It crawls on, more a display of power over an individual than a legal process, one which people look to to guage quite how confident a military dictatorship feels.
Aung San Suu Kyi today heard her defence’s closing arguments in her trial. In a Burmese court, inside the notorious Insein jail, she’s been standing before judges appointed by the junta, facing charges based on a law meant to protect the state from “subversive elements”.
The 64-year-old is apparently to blame because John Yettaw, a Vietnam veteran, glued wooden planks to his feet and swam the moat around her home, where she was under house arrest, and broke into the building to warn her she was to be assassinated. This meant she broke the terms of her house arrest.
It’s widely been interpreted as a ruse by the junta to get her again before judges find a way of extending her house arrest – due to expire imminently. Her co-defendants will make their final statements on Monday, the prosecution after that, and the verdict will come whenever the junta believes the time is right.
One EU diplomat told me: “They could do it quickly, they could do it quietly, when the world’s attention is elsewhere – it’s anyone’s guess”.
Her lawyers say she’s preparing for the worst, and today said, pleadingly: “We have the law on our side, but we don’t know if the judges are on our side.” But she was described today as being very engaged during the two hour monologue of her defence’s statement, very chatty with the few diplomats allowed inside the court proceedings, and positively perky in an uncomfortable chair in the stifling judicial heat.
The trial itself is a sign the junta need a veneer of respectability: a bizarre, predictable process that will either see the country’s legitimately elected leader sent back home for a longer period, or kept longer in Insein.
The latter option is to many unlikely as it would gravely threaten her health. Some speculate they just want to keep her out of circulation for next year’s elections.
But regardless, time is running out for The Lady. A younger generation lack the memory of electoral win. Her age and health are now issues intoned too regularly – witness the diplomat’s assurances of her good health.
In a world without her iconic presence and remarkable ability to rally international approbation in a matter of hours, many struggle to think who could be the figurehead for the opposition.
As the diplomat said: “There is a generational gap, that is clear. Her picture is still up in back rooms and she remains the face of the opposition, but the younger generation are more worried about keeping their heads above water.”
The closing statements are expected next week but a date for her verdict remains unclear. It’s not just the entire judicial process, but also time that appears to be on the junta’s side.