The former Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi no longer has the freedom of the city of Brighton and Hove after a unanimous vote by councillors.
The 78-year-old former State Counsellor of Myanmar – equivalent to a prime minister – was given the freedom of the city in 2011 in recognition of her fight against totalitarianism.
At the time she had already been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the US Congressional Gold Medal during long years spent under house arrest in Burma which now calls itself Myanmar.
Councillors voted to remove the honour because from 2016 to 2021 Aung San Suu Kyi led the country when the Rohingya Muslim community faced what many have described as genocide.
Brighton and Hove City Council leader Bella Sankey said today (Thursday 19 October) that the freedom of the city was the highest honour that the council could bestow.
At a meeting of the full council, the Labour leader said that Aung San Suu Kyi was the only woman to have received the honour rather than “men from certain socio-economic backgrounds”.
Councillor Sankey said that the council would look at who should receive the honour in the future – and would vote on bestowing the freedom of the city on the woman’s suffrage pioneer Mary Clarke at a special meeting later in the year.
In 2018, the council held a vote to remove the freedom of the city from Aung San Suu Kyi but did not achieve the required two thirds majority.
Councillor Sankey told the meeting at Hove Town Hall: “Aung San Suu Kyi has had the chance to extend her noted defence of civil rights to her Rohingya compatriots but has consistently chosen not to do so and has been seen as complicit in much of what had been happening.”
Labour councillor Mohammed Asaduzzaman said: “Her failure to speak up against the violence inflicted on the Rohingya Muslims is in conflict with our City of Sanctuary values of human rights and democracy here in our city Brighton and Hove.
“It is at odds with the spirit in which this council awarded her this honour. It is in conflict with the hope that we all placed in her for a better future for her country.”
Green councillor Sue Shanks said that it was important that the council reviewed who received the freedom of the city.
She said: “Very few of us live blameless lives and (very few) commit offences after the event. We want to remove the freedom of the city and think very carefully about who we give it to.
“Also, what benefits it might bring when we award (the freedom) to people.”
Conservative councillor Anne Meadows recalled the vote in 2011, shortly before she became mayor, and wondered why someone without a link to the city was given the honour.
Councillor Meadows said: “This should never have happened. (The honour should be awarded to) only those who are considered to have given service to the city for a long time – someone who has benefited this city and all of its residents.”
Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested in February 2021 when the army seized power and is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence.
Her crimes, which critics of the military regime said were politically motivated, include renting land to a charity below the market price.
Great!
Now can we do something about the bins, junkies, beggars and graffiti?
Asking for 10s of thousands local taxpayers
A full hour of full council time to waste on a questionable individual with nothing to do with the city who should never have been given freedom of Brighton and Hove in the first place and a pathetic half an hour offered to public questions for their electorate with some cut short and even aborted. This Labour Council are even more of a joke to democracy than the Greens
It was more like 20 minutes
I am not sure what Councillor Sankey means when she (reportedly) says that Aung San Suu Kyi “can no longer be said to be a puppet of the military junta”. The junta seized power on 1 February 2021. Aung San Suu Kyi never was their “puppet”. I take it Councillor Sankey simply means “the military”. Has Councillor Sankey been misreported?
What an absolute shower. A facade of a ‘debate’ on a par with the result already in the can. I’ve moved out of Brighton now and never been more glad to do so. I feel so sorry for those left behind who have to put up with these self-righteous, know-nothing nobodies ruling over them.
If Daw Suu were to know that she was perceived by the Council as “no longer a puppet of the military junta”, implying that at one time she was, I have not the slightest doubt that she would herself have revoked her “Freedom of the City” award. She would not have wished to be associated with a City Council which held such a grotesque and bizarre view of her position. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of Burmese would regard such a characterisation of her as an unwarranted insult of a very brave woman who has suffered so much under successive military regimes.
Her address on 21 August 2018 in Singapore to a distinguished audience (available online – 43rd Singapore Lecture organized by ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute “Democratic Transition in Myanmar: Challenges and the Way Forward “) revealed her compassion for Arakan’s Muslim refugees. [“Rohingya” is a political construction of the early 1960s by Islamic ideologues]:
“We share deep sympathy and concern for all displaced persons, especially women and children. There are around four million Myanmar migrant workers and displaced persons at present in Thailand……Similarly, we hope to work with Bangladesh to effect the voluntary, safe and dignified return of displaced persons from northern Rakhine. We have reached out to Bangladesh by sending Ministerial delegations to Dhaka and last week, the Bangladeshi Foreign Minister was invited to Myanmar to see at first hand preparations we have made for the resettlement of returnees……
“The danger of terrorist activities, which was the initial cause of events leading to the humanitarian crisis in Rakhine, remains real and present today. Unless this security challenge is addressed, the risk of inter-communal violence will remain. It is a threat that could have grave consequences not just for Myanmar but also for other countries in our region and beyond. Terrorism should not be condoned in any form for any reason.”
It is regrettable that the terrorist attacks by the militant Islamic organisation ARSA which led to the Burmese Army’s ruthless counter-insurgency operations in 2016 and 2017 found no mention at all in the tendentious background paper prepared for the meeting. Nor were these terrorist attacks mentioned by any councillor.
In short, you can take it that Daw Suu’s view of the City Council is now as antagonistic as the City Council’s view of her. There was never any likelihood that she would be given a fair hearing.