Speak Up, Mother Suu, We Can't Hear You!

Australia is about to get a visit from a certain celebrity human rights icon:

"Later this month Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will receive a joint honorary degree from the University of Sydney and the University of Technology, Sydney... For more than 20 years Suu Kyi sought the release of political prisoners, advocated sanctions against the government, and tried to rally support for her party, the National League for Democracy. She was repeatedly put under house arrest and on one occasion her convoy was attacked. The insecurity associated with an authoritarian government did not weaken her voice." (No end to challenges for heroic duo, Susan Banki, Sydney Morning Herald, 7/11/13)

Susan Banki is described as "a lecturer in the human rights program at the University of Sydney." I find it curious, therefore, that she omits all mention of the following less than stirling performance from her heroine:

"Burma's opposition leader... has stopped short of directly condemning anti-Muslim violence in the country and said that it was motivated by fear. Sectarian violence between Buddhists and Muslims began in western Rakhine state last year, with hundreds killed and 140,000 people, mostly Muslims, driven from their homes... The government has been heavily criticised for not doing enough to protect Muslims, who account for 4% of Burma's roughly 60 million people, and Aung San Suu Kyi has also been accused of failing to speak out. In an interview broadcast on Thursday, the Nobel laureate insisted there was no ethnic cleansing taking place and said that both sides were afraid of each other... 'The fear is not just on the side of the Muslims but also on the side of the Buddhists as well. Muslims have been targeted but also Buddhists have been subjected to violence... Global Muslim power is very great and certainly, that is a perception in many parts of the world and in our country as well.'... During the interview she was asked to condemn Wirathu, a Buddhist monk labelled the 'Burmese Bin Laden' who has been stoking hatred against Muslims, denouncing them as 'crude and savage.' She replied: 'I condemn hatred of any kind.' Similarly, she was asked to condemn violence against Muslims and answered: 'I condemn any movement that is based on hatred and extremism.'... Aung San Suu Kyi showed frustration with her interviewer at the number of questions about the violence. 'I would say instead of asking us members of the opposition what we feel about it, what we intend to do about it... you should ask the present government of Burma what their policy is,' she said." (Burma sectarian violence motivated by fear, says Aung San Suu Kyi, Haroon Siddique, theguardian.com, 24/10/13)

(See also: Aung San Suu Kyi & the world of Buddhist Islamophobia, Maung Zarni, modernwriters.org, 3/11/13)

Aung San Suu Kyi is equally lame when it comes to an understanding of a certain other key human rights issue. When asked by an Israeli journalist if she had any message for Israelis and Palestinians, she replied: "I just wonder whether they could not sit down and think that it would be so much nicer if they could be friends." (Aung San Suu Kyi: Israelis and Palestinians could be friends, Miri Scharf, Haaretz, 26/11/10)