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An extraordinary woman

March 2013

  • Natasha Stott Despoja

In the midst of an interminable eight-month election campaign, it is worth reflecting that parts of the world move slowly towards democracy and often by means of great personal sacrifice by some remarkable human beings.

 

In February, I met with one: Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Daw is the honorific used in Burmese names). Myanmar’s democracy icon.

The visit with Daw Suu was the culmination of a Burnet Institute delegation that included visits to villages in peri-urban Yangon, meetings with Government officials and engagement with the international aid and research community.
 
The Burnet Institute is one of Australia’s leading medical research institutes, but we are also an accredited Non-Government Organisation (NGO). We have worked in Myanmar for a decade, initially in capacity building of HIV prevention, care and support and, now, in maternal and child health, and education.

We drove to the ‘new’ capital Nay Pyi Taw which is five hours from Yangon (or Rangoon as Daw Suu still calls it). We navigated dirt roads, among construction sites, to reach her home and were greeted with tea and cake as we huddled around her cosy table with her and her assistant Dr Tin Mar Aung.

Despite being over-worked and in high demand (a succession of visitors wait outside her humble capital home), she was elegant and calm. She appears younger than her 67 years, showing no outward signs of her incredible selflessness and sacrifice.

One purpose of our meeting was to invite Daw Suu to give the prestigious Burnet Oration. It is our annual lecture that showcases the leading talents in medical research (the 2011 oration was given by Nobel Laureate Francoise Barre-Sinoussi) and, each alternate year, a great humanitarian, reflecting Burnet’s two key elements: world leading research and practical action.

Daw Suu was aware of Burnet’s work and asked testing questions and offered comments. She had strong views on the need for medical professionals in regional and rural areas, and was passionate about maternal and child health as well as HIV and AIDS (singling out Burnet’s innovative CD4 point of care test in her comments).

She did not spend time repudiating the Government, nor attacking the junta. Nor did she reflect on her time in detention. Instead, she expressed her hopefulness of political progress, reminding us that “whatever we may think of the Government”, the Parliament was taking its role seriously.

This attitude could constitute an electoral challenge for her, as her willingness to work with government provides opportunities for the more “hard-core anti-military activists” wary of the “army-dictated constitution”.

We were impressed by the keenness of senior ministers, and other government officials, to engage in constructive dialogue about the challenges facing their people, especially in women’s and children’s health.

Although the decade has seen marginal improvements in health (a dozen years ago, the World Health Organization ranked Myanmar’s health system the lowest of 190 countries), women are still 50 times more likely to die in childbirth than in Australia.

We met with mothers’ groups in the villages who described their work on sexual and reproductive health matters (from identifying pregnancy complications to educating their peers about breast-feeding). We also heard their pleas for more skilled birth attendants, birthing kits, contraceptives, vaccinations, and money for hospital referrals.

Daw Suu said she loved Australia and was keen to visit, perhaps later this year, although, after learning the federal election date, she did say she was keen to avoid the election. She and I both, we joked.

She faces her own party’s political growing pains. In March she acknowledged the “defects” in her party, stating, “If we want to build this nation into a real democracy, we, the National League for Democracy, have to change behaviour, even with ourselves.”

Daw Suu’s passion for her people (their rights, safety, health and prosperity) is evident clearly still. This is a woman who voluntarily parted from her husband and sons, and from most of the comforts of life, to put her country or, more importantly, its people first.

It is hard for us to imagine the extent of her sacrifice. Such sacrifice is what democracy – or the hope of democracy – demanded of her. She is at the very top of the heroes of democracy: she endured, she suffered, and she never wavered.
 
She is a phenomenal human being. It is clear that the freedom and welfare of the Burmese people are to her what we keep for our families, our own ambitions and dreams of a better Australia. She is different because she has given her all.

 

Natasha Stott Despoja AM is former leader of the Australian Democrats and a Board Member, Burnet Institute.

burnet.edu.au

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