What has happened to Aung San Suu Kyi?

In a statement, the demonstrators condemned the global silence on the ongoing crimes against Rohingya in Myanmar and called on the worldwide community to take action to restore the rights of the oppressed Muslims.

“If she were to speak out more vociferously in defence of the Rohingya, she would lose a lot of her domestic support”.

“I certainly don’t think it’s illegitimate to ask that she be more vocal in her compassion for this really beleaguered population, but she inherited an absolutely very bad situation of Rakhine State”, he said.

I want to believe that Suu Kyi is the great leader who I look forward to when I see humanity in need of one.

“These photos showing that Bengalis are torching their houses emerge at a time when worldwide media have made groundless accusations of setting fire to Bengali houses by the government security forces and the killings of Bengalis”, said the Eleven Media daily.

For shame, Ms Suu Kyi.

“But with more people fleeing for their safety, Britain is immediately releasing a further £5 million from existing funds to provide additional critical life-saving assistance – such as food, shelter, water and sanitation to those who are fleeing the violence”, she added. “She does not have any idea how to handle this”.

The United Nations needs to intervene as a matter of urgency to find a solution to this sad situation that has emerged in that fledgling democracy.

Other senators, including Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., and Cory Gardner, R-Colo., have expressed similar concerns this week.

Many have crammed into muddy, overcrowded camps in next-door Bangladesh, whose authorities raised concerns this week that Myanmar’s military was planting land mines along the border while civilians fled. There was a time when even cereals were imported from that country.

The real lesson we should take from the crumbling of the Suu Kyi myth is to consider how and why we turn leaders into symbols in the first place.

Modi also said India has made a decision to release 40 Myanmar citizens who are imprisoned in India.

Trump administration officials did not respond to requests for comment.

The Myanmar military undertook the current “clearance operations” after Rohingya militants attacked government forces on August 25, killing and injuring many among them.

Whether or not she has any direct control of the situation, she is answerable to the world at large – to the people who once lauded her for her Nobel peace award, people who are calling into question her claim to this award.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party won the election on November 2015 but, instead of a decrease in the state violence against the Rohingya, we have witnessed an increase. She emphasized that she is focused on speeding up development and economic opportunities to help alleviate some of the tensions.

Previous year she created the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, chaired by former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, with the objective of improving the lives of all in Rakhine.

Suu Kyi’s apparent amoral politicking has brought her the opprobrium of an alliance of the courageous led by Pope Francis, who, in an address a few days ago, alluded to the Rohingya who have “been suffering and tortured for years, killed simply because they want to live their culture and their Muslim faith”.

In retrospect, we knew too little of Myanmar and its complex narratives of ethnic rivalries, deepened by poverty and manipulated over decades by military rulers. And that too right under the nose of San Suu Kyi, the vanguard of peace, who in her capacity as state counselor, is charged with the duty of overseeing Myanmar’s military.

Her reticence likely reflects a political calculus.

We did not calculate that the stubbornness which refused to concede to the military junta might, if she came to power, prove equally forceful when confronted with foreign criticism.

Interestingly, at the time of India’s Partition, Rohingya leaders had pleaded with Mohammed Ali Jinnah to be included in his plan of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) saying the Burmese would eventually decimate them. Anti-government commentators have suggested that the BJP regime is unwilling to accept Rohingyas only due to their faith, whereas Hindu and Buddhist refugees have always been given shelter in this country.

Refugees from Myanmar this week described walking through the jungles for days to reach the border and cross into Bangladesh, where they have built flimsy structures with bamboo and plastic sheeting.

She is one of six people who have ever received honorary Canadian citizenship.