GRAPE VINE

List of Asian leaders should include Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Source : B K Sem,The Nation

This has reference to "'Weaker sex' takes a stronger role in Asia" on the Opinion & Analysis page of your paper on June 18.

I think the record should be straightened. Among the four opposition leaders mentioned above, Burma's Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is conspicuously missing. Later her name was mentioned in a small paragraph and that too not correctly.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has never equated her patriotic duties with inherited responsibility as alleged. It is very unfortunate that her status based on her own merit had not been projected. I think history has not produced a woman leader who has fought tyranny and brute force as heroically as she has done. Not only she has suffered imprisonment/house arrest, but she has been constantly subjected to mental agony due to a vilification campaign and harassment by the powers that be.

Further, her husband Michel Aris was not allowed to meet her for the last time before his death. She has two sons attending school abroad and they are not permitted to meet their mother. A woman leader under such trying and dreadful conditions fighting for a cause is hardly to be found in the annals of history.

She has become celebrated by her writings especially "Freedom from Fear". She is a Nobel laureate, an outstanding leader internationally acknowledged, and the symbol of hope of the Burmese people suffering tyranny and brutal oppression.

Women of Burma Day is commemorated on her birthday in many countries. She has also become a model in the grim struggle between democracy and military dictatorship. The more challenges she faces, the stronger she appears.