A very special day in Parliament. Burmese democracy champion, Aung San Suu Kyi made a speech in Westminster Hall.
As she came to the podium there was a feeling around the vast hall, of charisma, and presence.
The old saying goes that some have greatness thrust upon them. Aung San Suu Kyi arrived in Burma twenty-four years ago to look after her sick mother. She stayed there, under house arrest, in order to support the Burmese democracy movement - ruthlessly crushed by the then Government. She could not even leave to go back to England, to look after her dying husband, because she knew that she would never be allowed back in Burma.
Today, Aung San Suu Kyi spoke about the strengths of British Parliamentary democracy, the struggle for Burmese democracy and her hopes for the future. She argued that politics was not from high above or down below, but was an integral part of every individual. In other words, every human being was entitled to freedom and democracy.
Great people come along once a generation. Today, sitting in the hall listening to Aung San Suu Kyi, and briefly meeting her afterwards, it was hard not to feel that she fills the pantheon of one of the truly great people in the world of the last one hundred years.
P.S. I will post the full speech later.
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