YANGON: Myanmar authorities failed to auction off Aung San Suu Kyi’s lakeside mansion on Tuesday (Apr 29) – the fourth time the sale of the jailed Nobel peace laureate’s property has attracted no bidders.
A court-appointed auctioneer emerged from the rusty gate of the sprawling two-storey pile on Yangon’s leafy University Avenue Road to offer it at a discounted US$128 million starting price.
Surveyed by a gaggle of journalists and around a dozen police, the auctioneer asked for bidders three times before proclaiming: “We hereby announce that the auction is not successful”.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been jailed since being deposed by a 2021 military coup but spent years under house arrest at the historic property during a previous period of junta rule.
After lengthy legal wrangling, her estranged brother has won the rights to half of the villa. Its sale is being overseen by junta-appointed officials and Aung San Suu Kyi is entitled to half of the proceeds.
During her house arrest at 54 University Avenue Road, Aung San Suu Kyi would make speeches at the boundary fence – drawing crowds of hundreds with lofty rhetoric about democracy and non-violent resistance.
Myanmar’s decade-long democratic experiment saw Aung San Suu Kyi become the elected figurehead after her release in 2010, and the colonial-era home was where she steered its nascent civilian government.
