Want India to do more for democracy in Myanmar, says Suu Kyi

Hours after the United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed on a historic trip to Myanmar, the country's pro-democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi said that India needs to do more in her country to establish true democracy.

"I think India, as a democracy... certainly we would like India to do more to promote democratic values in Myanmar," Suu Kyi told members of a Council on Foreign Relations, a Washington based think tank, and reporters in a rare live conversation with Skype.

Responding to questions on China, Suu Kyi said she has always emphasised the fact that the two countries have always had good relationship and she would like that to continue. "We have enjoyed quite a good record of friendship, friendly relation to China, and I would like to maintain that," she said.

"I hope that whatever little snags may have arisen along the road, we will be able to overcome them and be able to maintain our friendly relations with China. And I do not think simply because we believe in different systems of government, we need necessarily be hostile to one another," she said.

The Myanmar leader said the United Nations can play a more proactive role in her country. "I have to confess that I think that the UN could play a more proactive role in Myanmar and in many other parts of the world. This is not, of course, entirely the fault of the UN Security Council veto alone, which is enough to stop some suggested plan from going forward," she said.

"So it is very difficult for the UN to do everything that they might wish to do, but still, I would very much like the UN to be more proactive in situations like Myanmar," Suu Kyi said.

The Noble laureate expressed hope that Clinton has a meaningful talks with the Myanmar leaders. "We hope that they are meaningful. I personally trust

President Thein Sein but I cannot say that everybody in the government feels as he does," she said.

"At the moment what we have to do is to find our way ahead as best we can. It requires a bit of risk. I think we have to be prepared to take risks. But nothing is guaranteed. We can't ever expect a hundred per cent guarantee in politics, and certainly we can't expect that now. But we've got to make the best of the opportunities that have arisen over the last few months," Suu Kyi noted.

She exuded confidence that the majority of the people of Myanmar want a peaceful, harmonious transition to democracy. "That is what we want. That is what we have been working for a long time. And since now it seems as though we have the opportunity to achieve our goal, we must do everything we can to go forward with a certain amount of caution, yes, but also, we have to be prepared to take risks. I've always believed in cautious optimism," the pro-democratic leader said.

Suu Kyi said that she would be running for by-elections in the country.

"I hope to run for Parliament. We are waiting to hear whether our party's application for registration has (been accepted) Once that's accepted, we can start making plans to contest the by-elections. We're not sure exactly when those are going to take place, but we would like to run for the by-elections," Suu Kyi said.

"We would hope that by having some of us people in parliament, we will be able to do twice the work that we have been doing, because we'll have extra-parliamentary activities as well... as well as the activities within parliament," she said.