The time has come and gone.
Rather, it is now way before time that Myanmar’s Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyii disrobe herself of her political colours and show the world what lies beneath that exterior of her. Is this Nobel laureate for real or is she just plainly a carbon copy of the real thing; meaning what other laureates before her have done to prove their salt.
“This is a Nobel Prize winner”, exclaimed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak caustically last year during a protest to plead the case of the displaced and persecuted Rohinya people, who today date as the world’s last horde of refugees.
The Rohingya are virtually stateless and despite being born in the country they are vilified for nothing more than that they are Muslims, their woman are raped and killed and their menfolk killed.
Is there something of a state-sponsored programme of genocide aimed at decimating the Rohingya people? If Aung San Suu Kyi does nothing to stop the madness, that perception will simply gain traction for nothing more than of her habit of dithering.
Though latest statistics are not available of the number of people drifting at sea, the United States State Department has reported a perceptible increase in the number of Rohingya refugees seeking a permanent domicile in the United States.
Still despite widespread knowledge of the atrocities, the United States and its Western allies have baulked at reimposing sanctions, instead preferring to turn their focus away to concentrate on Russia and punish Moscow for its controversial annexation of Ukraine.
The appalling human rights situation demands a strong voice for tolerance and equality, says the New Republic. The fact that Myanmar may appear to have such a figure in its paramount civilian leader, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi is hardly the consolation the world has come to expect. In his historic visit to Myanmar in 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama hailed Suu Kyi for showing “unbreakable courage and determination” in her decades-long fight against the country’s military dictatorship, and in September of 2016, during Suu Kyi’s first visit to the White House, Obama called for a lifting of U.S. sanctions to reward Myanmar for making democratic progress. But to the puzzlement of the world, and to the dismay of the Rohingya, Suu Kyi has been silent on the military’s recent actions. Worse than that, her party has dismissed reports of mass slaughter as mere fabrications and thereafter escaped sanctions as it would be deemed as befitting her abetment in silently not opposing the cycle of violence.
One of her famous quotes is “The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear”.
How very Janus-faced she is and how very hypocritical. For denying others, what she now enjoys she received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Take that prize away from her.