A revolution was incomplete unless it was accompanied by cultural upheaval and a revolution of morals, she told more than 100 writers at an event held by the NLD in Yangon on August 25.

“Some call the 1988 democracy movement a democratic revolution but we must launch a moral revolution if we are ever to achieve real democracy,” said Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

“Only if you revolutionise your soul or change your mind-set, will there be real revolution,” she said.

The NLD leader said it was the role of writers to help establish the culture necessary for democracy to flourish.

Asked about the NLD's stand on laws involving the printing and publishing industry, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said there had been no discussion about it between her party and the media sector.
 
“We did not object to the [Publishing and Printing] bill in the hluttaw because we understood that the press and writers had already negotiated with the authorities and agreed to its content,” she said.

The NLD leader suggested there needed to be more engagement between writers and the NLD in future.

She said writers must do more to help the public understand the situation in Myanmar and must also help to tell the world that Myanmar was not yet a full democracy.

One of the writers at the event, San San Nwe, told the meeting that she believed distractions were affecting the ability of the media to focus on important national issues.

“When Section 436 [constitutional reform] was on the agenda, there was bloody conflict in Mandalay; when proportional representation was being discussed, the salvage operation for a huge bell was in the news,” said San San Nwe.

“Writers should help the people distinguished between what is important and what is not,” she said.