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Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at Nehru
- Subject: Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at Nehru
- From: caroline@xxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 14 Nov 1995 01:36:00
Subject: Aung San Suu Kyi's speech at Nehru Prize
Address on the Occasion of the Presentation of the 1993 Nehru Memorial
Prize for
International Understanding
Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Prime Minister, Members of the
Nehru Award
Committee, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests and Dear Friends,
This is a occasion for mixed emotions. there are strong ties of
friendship and shared
political ideals that bind me to so many people in India. I do not
remember a time when I
did not know about India and Panditji as we always referred to Pandit
Nehru in our
family. To be awarded a prize for international understanding established
in his memory is
a matter of pride and joy for me.
On the other hand I am well aware that the prize comes to me not as an
individual but as a
representative of the democracy movement in Burma. And that fills me with
a sense of
humility and gratitude, as is always the case when I am chosen to be the
recipient of
honours that are awarded to those who have rendered outstanding service
to the cause of
human dignity the world over. In my own country there are large numbers
of men and
women who do not enjoy the protection of international recognition, daily
risking their
well-being, their liberty and even their lives for the sake of principles
and rights that will
guarantee our people a secure and dignified existence. I am thankful for
the opportunity to
draw attention to the struggles of these brave men and women and to
accept, in all
humility, the Nehru Memorial Prize for International Understanding in
their names.
It is as much the desire to pay tribute to those who have sacrificed so
much in pursuit of a
free and democratic Burma, as to re-establish and strengthen my ties with
India that I so
much wish circumstances could have allowed me to receive this honour in
person today.
However, as that family, friend and honorary aunt, Daw Than E. She has
lived and
worked in India for many years and as the first Burmese to become a
member of the
United Nations Secretariat, she has been an ardent advocate and a
practitioner of
international understanding. I know that she will accept the prize on my
behalf with all the
grace and dignity the occasion merits.
Pandit Nehrus contribution to international understanding go beyond the
part he played
on the world stage during his lifetime to narrow the gap between diverse
cultures and
differing ideologies. His spirit continues to reach out to people
struggling to establish
universal human values in a word increasingly preoccupied with material
power.
During my years o detention the word and worked of Mahatma Gandhi and
Pandit Nehru
were a constant source of inspiration and support. I count these two
great Indians among
my most revered guides, mentors and friends. Throughput the six years
that I was cut off
from the world outside, I had hanging in the front hall of my house a
scroll on which I had
copied extracts from Pandit Nehrus immortal words on discipline, law and
order. These
words, to be found in my autobiography, made such profound impression on
me I would
like to quote the passage in its entirely:
Law and Order, we are told, are among the proud achievements of
British role in
India. My own instincts are entirely in favour of them. I like discipline
in life, and dislike
anarchy and disorder and inefficiency. But bitter experience has made me
doubt the value
of the law and order that states and governments impose on a people.
Sometimes the price
one pays for them is excessive, and the law is but the will of the
dominant faction and the
order is the reflex of an all-pervading fear. Sometimes, indeed, the
so-called law and order
might be more justly called the absence of law and order. Any achievement
that is based
on widespread fear can hardly be a desirable one, and an order that has
for its basis the
coercive apparatus of the State, and cannot exist without it; is more
like a military
occupation than civil rule. I find in the Rajatarangiri, the
thousand-year-old Kashmiri
historic epic of the poet Kalhana, that the phrase which is repeatedly
used in the sense of
law and order, something that it was the duty of the ruler and the state
to preserve is
dharma and abbaya- righteousness and absence of fear. Law was something
more than
mere law, and order was the fearlessness of the people. How much more
desirable is this
idea of inculcating fearlessness than of enforcing order on a frightened
populace?
The sentiments expressed by Pandit Nehru in the above passage are
exactly my on.
Often I have felt that we shared much in common and regrettednot having
taken the
opportunity to get to know him better during the year I was in India with
my mother. At
that time I looked upon him simply as a friend of my parents and never
imagined I would
one day come to look upon him as my own friend.
Pandit Nehru often broke through the barriers of race and
generation by his warm
humanity. On his way to London for talks on independence for Burma, my
father made a
stop in Delhi to have talks with Pandit Nehru and other Indian leaders.
Panditji
immediately showed a fatherly concern for my father, twenty-six years his
junior. He cast
a critical but kindly eye over the younger mans shabby, thin cotton
uniform and decided it
would not do. He arranged for several smart, warm woollen uniforms to be
run up hastily
by his tailors. Hearing that England was suffering from one of the
coldest winters in living
memory, Panditji also commandeered a greatcoat: a well-known photograph
of my father
shows him looking somewhat swamped in this greatcoat which is rather too
large for him.
When my mother was appointed Burmese ambassador to India in 1960,
Pandit
Nehru cast over her the warm protection of his friendship, always making
a point of
singling her out at public occasions to enquire after her well-being. It
was with such
gestures of human warmth that Pandit Nehru won the hearts of peoples of
all races and
creeds. And his intellect and integrity won him the respect even o those
who did not share
his commitment to democracy and internationalism.
For us who believe that a democratic political system offers the
best solutions to
the myriad problems that beset our imperfect world, the achievement of
Pandit Nehru and
India provide strong encouragement. This sub-continent of many races,
languages and
creeds; this nation that stepped forward proudly to keep its tryst with
destiny only months
after its fabric had been rent by horrifying communal strife; this great
republic that has had
to meet time and time again the challenges of poverty, extremism and
violence; this, the
largest democracy in the world, is proof supreme that there is no problem
beyond the
control of a system that respects the inherent dignity of man and honours
him as a being fit
for freedom and self-rule. It is the heartfelt hope of the vast majority
of the people of
Burma that our country too, on a day not far away, will become a
democratic nation
guided by the will of the people and ruled by dharma and abbaya.
India and Burma share more than a common frontier. Buddhism which
is the
backbone of Burmese culture sprang from India soil. The tolerance, loving
kindness,
compassion and self-control that Buddhism teaches are qualities that are
invaluable in a
world made smaller but more complex and potentially very dangerous by the
immense
technological advances of our age. More than ever there is a need to
recognise that all
peoples are bound by a common humanity, to cultivate those traits that
help us to
understand one another better. More than ever there is need for
magnificent beings like
Mahattama Gandhi and Pandit Nehru who could reach out t win alien hearts
with their
breadth of vision.
India today continues in the tradition of its great leaders. it
is indeed an honour to
have been chosen to receive a prize for international understanding from
this nation that is
so close to my heart.
Mr. President and members of the Nehru Award Committee, may I
thank you for
the honour you have done my country, my people and myself.
Thank you.