 --> 00:08:58.730 structure. She helps found the National League 00:08:58.730 --> 00:09:01.929 for Democracy, the NLD, on September 27th. And 00:09:01.929 --> 00:09:04.570 her guiding philosophy for this movement is very 00:09:04.570 --> 00:09:06.870 clear from the start. Absolutely. The sources 00:09:06.870 --> 00:09:09.350 really highlight this. She was deeply influenced 00:09:09.350 --> 00:09:11.929 by Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence 00:09:11.929 --> 00:09:15.250 and also by core Buddhist concepts. So that early 00:09:15.250 --> 00:09:19.070 framing is all about pure, peaceful, moral resistance 00:09:19.070 --> 00:09:22.250 against this overwhelming military force. And 00:09:22.250 --> 00:09:24.389 the world absolutely embraced that narrative. 00:09:24.889 --> 00:09:27.629 They saw her as the embodiment of peaceful democratic 00:09:27.629 --> 00:09:31.169 resolve. The Nobel Committee later cited her 00:09:31.169 --> 00:09:34.710 extraordinary example of civil courage. And Time 00:09:34.710 --> 00:09:36.990 magazine called her one of the children of Gandhi. 00:09:37.190 --> 00:09:39.809 It was the perfect positioning. She became the 00:09:39.809 --> 00:09:42.730 spiritual successor to the world's great nonviolent 00:09:42.730 --> 00:09:46.070 leaders. And that heroic, almost saintly image 00:09:46.070 --> 00:09:48.950 is what defined her for the next 20 years. Which 00:09:48.950 --> 00:09:51.840 sets the stage perfectly for part two. isolation 00:09:51.840 --> 00:09:54.200 and international claim covering the years from 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:57.899 1989 to 2010. This is the era of her iconic house 00:09:57.899 --> 00:10:00.299 arrest. And it begins very quickly. She's detained 00:10:00.299 --> 00:10:03.659 on July 20th, 1989. The military realized they 00:10:03.659 --> 00:10:05.360 couldn't just kill her. The international reaction 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:07.860 would be too severe. So they decided to neutralize 00:10:07.860 --> 00:10:10.120 her by isolating her. They offered her a deal, 00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:12.039 though. The same deal. They told her she could 00:10:12.039 --> 00:10:14.000 be free if she just agreed to leave the country. 00:10:14.200 --> 00:10:16.840 And her refusal was, again, just a brilliant 00:10:16.840 --> 00:10:18.500 political move. It showed she was committed. 00:10:18.840 --> 00:10:20.679 And yet, even with her under house arrest, the 00:10:20.679 --> 00:10:23.299 NLD was strong enough to contest the 1990 general 00:10:23.299 --> 00:10:25.960 election. This was a huge miscalculation by the 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:27.960 junta. Yeah. They heralded the election, probably 00:10:27.960 --> 00:10:30.259 believing their own propaganda, thinking that 00:10:30.259 --> 00:10:32.340 their repression would guarantee a victory for 00:10:32.340 --> 00:10:35.340 their party. They were wrong. They were catastrophically 00:10:35.340 --> 00:10:38.000 wrong. The results shocked them, and they shocked 00:10:38.000 --> 00:10:41.960 the world. The NLD won an overwhelming mandate. 00:10:42.299 --> 00:10:44.539 How big a victory was it? It was a landslide. 00:10:44.840 --> 00:10:48.620 They took 81 % of the seats in parliament. 59 00:10:48.620 --> 00:10:51.759 % of the popular vote. It was an undeniable, 00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:55.580 clear electoral victory. The NLD had the right 00:10:55.580 --> 00:10:57.399 to form a government, and she should have become 00:10:57.399 --> 00:11:00.139 prime minister. But the military just said no. 00:11:00.220 --> 00:11:02.139 They just nullified the result. They refused 00:11:02.139 --> 00:11:05.460 to hand over power. And this act, this blatant 00:11:05.460 --> 00:11:08.320 theft of an election, triggered immediate international 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:12.000 outcry and really solidified Aung San Suu Kyi's 00:11:12.000 --> 00:11:14.480 image as the rightful leader being denied power 00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:17.110 by these brutal dictators. And all while she's 00:11:17.110 --> 00:11:19.009 under house arrest. It's during this isolation 00:11:19.009 --> 00:11:21.669 that her international fame just explodes. The 00:11:21.669 --> 00:11:23.769 awards start pouring in. It's a way for the world 00:11:23.769 --> 00:11:26.470 to legitimize her cause. In 1990, she gets the 00:11:26.470 --> 00:11:28.470 Sakharov Prize. And then the big one. The Nobel 00:11:28.470 --> 00:11:32.470 Peace Prize in 1991. And her sons, Alexander 00:11:32.470 --> 00:11:36.009 and Kim, accept it on her behalf. It was this 00:11:36.009 --> 00:11:38.830 incredibly poignant moment that just gave a human 00:11:38.830 --> 00:11:41.149 face to her sacrifice. The prize came with a 00:11:41.149 --> 00:11:42.710 substantial amount of money. What did she do 00:11:42.710 --> 00:11:44.909 with that? She used the whole amount, about 1 00:11:44.909 --> 00:11:47.750 .3 million U .S. dollars, to establish a health 00:11:47.750 --> 00:11:50.149 and education trust for the Burmese people. So 00:11:50.149 --> 00:11:52.769 not for the party, not for political activities. 00:11:52.970 --> 00:11:55.470 No, it was explicitly for public welfare. It 00:11:55.470 --> 00:11:57.929 just reinforced that image of her as a leader 00:11:57.929 --> 00:12:01.110 who was completely dedicated to her people, not 00:12:01.110 --> 00:12:03.710 to personal or political gain. Now, let's circle 00:12:03.710 --> 00:12:05.210 back to something you mentioned earlier, which 00:12:05.210 --> 00:12:07.110 is really crucial for understanding what comes 00:12:07.110 --> 00:12:09.669 later. Her view on nonviolence. The world saw 00:12:09.669 --> 00:12:13.590 her as a moral liber, but she saw it differently. 