What a difference two decades make.
Twenty-two years ago, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party won about 80 percent of the seats in parliament. The military regime never allowed the NLD winners to be seated. Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest and remained there off and on (a total of 15 years) until her release in November 2010.
Burmese I've met in Yangon or elsewhere in the country would never say her name in public because they knew just mentioning her name, or carrying her photo, could get them arrested. They referrred to the Nobel Peace Prize winner simply as "The Lady."
Now, "The Lady" has won a seat in Parliament and her NLD Party has won 40 of 45 contested seats.
Was the election perfect? No. The NLD will have only 7 percent of the seats in Parliament.
Will that make a difference? Maybe.
We'll have to wait and see how much influence "The Lady" will have on her fellow parlimentarians until the general election in 2015.
There's still a long way to go before democracy is realized in Burma, but for now, everyone is celebrating "The Lady's" victory--their victory--that's been a long time coming.
Watch the video below to see the celebration outside NLD headquarters in Yangon and the mob surrounding Aung San Suu Kyi. Also, comments from Forum for Democracy spokesman Soe Aung.