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NDI, IRI Honor Aung San Suu Kyi
Madeleine Albright, NDI chairman, and Sen. John McCain, IRI chairman, present Aung San Suu Kyi with the democracy and freedom award. Photo by Chan Chao.
NDI and the International Republican Institute (IRI) hosted Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democratic activist, member of parliament and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate at a dinner last month, during her first trip to the U.S. in four decades.
Aung San Suu Kyi, a tireless champion for peaceful political reform, spent almost 15 of the last 20 years under house arrest. In 1996, NDI gave her its W. Averell Harriman Democracy Award, but because of her confinement, her late husband, Michael Aris, accepted it on her behalf. IRI had similarly given her its Freedom Award in absentia. Both institutes presented her with an award in person at the Sept. 19 dinner.
"I know many of us wondered at times whether we would ever see this day," said Sen. John McCain, IRI chairman, in his introductory remarks. "But no matter how long the wait, no matter how long the moment of liberation was deferred, we had faith that this day could not be denied forever."
Until our people believe in themselves and believe in their ability to sustain democratic systems, we cannot say that we have achieved democracy.
~Aung San Suu Kyi
During a nearly 30 minute address to a bipartisan audience of lawmakers, government officials and Burma supporters, she spoke about her party's campaign for parliament and the challenges of being a new lawmaker. "Reforms are difficult and complex," she said. "Especially in a country like mine, where we have not known what reform meant for many, many decades...That is what we have to learn as part of the democratic process, that those who are in power have a duty to explain to those who put them in power, because that is how a democracy works."
"The yearning for freedom is relentless, and so is Aung San Suu Kyi," said former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, NDI chairman. "The path to extraordinary change is open in Burma if the leaders have the good sense to listen to The Lady."
NDI has supported international advocacy for Burma since 1995. In 1995 and again in 2011, NDI President Kenneth Wollack traveled to Burma to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2012, NDI conducted two assessment missions to Burma focusing on parliament and civil society, reviewing the state and pace of change. NDI witnessed the April 2012 parliamentary by-elections. The Institute's current programs support the efforts of Burmese citizens to advocate for political and electoral reform before national elections scheduled for 2015.
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