00:12:13.950 --> 00:12:16.889 Yes, this is a critical point. While the world 00:12:16.889 --> 00:12:20.149 saw this Gandhian moral purity, she saw a strategic 00:12:20.149 --> 00:12:23.009 advantage. She even said it explicitly in 2007. 00:12:23.350 --> 00:12:25.889 She said, I do not hold to nonviolence for moral 00:12:25.889 --> 00:12:28.330 reasons, but for political and practical reasons. 00:12:28.570 --> 00:12:31.590 So it was a tactic, not a core belief. It suggests 00:12:31.590 --> 00:12:34.129 she was always a political realist, a strategist, 00:12:34.129 --> 00:12:36.950 first and foremost. She wasn't a secular saint. 00:12:37.070 --> 00:12:39.210 She chose nonviolence because it was the most 00:12:39.210 --> 00:12:42.690 effective tool she had. How so? Well, it garnered 00:12:42.690 --> 00:12:45.350 that crucial international support. It minimized 00:12:45.350 --> 00:12:47.289 casualties when confronting the heavily armed 00:12:47.289 --> 00:12:49.990 Tamada, and it provided the strongest possible 00:12:49.990 --> 00:12:52.710 moral contrast to the sheer brutality of the 00:12:52.710 --> 00:12:55.269 military regime. It was simply the best weapon 00:12:55.269 --> 00:12:57.480 the powerless had against the powerful. But her 00:12:57.480 --> 00:13:00.120 very existence, even under house arrest, was 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:01.879 a threat to the military. And the danger she 00:13:01.879 --> 00:13:04.000 was in wasn't just symbolic. There were physical 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.759 attacks on her. Yes, the sources outline a clear 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:09.159 pattern of military -backed violence designed 00:13:09.159 --> 00:13:12.299 to intimidate or even eliminate her. The first 00:13:12.299 --> 00:13:15.759 big one was in November 1996. She was in her 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:18.139 motorcade with other NLD leaders, and they were 00:13:18.139 --> 00:13:21.220 ambushed by a mob of about 200 men. This wasn't 00:13:21.220 --> 00:13:23.740 a spontaneous protest? No, it was organized by 00:13:23.740 --> 00:13:26.659 the military -backed USDA. The men had metal 00:13:26.659 --> 00:13:29.139 chains, batons. They smashed the car windows. 00:13:29.620 --> 00:13:31.620 Later reports suggested they were paid about 00:13:31.620 --> 00:13:34.379 50 cents each to do it. The NLD filed a complaint, 00:13:34.500 --> 00:13:37.059 but of course nothing happened. Plausible deniability 00:13:37.059 --> 00:13:40.059 for the military, but then came the much deadlier 00:13:40.059 --> 00:13:43.340 attack in 2003, the Depayne Massacre. This was 00:13:43.340 --> 00:13:46.159 a far more serious attempt on her life. On May 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:50.460 30, 2003, another government -sponsored mob ambushed 00:13:50.460 --> 00:13:53.750 her caravan in a village up north. This was incredibly 00:13:53.750 --> 00:13:56.990 violent. At least 70 NLD supporters were killed 00:13:56.990 --> 00:13:58.870 or wounded. How did she manage to get out of 00:13:58.870 --> 00:14:01.289 that alive? She escaped with her driver, but 00:14:01.289 --> 00:14:03.309 the Tatmadaw were waiting for her down the road. 00:14:03.710 --> 00:14:06.429 They arrested her, sent her to insane prison 00:14:06.429 --> 00:14:08.830 for a short time, and then she was put back under 00:14:08.830 --> 00:14:11.649 house arrest. It showed that her isolation wasn't 00:14:11.649 --> 00:14:14.049 just about political control. Sometimes it was 00:14:14.049 --> 00:14:16.269 for her own survival, though it was orchestrated 00:14:16.269 --> 00:14:18.190 by the very regime that claimed to be protecting 00:14:18.190 --> 00:14:20.350 her. And over this whole period, how long was 00:14:20.350 --> 00:14:22.789 she actually detained? Daggering when you add 00:14:22.789 --> 00:14:25.470 it all up. She spent almost 15 of the 21 years 00:14:25.470 --> 00:14:28.850 between 1989 and 2010 under house arrest, just 00:14:28.850 --> 00:14:31.009 confined to her family home on University Avenue. 00:14:31.210 --> 00:14:33.830 What was the military's official reason for holding 00:14:33.830 --> 00:14:36.320 her that long? Oh, it's classic authoritarian 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:39.080 doublespeak. They ignored the U .N.'s ruling 00:14:39.080 --> 00:14:41.480 that her detention was illegal. Instead, the 00:14:41.480 --> 00:14:43.919 Burmese authorities claimed they were being magnanimous 00:14:43.919 --> 00:14:46.320 and that she wasn't arrested at all, but was 00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:48.980 merely taken into protective custody for her 00:14:48.980 --> 00:14:51.740 own safety. Protecting her from the mobs they 00:14:51.740 --> 00:14:54.480 themselves were organizing. Precisely. Now, let's 00:14:54.480 --> 00:14:56.940 talk about one of the most bizarre episodes from 00:14:56.940 --> 00:14:59.320 this period, which the military used to extend 00:14:59.320 --> 00:15:02.700 her sentence. The trespass incident. It is almost 00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:06.740 absurd. In May 2009, this American man, John 00:15:06.740 --> 00:15:10.340 Yedaw, swims across Enya Lake to her house. He 00:15:10.340 --> 00:15:13.360 used homemade fins and a water bottle as a float. 