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REMARKS BY SENATOR JOHN McCAIN AT IRI/NDI DINNER HONORING DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI
September 19, 2012
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) will tonight deliver the following remarks at the International Republican Institute (IRI)/National Democratic Institute (NDI) dinner honoring Burmese democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Washington, D.C.:
“Secretary Albright, ladies and gentlemen, good friends and honored guests, and of course, our most distinguished guest, the Lady – Aung San Suu Kyi:
“Good evening, and welcome to a very special event.
“You know, all of us have a tendency at times to use words like ‘historic’ and ‘extraordinary’ to describe many occasions that probably don’t warrant the honor. I’m confident, however, that the truly historic and extraordinary nature of this event – the return of Aung San Suu Kyi to the United States after four decades, half of which she spent as a prisoner in her own home – is not lost on anyone.
“I know many of us wondered at times whether we would ever see this day. But no matter how long the wait, no matter how long the moment of liberation was deferred, we had faith that this day could not be denied forever … that eventually justice would be done … that Aung San Suu Kyi would one day be free … and that Burma, the country she loves so much and has served so well, would finally have a chance for a new beginning of peace and democracy. We had this faith for the simple reason that the Lady inspired it. And that is why we honor her tonight.
“I know a little bit about suffering, and I have learned quite a lot about what it means to hope – to be inspired by those rare flashes of courage and serenity in the human spirit that come along so rarely and help us to keep our faith, and to endure.
“Aung San Suu Kyi has been that inspiration for her fellow citizens, who look to her, to her sacrifices and her strength to bear them. She was that inspiration throughout the many decades when their country was mired in darkness and tyranny. And she remains that inspiration now, when the hope of a new day of freedom is breaking in Burma, but when there is still much work to be done to sustain the democratic and economic reforms that have begun, and to expand the promise of those reforms to the many Burmese who still long for them: the political prisoners who are still detained, the ethnic minority communities who still feel left out of their own country, and the millions still trapped in poverty.
“The power of Aung San Suu Kyi’s inspiration has defined Burma, but it has not been confined there. Hers is a global appeal. To the North Korean citizen who is choking for freedom in that totalitarian system, to men and women in the Arab world who are rising up to change the character of their countries, to the millions of long-suffering people everywhere who believe that freedom and human rights are inalienable for them too – to all of these people, their world feels more hopeful, their adversity more bearable, because they know of Aung San Suu Kyi.
“And if I could end on a personal note, the Lady we honor tonight has been, and remains, a personal hero and an inspiration to me. I’ve known quite a few brave and inspiring people, but none more so than Aung San Suu Kyi. I first met her 15 years ago, when she was permitted to leave her house briefly to speak with me at the residence of the U.S. chargé in Rangoon. I was not prepared for her.
"She was exquisitely polite and graceful. She spoke softly and calmly, the picture of gentleness and serenity. Is this the woman, I asked myself, who has managed somehow to cause so much trouble for the powerful, violent, cruel men who unlawfully ruled her country – men who are so befuddled by the implacable resistance offered by this one, gentle lady? They had attacked her, jailed her, threatened her, isolated her, kept her from her family. They had done all that could be done to break her spirit and will to resist. But she never, never yielded.
“After our first meeting, I hung a photograph of Aung San Suu Kyi in my office – to serve as a constant reminder of the just cause for which she was giving so much, and for which she was willing to give everything else she could. For more than a decade, that picture had been my only connection to the Lady. But in June of last year, I was permitted to return to Burma for the first time in 15 years, and on a warm summer day in Rangoon, I had the overwhelming experience of walking through the front door of the house where she had been shut away for so many years. We spoke for two hours, and when I left, I did so with a fuller heart, richer in spirit, and renewed in my confidence that freedom will conquer tyranny, good will conquer evil, and love will conquer hate, in Burma and everywhere else.
“We gather here tonight, Republicans and Democrats alike, members of the two venerable institutions we represent, all of us together as Americans, all of us united in our shared admiration for Aung San Suu Kyi, and all of us joined together by our unfailing bipartisan support for the cause of freedom and democracy in Burma. That cause lives in the Lady we honor tonight, and I am humbled and honored beyond words to welcome her to the United States.”
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