The Lady and the Peacock (73 page)

2
. Khin Nyunt was the main force behind the revitalization of religion during the 1990s: interview and e-mail correspondence with author.

PART FIVE, CHAPTER 2: NIGHTMARE

1
. “The USDA has become a very dangerous organization,” she said in 1996: Houtman,
Mental Culture
. . ., page 119.

2
. Wunna Maung, one of her bodyguards, said later in testimony to the US Congress: description of events up to, including and after Depayin massacre draws on the following sources: records of US Congress Ad Hoc Commission on Depayin Massacre,
http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/Depayin_Massacre.pdf
; interviews with Suu's driver at Depayin by Democratic Voice of Burma,
http://www.dvb.no/analysis/depayin-and-the-driver/12828
; “Depayin considered as crime against humanity,” Asian Legal Resource Center,
http://www.article2.org/mainfile.php/0206/112
/; detailed account of massacre on Ibiblio Public Library and Digital Archive, http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/docs/Yearbook2002-3/yearbooks/Depayin%20report.htm; Benedict Rogers,
Than Shwe
, op. cit.

3
. Suu wore a sky-blue silk
htamein
(the female longyi) and a large cluster of yellow jasmine flowers in her hair, and her heavy fringe flopped down over her eyebrows: video of Monywa speech on YouTube; translation of transcript on World News Connection, May 30, 2003, via LexisNexis.

4
. We watched helplessly and tried to show courage: report of Ad Hoc Commission on Depayin Massacre, Bangkok, July 4, 2003.

5
. I was taken in a car with darkened windows, and we changed cars along the way: Benedict Rogers,
Than Shwe
, op. cit.

6
. Maung Aye and Khin Nyunt approached Than Shwe: e-mail correspondence with Aung Lynn Heut.

7
. It is not power that corrupts but fear: Aung San Suu Kyi, “Freedom from Fear” in
Freedom from Fear
, p.180.

PART FIVE, CHAPTER 3: THE SAFFRON REVOLUTION

1
. My first teacher was very interested in politics: interview with author.

2
. Ingrid Jordt, the American anthropologist and former Buddhist nun: I am greatly indebted to Ingrid for e-mails and conversations containing ideas and wisdom which illuminate the following pages.

3
. In Burma we look upon members of the
sangha
as teachers: Aung San Suu Kyi,
Letters from Burma
, no. 40.

4
. The Burmese were in no doubt, says Jordt: they expected any day that Than Shwe would “descend head first into the hell realms”: when Burmese kings have committed such black acts as killing monks, the only way left for them to cling to power, Burmese believe, is by following the “dark arts,” the so-called “lower path”: praying to
nat
spirits, making use of alchemy, calling on the services of
weiksas
(wizards) and engaging in the practice of
yadaya
, which involves symbolically enacting events one dreads, to prevent them coming to pass.
The Thamanya Sayadaw, the much-esteemed monk visited by Aung San Suu Kyi in 1995 and 2002 (see above), died in 2003 at age ninety-three. His body was embalmed and placed in a specially built mausoleum near his temple, and became the focus of a large pilgrimage cult. On April 2, 2008, some six months after the suppression of the monks' revolt, however, fourteen armed men in military uniforms burst into the mausoleum, locked up the guards in a neighboring building, then stole the late abbott's embalmed body.

Ingrid Jordt explained, “Rumor immediately circulated that the military was performing lower path magic. It was said that Than Shwe's
bodaw
(teacher of the magical arts), in consultation with his astrologers, recommended that the monk's body be roasted and some of the flesh eaten in order to gain the power of the monk.” When Cyclone Nargis struck Burma one month later, the popular explanation was that this was cosmic retribution for Than Shwe's impious act of cannibalism.

