The times, they are a changin’.
When Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest, which she endured for a combined 15 years before it was lifted in 2010, the junta posted guards at the entrance to her villa on University Avenue.
Not to protect her, but to watch over her, and anybody else who showed up.
But if you go by the famous residence now, you’ll see a different site: a police guard post right next to the door.
This time, they are there to keep her safe.
Suu Kyi led her party to power in November elections, so maybe it’s inevitable that someone who is now foreign minister and state counselor (she is constitutionally barred from the presidency, a job held by her close friend Htin Kyaw) would get some beefed-up security.
But it was actually a recent decision.
The news was announced in February after Suu Kyi received a death threat on Facebook from a man who later apologized. The station itself, with a 24-hour security detail made up of several police officers, was only up and running a few weeks ago.
Suu Kyi splits her time between Yangon and the capital, Naypyitaw, where she also has a house.
