The Lady and the Peacock (69 page)

PART TWO, CHAPTER 4: THE FUNERAL

1
. he was “passionate about books”: see later ref. to Ko Myint Swe, p.237.

2
. All effort is now being put to establish the National League for Democracy: fax from Michael and Suu to relatives in England, St. Hugh's archive.

3
. “the throne was painted over with representations of the peacock and the hare,” according to George Scott: Shway Yoe (Scott's pen name),
The Burman, His Life and Notions
, pp.449–50.

4
. I am working . . . to achieve the kind of democratic system: Aung San Suu Kyi, “Belief in Burma's Future” in
Independent
, September 12, 1988.

5
. In 1874, King Thibaw's predecessor, King Mindon, informed that William Gladstone's Whigs had lost the general election in Britain, remarked, “Then poor Ga-la-sa-tong [Gladstone] is in prison I suppose. I am sorry for him. I don't think he was a bad fellow”: quoted in Houtman,
Mental Culture
. . ., p.214. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Houtman for his book and for his conversation and insights into democracy in the Burmese context.

6
. The Burman is the most calm and contented of mortals: Shway Yoe (George Scott),
The Burman
, p.65.

7
. “Traditional Burmese education did not encourage speculation,” she wrote: “Intellectual Life in Burma and India Under Colonialism” in Aung San Suu Kyi,
Freedom from Fear
, p.93.

8
. emphatically rules by what is called in the Western kingdoms the right divine: Shway Yoe (Scott),
The Burman
, pp.454–5.

9
. Gandhi was of a practical turn of mind that looked for ideas to suit the needs of situations: “Intellectual Life in Burma and India under Colonialism” in Aung San Suu Kyi,
Freedom from Fear
, p.108.

10
. Let anybody appear who can be like such a leader, who
dares
to be like such a leader. We are waiting: in Donald Bishop, “Thinkers of the Indian Renaissance” and quoted in turn in “Intellectual Life in Burma and India under Colonialism” in Aung San Suu Kyi,
Freedom from Fear
, p.128.

11
. a loose confederation of political parties and local influential leaders and strong men: Steinberg,
Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know
, p.53.

12
. Gustaaf Houtman cites three reasons why the concept of “opposition” has failed to gain any traction in Burma: Houtman,
Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics
, p.214.

13
. “In Burma,” writes Houtman, “those who declare themselves opponents to the regime are either extremely courageous or extremely foolish—there is little in between”: Houtman, ibid.

14
. “I went wrong,” she told U Win Khet, one of her close assistants, privately, “but not without a reason”: quoted in Wintle,
Perfect Hostage
, p.295.

15
. He had left Rangoon in late September or early October, ostensibly for a “holiday in Maymyo,” the British-built hill station northeast of Mandalay: Ma Thanegi papers.

16
. Aung San Suu Kyi was “surrounded by communists” it was claimed; she was “going the same way as her uncle's Burma Communist Party”: writers of opinion columns in the
Working People's Daily
, and Khin Nyunt.

17
. General Saw Maung, visited University Avenue the evening before the funeral to sign the condolence: Steven Erlanger, “Burmese, Still Under Military Rule, Settle Into a Sullen Waiting” in
New York Times
, January 9, 1989.

18
. I hope this occasion has been an eye-opener: Terry McCarthy, “Rangoon Peaceful for Funeral of Widow” in
Independent
, January 3, 1989.

PART TWO, CHAPTER 5: OPEN ROAD

1
. She was coming to open a new NLD office in a suburb on the outskirts of Rangoon: interview with the author.

2
. it was at the town of Panglong, in the far north of the region, in February 1947, that Suu's father signed a historic agreement: cf. Martin Smith's classic book on Burma's insurgencies,
Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity
, Zed Books, 1991.

3
. It costs a lot to keep Gandhi poor: Sarojini Naidu, quoted by Jyotsna Kamat, “India's Freedom Struggle” on
www.kamat.com
.

4
. she had not touched alcohol since experimentally sampling sherry with Indian friends in the ladies loo of Oxford's Bodleian Library, more than twenty years before: see Part Three, Chapter 3, p.197.

