Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi will follow in the footsteps of international dignitaries such as Hillary Clinton and Melinda Gates next week when she is honoured with the prestigious Global Trailblazer Award.
The honour comes as part of the Global Leadership Awards given annually by the US-based women’s empowerment group, Vital Voices.
The 65-year-old Nobel laureate will also be named Voice of the Decade when she receives the award from Clinton, who was last year’s winner, at a ceremony in Washington on 12 April.
Suu Kyi of course will not be present at the ceremony – the Burmese government, which released her from house arrest in November last year, has said she is free to leave the country, but the chances of her being allowed to return are slim.
Vital Voices says that potential honourees include “social entrepreneurs, political representatives, businesswomen, human rights defenders and civil society advocate.
“From remote villages and wired cities, they promote equality, peace and prosperity as innovators who transcend barriers to move whole communities forward.”
The democracy icon is no stranger to awards, having been honoured with the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990, and the Nobel Peace Prize the following year. The Indian government has also honoured her with the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding, and Venezuela with the International Simón Bolívar Prize.
Tags: aung san suu kyi, burma, hillary clinton, myanmar
MPs returned to Parliament in Burma’s capital Naypyidaw
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emergence of Capitalism, colonialism, Communism, Socialism and etc, had allowed civil society faded among society itself. However, government, capitalism (globalization) and civil society are getting loomed and at some point doomed nowadays. Civil society is like Jeremy Rifkin calls it “our last, best hope”, to defend people from the social injustices by both government and market, and to preserve democracy and human rights forward. Among the industrialized nations, the civil society has defended their society for the issues from consumer’s rights to non-nuclear proliferation since 1980s. And, the rising power of civil society with the help of modern technology in the middle-east is challenging the authoritarian and dictatorship rules in the region.
Given the circumstances, what Daw Suu is doing is smart and doing right on her part. As we have repeatedly said on, we would like the critics overseas to tone down. Let’s just think about it. International governments, organizations and scholars have more leverage to criticize Daw Suu for what she is not doing enough, but they don’t, because they understand the nature and difficulty she is facing to move forward. And, that’s why they are insisting help instead. Regardless, our own kind and kin overseas have been ruthlessly attacking Daw Suu for her remark, “She accepts the new government as it is.”, and her failure to call far general strike these days.
For their information, the national leaders don’t call the people to get killed but intervene. If we look at the uprisings in the middle-east, they all started not by the leaders but by the civil society as a whole, which we don’t have it systematically and collectively at this point. Just relax and do your part. Daw Suu definitely knows what to do every now and then for sure. We have to give her a chance to do her job. We shouldn’t discourage to those volunteers in Burma – the youths, the intellectuals and technicians helping her by risking their lives -