Rev. Danny Fisher

“A birthday cake for Myanmar’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi at a ceremony in Kuala Lumpur. Suu Kyi marked a grim 64th birthday in prison Friday, as activists took to the Internet and staged worldwide protests to call for her release and an end to her trial.” Photo by Saeed Khan for the Agence France-Presse.
Today is the 64th birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s Prime Minister-elect and the only imprisoned Nobel Peace laureate in the world. As many readers are probably well aware, Suu Kyi has spent thirteen of the past nineteen years under house arrest and is currently standing trial before the ruling military junta on trumped-up charges of violating the terms of that arrest. She “celebrates” her birthday today in Burma’s notoriously loathsome Insein Prison, where she awaits the end of the trial and may reside more permanently if she is found guilty.

My heart aches knowing where she is on her birthday. She is one of the world’s last great heroes. Her continued insistence on nonviolence as the means to achieve the goals of the National League for Democracy (NLD) have been an inspiration to me and so many others. Accepting the 1990 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, she said:

The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation’s development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear.

[...]

The wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of unbridled power is generally a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical principles combined with a historical sense that despite all setbacks the condition of man is set on an ultimate course for both spiritual and material advancement. It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute. At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfection, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to follow that path if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments. It is man’s vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear. Concepts such as truth, justice and compassion cannot be dismissed as trite when these are often the only bulwarks which stand against ruthless power.

Standing up for these principles have come at great personal cost to her, as this video released today by Amnesty International reminds us:

In my recent “tweet” for 64 Words for Aung San Suu Kyi, I wrote:

You have sacrificed so much and endured so many hardships on behalf of the people of Burma. You are not forgotten, and the good you so powerfully embody will prevail. With folded hands, we humbly pray: Victorious at the foot of the Bodhi tree, Was he who increased the Sakyans’ delight. May you have the same sort of victory, May you win victory blessings.

This continues to be my prayer today as I think of one of the most remarkable women in the world, sitting bravely in one of the globe’s worst prisons.

As “The Lady” so often implores, we must “use our liberty to promote the people of Burma’s.” One way to start is to donate $64, $640, $6,400, or another amount to the U.S. Campaign for Burma in honor of her birthday. Such a donation will make a lot of crucial work on behalf of Suu Kyi and her people possible. It’s one of the best ways you can remember her today.

I leave you with singer-songwriters Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan performing their song “Unplayed Piano” at the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. Rice wrote the song about Suu Kyi and talks about her at the beginning.