Suu Kyi supporter disappointed with India

One of the many supporters of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is waging a lonely battle for greater rights in Myanmar, activist and author Ma Thida, feels that despite being the world's largest democracy, India has turned a blind eye to its eastern neighbour.

As a doctor and activist, who spent months locked in a prison where she came very close to death, Ma Thida finds the "ignorance" of the Indian government and its people towards Myanmar as a sad experience.

In Jaipur to attend Literature Festival, she talked about her country's expectations from India and how she feels the rich resources in Myanmar turned out to be a "bad luck" for its people. "India, especially the Indian government has turned out to be very ignorant about what's going on in Myanmar," she told a news agency.

"Besides the government, even the Indian media has also been ignorant, in the sense they have failed to inform their people about the situations in their immediate neighbourhood," she said.

The writer said given the two countries' similar colonial past, Myanmar has a lot of expectations from India but "despite having the potential of becoming a world power one day, India has never come out as a leader in the region, in many ways not only political but also economically and its sad and disappointing".

Born June 19, 1945, Suu Kyi is the opposition leader and General Secretary of the National League of Democracy. In the 1990 general election, Suu Kyi was elected Prime Minister as leader of the winning National League for Democracy party, which won 59% of the vote and 394 of 492 seats. She was, however, already kept under house arrest by the military junta before the elections. She has remained under house arrest in Myanmar for almost 14 out of the past 20 years.

Aung San Suu Kyi is now serving her third term of house arrest. She was arrested on 30 May, 2003 after the regime's militia attacked her convoy and killed up to 100 of her supporters.

Suu Kyi was the recipient of the Rafto Prize and and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thoughts in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 1992 she was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding by the Indian Government.

- Asian Tribune -