It has been a long, long time. Shortly after the National League for Democracy (NLD) swept parliamentary elections in Burma in 1990, the military quashed the results and began two more decades of rule through brute force. Last year, Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD, was released after having spent fifteen of the previous twenty-one years under house arrest..
In all that time, Suu Kyi endured. Sound familiar? After being in prison since 1962 - the very year Burma fell into dictatorship, African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela (b. 1918), was finally freed by the racist apartheid government of South Africa in 1990. Less than four years later, the apartheid government was gone, and Mandela became the first elected president of a democratic South Africa.
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Neither Mandela nor Suu Kyi gave up - not for themselves nor for their people. Both of them courageously refused to become bitter or entertain ideas of revenge. They both steadfastly believed in a better future. As such, Suu Kyi can rightfully be called the 'Mandela' of Burma.
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When nearly a half a century of Burmese dictatorship ended last year (1962-2010), a democratic shock wave was sent through Asia. People living under tyrannical regimes in China, Vietnam and Laos have since been inspired by the downfall of the Burmese military junta and the resilience of Suu Kyi and the Burmese people.
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Indeed, it is only a matter of time before the world witnesses the removal of Mao Zedong's portrait from Tiananmen Square in Beijing - where thousands of peaceful protesters were killed or jailed in 1989. The former students who remain in jail will one day be free, and they will lead their nation of 1.3 billion people to liberty.
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The transition to democracy in Burma will be difficult. Segments of the military have yet to be reined in by the government. In some areas, the army still uses rape as a tool of coercion to maintain its power. Yet, Suu Kyi is indefatigable and plans to run in parliamentary elections next year. She will win, and she will again inspire subjugated peoples around the world to challenge the authority of their despotic rulers.
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Today's young women of world, whether in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, Burma, Laos or elsewhere, are the future of the next twenty years. What will that future hold? It shall be one of expanding democracy and human rights - and a long list of oppressive regimes swept into the dustbin of history.
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It can be no other.
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(Photo: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embraces Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon, Burma on 2 December 2011. Click on to enlarge.)
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J Roquen