By TAY TIAN YAN
Translated by DOMINIC LOH
Sin Chew Daily

Our car slowly pulled into this grey colour mansion.

1995, the military junta declared to put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest. This mansion was promptly besieged by the soldiers while the Myanmar people thronged here from all over the country to form a human barricade to keep off the military.

Suu Kyi, who was inside the mansion, went up the stairs and looked out through the iron grill, trying to resolve a potentially bloody clash with her soft yet resolute tone.

She spent the subsequent six years confined inside the building. Soon after the expiry of her confinement, she was put under another house arrest by the military junta for seeing an American citizen who had swum to her house.

This mansion has since become an iconic structure in Southeast Asia's democratic history.

At that moment, this historically significant mansion lay before my very eyes. No soldiers were seen standing guard in front of it, although some plainclothes could have been prowling somewhere to monitor every move around the premises.

The gate opened, and our vehicle slowly made its way towards a simple-looking mansion through the garden drive.

The approximately 90-year-old mansion next to Inya Lake has not undergone much renovation over the decades, maintaining only its most fundamental functions.

The simplicity of the mansion does not seem to go along with the great significance of the building in the country's history.

The Lady that appeared soon afterwards was even more unpretentiously down-to-earth.

With her hair simply tied up, she was draped in a purple colour shirt, dark coloured sarong with a pair of sandals on her feet.

But her eyes were sparkling with great visions, her attitude amiable and courteous, like a noble hostess ready to welcome her guests.

She gave us a round of introduction on the house environment with her beautifully accented English.

No ostentatious displays inside the house, save for an oversized portrait of General Aung San, Myanmar's Father of Independence and Suu Kyi's father, in the hall.

The general passed away when Suu Kyi was still very young. It was said that he had been slain by his political rivals. To keep the influences of the Aung San family at bay, the Myanmar administration appointed her mother as a long-term envoy to India.

Suu Kyi lived with her mother in India for some years before she went to the UK to further her study, and later married an English scholar.

If not because her mother was gravely ill, she might not even have returned to Myanmar. And if not because she came back at a time when the people were rising against the dictatorship, she might not even have involved herself in democratic movements.

The Suu Kyi that I used to know had been a noble yet inaccessible icon of democracy and morality; but the Lady who stood before me right at that moment was so unpretentious, spontaneous and humorous.

The Suu Kyi that I used to know had been a cool, expressionless woman having experienced so much of vicissitude and persecution, but the Lady who stood before me right at that moment was so excessively charged with optimism and enthusiasm.

What impressed me was that Suu Kyi never made mention of the afflictions she had gone through, bearing hardly any animosity or the slightest intention of vengeance for all the agonies and humiliations she had suffered.

Setting her sights on nothing but the future of Myanmar, she talked about the progress of democracy and economic development in her country as well as the importance of rule of law. She reiterated that she did all this not for power, but the prosperity of her country and people.

Her wisdom far exceeded all our imaginations. While many democratic fighters have tall aspirations, they are oftentimes reduced to nothing more than empty talks.

Preoccupied not merely by her ideals but also practicality, Aung San Suu Kyi is well acquainted with a wide range of issues. For instance, in order to gain a better insight into her country's investment climate, she has read and compared the investment laws of many countries, including Malaysia.

Bidding adieu to the Lady and her mansion, I had acquired some new expectations towards the future of this country.