HONG KONG — Aung San Suu Kyi regained her freedom last weekend, but walked into a "free" life that is still misgoverned by one of the most repressive and stupid regimes in the world, which only days before had thumbed its nose at its own people by conducting fake elections.
Her release offers a moment of opportunity, but it will require great graciousness on her part, an unexpected burst of patriotic imagination by the still ruling generals, and careful but remorseless pressure from the friends and neighbors of Myanmar before the country can be put back on the road to freedom and the kind of prosperity that is the norm in Asia.
Her own graciousness is evident. Suu Kyi emerged with a coolness that would make a cucumber wilt. Closer up, there are deep lines round her eyes — she is after all 65 years old — but being imprisoned or under house arrest for 15 of the last 21 years appears not to have created bitterness. She said, "I don't feel I have suffered greatly; many others have suffered more," a reference to Myanmar's 2,200 political prisoners.