Dear manager,
last Sunday, June 19, Aung San Suu Kyi turned 77. In an unknown place in Myanmar, isolated from the world. But only to return right now to a maximum security prison in the capital Naypyidaw. As if she were in the Tower of London in the Middle Ages. Under the full control of the military, who kidnapped the entire Burmese people with the coup of February 1, 2021. Under the eyes of the world. In the silence of the world. Yet free, in the integrity of her spirit. A woman, alone in front of an entire army that has been a regime for decades. For twenty years under house arrest. Always standing, straight.
With Aung San Suu Kyi is practically all her people, in the ballot box, at every election, and in the resistance, at a very high price. The world observes and is silent, while Myanmar lives its history of liberation bringing us great hope as a dowry. For more than a year the bond that unites her and her people has been even more evident. Both resistant, she in the absurd process that hit her, her people, of every ethnicity, of every age, in every corner of the country. The UN report on children killed, arrested, tortured is of these days.
After decades of military dictatorship, after so much hope in the nascent democracy, the violence of the generals that sows terror, that tries to extinguish civil disobedience and resistance, which closes all future horizon, has hit the country again. The same suffering unites, therefore, this woman and her people, while together they keep the hope in democracy alive. A rare and tenacious unity, an intertwining that is the authentic meaning of politics and the real name of democracy. This might be enough for the international community to make its voice heard in defense of this great heritage of humanity. But that’s not the case yet. Suu Kyi decided, many years ago, that it was her turn.
After the murder of his father, Aung San. He has decided to take on his responsibility, sharing the same destiny with his people. And in this last part of her existence she is again shrouded in silence. But her life continues to be a life for others. Politics can truly be the highest form of charity. Also, and perhaps precisely, because she is steeped in suffering, personal and collective, of the young generations struck down, of raped women, of an entire country devastated, abandoned to the most inhuman arbitrariness, deprived of her dream of her future. Myanmar today is a very high cry against inhumanity and trust in humanity.
She is a witness of this. She who spoke, in the only public speech of the last election campaign, of her land as a garden to cultivate, from which to remove weeds and stones, a garden to take care of. Like Isaiah’s vineyard. But the silence of the world, the inability of international politics to address problems with the strength of humanity and the conviction of peace, is an even greater tragedy than that of Myanmar. It is the drama of indifference. And Myanmar challenges this indifference with the power of its choice for democracy, representing a great source of inspiration for the world. We talk about them, but we also talk about us.
The testimony of Aung San Suu Kyi speaks of personal responsibility, of female strength, of unity with the people as a political choice, of democracy as a search for the precious pearl. It is the testimony of a prophecy. And she returns to reveal spirituality to us as the womb that nourishes the seed of personal integrity, of love for others, of nonviolence. A Buddhist seed, intertwined with the seed of Christianity. Aung San Suu Kyi’s is politics as a spiritual revolution. And his silence speaks today more than ever. For this reason, many, even in China, believe that the Nobel Prize continues to be the only point of balance for a reconciled, stable, peaceful Myanmar. Her life is precious for her land and for the whole world. Above all for the hope it holds against all hope. International politics move.
President of the Alcide Cervi Institute
Still in prison. Aung San Suu Kyi, 77 years of life that defy violence and silence