• Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese opposition politician, spent a total of fifteen years under house arrest between 1989 and her release in 2010 for her opposition to the military junta that ruled Burma. Suu Kyi was arrested while campaigning for a peaceful transition to a democratic civilian government. In the first excerpt, from her 1991 acceptance speech for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought awarded by the European Parliament, she discusses resistance to the Burmese dictatorship. Liu Xiaobo was a professor of literature lecturing at Columbia University in New York when students began protesting in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. He returned to China to join the demonstrations and became a vocal critic of China’s human rights policies, for which he faced repeated arrests. In 2009 he was charged with “inciting the subversion of state power” and was sentenced to eleven years in prison. Both dissidents received the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, but the Chinese government did not allow Liu to accept his award in 2010. Liu sent a letter that was read at the ceremony, from which the second excerpt is drawn.

Aung San Suu Kyi, “Freedom from Fear”

“Gandhi, that great apostle of non-violence, and Aung San, the founder of a national army, were very different personalities, but as there is an inevitable sameness about the challenges of authoritarian rule anywhere at any time, so there is a similarity in the intrinsic qualities of those who rise up to meet the challenge.

Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one’s actions, courage that could be described as “grace under pressure” — grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure.

Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man’s self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.

The wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of unbridled power is generally a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical principles combined with a historical sense that despite all setbacks the condition of man is set on an ultimate course for both spiritual and material advancement. . . . Concepts such as truth, justice and compassion cannot be dismissed as trite when these are often the only bulwarks which stand against ruthless power.”

Liu Xiaobo, “Final Statement”

“I still want to tell the regime that deprives me of my freedom, I stand by the belief I expressed twenty years ago in my “June Second Hunger Strike Declaration” — I have no enemies, and no hatred. None of the police who have monitored, arrested and interrogated me, the prosecutors who prosecuted me, or the judges who sentence me, are my enemies. While I’m unable to accept your surveillance, arrest, prosecution or sentencing, I respect your professions and personalities. . . .

I firmly believe that China’s political progress will never stop, and I’m full of optimistic expectations of freedom coming to China in the future, because no force can block the human desire for freedom. China will eventually become a country of the rule of law in which human rights are supreme. I’m also looking forward to such progress being reflected in the trial of this case, and look forward to the full court’s just verdict — one that can stand the test of history. . . .

I look forward to my country being a land of free expression, where all citizens’ speeches are treated the same; here, different values, ideas, beliefs, political views . . . both compete with each other and coexist peacefully; here, majority and minority opinions will be given equal guarantees, in particular, political views different from those in power will be fully respected and protected; here, all political views will be spread in the sunlight for the people to choose; all citizens will be able to express their political views without fear, and will never be politically persecuted for voicing dissent; I hope to be the last victim of China’s endless literary inquisition, and that after this no one else will ever be jailed for their speech.

Freedom of expression is the basis of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth. To block freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, to strangle humanity and to suppress the truth.”

Sources: Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear and Other Writings, ed. Michael Aris (New York: Penguin, 2010), pp. 180–185. Copyright © 1991, 1995 Aung San Suu Kyi. Used by permission of Viking Penguin, a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, and by permission of Penguin Books Ltd.; “Text of Chinese Dissident’s ‘Final Statement,’” The Lede (blog), New York Times, December 10, 2010, http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/10/text-of-chinese-dissidents-final-statement/. Used by permission of David Kelly.

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