PART FIVE, CHAPTER 4: THE PEACOCK EFFECT

1
. John William Yettaw, who lives in a small mobile home in the Ozark Mountains, Missouri, is a four-times married Vietnam War veteran: this account of Yettaw's misadventures is largely based on Robert Taylor's summary, from a translation of the records of the proceedings of the Rangoon court where Yettaw and Aung San Suu Kyi, were tried, in his article “Myanmar in 2009: On the Cusp of Normality?” in
Southeast Asian Affairs
, 2010.

2
. NLD sources have referred to him, not without reason, as “a nutty fellow” and “that wretched man”: however, Suu sent a private message to NLD colleagues saying that Yettaw was ill and telling her supporters not to attack him (private information).

3
. neither I nor Kenneth Denby nor even John Simpson: Kenneth Denby is the
nom de plume
of
The Times
' intrepid correspondent in Burma. John Simpson is the veteran BBC foreign correspondent celebrated above all for single-handedly “liberating” Kabul from the Taliban in 2001.

4
. British ambassador Mark Canning, who was to hear her testify: quoted in Phoebe Kennedy, “Suu Kyi testifies that she did not violate her house arrest” in
Independent
, May 27, 2009.

5
. Phoebe Kennedy wrote: ibid.

6
. being the daughter of Bogyoke Aung San: from Robert Taylor, “Myanmar in 2009: on the Cusp of Normality?” in
Southeast Asian Affairs
, 2010.

7
. The Chrysler ad featuring Suu climaxes with the car they are trying to sell smashing down a wall. The subtext is not hard to fathom: the political frivolity of the car manufacturers who piously adopt Suu's image to sell their goods was brought home by one of the sequels to the Lancia ad: a new Italian campaign for Lancia's Ypsilon model starring French movie star Vincent Cassel and with the catchline “Il lusso è un diritto” (“Luxury is a right”).

8
. The ICG conclusion quoted by Marshall: International Crisis Group, Asia Briefing no. 118,
Myanmar's Post-Election Landscape
, March 7, 2011.

9
. Burma has a special place in my heart: Helvey interview with Metta Spencer in
Peace Magazine
, vol. 24, no. 1, p.12.

10
. When I was up at Cambridge one day: ibid.

11
. [Sharp] started out the seminar by saying, “Strategic nonviolent struggle is all about political power. How to seize political power and how to deny it to others”: Suu and Gene Sharp have never had the opportunity to meet, but if they did it is likely they would agree
on the fundamental questions. In
The Voice of Hope
, Suu said, “We have chosen the way of nonviolence simply because we think it's politically better for the country in the long run to establish that you can bring about change without the use of arms . . . Here, we're not thinking about spiritual matters at all . . .” She reiterated the point when she responded by telephone to a question after her first Reith Lecture for the BBC in June 2011, saying, “I do not hold to nonviolence for moral reasons but practical and political reasons.” She quoted Gandhi as saying that if he had to choose between violence and cowardice “he would choose violence any time.”

But Suu protests too much when she disavows the moral arguments for nonviolence. She has always been vulnerable to attack by those in the movement who favor violence, and this is how she tries to deflect their criticisms: One recalls how, back in 1989, she told a journalist, “I don't believe in armed struggle but I sympathize with the students who are engaged in armed struggle.” Yet, as this book indicates, her ideas about nonviolence and the “revolution of the spirit” are in fact rooted in her religious convictions.

12
. “Resorting to nonviolence tactics,” wrote Thant Myint-U: Thant Myint-U,
River of Lost Footsteps
, p.337.

13
. a contaminant to a nonviolent struggle . . . the greatest contaminant: Helvey interview with Metta Spencer in
Peace Magazine
, vol. 24, no. 1, p.12.

