Two Nobel Peace Prize winners, hypocritical media And human rights activists

I am sad to learn that the world media is bashing Suu Kyi for Bengali(Rohingya) crisis and accused her of not standing up to the military. Some even suggested to take away her Nobel Peace Prize. However, their treatment on the President Barack Obama was quite different. Both are Nobel Peace Prize Winners. Why?

Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded with Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights. President Obama was elected in January 2009 and awarded with Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between people". Let’s have in-depth analysis of what they have achieved.

Aung San Suu Kyi won the landslide victory in 2015 and became the de facto leader in Myanmar. However, Myanmar(Burma) army won’t recognise her position and the current constitution gave the military chief to run his army with impunity. Suu Kyi didn’t wage the war on anyone and neither she has the authority to do so according to the current constitution drafted in 2008. She is not the commander in chief in Burma. However, she did lead the non-violent struggle for democracy in Burma and human rights. In Burma, ARSA attacked the police outposts and other civilian targets the same way Al-Qaeda attacked New York in 9/11. They may have some grievances, but they are all terrorists. But the difference is that it is not Suu Kyi who ordered the army to clear the terrorists. The army has the power to do so because commander in chief is not Suu Kyi and it is Senior General Min Aung Hlaing according to the Burma’s constitution. However, the western media and some human rights activist blamed Aung San Suu Kyi for not speaking up. Although there was mass displacement of people due to the army’s clearing operation, there is no mass causalities even by the standard of those who accused the army of war crimes.

Now we should have a closer look at another Nobel Peace Prize winner President Obama. After he was elected to power in January 2009, he argued for the surge of US troops in Afghanistan. He is the commander in chief according to the US constitution. He had approved the short term surge of additional 33,000 US troops as he promised during his campaign. A UN report over the year 2009 stated that of the 1,500 civilian’s death between January to August 2009 and reported of 3,268 civilian death between January to August 2010. This is not including the drone strike ordered by President Obama. According to the New America Foundation, 54 drone strikes were ordered which resulted in 387 militant deaths and 70 civilians’ casualties with 92 indeterminate causalities. These drone strikes were up twice after President Obama took overpower. He was directly responsible for that. In addition, you can look at Libya where he admitted with Fox News outlet as his ‘worst mistake’. The flame is still burning in Libya where he failed to prepare for the post Qaddaffi’s era.

If you look at the mistake Suu Kyi has done, she failed to speak up to the military and that is why all western media and human rights activists are criticising her for. She didn’t order or start any war. She didn’t surge any troops and she is not even the commander in chief. The west and medias are bashing at her because she is an easy target and they can get away without any criticism or being questioned by their own people and they can make money out of those sorts of stories.

They failed to criticize another Nobel Peace Prize winner President Obama because US is too powerful and they have more to lose by criticizing him. He was the commander in chief, and he was directly responsible for troops surge and drone strikes. At the end of the day, what the press is doing is taking a cheap shot at Suu Kyi.

Leo Tolstoy stated that “It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes.” in his War and Peace book. As he said, the western media and some human rights activists are blaming Suu Kyi and asking her to take responsibility because she is out of favour for now and Burma is not USA. However, they don’t dare to accuse or criticise other Nobel Peace Prize winner President Obama the way they treated Suu Kyi even though he was the commander in chief and responsible for the surge in Afghanistan, the increase in drone strikes, the chaos in Iraq after withdrawal of troops and the bloodshed in Libya. At the end of the day, the inequalities and double standards exist in the western media and human rights organisations. They are all hypocrites.

If Suu Kyi is the President of USA, her crime will become nothing for those media and human rights activists. No one will dare to argue to strip her of Nobel Peace Prize. Sometimes, money and power talk.