by Peter Popham
16. her speech of thanks, delivered by Michael on her behalf: speech given on April 23, 1997, text in St. Hugh’s archive.
17. I started off on the basis that I would have to be very disciplined: Alan Clements, Aung San Suu Kyi, The Voice of Hope, p.143.
18. “Not long before my house arrest in 1989,” Suu wrote later, “I was granted an audience with the venerable U Pandita”: Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma, no. 40, Teachers.
19. those closer to the goal of nibbana or liberation: nibbana is the Burmese spelling of Nirvana.
20. the venal Burmese businessman: U Po Kyin.
21. This revolutionary idea became the seed of a mass movement, Burma’s mass lay-meditation movement: exhaustively explained in Ingrid Jordt, Burma’s Mass Lay Meditation Movement: Buddhism and the Cultural Construction of Power, Ohio University Research International Studies, 2007.
22. You were quite surprised when I told you how much we laughed together on the day of Suu’s arrest: Alan Clements, Aung San Suu Kyi, The Voice of Hope, p.253.
23. Like many of my Buddhist colleagues, I decided to put my time under detention to good use by practicing meditation: Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma, no. 40.
24. “There were times when I did more meditation because I was getting better at it,” she said: Alan Clements, Aung San Suu Kyi, The Voice of Hope, p.145.
25. “We want a better democracy, a fuller democracy with compassion and loving kindness,” she was to say years later: Houtman, Mental Culture . . . , Appendix 2 (D18).
26. General Ne Win [ . . . ] . . . was responsible for alienating the army from the people: quoted in Houtman, Mental Culture . . . , p.17. See also Part Two, Chapter 7, p.151.
27. U Pandita spoke of the importance of samma-vaca or right speech: Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma, no.40, p.159.
PART FOUR, CHAPTER 4: THE PEACE PRIZE
1. “When I knew I was going to be free, I didn’t know what to think,” she said a few days later: quoted in documentary Aung San Suu Kyi—Lady of No Fear.
2. Archbishop Desmond Tutu exulted: from Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s Foreword to the second edition of Freedom from Fear, 1995, p.xv.
3. During the years that I spent under house arrest: ibid.
4. “What I need,” she said, one month after her release, “is a proper office for our democracy party”: Tim McGirk, “Suu Kyi Keeps Flame of Democracy Alight” in Independent, August 21, 1995.
5. “Dear Suu,” read the letter from Rachel Trickett: St. Hugh’s College archive.
6. “Alexander was extraordinary,” he said: interview with author.
7. In the short term, however, the ascent of General Than Shwe to the chairmanship of SLORC in Saw Maung’s place was a boon for Suu and her family: this discussion of Than Shwe is heavily indebted to Benedict Rogers, Than Shwe: Unmasking Burma’s Tyrant, Silkworm Books, 2010.
8. The comments of those who had dealings with him are uniformly unflattering: quoted in Benedict Rogers, Than Shwe: Unmasking the Tyrant.
9. another “obdurate and unimaginative” soldier according to a retired British diplomat: the source of this quote requested anonymity.
10. whence they had fled to escape waves of brutal sectarian persecution by the Burmese Army: the Rohingya are the worst persecuted of all Burma’s mistreated ethnic minorities, partly on account of their being Muslim rather than Buddhist. To escape persecution and seek a better life, many have crossed the border contiguous with Arakan state, where they are concentrated, into Bangladesh, but although Bangladesh is a majority Muslim state they have been treated like pariahs there as well, confined to improvised refugee camps in appalling conditions. Their sufferings continue today.
11. Instead she agreed that she would indeed do as he proposed and leave Burma—on four conditions: announced, with a sardonic twinkle in his eye, to a press conference by Michael Aris; see documentary Aung San Suu Kyi—Lady of No Fear.
12. Both the empty “dialogue” and Suu’s release nine months later reveal the importance of Japan’s influence on the regime: Gustaaf Houtman, in Mental Culture. . . and in conversation, contributed and clarified several ideas in this discussion.
13. A British diplomat who served in Rangoon from 1996: interview with author. The retired diplomat asked not to be named.
14. The military’s primary provision from the inception of the process: Steinberg, Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know, p.142.
15. “Aung San Suu Kyi’s initial intention,” he wrote, “appeared to have been to visit a monk greatly respected by both the people”: Houtman, “Sacralising or Demonising Democracy” in Burma at the Turn of the 21st Century, p.148.