14
. “In recent years,” Sharp writes in the book's recently updated first chapter: Gene Sharp,
From Dictatorship to Democracy
, The Albert Einstein Institution, p.1.

aingyi
—cotton blouse

anicca
—Buddhist doctrine of impermanence

balachaung
—pounded dried shrimp and fish paste deep-fried with sugar, chili and tamarind paste

baung-bi chut
—“men-out-of-trousers,” referring to soldiers-turned civilian politicians

bhaya
—fear

bodaw
—teacher of the magical arts

Daw—honorific prefix for middle-aged woman

Dharma—the teaching of the Buddha

gaung baung
—sort of turban

honne
—unspoken reality (Japanese)

hpoun
—spiritual potency

htamein
—ankle-length woman's longyi

kamauk
—farmer's straw hat

kikkake
—turning point (Japanese)

kyat—currency

longyi
—Burmese sarong, long skirt-like garment for everyday use by both sexes

metta
—loving-kindness

nakao
—face cream made from a particular type of tree bark

nat-thana
—powerful, persistent spirits that must be appeased

nibbana
—Burmese for nirvana

samma-vaca
—right speech

sangha
—the collective of Buddhist monks

shinbyu
—Buddhist coming-of-age ceremony for boys

tatemae
—official reality (Japanese)

Tatmadaw—Burmese Army

thanaka
—generic term for face cream made from tree bark

thathanabaing
—senior monk

weiksa
—wizard

yadaya
—black magic

Note on Burmese names: Burmese do not have surnames, only given names which may number between one and four. Usually all given names are used when addressing someone, often preceded by an honorific, such as “U” (for an older man) or “Daw” (for an older woman).

Aung San Suu Kyi's family

A
LEXANDER
A
RIS
(Burmese name Myint San Aung): Suu and Michael's first son.

A
UNG
S
AN
: Suu's father, hero of Burmese independence struggle; often referred to as “Bogyoke” (pronounced “Bo-joke-e')—Burmese for “General.”

A
UNG
S
AN
L
IN
: Suu's elder brother, drowned at age nine.

A
UNG
S
AN
O
O
: Aung San and Daw Khin Kyi's first-born son and Suu's eldest brother, emigrated to US, engineer.

D
AW
K
HIN
G
YI
: aunt who lived in Suu's University Avenue compound.

D
AW
K
HIN
K
YI
: Suu's mother, nurse-turned-diplomat.

D
ORA
T
HAN É
: celebrated prewar singer; not a relative but referred to by Suu as her “emergency aunt.”

K
IM
A
RIS
(Burmese name Thein Lin): Suu and Michael's second son.

M
ICHAEL
A
RIS
: Suu's husband.

T
HAKIN
T
HAN
T
UN
: brother of Daw Khin Kyi, leader of Burmese Communist Party.

National League for Democracy (NLD)

A
UNG
A
UNG
: son of Bo Min Lwin, Aung San's personal bodyguard; head of Suu's bodyguards during campaign tours.

A
UNG
G
YI
: retired general, leading figure in military regime before being purged; the first Chairman of NLD.

A
UNG
S
HWE
: head of NLD at time of Suu's release in 1995.

C
HAN
A
YE
: moderate member of NLD's central executive committee.

D
AW
M
YINT
M
YINT
K
HIN
: head of Rangoon Bar Association, member of NLD Central Executive Committee; jailed for many years.

D
AW
N
WE
: wife of Ko Myint Swe; ran party's PR operation with him.

H
WE
M
YINT
: one of Suu's earliest political allies.

K
O
A
UNG
: colleague of Ko Myint Swe in Suu's office.

K
O
M
AW
: colleague of Ko Myint Swe in Suu's office.

K
O
M
YINT
S
WE
: poet, Rangoon University librarian, party worker.

K
YAW
S
OE
L
IN
: party lawyer, Suu's heroic driver at Depayin.

K
YI
M
AUNG
: retired colonel, founder member of party.

M
A
T
HANEGI
: painter, writer, Suu's personal assistant on tour although never NLD member.

M
A
T
HIDA
: medical student and early member of party.

M
AUNG
T
HAW
K
A
: naval hero-turned-writer and poet, advisor to Suu, died in jail.

M
YO
T
HEIN
: Suu's driver on campaign tours, nicknamed “Tiger.”

N
YO
O
HN
M
YINT
: university lecturer, early member of NLD, in exile in Thailand.