00:15:13.539 --> 00:15:16.059 And he had a very strange reason for doing this. 00:15:16.240 --> 00:15:18.860 He said he had a divine vision, that he needed 00:15:18.860 --> 00:15:20.840 to warn her that she was going to be assassinated. 00:15:21.120 --> 00:15:23.080 He ends up staying at her house for two days 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:25.230 before they catch him trying to swim back. And 00:15:25.230 --> 00:15:26.850 the government ceased on this, didn't they? They 00:15:26.850 --> 00:15:29.149 blamed her for the intrusion. Immediately. It 00:15:29.149 --> 00:15:31.649 was a perfect pretext. They charged her with 00:15:31.649 --> 00:15:34.009 violating the terms of her house arrest by letting 00:15:34.009 --> 00:15:36.450 him stay. And they sentenced her to three years 00:15:36.450 --> 00:15:39.370 of hard labor. That timing was very convenient. 00:15:39.879 --> 00:15:42.320 It was perfectly calculated. The sentence was 00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:44.740 quickly commuted to 18 more months of house arrest, 00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.440 which just so happened to guarantee she would 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:49.759 be locked away during the upcoming 2010 elections. 00:15:49.980 --> 00:15:52.379 So this bizarre incident with a random American 00:15:52.379 --> 00:15:55.379 swimmer was the key to neutralizing her for their 00:15:55.379 --> 00:15:57.659 next political maneuver. And the international 00:15:57.659 --> 00:16:00.740 reaction was furious. The UN Security Council, 00:16:00.919 --> 00:16:03.840 President Obama, everyone condemned it. It became 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:07.220 a whole diplomatic incident. Eventually, U .S. 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:10.059 Senator Jim Webb flew over and negotiated Yedda's 00:16:10.059 --> 00:16:12.960 release. But the whole affair just shows how 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:15.600 desperate the military was to use any excuse, 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:17.700 no matter how flimsy, to keep her out of the 00:16:17.700 --> 00:16:20.600 picture. Which brings us to part three, the ascent 00:16:20.600 --> 00:16:23.980 to de facto leadership from 2010 to 2016. After 00:16:23.980 --> 00:16:26.360 all this time, the regime finally lets her go. 00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:28.940 Her house arrest is lifted on November 13th, 00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:31.759 2010. And again, the timing is critical. This 00:16:31.759 --> 00:16:33.840 is just six days after a general election. An 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:36.340 election the NLD boycotted. Right. They believe 00:16:36.340 --> 00:16:38.080 the whole process was rigged, so they sat it 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:40.179 out. Which meant the military -backed party, 00:16:40.299 --> 00:16:43.820 the USDP, won in a predictable landslide. So 00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:46.759 they only let her out after they've secured their 00:16:46.759 --> 00:16:48.860 power through a flawed election. It was a controlled 00:16:48.860 --> 00:16:51.779 transition. They release her, thinking her international 00:16:51.779 --> 00:16:54.379 fame will lend some legitimacy to their new system, 00:16:54.480 --> 00:16:57.740 while her party is on the sidelines. But the 00:16:57.740 --> 00:16:59.940 public response to her release was just overwhelming. 00:17:00.679 --> 00:17:03.320 Huge crowds rushed to her house the moment the 00:17:03.320 --> 00:17:05.200 barricades came down. And she had a personal 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:08.160 reunion as well. Yes. Her son, Kim Aris, who 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:10.319 hadn't seen her in 10 years, was finally given 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:13.220 a visa. That personal moment of healing became 00:17:13.220 --> 00:17:15.200 a symbol of hope for national reconciliation. 00:17:15.660 --> 00:17:18.299 So now she has this big strategic decision to 00:17:18.299 --> 00:17:21.019 make. Does the NLD stay outside the system in 00:17:21.019 --> 00:17:23.920 opposition or do they re -engage with this new 00:17:23.920 --> 00:17:26.140 framework the military has built? They chose 00:17:26.140 --> 00:17:29.359 to re -engage. In November 2011, the NLD announced 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:31.240 they would re -register as a political party. 00:17:31.619 --> 00:17:34.119 They realized that boycotting the 2010 election 00:17:34.119 --> 00:17:36.460 had basically made them irrelevant. To change 00:17:36.460 --> 00:17:38.579 anything, they had to be in the game. even if 00:17:38.579 --> 00:17:40.900 it was a rigged game. And that leads to the 2012 00:17:40.900 --> 00:17:42.900 by -elections. This is her first time actually 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:46.720 running for office. Yes. In January 2012, she 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:49.660 runs for a seat in the lower house. Her campaign 00:17:49.660 --> 00:17:53.180 platform was very clear. Reform the 2008 Constitution, 00:17:53.619 --> 00:17:56.000 get rid of restrictive laws, and establish an 00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:58.900 independent judiciary. But even campaigning in 00:17:58.900 --> 00:18:02.119 this new, supposedly more open system was difficult. 