Kim Aris, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s son is concerned that he could not even be aware of her passing due to her deteriorating health and the lack of information surrounding his mother.
In an exclusive interview with the international news agency Reuters, Kim Aris said, he hasn’t spoken to his 80-year-old mother in years. He has only occasionally heard secondhand information about her heart, bone and gum issues.
Even though he opposes the junta’s plans to organise elections later this month, which many international nations have written off as a hoax meant to legitimise military rule, he believes it would offer a chance to improve his mother’s situation.
Kim said, “I assume that Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the junta in Myanmar, has his own agenda regarding my mother. At least it would be something if he does want to use her to try and placate the public before or after the elections by either releasing her or putting her under home arrest”.
In order to commemorate festivals or significant occasions, Myanmar’s military has a history of releasing detainees.
Days after an election in 2010, Nobel Peace Laureate Suu Kyi was released, capping a protracted spell of incarceration that was primarily spent in her colonial-style family home on Inya Lake in Yangon.
After elections in 2015—the first openly contested election in 25 years—she went on to become Myanmar’s de facto leader.
A military coup overthrew Suu Kyi’s administration in 2021.