Week two:翁山蘇姬

Aung San Suu Kyi, a tenacious fighter for democracy

She is small but only in physical stature. Aung San Suu Kyi is the very embodiment of Myanmar's long struggle for democracy.

The 66-year-old human rights icon defied Myanmar's authoritarian military junta with her quiet demeanor and grace when she spent 15 of 21 years under house arrest for her unending opposition to authoritarian rule in Myanmar.

By the time she was freed in November 2010, she had become, perhaps, the world's most recognizable political prisoner. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights.

Over the past year, Suu Kyi has met repeatedly with Myanmar's President Thein Sein and the country's minister for labor and for social welfare, relief and resettlement, Aung Kyi.

Now, she will participate in Myanmar's next elections, Nyan Win, the spokesman for her National League for Democracy, said Friday. Her National League for Democracy announced earlier Friday that it planned to re-register as a political party and participate in all future parliamentary elections.

During her captivity, she lived quietly by herself at her disintegrating Inya Lake villa in Yangon (the former capital, also known as Rangoon), accompanied solely by two maids.

She had little outside human contact except for visits from her doctor.

Sometimes, though, she was able to speak over the wall of her compound to her supporters, never once tiring of her crusade to break down the tyranny of dictatorship in her beloved homeland of Burma, the alternate name for Myanmar.

Known as the "lady" in Myanmar, Suu Kyi has been compared to former South African President Nelson Mandela, who spent a chunk of his life in jail for fighting apartheid.

In an interview with CNN several years ago, Suu Kyi, in fact, likened Myanmar's plight to South Africa's former brutal race-based system.

"It's a form of apartheid," she said. "In Africa, it was apartheid based on color. Here, it is apartheid based on ideas. It is as though those who want democracy are somehow of an alien inferior breed and this is not so."

The daughter of Gen. Aung San, a hero of Burmese independence, Suu Kyi spent much of her early life abroad, going to school in India and at Oxford University in England.

She never sought political office. Rather, leadership was bestowed upon her when she returned home in 1988 after her mother suffered a stroke.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/18/world/asia/myanmar-suu-kyi-profile/index.html

1. Why did Aung San Suu Kyi be under house arrest?

2. How many years did Aung San Suu Kyi be under house arrest?

3. When did Aung San Suu Kyi be freed?

4. What prize did Aung San Suu Kyi win?

5. Where did Aung San Suu Kyi spend much of her early life abroad?

Keywords:

1. embodiment 實施方案

2. resettlement 安置

3. captivity 囚禁

4. crusade 聖戰

5. apartheid 種族隔離

6. plight 困境

7. inferior 劣勢

8. bestow 賜予