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:04.480 Oh, absolutely. When her campaign speech was 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:07.380 broadcast on state TV, they censored the part 00:18:07.380 --> 00:18:09.259 where she talked about the Tatmadaw's repression. 00:18:09.779 --> 00:18:12.720 She also publicly called out irregularities in 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:15.420 the voter lists. Dead people still on the rolls, 00:18:15.539 --> 00:18:18.200 eligible voters missing. She was warning the 00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:19.700 world that the cheating was still happening. 00:18:19.900 --> 00:18:21.839 But despite all that, the result was another 00:18:21.839 --> 00:18:25.859 landslide. The NLD won 43 of the 45 seats that 00:18:25.859 --> 00:18:28.170 were up for grabs. It was another clear sign 00:18:28.170 --> 00:18:30.710 of her incredible popularity. She becomes the 00:18:30.710 --> 00:18:33.210 official leader of the opposition. But then she's 00:18:33.210 --> 00:18:34.990 faced with an immediate problem. The oath of 00:18:34.990 --> 00:18:37.450 office. Yes. The Constitution required every 00:18:37.450 --> 00:18:39.849 MP to swear an oath to safeguard the Constitution. 00:18:40.130 --> 00:18:42.470 But the NLD's entire goal was to reform that 00:18:42.470 --> 00:18:44.650 very Constitution, especially the parts that 00:18:44.650 --> 00:18:46.650 locked in the military's power. So they were 00:18:46.650 --> 00:18:49.009 trapped. A choice between sticking to their principles 00:18:49.009 --> 00:18:51.559 and actually having a voice in Parliament. And 00:18:51.559 --> 00:18:54.619 they chose influence. On May 2nd, 2012, the NLD 00:18:54.619 --> 00:18:56.839 took the oath. Their reasoning was that they 00:18:56.839 --> 00:18:58.859 could do more from inside the system than by 00:18:58.859 --> 00:19:02.220 shouting from the outside. And this moment, this 00:19:02.220 --> 00:19:04.420 is really the beginning of her transition from 00:19:04.420 --> 00:19:07.960 a figure of pure moral opposition to one of pragmatic 00:19:07.960 --> 00:19:10.460 political compromise. And now that she's in the 00:19:10.460 --> 00:19:13.019 system, she can finally travel. She can accept 00:19:13.019 --> 00:19:15.220 all those awards she won while in isolation. 00:19:15.900 --> 00:19:20.220 In June 2012, 21 years late. She gives her Nobel 00:19:20.220 --> 00:19:23.420 acceptance speech in Oslo. It was an incredibly 00:19:23.420 --> 00:19:26.240 powerful moment. Later that year, she receives 00:19:26.240 --> 00:19:28.200 the US Congressional Gold Medal at the White 00:19:28.200 --> 00:19:31.140 House. It was the completion of that heroic narrative 00:19:31.140 --> 00:19:33.240 for the international community. And all this 00:19:33.240 --> 00:19:35.839 momentum carries her straight into the 2015 general 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:38.980 election. But the military had a built -in trap 00:19:38.980 --> 00:19:41.759 for her in the Constitution, a way to stop her 00:19:41.759 --> 00:19:43.680 from ever becoming president. That was Section 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:46.839 59 of the 2008 Constitution. And so specific, 00:19:46.980 --> 00:19:49.240 it's clear who it was written for. It says that 00:19:49.240 --> 00:19:51.440 anyone whose spouse or children are foreign citizens 00:19:51.440 --> 00:19:54.319 cannot become president. So even if the NLD won 00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:56.940 by a million miles, she was legally blocked from 00:19:56.940 --> 00:19:59.579 the top job. It was the military's veto power 00:19:59.579 --> 00:20:03.079 baked right into the system. But the election 00:20:03.079 --> 00:20:06.660 results, again, showed the people's will. The 00:20:06.660 --> 00:20:10.059 NLD won a sweeping victory, getting more than 00:20:10.059 --> 00:20:12.400 the supermajority they needed to choose the president 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:15.220 themselves. And she was very clear about who 00:20:15.220 --> 00:20:17.559 would really be in charge. She said it publicly. 00:20:17.779 --> 00:20:20.759 I will be above the president. She promised she 00:20:20.759 --> 00:20:23.279 would hold the real power. The next challenge 00:20:23.279 --> 00:20:25.500 was figuring out how to do that legally. And 00:20:25.500 --> 00:20:28.759 the NLD got creative. At first, she just took 00:20:28.759 --> 00:20:31.690 on four ministerial posts at once. foreign affairs 00:20:31.690 --> 00:20:35.450 president's office education and energy just 00:20:35.450 --> 00:20:37.849 to show her influence but the real structural 00:20:37.849 --> 00:20:41.170 fix came in april 2016 when parliament created 00:20:41.170 --> 00:20:44.450 a brand new role state counselor of myanmar a 00:20:44.450 --> 00:20:46.569 role designed specifically for her basically 00:20:46.569 --> 00:20:48.990 a prime minister exactly it gave her the authority 00:20:48.990 --> 00:20:51.549 to coordinate the government to be the de facto 00:20:51.549 --> 00:20:54.759 leader she promised she would be but And this 00:20:54.759 --> 00:20:56.839 is so important to remember for what comes next. 00:20:56.960 --> 00:20:59.519 She was still governing inside a cage that the 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:01.200 military had built. Let's talk more about that 00:21:01.200 --> 00:21:03.599 cage. What were the specific parts of the 2008 00:21:03.599 --> 00:21:06.299 Constitution that limited her power, even as 00:21:06.299 --> 00:21:08.720 state counselor? There were two non -negotiable 00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:12.660 pillars of military authority. First, the Tatmadaw 00:21:12.660 --> 00:21:14.880 was guaranteed 25 % of the seats in parliament. 