Aung San Suu Kyi's essay "Freedom from Fear" was first released for publication to commemorate the European Parliament's awarding to her of the 1990 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The award ceremony took place in her absence at Strasbourg on July 10, 1991.
This essay was released at the height of democratic fervor following the student protests of 1988, and is a clear and concise description by Aung San Suu Kyi as to what would be necessary in order for the Burmese people to someday win their freedom from the domination of the successive military juntas which have ruled Burma with violence and coersion since her father Bogyoke Aung San was assassinated in 1948.
Shortly after this essay was released Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the most highly regarded award among those who seek World peace.
However, the award has been a curse to the democracy movement in Burma which has fallen dormant ever since the Peace Prize was awarded.
Since the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) the military regime in power since 1988 which overturned the landslide results of the 1990 general election, and the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) regime which replaced it in 1997 have effectively marginalized the democratic movement by keeping Aung San Suu Kyi and the other leaders of the NLD either in prison, or under house arrest for most of twenty years.
They military regimes have ruled Burma with violence, fear, and an iron fist, enlarging Burma's standing army to the fourth largest in Asia despite the fact that the Burma army's only enemies are the Burmese democratic movement, and the Burmese ethnic nationality race citizens who want to live in peace in their own traditional homelands.
These ethnic nationality race citizens make up approxmately one third of the population of Burma, and are dominated by the Burma army which forces them from their homes, confiscates their land, natural resources and livestock, commandeers or destroys their crops, relocates them to forced labor camps and plantations, or uses them to build the roads used to attack areas which have not yet been plundered.
CLICK HERE to view a video presentation of Aung San Suu Kyi's Freedom From Fear essay.
To download a Windows Media Player version
CLICK HERE.
I hope this video will serve as a reminder to all those Burmese citizens who have forgotten her words, and also those who have been born and grown into young adults living under the same oppression as their parents since she wrote the Freedom From Fear essay.
These words will also be a good reminder to the citizens of the free world as to the character of the deposed Prime Minister elect Aung San Suu Kyi, a true to life heroine who not only had the courage to ask her people to free themselves from fear, but has shown them how to do it for twenty years.
Free the Burmese people.... and you will free Aung San Suu Kyi.
Garrett
