Myanmar's military government freed its arch rival, democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, on Saturday after her latest term of detention expired. Several thousand jubilant supporters streamed to her residence.Al Jazeera gives some good historical context:
Suu Kyi appeared at the gate to her home, smiling and dressed in a traditional Burmese jacket. "There is a time to be quiet and a time to talk," she told the hundreds of cheering supporters. "People must work in unison. Only then can we achieve our goal," she said.
Is Myanmar edging closer to some semblance of democracy? Their recent elections might have been racked with fraud and accompanied by violent skirmishes with ethnic rebels, but it was the first national vote in two decades there. While their votes may not have counted this time around, perhaps a new generation of Burmese have acquired a taste for democracy that they will find hard to ignore until it is truly satiated.
(Photo: Suu Kyi greets the crowd outside her compound in Yangon. Getty Images)
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