16. “In contrast to the aggressive, destructive quality of hatred,” wrote Sayadaw U Pandita, “metta, loving-kindness, wishes the welfare and happiness of others”: Sayadaw U Pandita, In This Very Life, Wisdom Publications, 2002, p.190.
17. It is metta. Rest assured that if we should lose this metta, the whole democratic party would disintegrate: Houtman, “Sacralising or Demonising Democracy,” op. cit.
18. There is a special charm to journeys undertaken before daybreak in hot lands: Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma, no. 1: The Road to Thamanya (1).
19. The road had become worse as we traveled further and further away from Rangoon: ibid., p.4.
20. As we approached Thamanya, the quiet seemed to deepen: ibid., no. 2, p.17.
21. No project could be successfully implemented without the willing cooperation of those concerned: ibid., no.4, p.17.
22. Suu, as Houtman sees it, gave the regime two choices: Houtman, “Sacralizing or Demonizing Democracy,” op. cit.
PART FOUR, CHAPTER 5: HEROES AND TRAITORS
1. “a follower they [i.e. the West] had raised,” they said, but SLORC would “never accept the leadership of a person under foreign influence who will dance to the tune of a foreign power”: “Voice of Myanmar” radio broadcast, January 27, 1992, quoted in Charney, p.176.
2. “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar”: lines from Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach.”
3. the country will be in ruins: Khin Nyunt, quoted in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, “Khin Nyunt addresses lawyers on their defects and why a woman should not lead,” February 3, 1992.
4. For six weeks I had been holed up in a hotel room in Rangoon waiting for a telephone call from Aung San Suu Kyi’s office: Alan Clements, Aung San Suu Kyi, The Voice of Hope, p.22.
5. He’s upstairs gathering medicines: Alan Clements, Aung San Suu Kyi, The Voice of Hope, p.22.
6. Suu had argued that it was “not yet time to invest” in Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma, no. 11, A Note on Economic Policy.
7. When she began telling foreign investors to stay away, I told her that it would hurt the people, who need jobs. She replied, “People will just have to tighten their belts.” I said, “There are no more notches”: interview with author, March 2010.
8. The point of no return came when the Indian writer Amitav Ghosh quoted the “no more notches” line in a piece about Burma published by the New Yorker in August 1996: collected in Amitav Ghosh, Incendiary Circumstances: A Chronicle of the Turmoil of Our Times, p.183.
9. “Khin Nyunt’s man worked on Ma Ma Thanegi successfully,” he said: this Burmese source, who requested anonymity, has good contacts on both sides of Burma’s political divide.
10. “All political matters were under the control of Counter-Intelligence Department,” he wrote in an e-mail: e-mail correspondence with author, 2011.
11. Just because [these governments] have decided on a policy of constructive engagement, there is no need for us to think of them as our enemies: collected in Amitav Ghosh, Incendiary Circumstances, p.185.
12. Burma gets only 1.4 percent of the number of tourists who visit Thailand, 200,000 compared to its neighbor’s 14 million: Irrawaddy, June 2011.
13. “We want people to come to Burma,” he said: Kenneth Denby, “Let People See Our Suffering” in The
Times, November 4, 2010.
14. individuals coming in to see the country, to study the situation in the country, might be a good idea: Phoebe Kennedy, “Welcome to Burma” in Independent, February 21, 2011.
15. will ultimately help open Burma to travelers: ibid.
16. “If the army really wants to kill me, they can do it without any problems at all, so there is no point in making elaborate security arrangements,” she told The Times: quoted in Wintle, Perfect Hostage, p.382.
17. The refusal to allow Aung San Suu Kyi to hold roadside talks . . . meant that a great tension settled upon Rangoon in the latter part of 1996: Monique Skidmore, Karaoke Fascism: Burma and the Politics of Fear, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, p.7.
18. It took several weeks: quoted in ibid., p.9.
19. Generals are not content to control only the flow of information in the public domain: ibid., p.14.
20. he insisted on staying on in “the only place he could ever regard as home,” as Michael Aris later put it: Dr. Michael Aris, “A Tribute to James Leander Nichols,” St. Hugh’s archive London, July 23, 1996.
