Rumours were in the air last week swirling around incarcerated democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and the steps the Myanmar military junta might take to mark the Buddhist holy day of the Waso Full Moon on 1 August.

Just before 1 August, Myanmar watchers were sharing rumours of what might transpire in Myanmar and the actions the military junta might take. The extension of the State of Emergency was an option, but there was also the suggestion that the junta might bring in an interim government – along the lines of the Thein Sein administration of 2010 – with the aim that this would be in place in the run-up to the announced elections. In the end, this did not transpire at this stage, though it might be lined up for later.

What gained attention for all the wrong reasons was the “partial pardon” for Aung San Suu Kyi and whether she was now under house arrest.

In what one commentator called “hostage diplomacy”, the 78-year-old former leader had six years shaved off her 33-year prison sentence, a joke by any score, effectively a “life sentence”.

Former UN envoy Yanghee Lee told media that this “pardon” means “Min Aung Hlaing and the junta are out of ideas” and are “going back to their old playbook”. The junta leader is trying to win over the Myanmar people and reach out to the international community, she said. It is time the international community really wakes up, this is a decades-old trick, as the junta never has the support of the people, she noted.

But one message came through, an echo of the line now being followed by people who have lost patience. On the subject of the minimal pardon of Aung San Suu Kyi, Yanghee Lee said the Myanmar people have moved on. The people respect Aung San Suu Kyi, she said, but the fight now is the people’s fight.

This is particularly important at the junta appears to be pushing “dialogue” as part of a strategy to break up the Spring Revolution movement. As Burma News International pointed out in its latest weekly report, the junta is trying to use a call to dialogue and an outreach to ASEAN to neuter the forces arraigned against it, including the PDFs, EROs and EAOs.

The junta appears desperate but hopes to use the Thai foreign minister’s claim that Aung San Suu Kyi “encourages dialogue” to dampen resistance. Yet the Myanmar people are not aware of the words The Lady spoke when she met the Thai foreign minister and whether she tried to convey a “message”.

As Yanghee Lee notes, the people respect The Lady but the fight now is in the hands of the people.