Aung San Suu Kyi’s years of struggle for democracy and rights in Myanmar inevitably led to her name being associated with courage, bravery, strength and dignity. She was perceived as a beacon of hope, not just for the people of her country, but the oppressed around the world. When her political party overwhelmingly won elections and she became de facto president under reforms implemented by the junta, long hoped-for change for the downtrodden seemed inevitable. But her lack of criticism of the army’s brutality towards the Muslim Rohingya ethnic group in northern Rakhine state has led to a tarnishing of her image and raised doubts of her commitment to peace.

More than 300,000 Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, hundreds of people have been killed, rapes committed and homes burned in retaliation for the latest strikes by Muslim militants on army posts. But Suu Kyi largely has her hands tied; she has to consider a population that is 89 per cent Buddhist, growing extremism in Rakhine and the constraints on her governance posed by the military, which controls security and border issues. Myanmar’s 1.2 million Rohingya have long faced discrimination and persecution despite having lived in the country for generations. Ethnic minorities in northern Kachin and Shan states, where the army has ramped up an offensive despite promises by Suu Kyi to broker a peace deal, have similar fears.