It's familiar, unmistakable. The melody echoing through the auditorium at Rangsit University is from Days of Wine and Roses, that Hollywood drama from the early 1960s whose theme music, composed by Henry Mancini, won an Academy Award. The odd thing is that the tune is being played by a group of Asian students who couldn't possibly have been born when that film was released.

The recent release of Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, after deeply flawed elections that allowed the military in Myanmar, also known as Burma, to tighten its half-century-long grip on the country, raises numerous political questions: What comes next for her? Will the ruling junta engage her newly reconstituted National Democracy Party? Will other political prisoners be freed?

Burma's oppressive military government has for decades spurred activists across the globe to protest to politicians and in front of Burma's embassies. Demonstrations inside Burma are rare as they carry heavy penalties. However, one group of young activists is taking risks to encourage their generation to push for democracy.

It is possible that the generals knew that the election would cause such outrage that the only way to mask it was to present the world with a different and more compelling story, the release of the most famous political prisoner in the world.

The Obama administration's decision to seek a new way forward in U.S.-Burma relations recognizes that decades of trying to isolate Burma (aka Myanmar) in order to change the behavior of its government have achieved little. As Burma's ruling generals prepare to hold elections later this year — for the first time since 1990 — it is time to try something different.