Lady”—Aung San Suu Kyi. We use her name as a representation of the movement for democracy in the once military junta-ruled country of Burma. Her face rests on cardstock on my bedroom wall with the Burmese caption which reads “Freedom to Lead.” Today, however, her name means something rather different for the country’s minority populations than solely fighting for democracy. 

The woman who spent nearly two decades under house arrest fighting against the country’s nearly 50 years of military rule is succumbing to the pressure herself. She is allowing for minority groups like the Rohingya to be oppressed, failing to speak up. Her almost superheric persona has made her vulnerable to widespread criticism, and rightly so. 

This reminds me of the film The Dark Knight, where Harvey Dent expresses,”You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” In this, he means that there is a spectrum of evil in which choices we make define us as good and another in which the choices define as us bad. We need to stop plastering “the Lady’s” image on our walls and wake her up before she becomes Two-Face.

Following years of colonization, the military government did everything in its power to establish a sole Burmese culture due to the everyday threat to Buddhist identity in the country. Colonial government sought to force its religious practice on the Buddhist majority country, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. With the opening of the country in 2011, the threat of violence against minority groups increased. 

 The marginalized Rohingya population largely inhabits the northwestern Rakhine state, and the group can trace itself as far back as the 15th century Arakan Kingdom. However, the government under the rule of President Thein Sein completely disregards the existence of the Rohingya identity, classifying the minority ethnic group as Bengali. As a result, the Rohingya are  often forced to either claim the Bengali ethnic identity in order to avoid being stateless, or flee the country due to lack of any basic rights under the Constitution. The group grabbed international headlines this summer when thousands of Rohingya fleeing the country were stranded in the ocean. 

Estimates put the number of migrants at one hundred thousand, according to United to End Genocide. Furthermore, the population of people confined to modern-day concentration camps in the country with little access to basic medical care reaches 140,000. Suu Kyi’s failure to recognize the rights of the Rohingya is anything but laudable. A major critic of Suu Kyi’s ambivalence, the Dalai Lama, expressed, “I met her two times, first in London and then the Czech Republic. I mentioned about this problem and she told me she found some difficulties, that things were not simple but very complicated. But in spite of that I feel she can do something.” 

Although many dedicated activists hope to attribute Suu Kyi’s uneasiness addressing the issue of the Rohingya to fear that the National League for Democracy will lose big in the upcoming Nov. 8 elections, that is no excuse for this approach, especially when she is taking so many other steps to alienate her own supporters. 

A ruling by the outdated Constitution forbade Suu Kyi from running for president because her late husband and children are all foreign nationals. However, the leader recieved deep criticism from the National League for Demcracy when vetting potential candidates for the upcoming elections. Many individuals deeply intertwined in the pro-democracy movement were passed over leading to rather controversial statements expressed by Suu Kyi herself. In Radio Free Asia, Suu Kyi expressed “The responsibility of the people is simply to vote for the party, and not the candidate.” 

Statements like these are the antithesis of what leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi have stood for for decades, and they have led many long-time supporters to leave the party. While the country the officially progressed to a democracy, one of its main leaders is becoming more and more authoritarian. Aung San Suu Kyi has lost her edge, and her party—and perhaps the future of the Rohingya—hangs in the balance.

Aung San Suu Kyi has a purpose. She is fearful of potential defeat of the NLD in Parliament. These concerns are far from unfounded, as the outdated Constitution—developed prior to the cessation of military rule—allocates a quarter of the seats to the military. In order to have a simple majority, the pro-democracy parties must gain two-thirds of the seats. That is a hard sell, as 40 percent of the seats are in minority concentrated areas where people will generally ally behind local candidates. 

While Aung San Suu Kyi represents a pro-democracy movement that came well before my time, it is essential to understand her evolving character and identity. Perhaps Suu Kyi is just attempting to allow her party to win the simple majority in elections until she takes action for the Rohingya. In this case, we can in some way try to absolve her from the crime of apathy. However, my love and admiration of the Lady should not just be something of the past. 

For now, I suppose I will keep her image plastered on my wall. But this time, it is different. This time, our consciences should be clear when we question Aung San Suu Kyi as we realize she is only human. However, “the Lady” should forever and always maintain her sole image as the renowned, resilient, pro-democracy activist who saved Burma.