Murdoch man dismissed Aung San Suu Kyi as simply a “dissident”

A helpful historical reminder from Scott Burchill:

… It is wrong to assign a power of policy veto over the West to one favoured dissident, as appeared to happen in the 1990s with Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi.

[The Australian’s Foreign Editor] Greg Sheridan, Asian Values, Western Dreams (Allen & Unwin, St Leonards 1999), p.315.

SB: In 1990 Suu Kyi won a democratic election in Burma but was prevented from forming a government by the military, which has incarcerated her for most of the last 20 years. To describe her nine years after her election victory as simply “one favoured dissident” betrays an extraordinary contempt for both democracy and the wishes of the Burmese people. No wonder Sheridan has such a well-earned reputation as an apologist for right wing military dictatorships in East Asia. And why he has been conspicuously quiet since her release.

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