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SubredditPeripatetic t1_j28c69m wrote

Reply to comment by AnalogCyborg in A Myanmar military court has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to a further seven years in prison by icedpickles

I would say that she failed to stand up for her values and disappointed pretty much everyone including I expect herself....but doing so would have been a grandly performative act of self-immolation, & likely not much else.

The military still held onto the reins of legislative power after her release, as well as the obvious superiority of force. Rather than spurring reform, resisting them too openly would've mainly had the effect of returning her to prison that much faster, with probably about the same number of dead Rohingya.

Her hands were truly tied there--I can only be so harsh on her for that

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southpalito t1_j28efjo wrote

She failed to perform for the western audiences that built her up. Ultimately she is just a flawed politician with no real power.

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Mizral t1_j28qe85 wrote

Her entire family was held hostage by the military. I'm not saying shes perfect but I wonder how any of us would act in such a situation?

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Who_DaFuc_Asked t1_j2951as wrote

I mean, the point is that if she did do something, the military junta would have just killed or falsely imprisoned her anyway.

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WellHacktually t1_j2afolb wrote

As opposed to her publicly defending their genocidal acts, as she in fact did, which resulted in the junta... falsely imprisoning her (so far) anyway. Brilliant strategy, there.

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whatelseisneu t1_j2cjdw9 wrote

This is probably the correct take. She was under house arrest for like 15 years and finally stepped into "power" with an absolute menace waiting to pry her from it.

She knew the people of Myanmar better than any of us, and was walking a fine line trying to solidify democratic institutions over time while staving off another military takeover.

At the end of the day, she wasn't perfect in the eyes of the west, but she was far better than the junta. Yeah she did a shit job at denouncing it, but look who took over: the people actually committing it.

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bustedbuddha t1_j28mt6r wrote

This is a weird way to spell actively supported ethnic cleansing.

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sulris t1_j2ays4y wrote

This exactly. We all be it mad she didn’t push harder. She pushed harder and now look where she is.

We sometimes forget that progress isn’t won overnight and push regimes that might have moved forward slowly into a corner that forces a coup and a big step backward.

She is in prison now for reaching too far and we have the audacity to sit in our armchairs and criticize her for not reaching far enough.

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BinkyFlargle t1_j29mn90 wrote

> In 2012, she told reporters she did not know if the Rohingya could be regarded as Burmese citizens.

and also

> In a 2013 interview with the BBC's Mishal Husain, Aung San Suu Kyi did not condemn violence against the Rohingya and denied that Muslims in Myanmar have been subject to ethnic cleansing, insisting that the tensions were due to a "climate of fear" caused by "a worldwide perception that global Muslim power is 'very great'". She did condemn "hate of any kind" in the interview. According to Peter Popham, in the aftermath of the interview, she expressed anger at being interviewed by a Muslim.

Sounds like she's a regular old flawed human being who grew up in a part of the world that has some particularly nasty sectarian hatred. And she's not immune to it.

Of course she's not a saint- basically nobody is. But whether it's fair or not, we tend to hold nobel peace prize winners to a higher standard, despite the almost random way they're handed out.

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WellHacktually t1_j2afda8 wrote

>but doing so would have been a grandly performative act of self-immolation

Looks like she got immolated either way. Publicly sucking the genocidaires' asses and making excuses for them turned out not to save her, so she might as well have done the "grandly performative act."

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SubredditPeripatetic t1_j2axtqy wrote

I actually tried crossposting this to r/LeopardsAteMyFace ... this account lacked the karma to get through the gates, but this was the explanation I submitted with it:

>I was conflicted about posting this one: I realize that practically speaking, her ability to go against the will of the military was extremely limited. Still, she did enter into a power sharing arrangement with the military, refraining even from making strong public statements against the genocidal purging of the Rohingya, and oh look, you can't save yourself by reaching a supposed understanding with a bunch of face-eating leopards.

^({emphasis added})

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thekingminn t1_j2cj6u4 wrote

I mean you are judging this with hindsight.

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WellHacktually t1_j2clv7g wrote

Yes, it's the specific kind of hindsight that I like to call "having an understanding of history."

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thekingminn t1_j2cm8dr wrote

So you predicted that a coup would take place for a completely different reason. You must be a god.

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FiendishHawk t1_j2abvjy wrote

She’s shown that she’s willing to do performative self-immolation for a cause she believes in. So one can assume that she was OK with the genocide.

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SubredditPeripatetic t1_j2awx3t wrote

? ^(?)?...if you're talking about her initial jailing, I actually don't really know the context—hopefully you or someone else can provide a quick 5¢ version

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