Williams: She is the democratically elected leader of her nation. But stepping beyond her garden wall would risk arrest and possibly the lives of her followers.
Nine months after she was freed from 6 years house arrest, the crowds still come to hear Aung San Suu Kyi. But the hopes raised by her release, that years of outright military rule were drawing to an end, are now fading away.
Win Thein: I used to go by bus, or sometimes my own car. So wherever I go that guy with the motorcycle always follows me. So it’s quite usual now. I just ignore him.
Williams: And you’re being followed all the time?
Win Thein: Yeah. And then this guy will watch my place, while the other one follows me. Now he is preparing with the headgear and will follow me.
Williams: This man has a faultless barometer to measure Burma’s political climate — when he’s being followed, the military government or SLORK, as they call themselves, are angry. And for the past few months, he’s been followed day and night.
Win Thein: Their intention is to intimidate me. That’s why they are following me openly.
Williams: It’s a pattern of intimidation that he’s seen before. The last time SLORK paid him so much attention, he was jailed for five years. U Win Thein is one of Suu Kyi’s key advisers in the NLD — the National League for Democracy. After months of polite but futile requests for dialogue with SLORK, the NLD are now taking a harder line, openly criticising the regime. And the men on the bikes are back.
Williams: In a way, SLORK still keep Suu Kyi a prisoner in her own home. But it’s also become her fortress, the NLD’s headquarters and something of a sanctuary for families of her supporters.
Suu Kyi: It’s part of what we are doing, because we believe that politics is about people. So politics is not just a matter of elections and political manifestoes and so on. It’s all about people. So we think that social work is very much a part of the NLD’s duties.
Williams: But politics is also about gaining power and right now that goal seems a distant one. In response to her more strident attacks, SLORK has sentenced dozens of her supporters on trivial and trumped up charges in a new campaign of fear to keep people away from the NLD.
Suu Kyi: Even though the people are frightened — and they are frightened — we don’t deny that. Helpless people, people who have nothing on their side are frightened of people with guns. That is only natural. But the more lawless the government becomes, the more supportive the people become. Because they all know that they cannot be secure under a lawless system.
FX: Chanting
Williams: It’s been a good year for the generals. They’ve ended almost all ethnic insurgencies, they’ve been invited to join ASEAN, and their plans for a new constitution, which will formalise their power, are proceeding unhindered.
Williams: They don’t need a new constitution to maintain control in Burma. They’ve got more than enough guns for that. But they hope it will bring them international legitimacy, which will help ensure their long term survival.
Suu Kyi: How many countries have you known where an army, bristling with arms, had assumed power and in the end had to give it away because the people are against it. The classic example is that of Latin America, where practically at one time the whole continent, the whole of the South American continent, was ruled by army dictators. And army dictators who pursued more or less the same kind of policies as SLORK has used. Which is to say an open economy and a very closed political system. It just does not go together.
Williams: According to the new Military Museum in Rangoon, the ‘open economy and closed political system’ is working very nicely. Four floors are dedicated to the achievements of SLORK, and pride of place is given to those exhibits which celebrate the level of foreign investment.
Foreign investment may be profitable for SLORK, but it has also made them vulnerable to Suu Kyi, who’s now calling for a boycott on investment in Burma.
Suu Kyi: Certainly it is very much against the interests of the people of Burma because most of the investments coming in are coming in through the same privileged group which is getting richer and richer, and more and more intent on clinging to power. So I think in fact, foreign investors now, are working for their own destruction.

Williams: While development is proceeding, particularly in hotels, Suu Kyi’s call is being heard especially in the west. It’s this more than anything else she’s done that’s sparked the current crackdown. But whatever their actions, the generals know there will always be business people prepared to court them.
Williams: Australian, Ray Eaton, has just written a paper adopted by the US Chambers of Commerce in the Asia Pacific. He’s urging Washington to drop its condemnation of Burma and start promoting trade.
Eaton: Well, Evan, I think what one has to recognise is that contrary to all these sensationalist headlines, the government in Myanmar is sincerely committed to trying to develop the country and take care of its people.
Williams: But doesn’t that foreign investment prop up and legitimise a government of questionable legitimacy?
Eaton: Well, this has often come up in business debates, and I think this applies in almost every developing country when foreign investors move in. That the initial benefits almost always go to, let’s call, an elite group. If the country opens up, then a lot of the problems of today will disappear, because, as I said, I’m very impressed with those senior officials I’ve met in the government here.
Williams: This man’s also met a number of government officials and was less impressed.
We can’t broadcast what he says, because an informer told SLORK that he’d spoken to us — an offence serious enough in itself, without them knowing what he says.
Like thousands of others, he was jailed for his political beliefs, which according to the latest UN report is still a widespread practice under the SLORK regime. As is torture, rape and other human rights abuses.
Williams: And these guys behind you, do you ever talk to them?
Win Thein: No.
Williams: Just ignore them?
Win Thein: I just go and act as if they don’t exist.
As a politically conscious person I must stand against this kind of behaviour of these kind of people.
Win Thein: At the moment, SLORK has tried to cut our movement, each and every level of the echelon. They are trying to cut all the branches and leave the trunk isolated. So the leadership. If SLORK tries to cut the branches they must also cut the trunk and we must draw fire to the centre, not the outside circle of the NLD.
Williams: Public meetings are banned, so Suu Kyi stays just inside the law by staying just inside her gate. But her words are now strong enough to get both Suu Kyi and her audience jailed.
Suu Kyi: Fascism cannot last. The more they try to hang on to power — and the more extreme they become — the quicker they will fall.
Williams: Across the road intelligence officers record what she says, and who’s listening. But the people risk it to hear her should what they would normally whisper.

