Aung San Suu Kyi on non-violence

1999

Aung San Suu Kyi was born in Rangoon in 1945, and was educated at Lady Shri Ram College in New Dehli, St Hughes College, Oxford, and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She first became involved in politics in the late 1980s, when she returned to Burma to care for her sick mother, becoming Secretary General for the newly established National League of Democracy in September 1988. She was put under house arrest in July 1989. In 1990, the NLD gained an 82% majority in the 1990 general election in Burma, meaning that Suu Kyi should have assumed the position of Prime Minister. In the event, the military junta refused to hand over power, and Suu Kyi remains under house arrest. She won both the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Indian government’s Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1992.

In this video, she explains how a non-violent approach is the best way to resolve problems. She cites India as the perfect example: Ghandi's use of non-violent protest sowed the seeds for a peaceful, civilian government after India gained independence in 1947. If men and women do not have weapons in their hands, Suu Kyi explains, they try harder to use their mind.