Thirteen years and still counting!

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when.

You can only decide how you're going to live. Now. - Joan Baez

My friend sent me this sms this morning and I read it at the same time as I was listening to a news report on the impending verdict of Aung San Suu Kyi's trial. The world knows that this brave woman has done nothing wrong except to be a leader for freedom and democracy in a country that has an oppressive dictatorship for too long, yet 13 years have passed and we are still silent as she is kept imprisoned in full view of the international world.

Desmond Tutu writes in his tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi: I think of my sister Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi everyday. Her picture hangs on the wall of my office, reminding me that, thousands of miles away in Asia, a nation is oppressed. Everyday I ask myself: have I done everything I can try to end the atrocities being committed in Burma? And I pray that world leaders will ask themselves the same question. For if they did, the answer would be "no", and perhaps their conscience will finally force them to act.

All those of us who support this courageous lady continue to sign campaigns, oppose tourism and trade with Burma and speak out again the dictatorship of this region at every opportunity we get. It is time for strict action to be taken by institutions such as the United Nations, and it is high time that all democracies of the world stand up and demand for this leader to be freed. The farce has gone on too long. Let's stop pretending and mobilize change in ways that we know are perfectly possible to achieve, if the belief in it is real.

President Obama, lead the way and bring change and hope to the Burmese people. We believed in your fervour when you repeatedly told the American people and the world "Yes, we can"! And as your voice reverberated these words, around the world we all took up hope, that a change in the American leadership would bring new light and vision to world politics. So take the initiative and set the Burmese people free from tyranny. Because you know, we know and they know that "Yes, we can", make it happen , if we unite and stand up for what is right.