21. The glaring light of adversity: Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma, no. 33, p.131.
22. According to the teachings of Buddhism: ibid, p.133.
23. He was “her knight in shining armor,” said one friend, “the one who was defending and fighting for her and trying to slay the dragon for her”: Suzanne Hoelgaard (quoted) in the documentary Aung San Suu Kyi—Lady of No Fear.
24. In the first twenty years of their marriage: Carey quoted in Aung San Suu Kyi—Lady of No Fear.
25. Michael stayed with me once in Bangkok after the house arrest started: interview with author.
26. He was overly cautious: interview with author.
27. the warm encouragement of the Prince of Wales: Prince Charles and Michael Aris became friends after the latter gave the Prince a detailed briefing on court etiquette and many other questions before the Prince’s first visit to Bhutan. In the last weeks of Michael’s illness Prince Charles invited him to Highgrove, where he agreed to become Patron of Michael’s putative Foundation. Anthony Aris added, “The Rausing family secured the prosperity of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies at Oxford with a magnificent donation of $200,000 just before Michael’s death.”
28. “I don’t think Suu ever realized how much he did,” she said: interview with author.
29. He was offered this teaching fellowship in Sanskrit at Harvard: interview with author.
30. A western diplomat: the source of this quote wishes to remain anonymous.
31. I arrived as a memorial ceremony to Michael was in progress: interview with author.
PART FIVE, CHAPTER 1: MEETING SUU
1. “He was a fascinating figure,” he said, “much more approachable than the other top generals”: interview with author.
2. Khin Nyunt was the main force behind the revitalization of religion during the 1990s: interview and e-mail correspondence with author.
PART FIVE, CHAPTER 2: NIGHTMARE
1. “The USDA has become a very dangerous organization,” she said in 1996: Houtman, Mental Culture . . ., page 119.
2. Wunna Maung, one of her bodyguards, said later in testimony to the US Congress: description of events up to, including and after Depayin massacre draws on the following sources: records of US Congress Ad Hoc Commission on Depayin Massacre, http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/Depayin_Massacre.pdf; interviews with Suu’s driver at Depayin by Democratic Voice of Burma, http://www.dvb.no/analysis/depayin-and-the-driver/12828; “Depayin considered as crime against humanity,” Asian Legal Resource Center, http://www.article2.org/mainfile.php/0206/112/; detailed account of massacre on Ibiblio Public Library and Digital Archive, http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/Yearbook2002-3/yearbooks/Depayin%20report.htm; Benedict Rogers, Than Shwe, op. cit.
3. Suu wore a sky-blue silk htamein (the female longyi) and a large cluster of yellow jasmine flowers in her hair, and her heavy fringe flopped down over her eyebrows: video of Monywa speech on YouTube; translation of transcript on World News Connection, May 30, 2003, via LexisNexis.
4. We watched helplessly and tried to show courage: report of Ad Hoc Commission on Depayin Massacre, Bangkok, July 4, 2003.
5. I was taken in a car with darkened windows, and we changed cars along the way: Benedict Rogers, Than Shwe, op. cit.
6. Maung Aye and Khin Nyunt approached Than Shwe: e-mail correspondence with Aung Lynn Heut.
7. It is not power that corrupts but fear: Aung San Suu Kyi, “Freedom from Fear” in Freedom from Fear, p.180.
PART FIVE, CHAPTER 3: THE SAFFRON REVOLUTION
1. My first teacher was very interested in politics: interview with author.
2. Ingrid Jordt, the American anthropologist and former Buddhist nun: I am greatly indebted to Ingrid for e-mails and conversations containing ideas and wisdom which illuminate the following pages.
3. In Burma we look upon members of the sangha as teachers: Aung San Suu Kyi, Letters from Burma, no. 40.
4. The Burmese were in no doubt, says Jordt: they expected any day that Than Shwe would “descend head first into the hell realms”: when Burmese kings have committed such black acts as killing monks, the only way left for them to cling to power, Burmese believe, is by following the “dark arts,” the so-called “lower path”: praying to nat spirits, making use of alchemy, calling on the services of weiksas (wizards) and engaging in the practice of yadaya, which involves symbolically enacting events one dreads, to prevent them coming to pass. The Thamanya Sayadaw, the much-esteemed monk visited by Aung San Suu Kyi in 1995 and 2002 (see above), died in 2003 at age ninety-three. His body was embalmed and placed in a specially built mausoleum near his temple, and became the focus of a large pilgrimage cult. On April 2, 2008, some six months after the suppression of the monks’ revolt, however, fourteen armed men in military uniforms burst into the mausoleum, locked up the guards in a neighboring building, then stole the late abbott’s embalmed body.
