Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's Struggle for Democracy

Burma’s pro-democracy movement emerged in 1988 when massive demonstrations swept across the country. This book gives an account of the movement, its emergence and growth, and Aung San Suu Kyi’s prominent leadership role since its inception.

Woven into this history is an outline of how Aung San Suu Kyi herself has become a highly respected pro-democracy icon internationally, while being revered nationally as the “female Bodhisattva” who will deliver the Burmese people from the evil of the military regime. Lintner considers her strengths as well as her weaknesses, and traces her life not only in Burma, but also in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, Bhutan, and Japan. She was greatly inspired by her father, Aung San, Burma’s independence hero who was assassinated when she was an infant, and also by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Lintner analyzes the staying power of Burma’s military regime and points out the obstacles to achieving what Aung San Suu Kyi is striving for: a free and democratic Burma.

What others are saying

“While plainly an admirer, Bertil Lintner offers a clear-eyed portrait of an icon, treating Aung San Suu Kyi not as a demigod but as the three-dimensional woman with admirable strengths and normal human faults that she has always claimed to be. In crisp and unemotional prose, he explores the complexities of a privileged daughter of a slain national hero she never knew, the wife of an English academic who rode a bike around Oxford with her children strapped to her back, and an accidental leader of a national democracy movement who has spent most of the past two decades under house arrest. Lintner’s disdain for Burma’s brutal military rulers is clear, but he never suggests that if only Suu Kyi would come to power, all the problems of a country whose institutions and citizens have been trampled on for the past fifty years would disappear overnight .”—Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch Asia director

Highlights

Experienced journalist’s fast-paced, accessible account of the life story of one of Asia’s leading political figures and Nobel Peace Prize laureates
Timely analysis of the Burmese political situation from independence in 1945 through the November 2010 elections and Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from house arrest
Profiles of personalities around Aung San Suu Kyi

About the Author

Bertil Lintner is a former correspondent with the Far Eastern Economic Review and currently Asia correspondent for the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet as well as a contributor to Asia Times Online, Hong Kong, and Jane’s Information Group in the UK. He has written seven books on Burma, among them Outrage: Burma’s Struggle for Democracy and Burma in Revolt: Opium and Insurgency since 1948. He lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand.