“Tribute to womanhood”- 16 May 2012
The picture of Aung San Suu Kyi standing in Myanmar Parliament taking oath appears just fascinating particularly against the background of many members in military uniforms laced with medals and colours. There she stood, erect in her small frame, determined, proud, and sure of herself, taking oath of office of Member of Parliament to complete the formality. And inside her mind must be raging a storm of mixed emotions — of vindication, determination, rejuvenation. In those few minutes, she must have lived once again in her mind those six painful years of house arrest just because she asked for a voice to her people. That was exactly what the military rulers did not want to give. The fight went on. The fight still goes on. And Aung San Suu Kyi has now become a symbol of that fight. True, this fight is not without rewards. International recognition came in huge loads. And one day, Nobel Prize also fell in her lap. Yet, she was not asking for all that. Her demand has been simple: Democracy in Myanmar. The destination is quite far. The fight may go on for quite some time.
Let us hope, one day, Aung San Suu Kyi’s dream of establishing democracy in Myanmar comes true. May her emerge the leader of the country that has had long and glorious history of welfare-ism. And let us hope, she will bring to her office feminine qualities of care, kindness, concern, commitment, and above all genuine love and affection for people.
This is a simple hope, based on only one fact that Aung San Suu Kyi is a woman. When a woman takes over as boss in a corporate, certain hopes, certain expectations, rise. The people inside or outside the organisation hope that the place would start ringing with certain virtues so closely associated with womanhood.
This is not poetry. This is portrayal of hope that resides in people’s minds.
Politics, of course, is a game of scoundrels. Here, good people turn bad ones. Here good people find themselves in terrible minority. Here, qualities of heart have little value. What is valued is the ability to stay in power, come what may. Politics, in a way, is a genderless game, in the sense, anybody and everybody has only one dimension — politics. What matters most here is the ability to stay afloat at the cost of others. It has never been a win-win game; it is always a win me-lose you game.
Then women like Mayawati, Jayalalitha, Mamata Banerjee, to name a few, become leading players in that game. They play dirty. They play cheap. They spoil things. They dash popular hopes. For, all they want is power — not for people’s good but for their own motives.
Let us hope, then, that Aung San Suu Kyi does not become a victim of those dirty trappings. Let us hope that she continues her virtuoso pursuit even in politics. And let us hope that she would bring to Myanmar an environment of goodness that is so essential for a civilisation to mature.
One knows, this is a utopia, a rather impossible dream. Yet, whenever a woman takes over reins in politics, the hope of goodness rises in people’s hearts. This is a tribute to womanhood, a silent recognition that resides in people’s hearts, no matter where the political drama is being played, India or Myanmar or Pakistan or Sri Lanka or Israel or Britain… Wherever a woman rises in political power, hopes of goodness, too, rise in accordance. More often, those hopes are often dashed on rocks of politics. Yet, the hopes refuse to die.
This is a tribute to womanhood.
