Europe is captivated by the Burmese leader, which is a synthesis of East and West
Original article in: The four lives of Aung San Suu Kyi
Timothy Garton Ash. 25 June, 2012
For two days last week, the corner of Oxford where I live and work has been surrounded by magic. The Lady, Aung San Suu Kyi, was lodged in front of me, and St. Hugh's College, where she studied when she was a university student almost half a century ago. on tuesday, day on which he turned 67 years, there was a happy and informal party for family and friends; The university's annual honorary degree ceremony was held on Wednesday, with all its pomp and circumstance.
This visit to five European countries is a turning point between what could be called the third and fourth lives of Aung San Suu Kyi.. Her first life was the daughter of General Aung San., Burmese independence hero, who was murdered when she was two years old, but who she remembers adorned her hair with flowers. He was educated under the decisive influence of his mother, first in Burma and then in India, with a combination of elements of eastern tradition, particularly the Buddhist, and the western, especially that of the English language.
His second life, which started here at Oxford in 1964, were 24 student years, part time teacher, full time mother, housewife and beloved wife of Tibetan and Himalayan studies specialist Michael Aris, friend and colleague of mine at St. Antony's College. It was a life full of daily joys and sadness., with walks and bike rides, under often gray skies, in these wide and sleepy streets with their nineteenth-century houses, tall and adorned with wisteria, streets that I would not see again until 24 years later, until he returned a few days ago.
His third life began in the spring of 1988 with a phone call to his Oxford home, which made him return to Rangoon to care for his sick mother. He was transformed when he accepted the demand of his compatriots that he lead the uprising that summer. This third life consisted, for long periods, in holding on, in his house arrest and solitary in his mother's house, a large villa increasingly deteriorated in number 54 from University Avenue in Yangon, while reading, I listened to the BBC World Service and kept my body fit and my mind active.
Aung San Suu Kyi ha decided to take a risk
to participate in parliamentary politics
At some point between the end of house arrest, In November of 2010, and his triumphant journey through Europe, the fourth life began. As the new president of the country, Thein Being, has carried out —and we must recognize it— a political opening that she considers credible, Aung San Suu Kyi has decided to risk participating in parliamentary politics under conditions largely set by the regime. Over the next few years, until the general elections scheduled for 2015, This will be a very difficult transition.. This is a country ruined by half a century of bad government, both in economy, education and health, with an army still very strong, an ethnic mosaic next to which the former Yugoslavia seems simple, and ethnic and religious tensions that have just erupted into violence in Rakhine province. He needs to reinforce the fragile network of his National League for Democracy at full speed. And it is not possible to ignore the most powerful neighbor in the country, a nervous and authoritarian China.
That is to say, It will be inevitable that there will be concessions and disappointments. To use Max Weber's famous distinction, the “ethics of conscience”” of the intellectual will, at least, than to merge with the “ethics of responsibility” of politics. Just like Nelson Mandela leaving prison, just like the Czech dissident Václav Havel catapulted into Prague Castle, Chapter Sue, to their 67 years, faces a life in politics, as opposition leader, president or elder stateswoman. time, an almost unlimited resource when I was stuck at home, It is sliced and cut now relentlessly, in meetings of 30 minutes and appearances of 30 seconds.
So, well, there will be enough years to tell, value and, if required, impartially criticize the fourth life that has just begun. At the moment, in this decisive and sunny moment, let's stop to pay tribute to that third life, those 24 years. To pay tribute properly, first you have to understand; and to understand the reason why it already has a guaranteed place in the history books, I would like to emphasize three things.
First of all, much of what we know comes from his own words, written during house arrest (sometimes, those words came out of the house on University Avenue written inside the longyi cotton from a domestic worker) and , in recent times, spoken. His best texts —the classic essay from the early nineties Free from fear, his talks at the BBC Reith Lectures, delivered last year by videoconference, the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo two Saturdays ago— They are comparable to Havel's best. They convey a sensitivity that is as spiritual and literary as it is political.. In his first Reith lecture, affirms that political freedom can be born from internal and spiritual freedom; now well, in his fourth life, It will be inevitable that the balance between the spiritual, the literary and the political are altered, just like what happened to Havel.
In second place, there is his courage, pure and simple, simple and pure. That value, without which there is no freedom, It is a rare virtue, valuable and difficult. As far as we know, It was especially difficult in the first years of house arrest, separated from her still young children, isolated and still without having experienced the inner liberation that would later give her mastery of the disciplines of Buddhist meditation. But, as she herself says with almost Victorian modesty, “I tend to be stubborn”.
That value, without which there is no freedom,
It is a rare virtue, valuable and difficult
And that brings me to the third and least airy characteristic of his life and work.: the fusion of East and West. The Nobel speech, For example, has many old-fashioned English expressions, literary, almost anglican: “Other places on earth”, “some of our warriors fell at their posts”, “Perfect peace is not of this world”. However, next, makes a deep reflection on the big six poor (equivalent, more or less, a sufferings) that identifies Buddhism, and its repercussions on private life and politics. I'm not talking about two parallel traditions, nor even less of a dilemma between the two; It is a true synthesis in a single person.
In a speech delivered in Latin, the historical language of the West, the Oxford University Public Speaker who presented him with his PhD for the sake of honor He called her the “Star of the East.”” (“present the eastern star”). In your response, personal and moving, She said universities do everything they can to teach “respect for the best of human civilization that comes from all over the world.”.
Now that a West that is losing relative power must learn to live with an East that is experiencing a powerful renaissance, This combination takes on special importance. Rudyard Kipling, one of your favorite English authors, He wrote that “there is no East or West.”… "When two strong men meet face to face". In the case of Mrs., we must adapt the phrase: “There is East and there is West when a strong woman faces the generals and the world”.
www.timothygartonash.com
Timothy Garton Ash He is Professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His latest book is The facts are subversive: ideas and characters for a decade without a name.
