Myanmar earthquake could hasten the release of Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi, the elected leader of Myanmar, is reported to have survived last week’s devastating earthquake unharmed in the prison cell where she is kept in solitary confinement. But could the disaster prove the prelude for her return to power?

- PETER POPHAM

If it did, it would be only the latest of the stunning reversals of fortune that have dotted her career.

The former Oxford housewife – who, with her National League for Democracy (NLD), has won the only three fair general elections held in Myanmar in the past 65 years – was jailed on trumped-up charges in 2021. Now aged 79, it is feared she could die in prison.

Suu Kyi’s return to official favour is not on anyone’s list of probable outcomes of the disaster. Her present situation is substantially worse than any she has endured in more than 20 years of official persecution.

Her long years of house arrest after 1990 were punctuated by occasional overtures of peace from the ruling generals, but this time around there has been nothing of the sort. She is not locked up in the modest comfort of her home, but in a squalid jungle jail, and if there have been any approaches by the military, they have not been publicised. Everything possible has been done to turn her into an unperson.

Two factors, however, make her dramatic rehabilitation possible. One is her legitimacy in power. Despite the generals’ baseless claims to the contrary, Suu Kyi won the elections of 1990, 2015 and 2020 by landslide margins, results recognised by foreign monitors as fair.