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World Have Your Say: The Reith Lectures

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The Reith Lectures

BBC World Service - World Have Your Say, The Reith Lectures

Aung San Suu Kyi examines what drives people to dissent in the second Reith Lecture 2011

Aung San Suu Kyi examines what drives people to dissent in the second Reith Lecture 2011.

We've got a special programme for you today, carrying the second part of this year's BBC Reith Lectures by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The recording of the Burmese pro-democracy leader was done secretly at her house in Burma. After we hear what she has to say, we'll take half an hour to discuss it with a panel of guests - and take your questions.

Today, in the second and final lecture, Aung San Suu Kyi discusses how her party, The National League for Democracy, has survived despite being ignored by Burma's military dictatorship.

"In spite of the stringent efforts by the military regime to isolate us from the rest of the world, we never felt alone in our struggle. We never felt alone because the struggle against authoritarianism and oppression spans the whole human world, crossing political and cultural frontiers."

The Reith Lectures were created as a "stimulus to thought and contribution to knowledge", and were named in honour of the BBC's first Director-General, Lord Reith.

The inaugural lectures were given by the philosopher and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell in 1948. 

Past Reith lecturers have included the "father of the atomic bomb" Robert Oppenheimer; Canadian economist JK Galbraith; architect Sir Richard Rogers; and pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim.

Former MI5 Director-General Baroness Manningham-Buller will present three further lectures in September.

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