Sunday, January 8, 2012

IMAGING THE LADY - The media have made Suu Kyi’s struggle visible Malavika Karlekar

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1120108/jsp/opinion/story_14978283.jsp

IMAGING THE LADY
- The media have made Suu Kyi's struggle visible

"We want a Burma where there's freedom to debate, and to exchange ideas, and to analyse the situation as we see it. Burma is now at an important juncture in its modern history. We have come to a path where we may be able to progress towards our long-cherished goal of democracy and freedom," said Aung San Suu Kyi in a video recorded message on receiving the Chatham House Award for 2011. Dressed in shades of pink with maroon flowers encircling her hair, she said with disarming conviction, "Many people are asking whether what is happening in Burma is 'for real', as they say, or whether this is just another piece of window-dressing. I believe that there are elements within the government who are genuine in their desire to bring about democratic reforms that would put our country on the path to prosperity and security." And finally, on a note familiar to all those who have watched her trajectory as a fearless political being, "…it is worthwhile to take the risk; to accept that there is a possible opening. If we will wait only for solid guarantees, we can never proceed. We have to take risks."

The London-based institute for the analysis of international issues held its award function on December 1, 2011 in the grand 17th century Banqueting House at Whitehall. The ceiling of the resplendent room was painted by Peter Paul Rubens in 1635; ironically, King Charles I, who brought the artist to England, was said to have stepped out of the central window of that very room on to the scaffold for his execution. Accused of treason, the monarchy was soon abolished and Oliver Cromwell took over the governance of England. In 1995, Aung San Suu Kyi was given another significant award, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding for 1993. This function too was held in another grand venue, the Ashoka Hall of Rashtrapati Bhawan which also has a painted ceiling — commissioned by Lady Willingdon when her husband was Viceroy of India. While the subject of Rubens's work was the glorification of James 1, Charles's father, the ceiling in New Delhi is more in the Persian miniature style.

The coincidences do not end there: though Aung San Suu Kyi could not be present for either function, on each occasion the awards were received by two diminutive women, both extremely impressive in their own way: Ma Than E, an older Burmese woman who had worked for the United Nations and to whom Suu Kyi was deeply attached, received the award on her behalf in New Delhi, and in London, it was Madeleine Albright who did the honours. Long before Aung San Suu Kyi became the icon of today, Ma Than E had been there for her, through her early days as a researcher at the UN to her life as a young mother coping with a husband busy with archaic Tibetan manuscripts and two young sons. Interestingly, she was to receive the award in New Delhi at about the same time that, hearing of Suu Kyi's release from house arrest, Madeleine Albright started planning a trip to Yangon. Over the years, Albright has argued for the restoration of democracy in Myanmar and, appreciating her role, Aung San Suu Kyi thanked "my very good friend Madeleine Albright, for receiving the [Chatham House] Prize on my behalf".

Though there was no champagne and caviar at Rashtrapati Bhawan, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award had deep significance for a woman who had spent more than half a decade of her early adolescence in India. On both occasions, Aung San Suu Kyi was a free woman, no longer under house arrest — but the circumstances were very different. In 1995, the military-led State Law and Order Restoration Council was very much in control and the chances for the pro-democracy movement seemed bleak. Even though she had been awarded the Nobel Prize for peace in 1991 and her husband, Michael Aris, was continuing his unrelenting campaign for Myanmar's freedom from military oppression, Aung San Suu Kyi's future was still tenuous. And when Michael died in 1999 — shortly after he was denied a visa to visit his wife for the last time — for a while, there was no one to take on his role. Things looked very dire. Her friends and family worried about her safety — earlier, in 1996, the motorcade that she was travelling in with other leaders of the National League for Democracy had been viciously attacked. This was followed by another not dissimilar, though more serious, incident at Depayin in 2003.

In December 2011, the award function took place against a very different backdrop. While, over the years, world opinion on how to deal with the generals had by no means been unanimous, the international (largely Western) press had a different take. Soon after the traumatic months of 1988 and 1989, the print, visual and virtual media woke up to the reality of Myanmar, geographically proximate to China and to India, but ignored and neglected for years. It is not only the Arab Spring that owes much to the emergence of a new visuality, the internet and a committed diaspora. Though tourists have been divided on whether to travel and finance a country ruled by a merciless junta, and debates on the role of sanctions continue to be many and varied, the media and some sections of the Myanmarese diaspora have been more single-minded. Nothing exemplifies more the changing nature of how people and events are presented than the pre-recorded video message of Aung San Suu Kyi at Chatham House; she made eye contact with an audience that watched with rapt attention, empathizing with her well-thought out speech. When M Thane E walked up to receive the Nehru Award from the then president of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma, there was not even a photograph of Aung San Suu Kyi on display. Though a print version of her acceptance speech was available, those present had to imagine the lonely woman tucked miles away in the crumbling bungalow at 54/56, University Avenue, Yangon.

Early in November 2010, the world, its media and cyberspace were abuzz with news of the likely release of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest. And when it happened on November 13, apart from the traditional media, enthusiastic bloggers, websites and emails took over virtual reality. This year, Hollywood cashed in with The Lady that had Michelle Yeoh in the lead role, and the Danish documentary, The Lady of No Fear, based on live footage, several meetings and interviews was released shortly after. Two substantial new biographies —Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's Struggle for Democracyby longtime Burma-watcher, Bertil Lintner, and Peter Popham's The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi are just out. Again, like Justin Wintle's Perfect Hostage, published in 2007, the authors are Western men, journalists interested in understanding the life of an iconic Asian woman. In Myanmar, T-shirts, key chains, posters and other memorabilia emblazoned with images of their leader flood market places, while videos on YouTube, postings on Facebook and other social media sites, websites such as the Delhi-based Mizzima, radio and television broadcasts from Norway's Democratic Voice of Burma — both run by those forced to leave their country in 1988 — ensure that visibility and, indeed, visualization of Myanmar and of Aung San Suu Kyi will never again remain in doubt.

On December 23, 2011, Aung San Suu Kyi formally registered the NLD for any upcoming elections and visited parliament for the first time; a spokesperson said the party will contest all vacant seats in the forthcoming 2012 by-election and Aung San Suu Kyi will soon announce her constituency. Politically, much has happened over this last year, including amnesty for political prisoners and legalization of unions. The NLD, the activities of which were banned in 2004 and which had boycotted the November 2010 elections, has clearly revisited its game plan. As many significant players on the world political and economic stage make it their business to visit Myanmar and meet Aung San Suu Kyi, she shifts elegantly into top gear, aided by proactive media and emotive imagery.

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