6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good, comprehensive biography of Burma's true leader, November 15, 2008
This review is from: Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience (Hardcover)
This biography does what few other biographies of any leader do - it puts the subject in the proper historical perspective. Starting from the beginnings of the Burmese state, Wintle provides readers with background on Burma. This is useful because it places the country's modern politics in an appropriate frame of reference. For example, Wintle does not avoid the complexities of Burma's ethnic minorities and their long history, which later allows him to show how Aung San and his daughter Aung San Suu Kyi may have been the few leaders to be able to gain the trust of the minorities.
I also appreciate Wintle's honest appraisal of Suu Kyi near the end of the book. While Wintle is obviously sympathetic to Suu Kyi (as we all should be), he does ask important questions about the success of her non-violence movement and stubbornness.
My only criticism is that the book does not have comprehensive footnotes. While the author footnotes a few interesting articles, there are many other anecdotes and interpretations that should have been footnoted so the reader can check the source and read further if he desires.
Hopefully, when (and if) Suu Kyi is released and allowed to lead in a democratic Burma, Wintle can update his volume to include more insights into this remarkable woman.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A respectable tribute to the world's most famous caged bird., December 29, 2008
This review is from: Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience (Hardcover)
The author rights this book out of obvious respect. Yet despite any biases, he presents plenty of new research to back it up. For anyone wanting to uncover the mysteries behind this elegant living martyr, this is a must-read book. Accounts of "The Lady's" true sacrifices, the least of which are being banned from seeing her children or even husband on his death bed are remarkable. There are moments during this read when you feel like you are actually there, sitting in the car with her, waiting for the regime-hired thugs to beat your skull in, or anticipating the next on-slaught. This book, not only prefaces the story of her life with a comprehensive historical background, but also paints the picture of an iron-willed, extremely clever and amazingly patient woman. Such a small, gentle and feminine woman on the backdrop of a brutal regime, riots and often unadulterated chaos make this a read you won't soon forget. Whether you are intrested in Souh East Asian politics, or not, one can't help but respect this woman, if not sympathetically, thanks to the author's masterful brush strokes.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Burma's Iron Lady, September 4, 2008
This review is from: Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience (Hardcover)
Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's Prisoner of Conscience
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of assassinated democratic hero Aung San, may be undertaking a hunger strike, according to sources in Thailand. Suu Kyi has refused food for three weeks and has turned away visitors, according to sources quoted by "The Nation." A lawyer who visited her recently said she appears thin and under stress. The 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years. Merely mentioning her name aloud in the wrong society can bring imprisonment by Burma's ruling generals. Burma is one of the world's most repressive regimes, carefully regulating the media, limiting access by foreigners and repressing all dissent.
Human rights organizations routinely cite Burma for violating civil liberties, using forced and child labor, and tacitly encouraging opium production. Burma is the world's second largest producer of opium and a source of forced trafficking of women and children for sex. The ruling Junta has gone so far as changing the nation's name to Myanmar, and relocating the administrative capital from Rangoon to an inland city that affords greater secrecy.
Despite its rich natural resources... petroleum, timber, tin, rubber, zinc, natural gas and hydroelectric power... Burma remains one of Asia's poorest countries because of mismanagement and a centralized economy. It's "Burmese Way to Socialism" was an unequivocal disaster. Politically Burma is a pariah in the international community; its only close ally is China. The US refuses to recognize the "Myanmar" regime.
Against this background, British writer Justin Wintle has written a valuable political biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, now an ageing but tireless advocate for reform. Burma's ruling generals are in a dilemma: Suu Kyi's father, the murdered Aung San, is revered as a founder of Burmese democracy and its independence from colonialism, but his daughter is the regime's avowed enemy. Wintle does an excellent job outlining Aung San Suu Kyi's marriage to British national Michael Aris; her student years at Oxford, and her rise to power, her exile, as well as recent developments in the struggle for freedom.
It was probably Burma that George Orwell had in mind when he wrote his political satires "1984" and "Animal Farm." Orwell, who was born in India, served in the British Colonial Police in Burma between the World Wars. Everything Orwell wrote about--a civilization turned on its head; a paranoid, insular, xenophobic totalitarian state where Big Brother watches everyone and the Truth Squad launders public opinion--is true in Burma today. In "Burmese Days," Orwell says of his colonial character, Flory:
"For he had realized, suddenly, that in his heart he was glad to be coming back. This country which he hated was now his native country, his home. He had lived here ten years, and every particle of his body was compounded of Burmese soil. Scenes like these --- the sallow evening light, the old Indian cropping grass, the creak of the cartwheels, the screaming egrets - were more native to him than England. He had sent deep roots, perhaps his deepest, into a foreign country."
Like Flory, Aung San Suu Kyii is a product of her homeland. But she is exiled within her homeland: she faces the Hobson's Choice of remaining at home in virtual exile; or leaving her homeland and not returning again.
And the clock is ticking: she is in failing health, past middle age; and separated from her supporters and loved ones. History will judge; we can only hope that moral and economic pressure from the international community will bring about the changes she has given her life to achieve.
Suggestions for further reading:
Letters From Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi
Burmese Days by George Orwell
Finding George Orwell in Burma
Finding George Orwell in Burma
Letters from Burma
Burmese Days
Freedom from Fear and Other Writings: Revised Edition
Why Orwell Matters
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