Who will free Myanmar?

After hours of speculation and anguish, it was officially announced; ‘the’ news the world wanted to hear for long. Myanmar's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi walked free from her lakeside home after years of imprisonment to the delight of scores of her supporters and pro democracy supporters worldwide. She was her usual self, the image we have seen umpteen times from the archives of channels, the petite indomitable lady, smiling and charming all around her, walked into freedom from her aging house towards the gates which was the end of her world for over two decades.  

The world has greeted this fresh release of the symbol of democracy with guarded optimism.  While there is a bit of celebration going on, nobody is certain how long this wave of freedom will last. Could this be good news that is temporary? Is this another truce just to tide over the illegal elections that were conducted a week back? However, nobody dares to imagine that the freedom of this leader is the freedom of Myanmar. The military still rules, a junta that has stamped upon civil and human rights and still has successfully shielded its face from the public.

India, the land of Gandhiji, has not levered enough for her release.  Myanmar, which was landlocked to India, has conveniently ignored the determination of this lady, who has survived many odds. India has remained criminally silent, an observation made also by President Obama during his visit to India. India as a nation should have taken greater interest in her release, for it was Gandhiji who said that India’s freedom means the freedom of the world also.  However, India has many things at stake.

Myanmar still remains isolated.  Military juntas have existed in many parts of the world, but have been battered by the tide of democracy and have vanished, but not in Myanmar. The only country in Asia where the junta steamrolls everything on its path is Myanmar. Neither the demonstrations of the Buddhists nor the natural calamities have slowed down the junta. Would Myanmar become just a footnote in the history of the world? Two Nobel laureates, one in Myanmar, another in China, both reveal the fighting spirit of democracy that the whole world is moving to Democracy.  Which Suu Kyi is going to be more potent, the lady behind the bars or the leader that is freed?