5
. Boys very interested in traditional dress, esp. that of the Padaung women: “Padaung women” are the so-called “giraffe-necked women” who wear numerous brass rings around their necks.

PART TWO, CHAPTER 6: HER FATHER'S BLOOD

1
. In a letter released internationally by his lawyers, the regime's former critic repeated his earlier accusation: Loktha Pyeithu Nezin, Rangoon, March 16, 1989, translated in BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, March 18, 1989.

2
. “I don't believe in armed struggle,” she told a journalist during these difficult days, “but I sympathize with the students who are engaged in armed struggle”: quoted on BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, April 3, 1989.

3
. by the spring of 1989, press estimates of membership ran as high as three million, in a total population of around 50 million: Terry McCarthy,
Independent
, April 19, 1989.

4
. Two days later Erlanger returned to the subject in the long
New York Times
piece, which probably did more than anything else to put her on the world map: Steven Erlanger, “Rangoon: Journal: A Daughter of Burma, but can she be a symbol?” in
New York Times
, January 11, 1989.

5
. The water festival of
Thingyan
, the Burmese New Year: in the original Indian myth, the King of Brahmas lost a wager with the King of Devas, Thagya-min, and was duly decapitated, but his head was too hot to be allowed to touch the ground and was passed from the hands of one goddess to another. As it was too hot to hold, it had to be cooled by the pouring on of water. A more generic explanation is that this is one of many traditional rain-making festivals. Cf. Scott,
The Burman, His Life and Notions
.

6
. In front of me was a young man holding our NLD flag: Alan Clements, Aung San Suu Kyi,
The Voice of Hope
, p.52.

7
. She explained that the captain's rejection of her proposal to walk at the side of the road struck her as “highly unreasonable”:
The Voice of Hope
, p.52.

8
. In a later interview she said of that split-second decision, “It seemed so much simpler to provide them with a single target”: Fergal Keane, “The Lady Who Frightens Generals” in
You
magazine, July 14, 1996.

9
. The fact that she had survived the army's attempt to kill her was proof positive of her high spiritual attainment: Houtman,
Mental Culture
. . ., p.328.

10
. She was “a heroine like the mythical mother goddess of the earth,” one admirer wrote three years later: Gustaaf Houtman, “Sacralizing or Demonizing Democracy” in
Burma at the Turn of the 20th Century
, ed. Monique Skidmore, University of Hawaii Press, 2005, p.140.

PART TWO, CHAPTER 7: DEFIANCE

1
. Alas, your poor Suu is getting weather-beaten: “Dust and Sweat” in Aung San Suu Kyi,
Freedom from Fear
, p.225.

2
. A joke current in Rangoon in those days went that Ne Win's favorite daughter Sanda had challenged Suu to a duel: Wintle,
Perfect Hostage
, p.319.

3
. no water festival pandals: in India and Burma a pandal is a temporary shrine set up during a festival, usually made of wood, and the focus of festival revelry.

4
. the happy highways where I went/ And cannot come again: lines from A.E. Housman,
A Shropshire Lad
.

5
. fragrant
nakao
on their cheeks: Burmese women grind the bark of particular trees into creamy paste and apply it to their cheeks as a face cream.
Nakao
is a type of bark.

6
. history did not in fact end after all: in
The End of History and the Last Man
, published in 1992, Francis Fukuyama argued that the revolutions that ended the Cold War signaled the end of ideology as a factor in the world's divisions.

7
. “had such success making alliances between many political and ethnic groups, much like her father . . . that it looked as if she had the ability to unify the opposition in a manner that would leave no political role” for the army: Houtman,
Mental Culture
. . . , p.46.

8
. when the regime introduced a newly designed one kyat note in 1989, the designer showed his anti-regime feelings in a very delicate manner: the fullest account of the one kyat note fiasco is in
Small Acts of Resistance
by Steve Crawshaw and John Jackson, Union Square Press, 2010.

