Un Sung Fuh Ror
Aung San Suu Kyi – what an impressive resume.
First, a trajectory similar to that of Nelson Mandela's. He spends 27 years in a full-fledged prison, comes out, puts an end to Apartheid, then wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Aung San Suu Kyi spends 15 years under house arrest, gets out, wins the Nobel Peace Prize and then upholds genocidal Apartheid. Maybe she, like Mandela, should've gone to a full-fledged prison system. Hey, it's not too late...
She receives the Nobel Peace Prize. The world hears her acceptance speech: "Ultimately our aim should be to create a world free from the displaced, the homeless and the hopeless, a world of which each and every corner is a true sanctuary where the inhabitants will have the freedom and the capacity to live in peace." What the world does NOT hear is her muttering under her breath immediately at the end: "NOT!"
The US' Holocaust Memorial Museum gives Suu Kyi the Elie Wiesel Award for her stance AGAINST hatred, genocide and abuse of human dignity. Now she should get the A Lie Weasel Award for her stance FOR hatred, genocide and abuse of human dignity.
Amnesty International awards her its most prestigious honour, the Ambassador of Conscience. In 2017, the least enviable job is that of the conscientious ambassador of Myanmar, if any does exist.
The US awards her the Congressional Medal of Honor at which time Senator John McCain calls her his hero. Then again, he had also called Sarah Palin his most capable running mate.
Suu Kyi becomes the State Counsellor. She is thus the mind of Myanmar. I think what's needed is a Counsellor to mend her state of mind.
The list goes on. So much so, that it results in her senses getting a diarrhea. The reaction: the world supplying a barrage of oral saline, almost Zen-like, of benign rhetorics.
But wait, what about her Nobel cohorts? Archbishop Desmond Tutu writes to Suu Kyi: "If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is surely too steep." Et tu Tu Tu? Tut tut!! That's it? Oof! You are just too nice. If George Carlin were around, he would add this to his long list of humorous euphemisms.
But to be fair, many, including Nobel laureates, have demanded that her Nobel Peace Prize be rescinded. But the Nobel Committee says that is not possible as the Nobel Peace Prize is like toothpaste, once given out, cannot be taken back no matter what the subsequent performance record of the recipient is. By the way, Nobel Committee, you can zoom out a bit and look at Europe and consider a first: the European Parliament is threatening to shake her off the Shakharov Prize that it had awarded her, all because of everything she is now not doing.
So, what do we do? How about going Back to the Future? Nah, there is no stretch of road in Myanmar for the DeLorean to speed up to 88 miles per hour, go back to 1991 and then stop the Nobel Committee from wasting an award, not to mention the award money that could have fed many a Rohingya in need today.
What's done is done. If 1991 has given Aung San Suu Kyi the Nobel for Peace, then 2018 had better give her the Oscar for Best Acting in the name of Peace.
So, what's bugging her? She claims that the Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. I think if Bangladeshis were to immigrate illegally anywhere, Myanmar would not be the top choice. We are doing just fine by jumping the ship in New York, London, Rome, Madrid, Lisbon…Why go somewhere where everything is just the same, if not worse?
And the UN? Yes, strong words. Probably many resolutions—as effective as all those on the Middle East. Let's see what happens at the current session of the UN General Assembly, which, by the way, Suu Kyi is not attending. Reminds me of my school days; when I failed to finish my assignment, I would suddenly develop a "stomach ache" and stay absent from school.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State T Rex has roared (glorified meow) at Exxon Mobil's client. However, the usually roaring leader of the free world is reticent despite being a man who jumps at every initiative by Kim Jong-un (though, as for the third time, Kim Jong-un becomes a father, it is for the first time that President Trump doesn't notice an initiative by the North Korean leader, nor any tweet from him such as: "If I were in power ten months ago, I wouldn't have allowed him to use his weapon of mass production!").
On the flip side, one of the poorest countries in the world, Bangladesh, has stepped up to show that it is not how much one has, but how much one cares that makes the day. God knows how long this tragedy will go on for, but for now, at the centre stage, is Aung San Suu Kyi, from being the Un Sung He Ro to now becoming the Un Sung Fuh Ror…
Naveed Mahbub is an engineer at Ford & Qualcomm USA and CEO of IBM & Nokia Siemens Networks Bangladesh turned comedian (by choice), the host of ATN Bangla's The Naveed Mahbub Show and ABC Radio's Good Morning Bangladesh, and the founder of Naveed's Comedy Club. E-mail: Naveed@NaveedMahbub.com
ed@NaveedMahbub.com
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