Aung San Suu Kyi
We have probably all heard of the Nobel Prize; this prize is contains five different categories of prizes awarded to people with great accomplishments. Alfred Nobel, a very wealthy Norwegian man created this prize. When he passed away he left his fortune to go towards awarding several individuals for their great achievements in medicine, literature, chemistry, peace, and physics. One of those special individuals was Aung San Suu Kyi, and she was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Aung San Suu Kyi was the third child but only daughter conceived by Daw Khin Kyi and Aung San on June 19, 1945 in Rangoon. On the website Chambers Biographical Dictionary, it states that she was named after her father, mother, and grandmother. Aung San for her father, Kyi for her mother, and Suu for her grandmother. Aung San Suu Kyi had two older brothers; one died at a very young age due to drowning, her oldest brother moved to San Diego, California and became a citizen of the United States of America.
Her father Aung San was a Burmese nationalist hero. He fought hard for Burma’s independence, which was under the ruling of the British. Coming very close to gaining their independence he was assassinated on July 19, 1947. (Chambers Biographical Dictionary) Aung San Suu Kyi was only 2 years old. Due to her fathers great leadership Burma established their independence on January 4, 1948. Around the year of 1960 Aung San Suu kyis’ mother Daw Khin Kyi continued on in her husbands’ footsteps to spread peace through India, Suu Kyi fallowed in her mothers footsteps. (Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers)
In Aung San Su Kyis’ Biography taken from the website nobelprize.org it states that, in 1962 Suu Kyi began to attend college at Oxford University. Her studies consisted of Economics, Politics, and Philosophy. In 1969 she received a job to work for the United Nations in New York. Along with that she would take up a volunteer job on evenings and on the weekends at a hospital to help patients with reading and companionship. While she was attending Oxford University she fell in love with Michael Aris, leaving him behind at Oxford she left to go to Japan to attend Kyoto University to further in her studies. (Chambers Biographical Dictionary) Aung San Suu Kyi and Michael Aris reunited in 1972 when she returned to Oxford University. They then got married on January 1, 1972 and moves to the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. They do not stay here long. (Nobelprize.org)
In 1973 the couple returns to London England in preparation for the birth of their first child, Alexander. Soon after in 1977 they gave birth to their second son Kim at Oxford. Aung San Suu Kyi husband continues on with his studies in Himalaya as she begins to do research on her father along with writing a biography of him, and assisting Michael in his studies. As she goes off to Japan to study more about her father she brings her son Kim with her, and her son Alexander stays with her husband Michael. In 1987 Aung San Suu Kyi and her son Kim join Alexander and Michael in London to go visit Dow San Kyi, her mother who is going through cataract surgery. So she could be close to her mother she began to continue furthering into her educational degree at a school in London.
On March 31, 1988 Aung San Suu Kyis’ mother suffers from a severe stroke. She is devastated and moves her family back to Rangoon to help take care of her mother as she is in the hospital. While her mother is in the hospital there are several protests against the military going throughout Burma. On August 8th 1988 a very violent suppression from military acts vastly killed thousands of people in Burma. This upsets Suu Kyi immensely and she decides to take action by sending a letter to the government informing them to get themselves ready for several multi-party elections. On august 26th she gives her first speech, her sons and her husband are there to support her along with thousands of people. Aung San Suu Kyi makes this a lifestyle and goes throughout the country speaking to large amounts of people about a non-violence and civil disobedience. While Aung San Suu Kyi is just approaching the beginning of her rout of becoming a widely known peace campaigner things where not going so good with her mom.
On December 27th 1988 her mom passed away at the age of seventy-six. On January 2, her mothers’ funeral was held. It wasn’t no ordinary funeral thousands of people attended, and they also got to hear Suu Kyis’ speech. She preached about being as great as her mother and father. She devoted herself to continue spreading the word about nonviolence amongst the military and protesters. For several months after words she continued to campaign for what she thought was right, she would get death threats one after another along with being harassed for what she believed in, but that did not stop her. On February 17th she refused to stand for election, along with her pride and bravery she was not afraid of anything and wanted her points to stand out to other individuals. She went as far as standing or even walking towards the barrels of the guns that the soldiers where pointing straight at her.
Aung San Suu Kyi begins a hunger strike in 1990 to help out students that where not being fed properly. Due to her strike she was placed under house arrest and threatened three years of imprisonment. Even though Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest she is elected and granted the Rafto Human rights Prize, by a grand winning percentage of 82%. Soon after on October 14th 1991 Suu Kyi was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize of 1991. Being the great person that she is Suu Kyi gave $1.3 million of her prize money to Burmese people for education and health.
On July 10th of 1995 she was released from house arrest after six years, during these six years of house arrest she was unable to see her family very often, and even being off house arrest they still restricted her movements, along with being able to communicate with her family through the phone because the government was scared for her safety. Eventually she was allowed to speak outside of her house to many reporters and other people. As she continued to spread her voice amongst many people about human rights the government threw her back into house arrest illegally.
She was unable to see any of her family members unless authorities accepted the request. On March 27, 1999 her husband Michael Aris died of prostate cancer. A month or so before he passed away he sent out a request to see his wife one more time before he passed away and the authorities denied his request. Suu Kyi hadn’t seen her husband since a Christmas visit in 1995. After this happened the government allowed her to go abroad and join her family, but if she did this it meant that she could never return, therefore she would not be able to continue her work on having a free Burma. (Nobelprize.org)
In the article “A Charade the U.S. can’t play” by, Jared Genser it states that Suu Kyi was place under house arrest illegally, she was not giving the right to have a trial, nor had any charges. They simply just held her under house arrest for 21 years of her life. Whenever she was released from house arrest she would begin to speak and would always be outspoken by the military therefore she was thrown right back into house arrest. Suu Kyi was unable to see her children or any other family member for several years of her life. She knew she had to make a change and she stuck to her ideas, and her planning. She was released from house arrest in 2000, 2002, and on 2009, but always placed right back into house arrest. After being released in 2009 they sentenced her to three years in prison, but then changed her sentence to 18 more months of house arrest.
On November 13, 2010 Aung San Suu Kyi was released from being under house arrest, hopefully for the last time. Suu Kyi devoted her life to studying about her father who was assassinated when she was two years age. To her mother who was ill, and her husband and children. They all played a huge roll in her life, but Suu Kyis’ main focus on life was making Burma a safe and free place to be. To this day she is still working on making Burma free. Suu Kyi has the option to go back to see her family, she has thought about returning, but it is taking her sometime to think of her actions because if she leaves she is never aloud to return, and finish what she has been living to do.
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