| Publicity: | In a crumbling, rambling old home by a lake sits a diminutive woman thoughtfully responding to the volley of questions from a relative stranger. Aung San Suu Kyi may be small, polite and gentle but don’t be misled. Even now in her mid 60s she’s an immoveable, seemingly unshakeable force and a powerhouse of ideas and aspirations for the people of Burma. |
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| The outsider is Foreign Correspondent’s Zoe Daniel who had spent months negotiating an interview with Burma’s most famous figure and then planning how to pull it off. Since Aung San Suu Kyi was released from house arrest she’s been under constant covert and overt surveillance by the authorities, so sealing a time and place for this exchange is one thing - getting there and getting it done is another. |
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| Zoe has slipped into Burma posing as a tourist – if she’s caught trying to interview the Democracy League leader or filming and reporting other aspects of life in Burma then she could be arrested, deported or jailed. The final few kilometres to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house is a nail-biting flurry of phone calls, advanced scouting sorties and finally a scurry through the front gates of the home that until recently has been a prison for a decade-and-a-half. |
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| Golden pagoda on lake | Music | 00:00 |
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| DANIEL: In crumbling Rangoon, the historic golden pagodas are certainly standout striking, but their beauty also highlights the surrounding decay. | 00:10 |
| Decaying Rangoon | Music | 00:21 |
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| DANIEL: The Burmese capital is dilapidated after years of neglect under military rule and trapped within this disintegrating city, is another Burmese icon. | 00:23 |
| Overlay of Aung San Suu Kyi | Aung San Suu Kyi is now 66 and for 15 of the past 21 years she’s been a prisoner in her own home. | 00:34 |
| Aung San Suu Kyi fades off | AUNG SAN SUU KYI: “I don’t get frustrated because I can’t go out. | 00:46 |
| Aung San Suu Kyi. Super: | I can read, I can listen to the radio – the only thing that used to bother me was when I felt I should be outside helping my colleagues and friends when there were difficult times”. | 00:49 |
| Travelling to see Aung San Suu Kyi. Daniel in car | Music | 01:02 |
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| DANIEL: After months of planning and negotiating, I’m on the last leg of my trip to see the world-renowned democracy campaigner. I slipped into Burma posing as a tourist. As a journalist I’m not supposed to be here and if I’m caught, I could be arrested, deported or gaoled. Just eight months since her release from house arrest, Aung San Suu Kyi’s every move is watched. So I’m still not sure if we’ll finally be able to get to her. | 01:07 |
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| Music | 01:40 |
| Aung San Suu Kyi house by lake | DANIEL: Eventually, we do evade surveillance and sneak in to meet Aung San Suu Kyi in her crumbling house on the shores of Inya Lake. It’s now the base for her renewed campaign, to inspire ordinary people to take control of their future. AUNG SAN SUU KYI: “There is a political agenda | 01:45 |
| Aung San Suu Kyi | and we have made no secret of this because what we are trying to do is to make the people understand that democracy is something for which everybody can work in their own, way and they must bring about the changes that they want. They must accept the responsibility for the society in which they live, and not just expect a political party or politicians to do their job for them”. | 02:03 |
| Daniel and Aung San Suu Kyi on veranda | DANIEL: She remains as determined and committed as ever, but the question for her and some of her key supporters on this assignment is this -- is she still the force for hope and change in Burma or has Aung San Suu Kyi’s time come and gone? | 02:33 |
| Rangoon general views | AUNG SAN SUU KYI: “I believe that in the end real change has to come from inside, that the really essential work must be done by those who are in the country”. | 02:52 |
| Daniel with Aung San Suu Kyi | DANIEL: “Do you find it frustrating that you.... well, I say you can’t leave the country, I mean I suppose you can, but you may not be able to return. I mean is that a | 03:03 |
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| source of frustration for you, not to be able to take your message out? To have to try and get it out through other means?” AUNG SAN SUU KYI: “No, | 03:14 |
