On the flight over I watched luc bressons The Lady, the incredible story of Aung San Sui Kyi. I had seen Beyond Rangoon many years ago and was aware of the plight of the ordinary Burmese. About ten years ago I travelled across the Thai border at Mai Sot for a day trip and have had to wait all these years until the government has allowed foreign tourists to travel independently, often under restrictions, to this amazing country. On my nine hour bus trip today I listened to Sui Kyi giving two of the annual Leith lectures on freedom and democracy. This is the greatest rite of any citizen, and one that is too often taken for granted , with a lazy and apathetic attitude to voting. Scratch the surface of the landscape covered with golden stupas, the smiling faces and the chanting and you find yourself in a land the has recently been recognised as the most corrupt in the world, second only to Somalia.
There are pictures of Aung San, the founding father of democracy around along with smiling images of Sui Kyi herself, but there are police on street corners across Yangon and its democratic leader has just entered parliament after almost twenty years under house arrest and subsequent imprisonment.
In her lecture she welcomes independent travellers here, to see this beautiful country, to spend our dollars away from the govt and crony led hotels and restaurants and to experience what Burma has to offer. It reminds me of waiting for that window of opportunity to visit Sri Lanka nine years ago when there was a major ceasefire from the Thamel tigers.
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