THE 21 years it took Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to arrive in Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 1991 have been a testament to her epic struggle against her country’s power-obsessed, unrelenting military rulers. The steely will of the seemingly frail Oxford-educated woman can only be an inspiration for the multitudes striving for freedom across the globe. Having lived abroad from the age of 14, Ms Suu Kyi who is now 66, returned home to be by the side of her ailing mother in 1988. The daughter of the country’s independence hero, who was assassinated when she was one, founded her National League for Democracy, rose in rebellion against the military ruler General Ne Win and won the 1991 election. But the army, which has ruled the country since 1962, did not accept the result. The iconic leader was to spend the next more than two decades in confinement, often solitary, or with severe restrictions on her freedom of movement and speech.

Earlier this year, she was elected to parliament after the NLD took 43 of the 45 vacant seats on offer; under the country’s long drawn-out planned transition to democracy military nominees, many of whom in uniform, still control the assembly. This transition has been brought about by the people’s struggle on the one hand and the relentless international pressure/ mediation on the other but was complicated not least by China’s support to the junta as Beijing sees the latter as an asset in the regional power game. Ms Suu Kyi knows she has to tread carefully and ease the military’s grip on power gradually. But she also spelt out the red lines as she told the Oslo ceremony: “One prisoner of conscience is one too many.” This only enhances her towering moral authority.