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| because after all I can get out my message. It’s not the same as going, of course, but I’m not frustrated by it. I mean you’ve got to remember that I’ve been under house arrest for 15 of the last 20 years and I have discovered that I’m really not a gadabout” (both laugh). | 03:21 |
| Birthday rally | Music | 03:40 |
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| DANIEL: Aung San Suu Kyi has long been synonymous with the isolation of Burma. The opposition leader has been repeatedly gaoled in her own home by the regime for her policies and her popularity. On her birthday in June, thousands gathered to see the woman they call Aunty Suu. | 03:45 |
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| But the task of changing an intractable regime is immense and expectations are high. “What’s your feeling about how long people will have to wait to see any real change here?” | 04:17 |
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| AUNG SAN SUU KYI: “I don’t think you can work on feelings in politics. Apart from anything else, political change can come very unexpectedly, sometimes overnight when you least expect it. With politics I always say when people ask me, especially Burmese people when they ask me, when will we get democracy? I always say you ask yourself what you’ve been doing for the democratic process -- | 04:35 |
| Aung San Suu Kyi | and if you’re contributing a lot then you can, you have the right to think that it will come sooner than later, but if you’re doing nothing, then I don’t think you have the right to expect it to come soon. So everybody must try to make his or her own contribution and what I have discovered is that those who are.... who work hardest, are the ones who are least likely to say it’s taking too long”. | 05:03 |
| Military | Music | 05:29 |
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| DANIEL: Burma’s regime is brutal. An election last year transformed the Junta into a civilian government, but so far in name only. | 05:36 |
| Rioting/Tear gas | The military’s held power by force for almost fifty years against a backdrop of long running conflict with the country’s ethnic minorities. The country’s people face persecution, forced labour, rape and extortion. And Burma remains a pariah state – the international community maintains economic sanctions and continues to be encouraged to do so by Aung San Suu Kyi and her party. | 05:47 |
| Children in village | “I’ve noticed how poor it seems. It’s very blatant as soon as you arrive here. | 06:20 |
| Daniel with Aung San Suu Kyi | There’s been much talk about sanctions. Can you tell me why you are maintaining a position of retaining sanctions?” | 06:27 |
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| AUNG SAN SUU KYI: “I think people have to ask why sanctions were instituted in the first place. Sanctions are not really an economic weapon. Their aim is not something economic. Sanctions were instituted for political reasons and then of course a lot of people shout and scream about the fact that sanctions are making life tougher for the people of Burma and this is not the case at all”. | 06:38 |
| Boats on river |
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| Daniel on river boat | DANIEL: That’s a position that has prompted some to ask if Aung San Suu Kyi and her colleagues are really in touch with the ordinary people of Burma. | 07:10 |
| Travelling to meet Win Tin | I’m off to meet the National League for Democracy’s ageing co-founder, Win Tin. This other elder statesman of the freedom movement says the sanctions do harm Burma’s reputation but not the people themselves. | 07:22 |
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| WIN TIN: “We need sanctions because sanctions are the only action from the international community on the Junta. | 07:41 |
| Win Tin | It is very important and very, very tangible.”. | 07:51 |
| Daniel greets Win Tin | DANIEL: After forming the opposition with Aung San Suu Kyi, Win Tin himself spent 19 years in gaol for political activity, most of it in solitary confinement. He admits that the party probably is out of touch, because its members have never been able to walk freely among the people. | 07:55 |
| Win Tin. Super: | WIN TIN: “Well maybe they are true, maybe true, not because of our lack of contact with the people and so on, but maybe because we have no chance, you see, to make out”. | 08:16 |