00:21:15.240 --> 00:21:17.420 They didn't have to win them. They were just 00:21:17.420 --> 00:21:19.660 given to them. And that's enough to block any 00:21:19.660 --> 00:21:22.599 changes to the Constitution. It's a veto. Any 00:21:22.599 --> 00:21:24.960 amendment needs more than 75 % of the vote so 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:27.299 they could block anything they didn't like. She 00:21:27.299 --> 00:21:29.180 could never constitutionally remove their power. 00:21:29.359 --> 00:21:32.000 And the second pillar. They kept total control 00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:35.519 over three crucial ministries. Defense, Home 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:38.289 Affairs, and Border Affairs. And having the Home 00:21:38.289 --> 00:21:40.630 Affairs Ministry is key because that gives you 00:21:40.630 --> 00:21:43.430 control of the police, the bureaucracy, the intelligence 00:21:43.430 --> 00:21:46.349 services. It means the military decides who gets 00:21:46.349 --> 00:21:49.069 arrested. So she had civilian authority, but 00:21:49.069 --> 00:21:51.309 the military always had the real institutional 00:21:51.309 --> 00:21:54.910 power. Always. And that context is everything 00:21:54.910 --> 00:21:57.769 as we move into part four, the paradoxical tenure 00:21:57.769 --> 00:22:01.250 from 2016 to 2021. This is where the moral icon 00:22:01.250 --> 00:22:03.289 collides with the brutal reality of governing. 00:22:03.660 --> 00:22:05.960 and where her fall from grace begins. Her first 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:08.740 move seemed promising, though. Yes, she granted 00:22:08.740 --> 00:22:11.859 amnesty to student protesters. She announced 00:22:11.859 --> 00:22:14.059 a commission to look into the problems in Rakhine 00:22:14.059 --> 00:22:17.119 State, acknowledging the long -persecuted Rohingya 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:19.710 minority. But the situation in Rakhine's state 00:22:19.710 --> 00:22:21.809 escalates very quickly, and the international 00:22:21.809 --> 00:22:24.809 community goes from admiring her to condemning 00:22:24.809 --> 00:22:27.470 her for her refusal to act or even acknowledge 00:22:27.470 --> 00:22:30.250 the violence from the Tatmadaw. This is where 00:22:30.250 --> 00:22:33.069 her pragmatism, that idea of nonviolence as a 00:22:33.069 --> 00:22:35.630 tactic, collides with a massive moral crisis. 00:22:36.360 --> 00:22:39.960 After attacks by a Rohingya militant group, ARSA, 00:22:39.980 --> 00:22:43.640 in 2017, the Tatmadaw launched what they called 00:22:43.640 --> 00:22:46.000 clearance operations. Which the rest of the world 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:48.180 called ethnic cleansing. It was described as 00:22:48.180 --> 00:22:50.539 one of the biggest refugee crises in cases of 00:22:50.539 --> 00:22:52.339 ethnic cleansing since the Second World War. 00:22:52.500 --> 00:22:55.539 And the world looked to the Nobel laureate Aung 00:22:55.539 --> 00:22:57.960 San Suu Kyi to do something. And they were met 00:22:57.960 --> 00:23:01.160 with silence. Or worse, deflection. Why? What 00:23:01.160 --> 00:23:03.200 was the political calculation there? The brutal 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:05.259 reality was that the majority Bemar Buddhist 00:23:05.259 --> 00:23:09.160 population in Myanmar largely supported the military's 00:23:09.160 --> 00:23:12.119 actions. They see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants. 00:23:12.700 --> 00:23:15.539 For her to maintain her domestic political support 00:23:15.539 --> 00:23:17.779 and avoid a direct confrontation with the military, 00:23:18.059 --> 00:23:20.779 she chose to side with that nationalist sentiment. 00:23:21.059 --> 00:23:23.099 This wasn't a new position for her, though, was 00:23:23.099 --> 00:23:25.819 it? No, the signs were there much earlier. Back 00:23:25.819 --> 00:23:28.240 in 2012, she said she didn't even know if the 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:30.019 Rohingya could be considered Burmese citizens. 00:23:31.079 --> 00:23:33.799 In 2013, she denied there was ethnic cleansing, 00:23:33.940 --> 00:23:36.440 and she blamed the tensions on a climate of fear 00:23:36.440 --> 00:23:39.819 about global Muslim power. That must have been 00:23:39.819 --> 00:23:41.759 shocking for her Western supporters to hear. 00:23:41.920 --> 00:23:44.940 It was devastating. There's that story about 00:23:44.940 --> 00:23:47.980 her 2013 BBC interview with Michelle Hussein. 00:23:48.349 --> 00:23:50.890 After being challenged on the violence, Sukhi 00:23:50.890 --> 00:23:53.430 was reportedly furious, specifically because 00:23:53.430 --> 00:23:55.309 she had been interviewed by a Muslim journalist. 00:23:55.630 --> 00:23:58.049 It showed a worrying level of bias, or at least 00:23:58.049 --> 00:23:59.990 a willingness to cater to it. And she actively 00:23:59.990 --> 00:24:02.309 tried to erase their identity, asking diplomats 00:24:02.309 --> 00:24:05.589 not to even use the word Rohingya. Right. In 00:24:05.589 --> 00:24:08.250 2016, she asked the U .S. ambassador not to use 00:24:08.250 --> 00:24:11.069 the term. The government insists on calling them 00:24:11.069 --> 00:24:14.160 Bengali, to frame them as foreigners. By doing 00:24:14.160 --> 00:24:16.299 that, she was reinforcing the military's narrative 00:24:16.299 --> 00:24:18.700 and denying the community their own identity. 