The case of the missing totem: Aung San Suu Kyi
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Economist. Hello and welcome to The Intelligence from The Economist. I'm Jason Palmer. Today on the show, Turkey's plan to benefit from the Iran war and looking to science to determine the ideal amount of sleep.
First up, though.
The last time that we can be sure that Aung San Suu Kyi was alive was December 30th, 2022, at the conclusion of her show trial.
Erin Connolly is our Asia Diplomatic Editor.
Myanmar's leader has been jailed since 2021 after a military junta overthrew her government. There have been a trickle of reported sightings from Myanmar's prison system, but they're impossible to verify. One former Thai foreign minister says that he met with her, and a defector group has released what they say are logs of her meals and medical care. But the army has refused her lawyer's request to see her. So her son, Kim Aris, who lives in London, has been traveling the world in the past few months, pushing presidents and ministers to demand proof of life from Myanmar's military government.
And this is far from her first time in detention.
That's right. Aung San Suu Kyi was in and out of jail and house arrest for about 15 years total from 1990 to 2010. But from house arrest, she continued to lead her party, the National League for Democracy, to an election win in 1990. And then in 1991, she won the Nobel Peace Prize and became a real icon of international resistance and support for democracy. After winning another landslide election in 2015, she became state counselor, which is a role akin to prime minister and Myanmar's leader. And she governed in this uneasy coalition or cohabitation with Myanmar's army. But in office, she proved to be no liberal. Most notably, she defended the army that later jailed her against charges of genocide in the case of the atrocities that they had committed against the Rohingya people, a Muslim ethnic minority in the west of the country.
But she also shut down debate and she jailed journalists. And her policies really isolated Myanmar, forcing it further into China's orbit. And after she was deposed in 2021 by the army, the junta charged her with a range of offenses, really patent fabrications, and sentenced her to 33 years in prison, which was just recently reduced to 27 years. Assuming she's still alive, she would now be 81 years old. And what about the suggestion that she is in fact dead? I think it would be very difficult to keep something like that under wraps inside Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi still has supporters inside the regime. Just last year, a group of defectors released what they claim are logs of her meals and her medical care.
So if she were dead, I think that word would probably have leaked out by now.
And at the moment, the junta has no interest in telling anyone how she is, where she is.
Right. So in April, the junta said that it had moved her to house arrest. And when asked about her circumstances, officials invariably say that she's in good health. And a photo published at the time of her supposed move to house arrest showed her chatting amiably with a policeman and an army officer inside a nondescript building. But there's no indication that that photo is of recent vintage. And when I spoke to her son, Kim Eris, he said he doubts its authenticity. He says that if she is under house arrest, it's not at her home in Yangon, and that her house in Naypyidaw, the capital, has been torn down. So some worry that the lack of evidence of proof of life means that she's either dead or in really bad shape in a way that the military wouldn't want the world to see.
And you said it's not just her son who's interested in securing some kind of proof of life that foreign leaders are getting involved too.
So Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader who ousted her in 2021 and who in March had himself named president, has been asked about her at least twice recently, as far as we know. India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, asked him about Aung San Suu Kyi's welfare on June 1st. And Julie Bishop, the UN Secretary General's special envoy on Myanmar, raised the issue in May.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:03–4:53
2
When and why did Aung San Suu Kyi disappear from public view after 2022?
4:53–6:42
3
What unverified sightings and 'proof of life' claims have emerged about Aung San Suu Kyi?
6:42–10:22
4
How has Aung San Suu Kyi's past detention and political history shaped Myanmar's current crisis?
10:22–22:26