A Stupid Swim Sinks Myanmar’s Hopes

I’m not ashamed to say that I’m a proud, red-, white- and blue-blooded American. My favorite sports team since childhood remains the New York Yankees. I search Jakarta restaurants for good apple pie.

But the actions of one fellow US passport holder peeved the heck out of me, cast an appalling shadow over the image of the country of my birth and cost a struggling people its hero.

In early May, 53-year-old John Yettaw, of Falcon, Missouri, decided to swim across the lake that borders the Yangon home of Myanmar’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. That is where the ruling military junta has kept the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years.

Because Suu Kyi couldn’t get the uninvited visitor to leave before two days passed, she was taken to jail and charged with violating terms of her home detention. A court’s verdict this month resulted in an extension of house arrest for 18 more months.

Yettaw said he had been on a visionary “mission” to save Suu Kyi from assassins. What a selfish, thoughtless and possibly history-changing act of stupidity.

The 64-year-old daughter of the founding father of what was formerly called Burma was just days away from the end of her latest term of confinement. Supporters had been gearing up for announced elections next year in which there was reason to believe that Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy would be strong, especially after the deadly government crackdown on Buddhist monk protesters in 2007.

Then this pea-brain Yettaw puts on homemade flippers and makes waves felt around the world.

International human rights activists say her prosecution on seemingly silly charges was a way to keep Suu Kyi and the hopes for a democratic Myanmar locked up past the voting.

You see, the woman is everything a true leader should be. After the last free elections in 1990, Suu Kyi would have become prime minister. But the military men decided to simply void the results. When you hold the guns, you can do that.

Suu Kyi could have left the country at any time after that to join her husband Michael and two sons in England. But she chose to stay to lead a fight waged from behind locked gates.

I had the chance to interview the courageous woman live by telephone during a program I anchored for NBC Asia in Hong Kong in 1996. It was an opportunity that I and other journalists would soon thereafter never have again.

An excerpt of that interview follows. The years pass, but time has stood still in Myanmar. I’m certain Suu Kyi would say the same words today in a clear, firm voice:

What would you like to see done by the international community, perhaps to help the situation in your country?

SK: We would like the international community to take a united stand against the harassment and persecution of democracy forces in Burma. And we would like the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries particularly to reconsider their policy of “constructive engagement” (which says the situation is better served by not breaking off economic and political ties). It’s not helping bring about further democracy.

Miss Suu Kyi, many people close to you – your friends, colleagues, supporters – have been detained. Are you worried about your freedom? Are you OK?

SK: I’m all right, I’m not worried about my freedom. I’m a free person. I was free when I was under detention because my mind was free. And my mind will remain free.

Is there anything you can say directly or would like to say to those who support your efforts and the efforts of your party?

SK: We think the time has come for everybody to accept that the present military regime has to change its ways. They keep saying that they’re working for democracy. I think now that it must recognized that they do not really want democracy and they’ve got to be made to understand that democracy is the best way for everybody in Burma, for them and for us. What we want is a national reconciliation achieved through genuine political dialogue. And I think genuine political dialogue would be good for them as well as for us.

Now Suu Kyi’s voice is further silenced, with the witless assistance of an ugly American’s jump in the lake.

Hawaii native Dalton Tanonaka is the co-anchor of Metro TV’s "Indonesia Now" program, seen on Saturday mornings at 7 a.m. and Sundays at 1 a.m. He can be reached at dalton@metrotvnews.com.

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