Human rights and postcoloniality: Representing burma

In 1991 Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese dissident, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle against Burma’s military authoritarian government, and her persistent advocacy and defense of human rights and democracy in her homeland. At the time she was in the third year of house arrest under the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) in Burma, and had become the key figure leading a movement for democracy and human rights in that country.1 The figure of Suu Kyi, female nationalist icon and symbol of resistance to the Burmese military, emerges forcefully in accounts of human rights and democratization in Burma. The Nobel Prize further underscored her visibility and presence in the movement. Michael Aris, Suu Kyi’s late husband, wrote after learning of her award, Many will now for the first time learn of her courageous leadership of the non-violent struggle for restoration of human rights in her country. I believe her role will come to serve as an inspiration to a great number of people in the world today.