Ingrid Jordt explained, “Rumor immediately circulated that the military was performing lower path magic. It was said that Than Shwe’s bodaw (teacher of the magical arts), in consultation with his astrologers, recommended that the monk’s body be roasted and some of the flesh eaten in order to gain the power of the monk.” When Cyclone Nargis struck Burma one month later, the popular explanation was that this was cosmic retribution for Than Shwe’s impious act of cannibalism.
PART FIVE, CHAPTER 4: THE PEACOCK EFFECT
1. John William Yettaw, who lives in a small mobile home in the Ozark Mountains, Missouri, is a four-times married Vietnam War veteran: this account of Yettaw’s misadventures is largely based on Robert Taylor’s summary, from a translation of the records of the proceedings of the Rangoon court where Yettaw and Aung San Suu Kyi, were tried, in his article “Myanmar in 2009: On the Cusp of Normality?” in Southeast Asian Affairs, 2010.
2. NLD sources have referred to him, not without reason, as “a nutty fellow” and “that wretched man”: however, Suu sent a private message to NLD colleagues saying that Yettaw was ill and telling her supporters not to attack him (private information).
3. neither I nor Kenneth Denby nor even John Simpson: Kenneth Denby is the nom de plume of The Times’ intrepid correspondent in Burma. John Simpson is the veteran BBC foreign correspondent celebrated above all for single-handedly “liberating” Kabul from the Taliban in 2001.
4. British ambassador Mark Canning, who was to hear her testify: quoted in Phoebe Kennedy, “Suu Kyi testifies that she did not violate her house arrest” in Independent, May 27, 2009.
5. Phoebe Kennedy wrote: ibid.
6. being the daughter of Bogyoke Aung San: from Robert Taylor, “Myanmar in 2009: on the Cusp of Normality?” in Southeast Asian Affairs, 2010.
7. The Chrysler ad featuring Suu climaxes with the car they are trying to sell smashing down a wall. The subtext is not hard to fathom: the political frivolity of the car manufacturers who piously adopt Suu’s im
age to sell their goods was brought home by one of the sequels to the Lancia ad: a new Italian campaign for Lancia’s Ypsilon model starring French movie star Vincent Cassel and with the catchline “Il lusso è un diritto” (“Luxury is a right”).
8. The ICG conclusion quoted by Marshall: International Crisis Group, Asia Briefing no. 118, Myanmar’s Post-Election Landscape, March 7, 2011.
9. Burma has a special place in my heart: Helvey interview with Metta Spencer in Peace Magazine, vol. 24, no. 1, p.12.
10. When I was up at Cambridge one day: ibid.
11. [Sharp] started out the seminar by saying, “Strategic nonviolent struggle is all about political power. How to seize political power and how to deny it to others”: Suu and Gene Sharp have never had the opportunity to meet, but if they did it is likely they would agree on the fundamental questions. In The Voice of Hope, Suu said, “We have chosen the way of nonviolence simply because we think it’s politically better for the country in the long run to establish that you can bring about change without the use of arms . . . Here, we’re not thinking about spiritual matters at all . . .” She reiterated the point when she responded by telephone to a question after her first Reith Lecture for the BBC in June 2011, saying, “I do not hold to nonviolence for moral reasons but practical and political reasons.” She quoted Gandhi as saying that if he had to choose between violence and cowardice “he would choose violence any time.”
But Suu protests too much when she disavows the moral arguments for nonviolence. She has always been vulnerable to attack by those in the movement who favor violence, and this is how she tries to deflect their criticisms: One recalls how, back in 1989, she told a journalist, “I don’t believe in armed struggle but I sympathize with the students who are engaged in armed struggle.” Yet, as this book indicates, her ideas about nonviolence and the “revolution of the spirit” are in fact rooted in her religious convictions.
12. “Resorting to nonviolence tactics,” wrote Thant Myint-U: Thant Myint-U, River of Lost Footsteps, p.337.
13. a contaminant to a nonviolent struggle . . . the greatest contaminant: Helvey interview with Metta Spencer in Peace Magazine, vol. 24, no. 1, p.12.