NEW YORK — Early Saturday, a crowd began descending on a narrow stretch of sidewalk at Queens College. The people came from all over New York and as far away as Miami and North Carolina, but originally, they and their families were from Burma. They stood in line overnight to see the leader of that country’s opposition, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was in New York on Saturday as part of her first visit to the United States in about 40 years.
“As soon as I heard she was coming, I decided I had to be here,” said Aung Kaung Myat, 25, a Burmese man living in Buffalo. “I got in line at 1 a.m.”
Now a member of the Burma parliament, Suu Kyi, 67, spent 15 years under house arrest and has long been an international symbol of personal sacrifice and the struggle for human rights. She languished in Burma as her two children grew up in a faraway country, largely without her. She remained there as her husband, Michael Aris, became ill with prostate cancer and died in 1999. She watched as a military dictatorship ruled the country that her father, Gen. Aung San, helped guide toward independence from British rule before his assassination in 1947, when she was a child.
And yet, during Saturday’s events, not a hint of bitterness was on display in Suu Kyi’s manner as she was lauded by New York politicians, was questioned by students and spoke to Burmese immigrants as if to a room full of old friends.
“Dissidents can’t be dissidents forever; we are dissidents because we don’t want to be dissidents,” she said in response to a question from a Queens College student about participating in Burma’s government after so many years as its most prominent opponent. “I don’t believe in professional dissidents,” she continued. “I think it’s just a phase, like adolescence.”
Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that ruling military authorities adopted in 1989. Suu Kyi and other regime opponents have refused to adopt the name change, as have the U.S. and Britain.
Suu Kyi’s release, her visit and her participation in parliament are all steps the government of Burma, now under President Thein Sein, a former general, has taken away from its authoritarian past. In Washington last week, she urged the easing of U.S. sanctions on Burma, saying that they had played their political role. But she made clear Saturday that much work remained.
“While we are started on the path,” Suu Kyi said in Queens, “we are not yet, in any way, near at our goal of a truly democratic society.”
Suu Kyi’s schedule also included a speech at Columbia University. In Queens, she was praised by Rep. Joseph Crowley, a Democrat, and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. And she was serenaded by Carole King, a Queens College alumna, with a slightly customized version of one of her best-known songs. (“Daw Suu Kyi, you’ve got a friend!” King cooed.)
Suu Kyi, a slight woman in an emerald green outfit, red flowers in her hair, spoke comfortably to the crowds and frequently drew laughs, whether from the Burmese community, which she addressed in its native language - a rapt group of nearly 2,000 pitched forward in their seats - or to English speakers at an earlier event.
“I lived in Manhattan for more than three years, and I loved this city at a time when people thought it terrible,” she said of a period that began in 1968. “It’s built like a grid, and I have no sense of direction whatsoever. It’s the only big city in the world where I’ve never gotten lost.”
Yet she also spoke about the role of discipline and duty in her own life; of Burma’s young people, put at a disadvantage by a crumbling education system; and of the country’s movement toward a more open government.
At one point, someone asked her about Pfc. Bradley Manning, an Army intelligence analyst accused of passing archives of classified documents to WikiLeaks. Suu Kyi got out of her chair, microphone in hand, before saying that one must balance rights with responsibilities, and that she had been dismayed to learn that some of the leaks revealed information about dissidents, and that might put them in danger in their countries.
From the past hardships and present challenges, she projected optimism about the future: “We were a country of hope in our part of the world, and we want to become that kind of country again,” she said. “A country that proves that there can be such things as happy endings.
“And when that happy ending arrives,” she continued, “I hope I will be able to welcome all of you into Burma.”
Front Section, Pages 4 on 09/23/2012