Many consider the no 13 as an unlucky number.But on November 13 this year, the Myanmar opposition politician and former General Secretary of the National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, was set free from house arrest. Since her detention on July 20,1989, Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the 21 years in confinement. In spite of her detention by the military rulers, the party led by Suu Kyi won 59% of the national votes and 81% (392 of 485)of the seats in Parliament in the elections in 1990.Freedom dawned on Suu Kyi on November 12 this year, days after the junta-backed party –Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)– won the elections that were conducted after a gap of two decades. Welcoming her release,United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that he deeply regretted that she was not allowed to take part in the elections. US President Barack Obama who said that Suu Kyi was his hero and an inspiration to all those who worked to advance basic human rights called for the release of all political prisoners in Myanmar.

British Prime Minister David Cameron lauded the Nobel laureate and urged the Burmese regime to uphold her right to freedom. On the other hand, former British premier Gordon Brown urged the ruling party to give the Nobel laureate her rightful place as leader of her political party German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Suu Kyi a symbolic figure of the global fight for human rights, while French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that his country would be watching the conditions of Suu Kyi’s liberty.India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna said that the pro-democracy leader’s release would be the beginning of process of reconciliation in Myanmar. The minister too commended the recent elections in Myanmar and said that it was an important step in the direction of national reconciliation.

Born to Aung San and Khin Kyi in Rangoon,presently Yangon, on June 19, 1945, Suu Kyi was brought up by her mother after her father was assassinated by his rivals in 1947 after he successfully negotiated the country’s independence from the British Empire. Her father had founded the modern Burmese army,while her mother was a nurse. Suu Kyi lost one of her brother’s Aung San Lin under tragic circumstances, while another brother Aung San Oo immigrated to San Diego, California.Many people tag on the name of their father and their village with their names, while the Nobel laureate derives her name from three relatives: Aung San from her father, Suu from her paternal grandmother and Kyi from her mother Khin Kyi. In 1988, Suu Kyi returned home to look after her sick mother, but later took up the pro-democracy movement. This kept her away from her husband and her two children,who stayed in UK.Even though her husband was seriously ill and suffering from prostate cancer, he was not allowed to visit her though the Nobel laureate was allowed to visit him. She, however, refused to move out fearing that she may not be allowed to return home. Aris had met Suu Kyi last for Christmas in 1995 and passed away on March 27, 1999. Since her arrest in 1989, her husband had met her only five times. On the other hand,only after she was set free did she meet her younger son that too after 10 years and has yet to see her grandchildren.Many awards and honours were conferred on the Mynarmese leader during her detention. In 1990,Aung San Suu Kyi received the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and in 1991 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. A year  later, India awarded her the JawaharlalNehru Award for International Understanding and the Venezuela government conferred the International Simón Bolívar Prize on her. With the money from the Nobel Peace Prize, Suu Kyi called for the establishment of a health and education trust for the Burmese people.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee while awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991 said that they were honouring her for her non-violent struggle for democracy & humanrights. They said that the prize also meant extending support to countless people throughout the world who were striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means.The military junta was not moved by opposition leader’s fate even after Cyclone Nargis toppled the roof of her house on May 2, 2008. Suu Kyi lived in complete darkness after power lines snapped at her lakeside residence. She survived the nights with candles till orders on renovation and repairs were issued in August 2009. Her detention was extended in May 2009, just before her sentence was to get over after an intruder entered her house and spent two days there.She was arrested and charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest. She was convicted and sentenced to three years prison term, which was scaled down to 18 months, and not allowed to contest the 2010 multiparty elections. A set of new election laws were enacted in March 2010.

which debarred individuals from participating in elections if they had been convicted of a crime (as she had been in 2009), or married to a foreign national. (Her husband was a British).Giving a call for a democratic government in 1988, Suu Kyi addressing the countrymen said that it was not power that corrupted but fear.

Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it, said the Theravada Buddhist.A follower of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence and Buddhist concepts, an assassination attempt was made on the life of Suu Kyi on November 9, 1996. The pro democracy leader was arrested under the 1975 State Protection Act (Article 10 b), which empowers the government to arrest anyone for a period of five years without any trial, and the Law to Safeguard the State Against the Dangers of Those Desiring to Cause Subversive Acts (Article 10 a).Once during a chat with the media, Suu Kyi said that during detention, she spent her time reading philosophy, politics and biographies sent by her husband. She said that for sometime she played the piano and was allowed to meet foreign ambassadors and personal doctor. From time to time, the United Nations held talks with the ruling military junta to seek freedom of Suu Kyi but all attempts failed. On May 6, 2002, thanks to UN intervention, Suu Kyi was set free only to be re-arrested on May 30, 2003.

In the early part of her life, Suu Kyi studied at the Methodist English High School (now Basic Education High School No. 1 Dagon) and picked up many languages. Suu Kyi graduated from the prestigious Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi with a degree in politics in 1964 after the newly formed Burmese government appointed her mother Khin Kyi as ambassador to India and Nepal in 1960. The Burmese leader pursued her education at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and in 1969, obtained a Bachelors degree in Philosophy,Politics and Economics. In 1985, Suu Kyi earned her Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Five years later,she was elected an Honorary Fellow and for two years, she was a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies (IIAS) in Shimla, India.

Odd job site

On his way to perform at a graveside service, the bagpiper gets lost. After many wrong turns, he finally arrives,but the minister and mourners have already gone. Only the grave diggers remain, and they're eating lunch. Not knowing what else to do, the bagpiper begins to play.The workers put down their lunches and weep as the man plays "Amazing Grace." When he finishes, he packs up his bagpipes and heads for his car.As he opens the door, he hears one of the workers say, "I've never seen anything like that before, and I've been putting in septic tanks for 20 years."