Aung San Suu Kyi is the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
In 1988, she gave up her scholar career and left her family in London to go back to her native country Burma and she became politically engaged against dictatorship.
Between 1989 and 2010, she spent 15 years jailed. Upon release, she was elected Member of Parliament. Today she’s working towards Burma’s democratisation by conversing with those who imprisoned her.
In 2011, Aung San Suu Kyi gave a lecture on freedom and freedom from fear broadcast on BBC radio. Here is an extract by this woman who had the courage to oppose dictatorship:
“Fear is the first adversary we have to get past when we set out to battle for freedom, and often it is the one that remains until the very end. But freedom from fear does not have to be complete. It only has to be sufficient to enable
us to carry on; and to carry on in spite of fear requires tremendous courage.”
She also said about dissidents like her:
“They pretend to be unafraid as they go about their duties and pretend not to see that their comrades are also pretending. This is not hypocrisy. This is courage that has to be renewed consciously from day to day and moment to moment.”
In short, she’s afraid but she goes on and she pretends that she’s not afraid. Anyway she’s a good actor because she looks like she really doesn’t fear anything.
For more information:
the recording and the transcript (pdf) of Aung San Suu Kyi lecture on BBC