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:21.440 The condemnation from her own peers, from other 00:24:21.440 --> 00:24:24.259 Nobel laureates, was swift and harsh. Desmond 00:24:24.259 --> 00:24:27.900 Tutu called it a shameful betrayal. Malala Yousafzai 00:24:27.900 --> 00:24:31.400 pleaded with Mother Su to speak out. The U .N. 00:24:31.400 --> 00:24:33.759 special rapporteur basically said the leader 00:24:33.759 --> 00:24:35.640 of the country needed to protect everyone in 00:24:35.640 --> 00:24:38.119 the country. It was a clear rebuke. But the ultimate 00:24:38.119 --> 00:24:40.059 act of alignment with the military came when 00:24:40.059 --> 00:24:41.920 she went to the International Court of Justice. 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:44.880 moment the icon truly died for the international 00:24:44.880 --> 00:24:49.099 community. In December 2019, she personally went 00:24:49.099 --> 00:24:51.059 to The Hague to defend the Burmese military against 00:24:51.059 --> 00:24:53.920 charges of genocide. She used her entire global 00:24:53.920 --> 00:24:56.140 reputation, which she built opposing the military, 00:24:56.339 --> 00:24:58.359 to defend the military. What was her argument? 00:24:58.440 --> 00:25:01.019 How does she justify their actions? She basically 00:25:01.019 --> 00:25:04.799 dismissed the allegations as incomplete and misleading. 00:25:05.420 --> 00:25:08.339 She argued it was a complex internal conflict, 00:25:08.420 --> 00:25:12.160 a military response to the ARSA attacks. She 00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:14.259 talked about internal investigations being opened 00:25:14.259 --> 00:25:16.799 up. She avoided the word genocide. And she avoided 00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:19.299 the word Rohingya. She stuck to the government's 00:25:19.299 --> 00:25:21.920 narrative, even on the world stage. But her whole 00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:24.119 defense was undermined by the fact that her government 00:25:24.119 --> 00:25:26.970 was blocking UN investigators from even... entering 00:25:26.970 --> 00:25:29.789 Rakhine State. Exactly. The internal investigations 00:25:29.789 --> 00:25:32.450 she was talking about were widely seen as a sham 00:25:32.450 --> 00:25:35.150 designed to rubber stamp the military's innocence. 00:25:35.549 --> 00:25:38.329 By defending them, she was choosing institutional 00:25:38.329 --> 00:25:41.269 loyalty over truth. And the court's ruling in 00:25:41.269 --> 00:25:44.069 January 2020 didn't go her way. No, it was a 00:25:44.069 --> 00:25:46.970 huge blow. The court ruled there was a real and 00:25:46.970 --> 00:25:49.509 imminent risk of irreparable prejudice to the 00:25:49.509 --> 00:25:51.849 Rohingya. It ordered the government to take all 00:25:51.849 --> 00:25:54.069 measures to protect them and preserve evidence. 00:25:54.250 --> 00:25:56.690 It was a direct rejection. of her defense. In 00:25:56.690 --> 00:25:59.230 this moment, her defending the military, it triggered 00:25:59.230 --> 00:26:01.710 this wave of her former allies stripping her 00:26:01.710 --> 00:26:03.849 of all the honors they had given her. This is 00:26:03.849 --> 00:26:06.109 a really powerful part of the story. The visible 00:26:06.109 --> 00:26:09.150 dismantling of her icon status. It was the world 00:26:09.150 --> 00:26:11.809 sending a clear message that the moral authority 00:26:11.809 --> 00:26:15.170 she once had was gone. Let's run through some 00:26:15.170 --> 00:26:17.170 of them because the list is just staggering. 00:26:17.450 --> 00:26:21.130 It starts in 2017. The Oxford City Council takes 00:26:21.130 --> 00:26:23.490 back the Freedom of the City Award saying she 00:26:23.490 --> 00:26:26.740 was No longer worthy of the honor. Bob Geldof 00:26:26.740 --> 00:26:29.180 made a very public statement. He returned his 00:26:29.180 --> 00:26:31.200 Freedom of the City of Dublin Award, calling 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:34.460 her a handmaiden to genocide. And then the Dublin 00:26:34.460 --> 00:26:36.460 City Council followed suit and revoked their 00:26:36.460 --> 00:26:39.119 award, too. The rejections from human rights 00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:41.579 organizations must have hit even harder. In March 00:26:41.579 --> 00:26:44.279 2018, the U .S. Holocaust Memorial Museum took 00:26:44.279 --> 00:26:47.279 back the Eli Weisel Award. Then Canada revoked 00:26:47.279 --> 00:26:49.519 her honorary citizenship, saying they believed 00:26:49.519 --> 00:26:52.450 a genocide had occurred. And finally, Amnesty 00:26:52.450 --> 00:26:55.309 International, the very group that campaigned 00:26:55.309 --> 00:26:57.990 for her freedom for years. In November 2018, 00:26:58.410 --> 00:27:00.250 Amnesty International revoked its Ambassador 00:27:00.250 --> 00:27:02.809 of Conscience Award. They called it a shameful 00:27:02.809 --> 00:27:05.390 betrayal of the values she once claimed to stand 00:27:05.390 --> 00:27:07.970 for. It was a complete and total repudiation. 00:27:08.230 --> 00:27:10.869 And this moral decay wasn't just about the Rohingya. 