| Win Tin into house | DANIEL: Now in his 80s Win Tin is so used to solitude that he lives in this tiny bungalow in retreat from public life, but time’s running short for a man who has sacrificed much of his life to bringing democracy to Burma. “Do you think that you will live | 08:35 |
| Daniel with Win Tin | to see real change in Burma?” WIN TIN: “I always think that I cannot | 08:53 |
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| see the real change in Burma but when Aung San Suu Kyi got released on November 13 I got some spirit, you see. I believe that I will see this. I will see it… see some change. | 08:57 |
| Win Tin lies on bed | So I think there might be some change before I’m away of course – but I’m now 82, maybe I will have to stay for about 20 years or something like that”. | 09:21 |
| Aung San Suu Kyi walks to fence and addresses supporters | DANIEL: Aung San Suu Kyi also remains remarkably patient about the pace of change and what she’s given up. “Do you ever think I’ve spent so much of my life | 09:37 |
| Daniel with Aung San Suu Kyi | devoting my life to this, I mean you’ve sacrificed so much, yet we’re still sitting here having this conversation after you’ve spent 15 out of 20 years under house arrest”. | 09:51 |
| Suu. Super: | AUNG SAN SUU KYI: “No. First of all I don’t think it’s a sacrifice and this is something that I try to explain, it’s a choice and I think it’s a little vain to see it as a sacrifice. What sacrifice? I decided to do this. Nobody forced me to do this. | 10:01 |
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| I did what I did because I believed in it, so it was a choice. A choice is quite different from a sacrifice. And then about the time element, of course if you ask me when would I like democracy I would have said tomorrow or even yesterday, but in terms of the history of a country, 20 years is not that long. In terms of the history of a far reaching movement, 20 years is not that long. Of course it seems long to those who want to get to where they want to get in a hurry - and we do want to get there as quickly as possible”. | 10:16 |
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| DANIEL: But will Burma’s next generation be so patient? | 10:54 |
| Zayar Thaw on stage | Zayar Thaw was a child when Aung San Suu Kyi’s party recorded a landslide victory in the 1990 election – a win that has never been recognised. Since then thousands, young and old, have been gaoled for supporting the opposition movement. | 11:00 |
| Zayar Thaw rapping |
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| Zayar Thaw has just been released after more than three years in prison for recording and performing subversive music – yet he’s on stage again already. | 11:29 |
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| He’s rejoining the ranks of Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters and risking re-arrest for speaking to us. But it’s a risk he’s prepared to take. | 11:42 |
| Zayar Thaw. Super: | ZAYAR THAW: “Because like us, young people want change. We live long in the military agenda but it doesn’t bring us our hope and it doesn’t bring anything except for poverty”. | 11:54 |
| Hip hop clip | Music | 12:12 |
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| DANIEL: Yes, Burma has a developing hip hop scene and through dissident hip hop group Generation Wave, Zayar and his friends put their message out via YouTube. In backward Burma, it’s a relatively new approach to circumventing the authorities and bringing attention to the limits on free expression. | 12:19 |
| Zayar Thaw with notebook | Just a couple of weeks out of prison and Zayar already has another song almost ready to go. | 12:42 |
| Zayar Thaw rapping | ZAYAR THAW: [Rapping] “You’re born and live in this country and should consider the country’s issues. Don’t drown this country – instead, over the country. It’s our fault the country’s sinking. Current issues of this country are marked as our cause. It’s our cause! That’s all”. | 12:49 |
| Zayar Thaw | [To Daniel] “Our people want to live in the normal life. Not specially or not so many things, we just want to live in the normal life like you”. | 13:06 |
| HIV clinic | Music | 13:19 |
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| DANIEL: A normal life in Burma can be about surviving one day at a time. This clinic in Rangoon is the only hope for some trying to do just that. They’ve been infected with HIV. | 13:33 |
| Suu visits clinic | A visit from Aunty Suu can lift their spirits, the health of her nation is one of her biggest priorities. | 13:51 |
| Yar Zar shows Daniel through clinic | YAR ZAR: “This young boy is Wan Noy, aged 9 years”. DANIEL: Yar Zar is a youth activist working here. | 13:58 |
