Suu Kyi says Myanmar on ‘verge of breakthrough’: Military Dictatorship Reform as Democracy

A five-day dialogue on Making Democracy Real (Jan 8-12, 2012) held at Asia Plateau, the Initiatives of Change centre in Panchgani, India, opened on Sunday with a video message from Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s leading democracy campaigner.

Suu Kyi said her country was ‘on the verge of a breakthrough’ in its quest for democracy. ‘When people of a nation can shape their own destinies it’s a great thing.’ However, she warned, there was no ‘point of no return’ in the process of democratization. ‘One can always turn back at any time.’

‘Democracy is to do with society; it is not just to do with government,’ she continued. ‘So we need to take all kinds of steps in all kinds of directions, politically, socially, educationally. And, of course, civil society must be involved and also the international community.’

There is never an end to the road of democracy. Once we have achieved political democracy, we have to achieve social democracy’, said Suu Kyi. ‘It is in fact a march towards several doors at the same time.’ Burma’s long years under a military regime, she said, came about as a result of weaknesses in the whole country. ‘We need to be independent from our own weaknesses.’