I spent my Monday lunch hour, and maybe longer due to D.C. traffic, standing with some 30 protesters across the street from the Burmese embassy, waving signs and shouting at curtained windows. Hundreds of other demonstrators around the world were also protesting on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi.
That same day, on the other side of the world, Burma’s beloved peace and democracy leader was brought to trial in an attempt to extend her imprisonment for five more years. The world’s only Nobel Peace Prize laureate in prison, Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest – and on May 27, after six consecutive years of detention, she was supposed to be a free woman. But the military junta is desperate to keep her out of the 2010 general elections, and a troublesome, uninvited American, John Yettaw – swimming across a lake for a visit — was just the loophole they needed.
“Free, free, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi!” we repeated after the bullhorn.
Every once in a while a face would peak out of the upstairs window to see if we’d gone away, but no one came out to talk to us. And Aung San Suu Kyi is still in prison in Rangoon, entering her third day on trial today. So, why protest? What’s the point?
Because Aung San Suu Kyi has implored the world to “Please use your liberty to promote ours.” And though I protested for just an hour, it was one hour of utilizing my liberty. I can stand on a street corner and express myself without the fear of becoming a forgotten political prisoner. And sometimes, in a world where so much is going wrong and so much seems impossible, we have to do the little things and hope that many people doing little things can create great change.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial, the precarious state of her freedom, is unquestionably an important story – but her story is representative of widespread injustice in Burma. Up until a week ago, I rarely found Burma mentioned in the news, much less in the headlines. John Yettaw jumped in a restricted lake, and his name is immediately splashed across the world’s papers — but how many people knew, or even now know, the name Than Shwe? He’s the senior general of Burma’s military junta, and he’s been oppressing and driving out Burma’s ethnic minorities for years. Behind the story of Aung San Suu Kyi are those of raped women, children conscripted into the regime, burned villages, and more than 2,000 political prisoners.
Isaiah implored the Israelites “not to hide yourself from your own kin” – not to be blind. Burma, for the moment, has returned to the international eye. If Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence is not extended, and if the lake-happy American is released, his little swim may turn out to be a good thing for Burma. Perhaps it will have returned our attention to a corner of the world where people are suffering mostly in silence, and perhaps our collective gaze will be outraged enough to make a difference. Yes, we must raise our voice for Aung San Suu Kyi, but we must also raise our voice for all the people she represents — and not forget them. We’ve seen too many times what happens to forgotten places.
Click here to sign U.S. Campaign for Burma’s petition asking U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to make the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and all of Burma’s political prisoners a top priority.
Kaitlin Barker is an editorial assistant for Sojourners. Her commentary in the upcoming July issue of Sojourners will look further at advocacy beyond the news cycle.
