‘I am so angry’: Locsin hits the West for ‘tearing down’ Myanmar’s Suu Kyi

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Thursday lashed out at the West for “destroying” ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and for “making her the victim of the military.”

Locsin, during a hearing of the Senate foreign relations committee, said Western countries “tore down” Suu Kyi over their “sissy” human rights sentiments.

“I pour my scorn on the Western world for destroying Aung San Suu Kyi and making her the victim of the military. Myanmar is divided between the army that holds it together. The army founded by her father. The country founded by her father and all she had, as a balance to the Army, was her reputation as a freedom fighter,” Locsin said.

“Aung San Suu Kyi had to balance the continuing tolerance of the Army to her democratic moves against the racial hatred against the Rohingya. And what does the Western and those fairies—may I call them fairies—in Oxford do? They tear her down, they remove her reputation. She had only the adoration of the world to stand up with against the army. They stripped her of all of that,” he added.

“Every step she made in the freedom of Burma (Myanmar’s former name), they erased all so that they could feel well tearing her down,” the foreign affairs chief said.

Myanmar’s military seized power on Monday (Feb. 1) in a coup against the democratically-elected government of Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other leaders of her National League for Democracy party in early morning raids.

READ: West increases pressure on Myanmar generals as charges filed against Suu Kyi

The coup followed a landslide win for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in Nov. 8 elections, a result the military has refused to accept citing unsubstantiated allegations of fraud.

Suu Kyi, 75, endured about 15 years of house arrest between 1989 and 2010 as she led a democracy movement against the military, which has ruled for much of the past six decades.

But her international reputation was damaged after she failed to stop the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya from western Rakhine State in 2017.

READ: Aung San Suu Kyi: Sliding political misfortune

“So, where is she now? And where is the Burmese democracy? Ten steps forward—just for the liberals in the United States to feel good tearing down a woman—they’ve gone 20 steps back from Burmese democracy,” Locsin went on.

‘I am so angry’

In criticizing the West, Manila’s top diplomat said the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) will “never listen” to any “white opinion” in addressing the Myanmar issue.

Earlier this week, the DFA voiced its “deep concern” over the situation in Myanmar, especially in Suu Kyi’s safety.

“The last thing we want is to work with the countries in the west who destroyed Burmese democracy and I am so angry because I met that woman. She worked with me as a writer, she’s brilliant. She gave everything in herself to make our people free and the West destroyed her all for their sissy sentiments, their human rights sentiments,” he said.

“I challenge every single critic of Suu Kyi, [did] any of you suffer for freedom? Those f*gg*ts, not a single one of them did and they dared judge that woman and now my job is to try to put her back,” he added.

Locsin said the DFA will only work with countries like China and India on the issue. He particularly excluded the United States.

“That’s my feeling, that’s my policy. With Burma, we work with the powers around Burma to see if we can convince the great powers there—forget the United States—we talk to China, we talk to India and we say ‘Can we go back to status quo’ and ‘Can we go back and put the mother Burmese democracy back there.’ And then resume the progress towards the freedom that you and I got at EDSA,” Locsin said.

“This department will never, never listen to the West on this issue. Never. And in fact, most Asian countries are looking to our leadership, to my leadership as a more nuanced approach to the Burmese problem,” he added.

The foreign affairs chief also warned his people in the department against listening to the West on the issue.

“I charge all my people in the Department of Foreign Affairs, you listen to a white man, you listen to white opinion and you’re finished,” he said. With reports from Reuters

JE