Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

Aung San Suu Kyi, the Chandlers and Freedom.

At a time when news tends to be both disturbing and complicated, the simple and happy release of not one, but three famous captives over the weekend was very heart warming. It was a curious coincidence of timing that both Aung San Suu Kyi and Ron and Rachael Chandler regained their freedom over the same weekend. Both cases are, of course very different. The Burmese political leader had spent three quarters of the last twenty years under house arrest, but well treated, while the Chandlers had been held against their will for a year in a country not on their itinerary, in very poor and at times brutal conditions. This yachting couple were unknown until their capture. Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the most famous women in the world with almost a Mandela aura.

Neither situation is clear cut, nor the drama ended. The Chandlers have huge personal re-adjustments to make and are indebted to friends and family for the ransom which freed them. We all need to ask why it is in the modern age with all the naval force and technology available, an innocent couple cannot cruise in their yacht without fear of capture by pirates on the high sees. A whole regional economy of a failed state is now funded to the tune of $150 million a year by piracy. This has got to be put a stop to and the guilty economy set on a better path. Not enough is being done about this by the international community, especially by NATO, bogged down in Afghanistan in what is now officially accepted as a futile war, while ships and citizens of its members are captured an held to ransom on the ocean.

In Burma, for once, things look more hopeful. Aung San Suu Kyi has put out an olive branch to the generals and greeted, but not inflamed, her supporters. A reconciliation on the lines of South Africa may just be possible. In the West we must help and encourage, but avoid being too shrill about democratic freedom, whilst ignoring the condition of the people it is designed to improve. Democracy is everything to the West, but we need to understand that it is nothing if you are ground to poverty, hunger and disease under its yoke. The mess in Iraq shows that democracy may be the beginning but it is certainly not the end. In South Africa poverty, lawlessness and aids show just how challenging achieving the right end can be.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 15th, 2010 at 2:12 pm and is filed under Malcolm Blair Robinson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.