| Yar Zar | YAR ZAR: “After her visit there are more donors and people are more interested in us”. | 14:08 |
| Daniel with Baby Mutapa | DANIEL: Baby Mutapa has already lost her mother to AIDS. She and her father Win Yut are also HIV positive. Without medicine they will die. | 14:14 |
| Sepa writes | Eight year old Sepa is not infected but he stands to lose his whole family. | 14:36 |
| Daniel at clinic | But a visit from Aung San Suu Kyi can have mixed blessings. The government has since ordered that the clinic be closed and relocated. | 14:44 |
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| When the government ordered that the clinic be moved, its operators simply refused to go. As you can see, it is still here but they’re now having to work with the government in order to keep it going. | 14:54 |
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| It’s typical of the Burmese regime to punish and repress its most vulnerable and to discredit its most high profile opponent, | 15:06 |
| Suu meets with supporters | but Aung San Suu Kyi’s newfound mobility will see her getting around more. She’s been told not to meet foreigners, but she does it anyway. “One point has been made | 15:17 |
| Aung Sun Suu Kyi interview | that your approach has changed since you’ve been released, that you’ve been trying to engage, for example, with the government”. | 15:30 |
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| AUNG SAN SUU KYI: “I don’t think my approach has changed at all. We’ve always wanted to engage with the government, and sometimes I’m surprised at what people come out with, because this is partly of course due to the fact that communications have been very poor in the past. For example. before I was placed under house arrest the last time, that is to say before 2003, cell phones were practically unknown in Burma. | 15:38 |
| Young men on street | Now with the improvement in communications, people are able to find out exactly what it is that we want to say”. | 16:07 |
| Nay Thwin on motorbike | Music | 16:17 |
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| DANIEL: New technologies are now getting the message out. Just outside Burma in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, an entire dissident media network has sprung up. Young Burmese people like Nay Thwin have left their homes on the inside so they can more freely publicise the issues affecting the country without risking arrest. | 16:25 |
| Democratic Voice of Burma office | This is the office of the Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident media organisation that was formed and funded by Norway after Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize. | 16:56 |
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| On TV, radio and via the internet, the organisation tells the world what’s happening inside the country. Teams of undercover camera operators work on the inside sending pictures and information out. It’s tricky and dangerous work. | 17:08 |
| Member addressing group | DISSIDENT MEMBER ADDRESSING GROUP: “When the five ethnic parties conduct campaigns, like during the military’s reign the local intelligence asks question such as, Where are you going? What are you doing? These actions are obstacles to our activity”. | 17:30 |
| Nay Thwin at editorial meeting | DANIEL: At the morning editorial meeting, Nay Thwin and his colleagues discuss plans for the day’s coverage and complex logistics. | 17:45 |
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| DISSIDENT MEMBER ADDRESSING GROUP: “Let’s do it in parallel through radio and upload it on the website”. | 17:53 |
| Nay Thwin in TV studio | DANIEL: Nay Thwin has been in Thailand for eight years. He plays a high profile role on television and radio, both of which broadcast into Burma. As well as daily reporting, he presents a weekly program which analyses the behaviour of the press inside the country which is heavily controlled. | 18:02 |
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| NAY THWIN: [On air] “And news about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s pictures – they’re not allowed to be printed in magazines this week”. | 18:23 |
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| DANIEL: He won’t be able to return to the country, unless there’s a regime change. | 18:31 |
| Nay Thwin. Super: | NAY THWIN: “No, no way I think - because I’m already on TV. It will be very risky. I’m sure I have to go to gaol, you know, if I go there”. | 18:37 |
| Bangkok | Music | 18:54 |