00:27:10.910 --> 00:27:13.190 It extended to the free press, didn't it? The 00:27:13.190 --> 00:27:16.359 case of the Reuters journalists. This is a devastating 00:27:16.359 --> 00:27:18.180 chapter for someone who was supposed to be a 00:27:18.180 --> 00:27:21.920 democracy leader. In December 2017, two Reuters 00:27:21.920 --> 00:27:26.000 journalists, Wallon and Kayosu, were arrested 00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:29.099 while investigating the Inden massacre, one of 00:27:29.099 --> 00:27:31.559 the key atrocities in Rakhine. And she didn't 00:27:31.559 --> 00:27:33.720 protect them. She defended their prosecution. 00:27:34.279 --> 00:27:36.500 Publicly, she said they were arrested for breaking 00:27:36.500 --> 00:27:39.039 the Official Secrets Act, not for their journalism. 00:27:39.480 --> 00:27:41.819 She even defended their seven -year prison sentence. 00:27:42.319 --> 00:27:44.400 Then a police officer testified that he was ordered 00:27:44.400 --> 00:27:47.240 to entrap them. Exactly. It proved it was a frame 00:27:47.240 --> 00:27:50.000 -up. And then the American diplomat, Bill Richardson, 00:27:50.220 --> 00:27:52.059 revealed that when he raised the issue with her 00:27:52.059 --> 00:27:54.480 privately, she got angry and called the journalists 00:27:54.480 --> 00:27:57.799 traitors. It just showed this profound intolerance 00:27:57.799 --> 00:28:00.289 for a free press. The irony is just staggering. 00:28:00.549 --> 00:28:02.789 The U .N. itself reported that under her NLD 00:28:02.789 --> 00:28:04.609 government, press freedom was getting worse. 00:28:04.829 --> 00:28:07.910 Yes. A U .N. report noted that the arrests and 00:28:07.910 --> 00:28:10.289 prosecutions of journalists had made it impossible 00:28:10.289 --> 00:28:12.829 for them to do their job without fear or favor. 00:28:13.410 --> 00:28:16.730 The government, led by the democracy icon, was 00:28:16.730 --> 00:28:18.910 using the same oppressive tactics as the military 00:28:18.910 --> 00:28:21.569 she supposedly fought against. So this dissent, 00:28:21.569 --> 00:28:23.869 driven by fear of losing power and the constraints 00:28:23.869 --> 00:28:26.990 of the system, brings us full circle to her final 00:28:26.990 --> 00:28:30.450 detention. Part five, the final political detainment 00:28:30.450 --> 00:28:34.049 from 2021 to today. The ultimate proof that the 00:28:34.049 --> 00:28:36.890 military was always in control came on February 00:28:36.890 --> 00:28:41.029 1st, 2021. The Tatmadaw launched a coup and Aung 00:28:41.029 --> 00:28:43.410 San Suu Kyi was arrested, along with the rest 00:28:43.410 --> 00:28:45.819 of the NLD leadership. Their justification was 00:28:45.819 --> 00:28:48.279 the same old story. Claims of fraud in the November 00:28:48.279 --> 00:28:51.839 2020 election, which the NLD had, again, won 00:28:51.839 --> 00:28:54.339 by a landslide. Despite that clear mandate, the 00:28:54.339 --> 00:28:56.299 military just decided to tear the whole system 00:28:56.299 --> 00:28:58.299 down, and the charges they filed against her 00:28:58.299 --> 00:29:00.099 were straight out of their old playbook. Starting 00:29:00.099 --> 00:29:02.680 with the absurd. The very first charge was for 00:29:02.680 --> 00:29:04.980 illegally importing 10 or more walkie -talkies. 00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:07.960 It was a ridiculous, esoteric charge designed 00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:09.839 to let them hold her while they cooked up the 00:29:09.839 --> 00:29:12.490 more serious stuff. And the serious charges came 00:29:12.490 --> 00:29:15.789 thick and fast, creating this legal cage designed 00:29:15.789 --> 00:29:18.309 to keep her out of politics forever. Exactly. 00:29:18.589 --> 00:29:21.109 They charged her with sedition, violating the 00:29:21.109 --> 00:29:23.630 Official Secrets Act, breaking COVID -19 rules. 00:29:23.809 --> 00:29:26.549 And the trials were a complete sham. Closed to 00:29:26.549 --> 00:29:29.250 the public, no observers. A courtroom circus, 00:29:29.569 --> 00:29:31.910 as critics called it. Let's just trace the sentencing. 00:29:32.029 --> 00:29:34.950 It's relentless. It was methodical. In December 00:29:34.950 --> 00:29:37.809 2021, she gets four years for inciting dissent 00:29:37.809 --> 00:29:40.190 and COVID violations, which is then reduced to 00:29:40.190 --> 00:29:41.990 two. Then the walkie -talkie charge comes back. 00:29:42.150 --> 00:29:44.849 January 2022, another four years for the walkie 00:29:44.849 --> 00:29:47.049 -talkies. But then they move to the real political 00:29:47.049 --> 00:29:50.509 weapon, corruption charges. April 2022, she gets 00:29:50.509 --> 00:29:53.509 five years for corruption. This is how authoritarians 00:29:53.509 --> 00:29:56.029 disqualify their rivals permanently. And the 00:29:56.029 --> 00:29:59.210 charges just keep piling up. August 2022, six 00:29:59.210 --> 00:30:01.470 more years for corruption, taking the total to 00:30:01.470 --> 00:30:04.980 17 years. September, another six years for election 00:30:04.980 --> 00:30:07.960 fraud and state secrets, taking it to 23 years. 00:30:08.119 --> 00:30:10.140 Until they finally reach the end of the process 00:30:10.140 --> 00:30:13.220 at the end of 2022. The trials end on December 00:30:13.220 --> 00:30:16.400 30, 2022, with a final corruption conviction. 00:30:17.160 --> 00:30:20.019 The grand total comes to 33 years in prison. 