Aung San Suu Kyi, freedom hope for change?

Burma’s military rulers, who overruled a massive popular electoral verdict in favor of democracy 20 years ago and have ruled with an iron hand since then, held an election of sorts to the parliament at the beginning of last week. At the end of the week, they released Aung San Suu Kyi, who was under arrest for 15 of the last 21 years and had won the election in 1990. The world is right to be skeptical. Suu Kyi’s release, many suspect, might be designed to draw attention away from the sham elections.

Whatever might be the motivation of the Burmese junta, its decisions to go through the motions of an election and release Suu Kyi are signals of weakness, not strength. But Suu Kyi is probably under a bigger political test than the junta. She needs much political skill in seizing the opportunity to expand the democratic space without provoking an early backlash from the military.