AUNG SAN SUU KYI--BOOK REVIEW

PERFECT HOSTAGE BY JUSTIN WINTLE; PUBLISHED BY SKYHORSE PUBLISHING ; PAGES 464 ; PRICE-US $27.95
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Burma has not been forgotten because of Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She is called the Titanium Orchid, for her qualities of steadfast endurance, commitment to principle and personal grace. In Burma itself she is known more simply as ‘The Lady’
A woman in her early sixties, isolated from her friends, and above all isolated from her children; her residence is a crumbling colonial villa. Neither house arrest, nor isolation, nor a spell of actual imprisonment in one of the world’s most ghastly jails, nor threats to her life, not failing health has persuaded her to accept freedom, on condition that she leaves Burma for good. She is the best-known prisoner of conscience alive today. In the narrow gallery of saints her image stands out and it is but true that she is likened to Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, even Mahatma Gandhi, whose philosophy of non-violence she has assiduously followed.
The book under review tells her story as also of her father General Aung San. Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner, has led a life perennially under the shadow of sorrow. Her father Aung San was assassinated, her favorite brother was drowned in a pool accident, her husband died of cancer and she herself has been in confinement for over 18 years.. Suu Kyi won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In 1992 she was awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru peace prize for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship.
Suu Kyi was born on 19 June 1945 in Rangoon and was the third child in her family. Her name is derived from three relatives; "Aung San" from her father, "Kyi" from her mother and "Suu" from her grandmother. According to the results of the 1990 General Election, Suu Kyi earned the right to be Prime Minister, as leader of the winning National League for Democracy party, but the military junta kept her in detention and prevented her from assuming that role.
Her father, General Aung San, is considered to be the Father of modern-day Burma. He,was a general in the Burmese army and negotiated Burma's independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. He was assassinated by his rivals in the same year. Suu Kyi, was educated in English Catholic schools for much of her childhood in Burma.
Her mother Khin Kyi gained prominence as a political figure in the newly-formed Burmese government. She was appointed as Burmese ambassador to India in 1960.Aung San Suu Kyi followed her mother there, graduating from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi in 1964.Of special interest to Indian readers is a chapter on this period-- “An Indian Idyll: ‘The Ugly One’ Takes Wing”. Among Suu Kyi’s contemporaries in Lady Shri Ram College was Malvika Karlekar, who was instrumental in setting up the Centre for Women’s Development studies and her impression is worth recalling-.”She would always sit upright, and never spoke out of turn. She dressed in Burmese clothes”. Her appearance also struck Ann Pasternak, grand niece of Boris Pasternak and she wrote, ”Suu Kyi impressed us by her Burmese longyi, which she always wore in college, and by the small flowers with which she adorned her hair.”
Suu Kyi continued her education at Oxford, obtaining a B.A. degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1969 and a Ph.D at the University of London in 1985. She also worked for the government of Myanmar. In 1972, Aung San Suu Kyi married Dr.Michael Aris, a scholar of Tibetan culture, living abroad in Bhutan. The following year she gave birth to her first son, Alexander, and in 1977 she had her second son, Kim.

Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma in 1988 to take care of her ailing mother. By coincidence, in that year, the long-time leader of the socialist ruling party, General Ne Win, stepped down, leading to mass demonstrations for democratisation on August 8, 1988 ( 8-8-88, a day seen as auspicious ), which were violently suppressed. A new military junta took power.
Influenced by both Mahatma Gandhi’s 's philosophy of non-violence and by more specifically Buddhist concepts, Aung San Suu Kyi entered politics to work for democracy and helped found the National League for Democracy in 1988. She was put under house arrest in 1989. She was offered freedom if she left the country, but she refused.
On May 16, 2007, 59 world leaders released a letter demanding Myanmar's military government free Suu Kyi and other political prisoners. The signatories include all three surviving former US presidents Jimmy Carter, George Bush and Bill Clinton; former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher; Nobel Peace laureate and former President of Poland Lech Walesa . In December 2007, the US Government conferred on Aung San Suu Kyi the Congressional Gold Medal. She is the first recipient in American history to receive the prize while imprisoned.
She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991 for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma. The citation declared that her struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades and she is an important symbol in the struggle against oppression. The Nobel Prize Committee honoured this woman for her unflagging efforts to attain democracy and human rights by peaceful means.
Justin Wintle, the author of the book is a historian who has several books to his credit. –‘Romancing Vietnam’, ‘The Vietnam Wars’ as also the ‘Rough Guide’ histories of China, Islam and Spain. Wintle’s biographical work brilliantly explores the limits of Satyagraha epitomised by Aung San Suu Kyi’s struggle for a democratic Burma in the face of the brutally violent Burmese Junta. The book is a useful guide to Burma and has an added attraction of a number of photographs, a glossary, a list of principal persons in that country’s history. In short,it is a thorough analysis of the country and its most dynamic leader.
Desmond Tutu, himself a Nobel Peace Prize winner, declared accurately, “In physical stature, she is petite and elegant, but in moral stature she is a giant”. The unique quality of this biography is that the author has charted the story of Burma and the character of the woman behind its modern history. Wintle’s book is comprehensively researched and has the right degree of tension and excitement in recounting a tragic life. Wintle’s biography is an excellent account of the making of “Asia’s Mandela”.

P.P.Ramachandran