Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi spoke this morning at the World Economic Forum on East Asia at Bangkok’s Shangri-La Hotel.
When asked by WEF founder Klaus Schwab about her thoughts upon landing in Bangkok on her first trip outside Burma in 24 years, The Lady gave a wonderful answer.
She said that she was graciously invited to sit in the cockpit of the Thai Airways flight for a better view of the first foreign country she had seen in a decade, and this is what crossed her mind:
I was intrigued by all the lights below. Because I’ve landed in New York, I’ve landed in London in those past years I’d seen brighter lights than I saw that evening. But this time I was completely fascinated by the lights because I had just left a Burma suffering from electricity cuts. When I left Burma three days ago there were candlelight demonstrations going on all over the country. Protests against electricity cuts that had been plaguing us for a month or so. And I though, 30 years ago the scene that met my eyes on landing in Bangkok would not have been very different from what would have met my eyes landing in Rangoon. But now the difference is considerable. And this is what went through my mind: I have to say very frankly is that what went though my mind is that we need an energy policy.
