{"id":2571,"date":"2025-09-06T04:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/?p=2571"},"modified":"2025-09-06T04:40:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T04:40:53","slug":"daw-aung-san-suu-kyis-life-in-peril-the-west-must-not-abandon-myanmar-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/2025\/09\/06\/daw-aung-san-suu-kyis-life-in-peril-the-west-must-not-abandon-myanmar-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s Life in Peril \u2014 The West Must Not Abandon Myanmar Again"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Illustration Credit – \u1018\u102d\u101b\u102f\u1019\u102c (Irrawaddy)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By DARZKKG<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naypyidaw \/ London \/ Global<\/strong> \u2014 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar\u2019s most famous political prisoner and once the face of her nation\u2019s democratic hopes, is now 79 years old and in declining health. Sources close to her detention confirm that her heart condition has worsened, and her repeated requests to be treated by a cardiologist remain unanswered by the junta authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Popham, veteran journalist and author of The Lady and the Peacock<\/em> and The Lady and the Generals<\/em>, wrote in The Independent<\/em> that Suu Kyi had sought urgent medical consultation, but the military regime has continued to deny her access. Her son, Kim Aris, has warned publicly that her life is at risk if she remains untreated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isolated in a remote compound near Naypyidaw, she has been cut off from family, lawyers, and the world. The regime appears determined to ensure that whether she lives or dies, she is silenced \u2014 invisible to the public eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Four-Year Tragedy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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This grim reality comes on the fourth anniversary of the February 2021 coup, when Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seized power and dismantled Myanmar\u2019s fragile semi-democracy. The coup ended a decade of relative political opening that had begun in 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the anniversary, Britain\u2019s Foreign Secretary David Lammy \u2014 now also Deputy Prime Minister \u2014 demanded her release and that of thousands of other political detainees. He described her detention as \u201cbrutal and unjust,\u201d echoing the long-standing view of human rights organizations that her trials have been politically motivated and without any fairness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet the junta has shown no sign of bending. Instead, Myanmar has plunged into civil war. Resistance forces, often called the People\u2019s Defence Forces (PDFs), now control much of the countryside, while the military clings to garrisons and air power. The humanitarian toll is staggering: more than 4 million displaced<\/strong>, according to UN estimates, and nearly half the population faces poverty, hunger, and insecurity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How the West Once Backed Suu Kyi<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The current silence of Western powers stands in sharp contrast to the past. In the late 2000s, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was the symbol of Myanmar\u2019s democratic struggle, celebrated worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When President Barack Obama launched his \u201cpivot to Asia\u201d policy in 2009, Myanmar was seen as a test case. After decades of sanctions, Washington and European capitals began cautiously engaging Myanmar\u2019s generals, hoping reform could be encouraged. Suu Kyi\u2019s release from house arrest in 2010 was greeted with jubilation worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obama visited Myanmar twice, in 2012 and 2014, the first sitting U.S. president ever to do so. Western governments, the UN, and ASEAN hailed Myanmar as a model of transition. Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence hero Aung San, was lionized as the moral conscience of Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2015, her National League for Democracy (NLD) had won a landslide election, and she became State Counsellor \u2014 effectively the head of government, though still constitutionally constrained by the military\u2019s reserved powers. She was, for a time, the West\u2019s \u201cposter girl\u201d for democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rohingya Crisis and the Fall from Grace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But this narrative began to fracture dramatically in 2017, when Myanmar\u2019s military launched brutal \u201cclearance operations\u201d against the Rohingya minority in Rakhine State. The campaign, marked by massacres, mass rapes, and the burning of villages, drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UN investigators later called it a genocide. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague opened a case, brought by Gambia, accusing Myanmar of genocide. In a historic moment, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi herself traveled to The Hague in December 2019 to defend Myanmar against the charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To much of the world, this was shocking. The Nobel laureate, once celebrated as a human rights icon, was now seen as defending the very military that had previously imprisoned her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western governments became divided: some maintained quiet support, arguing that Suu Kyi had little real power over the military; others, especially human rights groups, felt betrayed. Her reputation collapsed in Western media and political circles. Universities and cities rescinded her honors. International solidarity waned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How Weakening Western Support Empowered the Generals<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For Min Aung Hlaing, the weakening of Western support for Suu Kyi was a strategic opportunity. Diplomats believe one of his calculations in launching the coup was that the West would not defend her with the same energy it once did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, after the coup, the international reaction was divided. The United States and EU imposed sanctions on generals and military-owned enterprises, but there was no coordinated global embargo, no robust ASEAN plan, and no serious pressure from India or Japan. China and Russia shielded the junta at the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crucially, Western leaders \u2014 while condemning the coup \u2014 no longer viewed Suu Kyi as the indispensable partner they once did. Without a single, iconic figure commanding global sympathy, Myanmar\u2019s democratic cause was easier for the world to sideline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Min Aung Hlaing appears to have judged correctly: sanctions have been piecemeal, humanitarian aid blocked, and the junta has clung to power despite battlefield losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What We Know<\/h2>\n\n\n\n