We really like heroes because they give us hope. Unlike our fictional heroes though, the real-life ones sometimes disappoint us.

Bad news this month from Myanmar, formerly Burma, a country of nonfictional heroes and villains, plotting and scheming, jade and drugs. The country is one of incredibly kind people and more culture and art than you could learn in a lifetime. It’s also awash with weapons, dominated by drug trade, divided by ethnic conflict, manipulated by neighbors, and fraught with poverty.

A few hours before the swearing in of a new parliament on Feb. 1, the Myanmar military seized control of the country and justified the coup d'etat by claiming widespread fraud in the November elections when the governing National League for Democracy (NLD) party won 396 of 476 Parliament seats versus 33 seats won by the military’s party.

This coup was pretty standard: do it at night, show a quick presence on the streets, lots of soldiers and olive drab vehicles, suspend air and rail travel, shut down mobile networks, control social media and the internet, seize radio and television stations, broadcast pro-coup messages, and apprehend any opposition.

Predictably, they detained President Win Myint, members of the NLD, and political activists. Most notably though, they detained the State Counselor, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The leader of the NLD and longtime leader of the Myanmar people in the eyes of those around the globe, Aung San Suu Kyi is a mythic mix of human rights activist, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, politician, diplomat, and heroic daughter of a hero.

Her father, Aung San, is the father of Myanmar, a war hero, politician, and revolutionary. He was assassinated in 1947 by gunmen in military uniforms – responsibility for the assassination has never been satisfactorily explained, but theories accuse the Burmese Army and British intelligence.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s emerged as an inspiration. During her 15 years under house arrest, she famously addressed followers over the front fence of her home and shepherded Myanmar out of 50 years of military rule. She professed nonviolent resistance to the military that routinely locked her up and even refused to allow her British husband to visit while he was dying of cancer.

The victory of Aung San Suu Kyi and her NLD party in the 2015 elections seemed to confirm her as a historic hero of Myanmar and seemed to promise a democratic future. Not permitted to be President due to a constitutional clause — her late husband and children are foreign citizens — she took the newly created role of State Counsellor, essentially the Prime Minister.

Her government faced seemingly endless problems. Rebels across the country fought with each other and the military, over 1,400 violent protests last year, oppressive poverty, natural disasters, COVID-19, and the suspicious loyalty of the military surrounding her, Aung San Suu Kyi struggled.

The government’s heavy-handed treatment of the ethnic minority Rohingya and the refugee disaster in its wake emerged as her biggest problem and amazingly came to redefine her as a former hero — global diplomats, academics, activists, and even the Dalai Lama disparaged her for not acting forcefully to protect the Rohingya.

So, recently fallen from grace, our hero’s whereabouts are unknown, nabbed by coup leaders who give trivial justifications for detaining her. This seems to be a sad and dissatisfying end to the Aung San Suu Kyi story. But, let’s recall how much we really love heroes and the ones we love most, and need most, are the ones who come back, even better in version 2.0.

Certainly, Aung San Suu Kyi’s government has been a nightmare for the Rohingya, but the coup government will likely be a nightmare for all of Myanmar and much of the region. Perhaps the Rohingya can forgive us as we hope for an old hero’s return, peace for Myanmar, and justice for those she disappointed. Who better to have faith in than a former hero?

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