| Ohn Mar with baby | DANIEL: Further south in Thailand’s capital, there are many who’ve chosen not to wait for change. Single mother Ohn Mar left her three older children with her parents in rural Burma and moved to Bangkok to support them. She’s among two million economic migrants from Burma who are in Thailand, breadwinners for family at home. OHN MAR: “I am struggling alone. | 19:01 |
| Ohn Mar | It’s easier to earn here, and hard to earn in Burma”. | 19:33 |
| Ohn Mar with Sister Talu at church | DANIEL: On Sundays Burmese people come together at this church run by Sister Talu and her husband. | 19:43 |
| Congregation sings | Singing | 19:49 |
| Ohn Mar in church | DANIEL: Sister Talu left Burma 20 years ago. Now her charity helps displaced Burmese integrate into Thailand in the face of the exploitation and fear that dogs illegal workers. She says all of these people have left Burma out of desperation. | 19:56 |
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| SISTER TALU: “These people are really a vulnerable group. | 20:18 |
| Sister Talu. Super: | Most of the migrant worker came from the Burma border rural area and they have only little knowledge, education, and they came into Thailand”. | 20:22 |
| Congregation in church | DANIEL: She says all of these people have left Burma out of desperation. SISTER TALU: “Most of the people that I met, they are facing the economic problem issue, daily survival issue - so they said very hard to earn job... money in Burma”. | 20:36 |
| Ohn Mar in church | DANIEL: But Ohn Mar now has a new baby, Naw-aye, who is barely a week old. TRANSLATOR: “At this time your mother doesn’t know about this?” | 20:57 |
| Ohn Mar with baby | OHN MAR: “I cannot tell about my mistake as I am the oldest in the family”. | 21:08 |
| Ohn Mar with baby sits beside river | DANIEL: Now Ohn Mar is alone in Bangkok with her son and she can’t work, but she says she won’t go back to Burma until she saves enough money to provide for her family. | 21:16 |
| Ohn Mar with baby | TRANSLATOR: “Do you plan to return to Burma?” | 21:28 |
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| OHN MAR: “No, I won’t. As long as my goal is not reached, I won’t return”. | 21:31 |
| Ohn Mar home village | Music | 21:39 |
| Mother grinds rice | DANIEL: Ohn Mar is from Burma’s Mon state where her family lives in desperate poverty. It couldn’t be more different from Bangkok. Having us to visit could get the family gaoled for political activity, so we ask a Burmese friend to go on our behalf. Ohn Mar’s elderly mother is grinding rice into flour to make noodles to sell at the market. This is life for most people in rural Burma where poverty is the norm. So far in three years away, Ohn Mar has managed to send her family 18,000 Thai baht or about 600 dollars. | 21:45 |
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| There’s little optimism in this family on either side of the border that anything has changed since last year’s election and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi. | 22:31 |
| Ohn Mar | OHN MAR: “I don’t think there’s been much change. It’s the same”. | 22:45 |
| Sister Talu | SISTER TALU: “Most of the people that I’ve met, they are really emphasised on their daily lives, daily food and their family in Burma -- and some are, they really don’t pay attention to Aung San Suu Kyi also”. | 22:49 |
| Burma temples | Music | 23:08 |
| Suu on tour | DANIEL: But free to connect once more, Aung San Suu Kyi is making up for lost time. In her tour of the country, seemingly her every move is documented, the grainy footage uploaded secretly to the outside world. The reluctant gadabout is now out and about. | 23:14 |
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| AUNG SAN SUU KYI: “One of the nicest things I find about our people is how generous they are when they come to meet me. | 23:34 |
| Aung San Suu Kyi | There’s nothing that I’m doing for them, I’m just going out to say that here I am, I want to meet you, I want to keep in touch with you and to tell them what we’ve been trying to do and they’re always so cheerful, they always look so happy as though it was some special event. | 23:44 |
| Suu out of car, greeted by supporters | Sometimes that’s all we can do, just smile at each other and wave, but there this sense of closeness, the sense that there are very strong links between us and I think that’s important”. | 24:01 |
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| Music | 24:22 |
| Credits: | Reporter: Zoe Daniel Editor: Nick Brenner Camera: Wayne McAllister David Leland Research : Supattra Vimonsuknopparat Monty Sangar | 24:33 |