10:50 AM
Waa Haa Haa
SWEDISH JOURNALIST Jesper
Bengtsson followed developments in Myanmar for a decade before writing
this biography of Suu Kyi, whose party National League for Democracy
swept the bypolls over the weekend. He interviewed her in February 2011,
over a year after she was released from house arrest.
For the media, a goodlooking, charismatic
leader carrying on the political legacy of the family is always a
magnetic subject. In India, of course, the fact that she studied in a
Delhi college makes her very real to the elite of the capital city. But
personal suffering – and she did suffer in an inhuman manner – cannot
alone be the yardstick by which a politician can be judged. A politician
must be good for the country, bring hope of a better future and also be
in a position to deliver that dream. If not, society throws up others.
Here we come to terms with some harsh
realities. Suu Kyi’s father Aung San, who had left-wing views and had
what the author called ‘eccentric personal characteristics’ was part of
the struggle for independence from the British. When an interim
government was formed, he was made vice chair of the council, in charge
of defence and foreign affairs. With this anointment, it became clear
‘that older nationalists like U Saw and U Ba Maw had lost their
influence over the process of independence.’
Now we come to the figure Indians are familiar with: Lord Louis Mountbatten. It was he who chose Aung San, just as he chose Jawaharlal Nehru in India. In January 1947, Aung San headed a delegation to meet then prime minister Clement Attlee and hammer out the final details of Burmese independence. The compromise worked out moved the old nationalists to accuse Aung San ‘of having sold himself to the imperialists in return for personal power’. On his return, he plunged into sorting out ethnic strife and at 32 years of age would have become independent Myanmar’s first democratically elected prime minister had there not been a coup by a group of soldiers who pumped 13 bullets into his body and executed another six ministers, including his brother U Ba Win.
Now the bloody political legacy fell to the lot of
the daughter, a scene we are also familiar with in Pakistan and
Bangladesh. Suu Kyi was 15 when her family moved west. The junta,
gripped by xenophobia, threw out all the Western organisations active in
the country, particularly Christain missionaries. Meanwhile, Suu Kyi
met Michael Aris in London.
IT IS believed he fell
precipitately in love with her, and she grew into it gradually. It is
this relationship, that ended in marriage, that seems to have alienated
her from her countrymen. The junta would have been happy if she had
stayed out of the country with her husband and two sons. But she had
political aspirations. And that is why, when she returned, she was put
under house arrest.
Should the young girl have put love for the
country over that for a mere man? This book gives the reader a fair
chance to decide.
The views are the writer's own.
Majula Lal is Deputy Editor, Financial World
manjula.lal@gmail.com
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