The Failure of Aung San Suu Kyi
Thant Myint-U’s new book, ‘The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century’, unearths the deep, historical roots of Burma’s economic, social and political challenges.
Thant Myint-U’s new book, The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century, comes at a crossroads for Burma and the West. While the country’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was once the darling of human rights advocates, today she is the object of deep disillusionment. The reasons for this are multiple, but centre around her government’s failure to strengthen democratic institutions and address economic inequality; its sustained government crackdown on journalists and activists; and, most concerningly, Suu Kyi’s failure to advocate on the behalf of the Rohingya, who have suffered ethnic cleansing — if not outright genocide — at the hands of the Burmese military.
What are we to make of Suu Kyi’s decline? Have her values shifted under the corrupting influence of power? Does she lack the skills to operate effectively in government, in spite of her aspirations? Or have Western activists, politicians and journalists simply misread her? These are just some of the difficult…
