Aung San Suu Kyi addresses at Clinton Global Initiative Conference-video
Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi told a global audience not to take its eye off her country on the road to freedom.
In a videolink from Burma to an audience in New York for the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), Suu Kyi said the political thaw in her country after the flawed election in November 2010 needs to be carefully watched.“What we really need is awareness of what is going on in our country,” she told the audience of political and business leaders, according to Agence France-Presse.
Suu Kyi said the situation was changing. “Change is not always for the better and even if it is for the better, it’s not always sustained,” she said during the video link. “We would like the world to keep an eye on what’s happening.”
Audience members including Chelsea Clinton, left, watch a discussion with Aung San Suu Kyi, the general-secretary of the National League for Democracy in Burma, as she speaks via satellite during the seventh annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in New York. Photo: AFP
“If the world wants to help Burma, the world needs to know what’s going on in Burma. You really have to follow what is going on there.”
The Burmese opposition leader stressed the importance of India and China, but hoped they would focus on their relations with Burma’s people as much as Naypyitaw.
She said they’ve always been good neighbours but times have changed and circumstances have changed, and to continue to be good neighbours, certain policies have to change.
“All journeys are made step by step,” Suu Kyi said. “To be quite honest, I didn’t think when I first started out in the movement for democracy… I’d have to devote my whole life to it.”
She said she could see improvement but said “it’s the “beginning of the beginning.”
Suu Kyi said it was hard to compare the situation in Burma to the Arab Spring revolts in the Middle East and North Africa, noting that the Internet and social media did not have the same presence in Burma.
Overcoming years of enmity will be hard, she said.
“The reconciliation bit is sometimes the most difficult of all because both sides have to be prepared to compromise and give and take,” she said.
The CGI convened separate one-on-one conversations with peace-builders Desmond Tutu and Aung San Suu Kyi, who highlighted strategic actions that CGI members can take regarding Burma. The meeting is an invitation-only event held each September in New York City for heads of state, chief executives of companies, directors of major nonprofits and other global leaders.
For more information, go to http://www.clintonglobalinitiative.org