00:30:20.279 --> 00:30:22.960 The whole world condemned it as a politically 00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:26.460 motivated show trial. There was a moment in 2023 00:30:26.460 --> 00:30:28.440 where it seemed like things might be easing up 00:30:28.440 --> 00:30:31.900 slightly. On August 1, 2023. The Shunto granted 00:30:31.900 --> 00:30:34.660 a partial pardon, reducing her sentence to 27 00:30:34.660 --> 00:30:37.420 years. And there were reports she'd been moved 00:30:37.420 --> 00:30:40.200 from prison to a VIP government house. But that 00:30:40.200 --> 00:30:43.160 didn't last. No. By September, reports said she 00:30:43.160 --> 00:30:45.900 was back in prison. And worse, there were now 00:30:45.900 --> 00:30:48.460 severe health concerns, a heart condition, a 00:30:48.460 --> 00:30:50.220 debilitating toothache that makes it hard for 00:30:50.220 --> 00:30:52.619 her to eat. And crucially, her requests to see 00:30:52.619 --> 00:30:55.539 a dentist were reportedly denied. It's a return 00:30:55.539 --> 00:30:58.019 to that same brutal disregard for her welfare. 00:30:58.240 --> 00:31:00.579 The level of uncertainty around her now is chilling. 00:31:00.740 --> 00:31:03.000 It feels like the old days before 2010. It's 00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:06.259 worse. In December 2025, her son, Kim Harris, 00:31:06.440 --> 00:31:08.140 made a public statement that was deeply worrying. 00:31:08.380 --> 00:31:10.640 He said the family hasn't heard from her directly 00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:13.599 since 2023. All information is controlled by 00:31:13.599 --> 00:31:16.099 the junta. And he expressed this genuine fear 00:31:16.099 --> 00:31:18.220 that for all they know, she could be dead already. 00:31:18.460 --> 00:31:21.200 So we end in this place of profound tragedy. 00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:24.460 A woman whose life was this global symbol of 00:31:24.460 --> 00:31:27.579 hope is now back in total isolation, possibly 00:31:27.579 --> 00:31:29.859 facing death at the hands of the very military 00:31:29.859 --> 00:31:31.960 she tried to govern. It's the final confirmation 00:31:31.960 --> 00:31:34.539 that the Tatmadaw was always in control. So where 00:31:34.539 --> 00:31:36.500 does this leave us? Let's get to our synthesis, 00:31:36.640 --> 00:31:39.400 our final takeaway for you, the learner. There's 00:31:39.400 --> 00:31:41.680 a quote often attributed to Aung San Suu Kyi 00:31:41.680 --> 00:31:43.700 herself that seems to capture the whole story. 00:31:43.900 --> 00:31:46.799 The quote is, it is not power that corrupts, 00:31:46.799 --> 00:31:49.940 but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those 00:31:49.940 --> 00:31:52.660 who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power 00:31:52.660 --> 00:31:55.359 corrupts those who are subject to it. Her early 00:31:55.359 --> 00:31:57.339 struggle was a perfect example of the first part 00:31:57.339 --> 00:31:59.859 of that. The military junta corrupted by their 00:31:59.859 --> 00:32:02.900 fear of losing power. But her later years, the 00:32:02.900 --> 00:32:05.099 silence on the Rohingya, defending the military, 00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:07.200 the crackdown on journalists, it all suggests 00:32:07.200 --> 00:32:09.819 she too was corrupted by the fear of losing the 00:32:09.819 --> 00:32:12.140 little power she had. That is the unavoidable 00:32:12.140 --> 00:32:15.569 paradox of her legacy. Her reputation as an icon 00:32:15.569 --> 00:32:19.029 of nonviolence was shattered by the brutal realities 00:32:19.029 --> 00:32:21.269 of governing a system that was rigged against 00:32:21.269 --> 00:32:24.240 her. And her international condemnation, the 00:32:24.240 --> 00:32:27.119 revocation of all those honors, that all happened 00:32:27.119 --> 00:32:30.019 before her final arrest. She spent decades fighting 00:32:30.019 --> 00:32:33.200 for democracy, sacrificing her family, only to 00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:35.480 be imprisoned again by the same military whose 00:32:35.480 --> 00:32:37.920 worst action she felt she had to defend on the 00:32:37.920 --> 00:32:40.559 world stage. And this is so important. She once 00:32:40.559 --> 00:32:43.380 said that because Mianar was so far behind, it 00:32:43.380 --> 00:32:45.900 had an advantage. It could learn from the mistakes 00:32:45.900 --> 00:32:47.740 of other countries transitioning to democracy, 00:32:47.920 --> 00:32:50.160 like South Africa or those in Eastern Europe. 00:32:50.539 --> 00:32:52.960 Which brings us to our final provocative thought 00:32:52.960 --> 00:32:55.940 for you, the learner. Something to reflect on 00:32:55.940 --> 00:32:58.220 as you think about her entire complex story. 00:32:58.460 --> 00:33:01.619 Given the cage she was in, that 25 % military 00:33:01.619 --> 00:33:04.880 veto, their control of the key ministries, and 00:33:04.880 --> 00:33:07.900 given her ultimate fate, back in prison, in isolation, 00:33:08.099 --> 00:33:11.250 her health failing. What lessons can we actually 00:33:11.250 --> 00:33:13.910 draw from her story about the cost of maintaining 00:33:13.910 --> 00:33:16.210 political power in a system that's designed to 00:33:16.210 --> 00:33:18.869 never really let go? Is her story an inevitable 00:33:18.869 --> 00:33:21.509 tragedy of institutional failure, or is it a 00:33:21.509 --> 00:33:23.970 profound tragedy of moral compromise? That balance 00:33:23.970 --> 00:33:26.630 between moral principle and political pragmatism, 00:33:26.650 --> 00:33:29.269 that is the definitive haunting question of her 00:33:29.269 --> 00:33:31.630 entire life. Thank you for joining us for this 00:33:31.630 --> 00:33:34.369 deep dive into the complex and truly tragic trajectory 00:33:34.369 --> 00:33:37.089 of Aung San Suu Kyi. We really encourage you 00:33:37.089 --> 00:33:38.950 to continue exploring the sources and the ongoing 00:33:38.950 --> 00:33:40.950 situation. Until next time.