Williams: Your own officials are saying that now there might be an attempt to actually draw some of this fire to the leadership itself.
Suu Kyi: Everybody who’s involved in the democracy movement knows that he or she is in danger of imprisonment at any time. So that for us is nothing unusual, nothing to be particularly frightened of.
Williams: So you’re prepared to provoke, if you like, that sort of response?
Suu Kyi: We don’t provoke for the sake of provocation. What we feel is that we have duty as the leaders of the political party to protect our supporters and our followers, and we are simply carrying out our responsibilities. We are not deliberately provoking anybody. And if, because we are carrying out our responsibilities, they consider it a provocation, that just shows that their minds are not working very well.
Tin Tun: At the assumption of state power in the late 1988, the economy was extremely in a bad shape. Consequently, the government has no choice but to take urgent reform measures to arrest...
Williams: Urgent measures that are now starting to attract foreign business.
The economy’s far from perfect, or even perfectly run. But they’re selling a message that international capital likes to hear.
Williams: Obviously your message to investors is that Myanmar is now politically stable?
Abel: Yes, of course.
Williams: How can you guarantee that?
Abel: You can walk on the street any time you like. There’s no demonstrations, there’s no riots. There’s peace and tranquillity in the country. Press coverage outside is very bad. You know that. But I also say it’s changing. It’s changing in the sense that on the political front they are quite critical. But the business sector cannot be controlled.
Williams: Essentially SLORK is banking on business not controlled by political ethics. And it’s currently scrambling to put deals in place. If enough investment can be attracted fast enough, it will make Suu Kyi’s calls for a boycott on Burma futile.
Williams: Do people still think about Suu Kyi and the opposition, or is that no longer a factor in the assessment by international business?
Businessman: I think some do, but I think the people here, they will have read the newspapers before they came here and they’ve taken that into consideration.
Williams: But the fact is that business is going on.
Businessman: Yeah. There is a lot of business and a lot of investment. And a lot of Asian countries are very supportive of Myanmar.
Suu Kyi: Of course it’s not surprising to us that a lot of business people are not concerned about the welfare of the people of Burma, because a lot of them are simply out to make profits.
We’re old enough, we’re mature enough to understand that such people do exist in this world. But I think they will find that it’s not to their advantage.
Williams: Comments like this outrage SLORK. And when SLORK is angry, this man acts. Powerful intelligence chief, Lieutenant General Kim Nyunt.
He may be able to ignore her domestic influence, but internationally she is having an impact. Investment is coming in to Burma, but Suu Kyi’s comments are keeping many of the world’s major corporations and international lending bodies away from the country.
Suu Kyi’s accusations that much of Burma’s development is being built on the backs of cowered people and merely props us a cruel regime, hits SLORK where it hurts. And they’re unlikely to tolerate it for long.
Williams: You’re overseeing a lot of development here. Can I ask you what you think of Suu Kyi’s call on a ban on this investment and trade.
General Kim: You may discuss with...
Williams: It’s obviously not good for the country. Have you ruled out talks with her, sir?
Williams: If the order comes to arrest Suu Kyi, it will come from Kim Nyunt. But for now there are easier targets.
Win Thein: Uncle Leo was arrested. But we do not know why he was arrested. He was nearly 70 and he was not in good health.
Williams: Win Thein has just learnt of the arrest of one of Suu Kyi’s personal financial supporters and old family friend, James Nichols — or Uncle Leo as she’s called him since she was a child.
Win Thein: What we can guess is he was arrested due to the main fact that he is the supporter of Aung San Suu Kyi financially, spiritually, he is a father figure.
Williams: The pretext for one of Suu Kyi’s financial backers being brought to this jail is because he’s got an unauthorised fax line. In the past few weeks over 30 people have been given maximum jail terms for trivial offences, because they’re connected to the opposition.
Williams: Nichols is facing years in jail for his fax offence.
While SLORK may be unwilling to risk a new round of condemnation by arresting Suu Kyi, they have no hesitation in striking out at people close to her.

Williams: As the conflict with SLORK enters a new phase, Suu Kyi carries the knowledge that it isn’t just her safety she’s risking. But the lives of all those around her.
Win Thein: In my lifetime, in our lifetime, we will see the change and we will prevail.
Williams: And you’re prepared to force them to put you and others back in prison to do that?
Win Thein: Yes. When they arrest me or Aung San Suu Kyi, it’s a great welcome.
Williams: Why?
Win Thein: Because it means that our activities are effective, harming them. If they felt that we are not harming them any more, they would neglect us. We will try to force them to arrest us again.

Williams: It’s just a visit to the market, but in a country of such extreme repression, it’s a radical moment.
It’s the first time Suu Kyi has gone into the city without SLORK’s knowledge or permission. Although she makes no speeches, for the first time, she’s reaching out to people beyond those brave enough to come to her gate. And it’s this the generals fear most of all.
Williams: What do you think this shows, this sort of visit?
Suu Kyi: You can draw your own conclusions.
Williams: Will you be doing this more often from now on?
Suu Kyi: If I need to.
Williams: And she probably will have to do more of this if she’s to play any role in the future of Burma.