She has been almost lionised around the world, but the actions - or lack of them - of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi since being released from house-arrest / detention, has been more than disappointing.
The New Yorker reports in "The Murder of an Honourable Lawyer in Myanmar"......
"Whenever I met with Ko Ni, whether seated in his office, with its flickering electricity and precarious piles of law books, or sipping tea in the moldering headquarters of Myanmar’s then-opposition political party, the image that came to mind was that of Atticus Finch—though an Atticus wearing a Burmese sarong. With his salt-and-pepper hair and upright bearing, Ko Ni was the consummate honorable lawyer. He persevered for decades as one of Myanmar’s top constitutional experts despite living under the rule of a military junta with little respect for judicial process. Every day, he woke up and prepared to throw himself, pro bono, into hopeless cases. One day in his office, I saw a stack of papers at the foot of his desk. On top was a copy of the Bulgarian Constitution. You never know, he said, when knowledge of such a document might prove useful.
On January 29th, Ko Ni, sixty-three years old, was assassinated at the airport in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. He had just returned from a democracy conference in Indonesia and was waiting for a taxi curbside, while holding his young grandson, when a gunman in sandals sauntered up and pumped a bullet into Ko Ni’s head at close range. Nay Win, a taxi driver who tried to chase down the assassin, was also shot to death. (Ko Ni’s grandson, who had come with relatives to greet his grandfather, tumbled out of the lawyer’s arms but was unhurt.)"
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"Despite Ko Ni’s decades supporting Myanmar’s democracy movement, Suu Kyi, who spent fifteen years under house arrest under the generals’ orders, did not speak out—in shock, sadness, or even acknowledgement—in the days after his assassination. Nor did she attend his funeral, which drew thousands of Burmese of all religions. Her silence echoed her reticence on the plight of the Rohingya, who, since a military offensive began in October, have fled over the border to Bangladesh by the tens of thousands. That the Rohingya consider the impoverished neighbor to be a refuge reflects a measure of their misery."
The New Yorker reports in "The Murder of an Honourable Lawyer in Myanmar"......
"Whenever I met with Ko Ni, whether seated in his office, with its flickering electricity and precarious piles of law books, or sipping tea in the moldering headquarters of Myanmar’s then-opposition political party, the image that came to mind was that of Atticus Finch—though an Atticus wearing a Burmese sarong. With his salt-and-pepper hair and upright bearing, Ko Ni was the consummate honorable lawyer. He persevered for decades as one of Myanmar’s top constitutional experts despite living under the rule of a military junta with little respect for judicial process. Every day, he woke up and prepared to throw himself, pro bono, into hopeless cases. One day in his office, I saw a stack of papers at the foot of his desk. On top was a copy of the Bulgarian Constitution. You never know, he said, when knowledge of such a document might prove useful.
On January 29th, Ko Ni, sixty-three years old, was assassinated at the airport in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. He had just returned from a democracy conference in Indonesia and was waiting for a taxi curbside, while holding his young grandson, when a gunman in sandals sauntered up and pumped a bullet into Ko Ni’s head at close range. Nay Win, a taxi driver who tried to chase down the assassin, was also shot to death. (Ko Ni’s grandson, who had come with relatives to greet his grandfather, tumbled out of the lawyer’s arms but was unhurt.)"
****
"Despite Ko Ni’s decades supporting Myanmar’s democracy movement, Suu Kyi, who spent fifteen years under house arrest under the generals’ orders, did not speak out—in shock, sadness, or even acknowledgement—in the days after his assassination. Nor did she attend his funeral, which drew thousands of Burmese of all religions. Her silence echoed her reticence on the plight of the Rohingya, who, since a military offensive began in October, have fled over the border to Bangladesh by the tens of thousands. That the Rohingya consider the impoverished neighbor to be a refuge reflects a measure of their misery."
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