East Asia Today : Interview with Au

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East Asia Today 
August 10th 1998 

?BURMA - Interview with Aung San Suu Kyi 

Opposition Leader Ready to Step Up the Campaign for Change in Burma

In Burma the opposition National League for Democracy says its leader Aung
San Suu Kyi is now under virtual house arrest. Aung San Suu Kyi has been at
her house in Rangoon since she was forcibly sent home two weeks ago by the
military junta after trying to travel outside the capital to meet some of
her supporters.

But she has been able to receive some visitors, including our South East
Asia correspondent Simon Ingram. He began by asking her when she would be
fit enough to try to travel again after last month's ordeal:

Aung San Suu Kyi: I'm already fit enough. I could take it today, if we
could all get together in the van and go off with enough provisions.

Simon Ingram: What's stopping you then? What do you see as the main
obstacle? Is it simply a question of when?

Aung San Suu Kyi: It's a question of when. We'll choose the right time.

Simon Ingram: The political situation here in Burma does seem now in a
state of almost complete deadlock. Do you think it's time for a change of
strategy on your part?

Aung San Suu Kyi: It's not as though we have been sticking to one strategy,
have we? We've tried various strategies and we will keep on trying new
strategies, but we do want a peaceful solution. So a peaceful resolution
means a negotiated resolution.

Simon Ingram: In that sense, don't you think it might be an opportunity for
you to relax the demand that you've made - the stipulation that the NLD has
made - that you must be a participant in the talks in a way to call the
bluff of the regime, to bring them to the table?

Aung San Suu Kyi: We've never asked that I should be a participant in the
talks. We simply said that talks must be on a basis of equality which means
that if they choose their own representatives, we choose ours. That's all.
You cannot have genuine political negotiation unless it is on a basis of
equality. How can you say that it's a genuine political negotiation if one
side decides who is going to take part in the talks?

Simon Ingram: Do you think that the situation, the way it's evolving inside
the country - the economy, the international approbrium in which the regime
is held - do you think that events are actually moving in your direction?
Are you hoping that power will eventually drop into your lap?

Aung San Suu Kyi: No, I don't hope that power will drop into my lap. I
don't believe in sitting and hoping. We work for it. I'm confident that we
will achieve democracy because the tide of history is with us, because the
situation of the country is such that the military regime can really do
nothing for the country and the people know that change is necessary.

Simon Ingram: Has the regional situation evolved in your favour too,
bearing in mind recent events in Indonesia and the outspoken comments from
the Philippines about the need for change?

Aung San Suu Kyi: Yes, let's say that it's evolved in favour of democracy
because about a year ago there was still this talk about ASEAN values and
democracy within a western concept, and the best way to economic progress
being through some sort of seem-authoritarian regime. But all that talk has
died away, which of course helps us because we've always stood very firmly
by the principle that you cannot separate economic progress from political
stability, and you cannot achieve genuine political stability unless the
people are involved in the government of the country. That means, unless
there is a democratic system.

© BBC World Service