Contexts - The Rough Guide to Myanmar - page 502

career was brought to an abrupt halt in July 1989, however, when she was placed under
housearrest - the first in a long sequence of home detentions which would last for fifteen
of the next 21 years. Her international profile, meanwhile, rose ever higher, cemented by
the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. This Mother Teresa-like status in the West
largely insulated her from criticism - and continues to do so to this day - although some
questioned boththe usefulness ofGandhian passive resistance inthe face ofbrutal military
rule and the NLD's isolationist stance, with its self-declared tourism boycott and support
of ineffectual Western sanctions which (it's argued) served to plunge the country into fur-
ther atrophy.
Briefperiodsofreleasefromhousearrestandattemptstotravelthecountryweremetwith
repeated military intimidation, most notably in 2003 when at least seventy NLD support-
ers travelling with Aung San Suu Kyi were killed in the Depayin Massacre in Sagaing.
Meanwhile Aung San Suu Kyi herself was repeatedly caricatured in government media as
a “Western poster girl” and “foreigner” thanks to her years abroad and UK-based family.
2010 AND AFTER
AungSanSuuKyiwasfinallyfreedfromhousearrestin November2010 andimmediately
threw herself straight back into her political work - subsequently announcing her intention
ofrunningforpresidentintheelectionsof2015.Themilitary,meanwhile(onceagainplay-
ing on her expatriate past), have conveniently inserted a clause in the constitution barring
anyone with a foreign spouse or children from serving as president - legislation specific-
ally aimed at denying her the chance of achieving the political office she would doubtless
otherwise attain.
Curiously, since her release in 2010 Aung San Suu Kyi has shown notable signs of enter-
ing into a murkier sort of Realpolitik , hobnobbing with generals and government cronies,
as well as singularly failing to speak up in support of the horribly oppressed Rohingya . To
whatextent heridealistic beliefs surviveprolongedcontact withBurmese political realities
remains to be seen, although for the time being she continues to provide a beacon of hope
as the country emerges, slowly, from decades of military rule.
The rule of SLORC
The new SLORC leadership was widely condemned by international leaders for its role in
crushing the demonstrations - the military responded by more than doubling the size of the
army (from 180,000 to 400,000). Aung San Suu Kyi, meanwhile, responded to the failure of
the uprising by founding the National League for Democracy (NLD) , which would hence-
forthserveastheprincipalvehicleforallanti-governmentprotests.OffersbySLORCtohold
elections were rejected by Aung San Suu Kyi on the grounds that they could not be held
freely and fairly so long as the generals remained in power.