9
. give lectures on the meaning and achievement of the hero's life. But not this year, and not ever again: my account of the dismantling of the Aung San cult owes much to
Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics
by Gustaaf Houtman.

10
. On that date they set up a twenty-one-member “Commission of Enquiry into the True Naming of Myanmar Names”: Michael Charney,
A History of Modern Burma
, pp.171, 173; Houtman,
Mental Culture
. . . , pp.43, 49.

11
. Now, Suu announced, her party's defiance of the regime would be enshrined in all its literature, in a permanent call to nonviolent resistance: cf. Houtman,
Mental Culture
. . .

12
. “General Ne Win,” she declared, “[who is] still widely believed to control Burma behind the scenes, was responsible for alienating the army from the people”: Houtman,
Mental Culture
. . ., p.17.

13
. When the peace of his lakeside villa was disturbed by a Christmas party: Harriet O'Brien,
Forgotten Land
, Michael Joseph, 1991, pp.104–6.

14
. “We don't have any intention to seek a confrontation,” Suu insisted to the
New York Times
' Steven Erlanger: Steven Erlanger, “As Tensions Increase, Burma Fears Another Crackdown” in
New York Times
, July 18, 1989.

15
. “Now it is obvious who is behind the recent bombing,” said Khin Nyunt, “and plans to disrupt law and order”: quoted in Keith B. Richburg, “Myanmar Moves on Opposition, 2 Leading Activists Under House Arrest” in
Washington Post
, July 22, 1989.

16
. “I was picked up at my hotel at night on the 18th, after curfew, although I had a valid journalist visa,” he recalled: quoted in Lintner,
Outrage
, p.174.

PART THREE, CHAPTER 1: GRIEF OF A CHILD

1
. If the British sucked our blood, the Japanese ground our bones: quoted in William Slim,
Defeat into Victory
, p.590.

2
. He became more and more disillusioned with the Japanese: ibid.

3
. The arrival of Aung San, dressed in the near-Japanese uniform of a Major General, complete with sword: ibid., p.591.

4
. He went on to say that, at first, he had hoped the Japanese would give real independence to Burma: ibid., p.593.

5
. My father died when I was too young to remember him: Aung San Suu Kyi,
Freedom from Fear
, p.3.

6
. “I have a memory of him picking me up every time he came home from work,” she told Alan Clements: Alan Clements, Aung San Suu Kyi,
The Voice of Hope
, p.83.

7
. I don't remember my father's death as such: ibid., p.75.

8
. How long do national heroes last? Not long in this country; they have too many enemies: quoted in Wintle,
Perfect Hostage
, p.141.

9
. I never felt the need for a dominant male figure: ibid., p.83.

10
. She was such a dignified woman with a very distinctive voice: interview with author.

11
. My mother was a very strong person: ibid., p.86.

12
. There was a Buddhist shrine room at the top of the house: interview with author.

13
. My mother was very good: ibid., p.196.

14
. “I was very close to him,” she said: ibid., pp.75–6.

15
. It was not something that I couldn't cope with: ibid., pp.75–6.

16
. “When I was young,” she said, “I was a normal, naughty child”: ibid., p.63.

17
. “Ours was a mixed school,” her friend Tin Tin remembered: interview with author.

18
. This tightly planned section of the city was “imperial and rectilinear”: Norman Lewis,
Golden Earth
, p.14.

19
. These massive columns now rise with shabby dignity from the tangle of scavenging dogs and sprawling, ragged bodies at their base: ibid., pp.14–16.

20
. The school was on Sule Pagoda Road in the middle of town, north of the pagoda: interview with author.

21
. politics has always been linked to literature and literary men have often been involved with politics, especially the politics of independence: Alan Clements, Aung San Suu Kyi,
The Voice of Hope
, p.61.

22
. When I was about twelve or thirteen I started reading the classics: ibid.

23
. Before the coup Burma was the one country in Southeast Asia with a really good economy: interview with author.

24
. At the weekend we had jam sessions: interview with author.

25
. “The Burmese,” writes Michael Charney, “had achieved independence without a revolution”: Michael Charney,
History of Modern Burma
, p.72.