Ms. Suu Kyi spent a total of 15 years under house arrest in Yangon while the country's former military regime was ensconced in power. The last time she was in a foreign country was in 1988, when she left Britain to nurse her ailing mother in Yangon.
But after a series of reforms after Myanmar's military leader gave way to a nominally-civilian government, Ms. Suu Kyi has moved from political prisoner to opposition leader in the country's Parliament and now apparently feels able to leave the country without worrying about whether she will be allowed back in. When British Prime Minister David Cameron invited her to the U.K. to visit her old university in Oxford in April, she replied: "'Two years ago I would have said 'Thank you for the invitation, but sorry.' But now I am able to say 'Perhaps,' and that's great progress."
The Associated Press reported that Ms. Suu Kyi's flight to Bangkok took off shortly before 8 p.m. local time.
In Thailand, Ms. Suu Kyi, 66 years old, is scheduled to address the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Bangkok Friday and meet with refugees and migrant workers from Myanmar before returning home to prepare for another series of overseas visits in June. Her itinerary includes visits a number of European countries, including Britain, Switzerland and Norway, where she plans to formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize she won in 1991 for leading a prodemocracy campaign against the former ruling junta.
During her visit to Thailand, Ms. Suu Kyi will encounter the economic transformation that has changed the face of Bangkok and much of the rest of Southeast Asia during her time in Myanmar, also known as Burma. While Thailand and other neighboring countries have ratcheted up decades of rapid growth, Myanmar remains an impoverished backwater, cut off for years by strict sanctions from the U.S. and European Union and beset by power outages and crumbling infrastructure.
Those sanctions, though, are now for the most part suspended. Former general President Thein Sein's reforms, including freeing political prisoners, partially freeing the media and initiating fresh moves to resolve a series of ethnic conflicts in the country's border regions, have encouraged the U.S. and European Union, among others, to allow companies to do business there, potentially triggering a race to invest in country rich in natural resources.
Global business leaders gathering in Bangkok for the World Economic Form meetings will likely seek assurances from Ms. Suu Kyi about doing business in the country and attempt to learn more about what kind of policy agenda she might intend to pursue in Myanmar's Parliament.
Among other things, Myanmar's leaders are working on a new foreign investment law designed to lure more foreign businesses to the country now that many sanctions have been frozen. Finance officials also have begun liberalization the country's arcane foreign-exchange system, switching in April from the old system—where the official exchange rate was set at six kyat to the dollar but street rates ranging to 800 kyat—to a "managed float" whereby banking officials let currency float within set limits.
Ms. Suu Kyi's own support for suspending sanctions, meanwhile, was instrumental in encouraging Western nations to freeze their embargoes on Myanmar.
She did, however, urge caution, suggesting that suspending rather than lifting sanctions outright is an appropriate course of action, and a way to ensure that reforms are rewarded while reminding the country's leaders that more changes are needed.
Mr. Thein Sein also was scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum but canceled his plans to take care of urgent matters in Myanmar after Ms. Suu Kyi's trip was publicized. He will visit Thailand from June 4 to 5, Thailand's Foreign Ministry said.
Source: WSJ
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