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ADDRESS TO HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE
12 May, 1999
A conference on peace is tantamount to a conference on one of the basic necessities of life. In fact one could say that peace is life itself because a life without peace is hardly a life worth living. But by peace I do not mean a life of passivity, I do not mean a life without action because sometimes we have to act a lot to bring about peace.
What do we mean actually by peace? I suppose basically we mean a sense of inner security that will give us the strength to work for others and for the community, to work for progress and development. Without a sense of inner security we cannot work for progress.
There are so many obstacles in the way of development without peace. Peace, development and justice are all connected to each other. We cannot talk about economic development without talking about peace. How can we expect economic development in a battle field? It would not be possible. But there are more than one kind of battle field in this world. A battle field is not necessarily a place where people are shooting each other. In a civil society, where basic human rights are ignored, where the rights of the people are violated every day, it is like a battle field where lives are lost and people are crippled, because people can lose their lives. And the development of their lives can be crippled by a lack of basic human rights. So when we talk about peace, we can not avoid talking about basic human rights, especially in a country like Burma where people are troubled constantly by a lack of human rights and a lack of justice and a lack of peace.
In our country, there are many races living together, but we have not been able to live together in peace because the situation does not exist where we can trust each other. So trust is a basic element for peace. Unless we can trust each other, unless we can be sure that we will receive justice, and that we also have to give justice, we can not achieve peace. I very much hope that this conference on peace will deal with the close connection between peace, justice and development, and that development will be seen in human rather than in economic terms.
I wish you all success and I hope that the day will come when Burma will be able to contribute to more peace in this world.
Aung San Suu Kyi
QUESTION AND ANSWER
[Note: Some of the questions are not clear as the interviewer did not want to be miked.]
Q. ...What changes have to be made?
R. I think that we have to change the way people think. It is only by changing the way that people think can we progress towards peace. I think that the change is coming. I think that many people are beginning to realise now that material development is not everything. The last century has been one of material development, great material development, but I think that people are now starting to realise that material development did not bring with it more happiness as it were. In some fields such as medicine of course there has been progress and in the developed countries people are better off than they have been, people are not suffering from poverty, people are not suffering from a lack of medical care, a lack of education, but they are still suffering from a lack of happiness and a lack of internal peace. So it must come from within. Education is one of the most important things and I notice that the Hague Peace Conference is also interested in promoting peace education, of teaching children about peace the way that they are taught to read and write and to do sums.
Q. Do you have any other ideas about ways of thinking that people must change in order to have peace?
R. I don't think that you can say that people must change because people don't change just like that. They have to be taught to change and its not going to be a very fast process. I think that would be a bit of wishful thinking. I don't think that we can change people over night. It will take time and it will take a lot of perseverance. I think we have to be very patient. Educating children means starting from the very very basic level and not just in the schools but in the homes as well. So educating children means educating the parents as well. And some of the parents unfortunately are beyond the stage where they can be educated. I always like to say that there are only two kinds of people in the world: those who can learn, and those who are not capable of learning. And I don't think that they are good or bad people as such. There are those who are always capable of learning and those who are never capable of learning. You can try to explain to them why basic human rights are necessary, you can try to explain to them why peace is necessary, but they will never grasp it. There are those who are like that. But there are those who are quick to learn. But I think that every human being has the capacity to learn and change even though the speed at which they can learn and change is not always the same.
Q. What do you think of this being a civil society conference, as opposed to governments sponsoring this conference?
R. I like the idea because after all democracy basically means a pluralistic society, and I think that we have to encourage this pluralism. The more the better.
Q. They mention that the plan of the Hague Peace Conference is to launch a number of actions for the new century, such as the Land Mine Treaty and those ideas. Do you have any other suggestions?
R. Well I think that we have to also think about educating adults, not just educating children, because as I said earlier, unless you educate the parents you can not really educate fully. You can not expect children who come from a family where there is no respect for peace and human rights to learn respect for peace and human rights at school easily. So I think we need education in general not just in schools. I think we need more people and more organisations more interested in the idea of promoting peaceful societies. You know when you talk about abolishing the trade in small arms or nuclear disarmament, these are not... arms and weapons do not just fall down from the sky. They are made by human beings, and unless human beings are taught that there are many many ways of progressing, of getting what you need without using arms, I think the manufacture of arms will continue.
Q. For instance, it is so difficult because in Cambodia even the farmer at the basic level knows that he has rights, just the basic command of 'do to others as you would have done unto yourself'... but when they are faced with the government...
R. But the members of the bureaucracy and the government they also have sprung from the same society. You say that even this small farmer knows that he has basic rights, how is it that members of the government does not know that he has basic rights if they all come from the same society? This is what I mean by the need for general education. Of course those who suffer from a lack of rights are more aware of the fact that they need those rights, and those who are in a position where they can deprive people of those rights where they enjoy all the privileges that they could wan This is normal in authoritarian societies and dictatorships. But what we need is the kind of education that will prevent authoritarian governments from coming up again. This is one of the aims of the National League for Democracy. We've always said that what we want to do is not only to establish democracy, but to establish the kind of society where there can not be any dictatorships of the future.
Q. ...How do you feel about the abolition of war for peace as a human right?
R. I don't think that you can just ask for the abolition of war. I think as I said earlier that you have to teach people that there are ways of getting what you want without of going to war, and you must think of what others want and not only what you want all the time and say that 'If I don't get it, I'll just take a gun and shoot your way to get what you want.
Q. ...Our final product will be the Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice in the 21st century which will be reported to intergovernmental agencies as well as a text that people can follow and monitor. Do you feel that that is a good idea, and if so in what way?
R. I do think that it is a good idea to make ideas on peace and justice available to a wide range of people. We just have to wait to find out how to implement this in practical terms.
Q...How would it...?
R. This is what I mean because in practical terms it will take some doing. Because after all think about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we are now celebrating its 50th anniversary and there are many many people in the world who have no idea of its existence. So to make people aware of the existence of a 'bible' on peace and justice, and to make such a 'bible (in quotation marks) available to everybody, would not be easy in practical terms, which is not to say that we shouldn't try.
Q. Do you have any other suggestions for a way to make it more practical...?
R. I think the more people accept this idea, the quicker it will spread. It all comes back to education. It all comes back to winning people's minds.
Q. Do you think that for instance if this kind of agenda did come into the hands of the government, would this help the people of Burma - would there be a way of disseminating this type of information?
R. I suppose that it is the National League for Democracy who would have to do this kind of work, as things are. I do not think that the current government would go about distributing tracts on peace and justice...
Q. A few other things... What is the lesson of Burma for the rest of the world?
R. I think its not just the lesson of Burma for the rest of the world. Burma is not really unique. We are not the only country where people are suffering from a lack of basic human rights and we feel for others in the same situation. If there is any lesson to be learned from Burma is that it helps when people care. I think the case of Burma has become widely known because people outside Burma have cared enough. So the most important thing is to have caring friends all over the world to help us achieve our goal of basic human rights and democracy.