Trump and Min Aung Hlaing: Taking a "constant individual stance against tyranny."
Many American readers have identified with the near coup they suffered in their own country on January 6 with the actual coup that took place in Myanmar in February 1. For Sue, however, this comparison has been embedded in her mind for already a decade, as she explains in her interview on Love Letters to Myanmar: Gratitude and Growth. She came to the country on a temporary contract to assist with Cyclone Nargis, but ended up falling in love with the country and staying on for many more years.
“it’s clear to me that democracy does not appear out of thin air, but something that involves daily struggle.”
“As someone who grew up in the United States since a young age, I now realize looking back, that I took democracy and many of the functioning institutions here for granted. I was very fortunate to work in Myanmar during these 10 years of its experimentation with democracy, and it deeply made me appreciate that it is a distant dream for most people in the world. And an ideal for which many people fight for generations, and to which many people bravely give their lives.
So, after this experience, it's clear to me that democracy does not appear out of thin air, but something that involves daily struggle. It is a constant individual stance against tyranny. So I met and was inspired by many of these courageous people during this time that I was there.
For example, there were these lawyers who I worked with, to better understand the land politics in the country. I would follow these lawyers around the country as they gave their pro bono services to communities who had suffered in justices under the previous regime, prior to the transition. So I was able to see how these brave individuals, many of whom had recently come out of prison, had returned to the fight for democracy.
These impressions followed me back to Europe to the United States two years ago. And I found myself drawn into this country's own fight against tyranny, as Trump threatened to tear down our democratic institutions.
My experience in Myanmar made me ever more sensitive and determined to do what I could to contribute to America's battered democracy. And to do what I can for the Myanmar people in this current crisis.”