Barbara Victor is a seasoned journalist, writer of novels and other works. After publishing "A Voice of Reason," the biography of Hanan Ashrawi, the prominent Palestinian, she turned to another reasonable voice: Aung San Suu Kyi.
Hers is another reasonable voice crying out for democracy that the military junta (once known as the State Law and Order Restoration Council, now as the State Peace and Development Council) that rules Myanmar longs to stifle.
Undaunted by deprivation (she was confined to her family home on Lake Inya outside Yangon for six years), Suu Kyi, known locally as "The Lady", is the leader of the National League for Democracy and the daughter of the Burmese hero and patriot Aung San.
He struggled for the independence of his country first against the British colonists and then against the Japanese occupiers after a short alliance with them.
Suu Kyi is now allowed to meet her two deputies and to address her followers from her garden wall. She is, though, restricted, and always under the watchful eye of the ruthless regime.
Victor paints a touching portrait of this indomitable woman, who gave up family life with her English husband and their two sons in order to work for freedom in her country.
At the same time she gives an informative account of conditions in Myanmar, its leaders and its recent history. She had permission from SLORC to visit Myanmar and gather material for this book.
When Aung San realized that the Japanese, whom he had helped capture Rangoon in 1942, did not plan to grant then Burma its freedom, he joined the British Allied Forces, and was recognized as a principal leader in the movement for Burmese independence.
After a period of confused political activity following World War II, a constituent assembly was elected and met in June 1947, but in July of that year Aung San was assassinated with seven of his ministers by U Saw, a rival. Suu Kyi was then 2 years old, her father 32.
U Nu, a colleague of Aung San in the struggle for independence, became prime minister, but there were difficulties over the rights of the minorities, in particular the Shans and the Karens -- the latter are still fighting against the government.
U Nu, unable to cope with the unrest, asked Gen. Ne Win, another colleague, to take over. This he did, ruling the country despotically for 26 disastrous years.
Ne Win managed to turn Myanmar, a country with vast mineral and natural resources, and potentially rich, into a slum.
Meanwhile Suu Kyi was being educated first at Delhi University (her mother was ambassador to India) and then at Oxford University, where she met the man who would later become her husband, scholar Michael Aris.
In 1988 Suu Kyi returned to Rangoon to nurse her dying mother.
At the same time, Ne Win was forced to retire by the army after being unable to quell ethnic disturbances that had sprung up across the country.
Desperately trying to win some credibility, the government held elections in 1988 that it expected to win handily. Instead, it was handed a stunning defeat by the NLD, led by Suu Kyi. The military refused to hand over power to the party and unrest followed. SLORC nullified the election results and clings to power to this day, even though it has changed its name.
Suu Kyi was arrested for attacking SLORC and Ne Win, and in 1990 was put under house arrest.
Today "The Lady," who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, is in much the same situation -- she is under around-the-clock observation, her contacts with the outside world guarded, her movements restricted -- but her voice has not been silenced.
Ne Win lives in retirement on the other side of Lake Inya. He is 86 and still a power behind the scenes. He is steeped in superstition and astrology. Sitting on a wooden horse in his plane, he is flown nine times round his birthplace. Nine is his lucky number.
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