Media

A Centenary Dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi

22 May 2011

 

Burmese political leader, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi will speak to and interact with Hong Kong public in the University of Hong Kong (HKU) through televised transmissions from Burma.

The event, entitled ‘A Centenary Dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi' is organized by HKU's Faculty of Social Sciences.  This is the first time Aung San Suu Kyi accepts the invitation of an Asian university to conduct a dialogue since her release from house arrest last November.

As one of the world's most renowned human rights and peace advocates, Aung San Suu Kyi will discuss a broad set of contemporary issues with members of HKU and the Hong Kong public. This lecture will be conducted in the form of a live dialogue.

HKU is proud to present a series of Centenary Distinguished Lectures, as part of its 100^th anniversary celebrations in 2011 -2012, by some of the world's most brilliant minds.  Aung San Suu Kyi is the eighth speaker in the series.

Members of the media are cordially invited to cover the events. The details are:

Date:  May 30, 2011 (Monday)
Time:  3:30pm - 5:00pm (Hong Kong time
            Video conference between Burma and Hong Kong 
            Registration from 3:00pm; Seating by 3:15pm
Venue: Loke Yew Hall, Main Building, The University of Hong Kong

Panelists:
- Professor Ian Holliday, Dean of Social Sciences, HKU
- Professor Joseph Chan, Head of Department of Politics and Public Administration, HKU
- Mr Frank Ching, Writer and Commentator

To know more about the event, please visit: http://www.socsc.hku.hk/assk/

The talk will be broadcasted live at Hongkong Cable TV Live News Channel (Channel 10) on event day.

For media enquiries, please contact: Ms Trinni Choy (Assistant Director (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office) tel: 2859 2606 email: pychoy@hku.hk  or Ms Melanie Wan (Manager (Media), Communications and Public Affairs Office) tel: 2859 2600 email: melwkwan@hku.hk.

About the Speaker

AUNG SAN SUU KYI is a leading Burmese politician and opposition figurehead. Daughter of independence hero General Aung San, she spent many adult years living quietly in Oxford with husband Michael Aris and sons Alexander and Kim.

In the early months of 1988, however, she returned to her native Burma to care for her ailing mother, and soon became caught up in mass protests known to the world as the 8-8-88 uprising.

Her first major political speech, delivered at Rangoon's landmark Shwedagon Pagoda at the end of August 1988, immediately established her leadership of a diverse democratic movement of students, monks, workers and ordinary citizens.

Although the revolt was crushed in September 1988, she led the National League for Democracy to a landslide electoral triumph in a May 1990 general election.

By this point, though, military leaders had reasserted control, Aung San Suu Kyi herself was held under house arrest, and the country now named Myanmar moved not to build democracy, but rather to consolidate authoritarianism. Only after a tightly-managed November 2010 general election was any attempt made to sponsor political reform through a system of discipline-flourishing democracy closely supervised by senior military figures.

In the period from 1989 to 2010, Aung San Suu Kyi was subjected to three terms of house arrest totaling more than 15 years. Her most recent release came several days after the 2010 election, enabling her to work again for the broad-based national reconciliation and vibrant democracy she has long espoused.

For her fierce commitment to these causes, Aung San Suu Kyi has been accorded widespread international recognition. She was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1992, and across the decades since has continued to garner global attention as an icon of freedom, democracy and non-violent political change.

About the Dialogue

As part of its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2011-2012, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) is proud to present a series of Centenary Distinguished Lectures by some of the world's most brilliant minds. 

Aung San Suu Kyi is the eighth speaker in the series.

This lecture will be conducted in the form of a live dialogue. Aung San Suu Kyi will speak to and interact with members of HKU and the Hong Kong public through televised transmissions from Burma.

Aung San Suu Kyi is known throughout the world not only for her role as a Burmese opposition leader, but also for her writings on contemporary political issues and her strong belief in education as a force for social change.

In Freedom from Fear, initially published in 1991, she set down the doctrine of non-violent resistance to authoritarianism that has always been her hallmark. In that book and others she also examined the political role of Buddhism, and described the spiritual values that continue to inform her political philosophy.

At the same time, she donated US$1 million awarded for her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize to Prospect Burma, an educational charity supporting Burmese students in universities around the world. In this way, she clearly signaled the depth of her commitment to higher education.

This Centenary Dialogue will range across the many themes that define Aung San Suu Kyi's political profile and engagement, enabling one of the world's great humanitarian leaders to discuss a broad set of contemporary issues of interest to individuals of all races, creeds and generations.

In a context of resurgent Asia, it will provide a platform for one of the region's most distinctive political figures to examine the challenges that confront Burma, its partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and its vast neighbours China and India.

Note: Unstable transmission signals between Burma and Hong Kong are anticipated.