Madam, – The silencing of Aung San Suu Kyi is an indictment of the ineffectiveness of the United Nations organisation.
Having made two abortive attempts to have one of our universities confer an honorary degree on her in absentia and having attended the rally which Burmese students held in Vancouver in the summer of 1998, I still feel compelled to raise the profile of this courageous and steadfast Burmese leader.
It is clear that the current Burmese authorities are not in the least bit concerned to respond to individual or single institutional protest, so let all the people who merely talk about the disgraceful manner in which she is being silenced, join together in one vast outburst on her behalf. This could be done if, at winter or summer graduation time, all the universities in Ireland, Britain and elsewhere in the European Union conferred on her, in absentia, an appropriate honorary degree.
Stage management to produce maximum global impact would be important, with, for example, her place represented on the conferring platform by an empty seat encircled by ribbons of Burmese colours symbolising her confinement. The chosen conferring orator might be requested to emphasise the lack of people’s democracy and the need for leadership in its development.
I would hope whoever is eligible to make such a proposal to the conference of vice-chancellors would take up this suggestion so that it might have some prospect of being effected? – Yours, etc,
JOHN ROBB,
Hopefield Avenue,
Portrush,
Co Antrim.