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The Lady and the Peacock

An exclusive excerpt from the new biography on Burma's democratic opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

BY PETER POPHAM | MARCH 26, 2012

On April 1, voters in Burma are set to take part in an election that could see opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi elected to parliament -- with the tacit consent of a government trying to prove its professed reformist credentials. If she wins, it will be the latest breathtaking twist in a long and improbable journey that has taken her to the Nobel Peace Prize and beyond.

Today Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the world's most famous pro-democracy crusaders, an exemplar of moral courage in the defiance of tyranny. But she didn't start off that way. When activists opposed to the ruling military dictatorship in Burma chose her as their leader in 1988, there was little that distinguished her aside from her illustrious ancestry: Her father, Aung San, had freed Burma from British colonial rule after World War II. But she soon showed that she was more than just her father's daughter.

In the following exclusive excerpt from The Lady and the Peacock, a new biography by British journalist Peter Popham, we witness the incident that first made her a legend. In 1988, a nationwide uprising against the military regime prompted a bloody crackdown by the generals. The following year, they tried to shore up their crumbling legitimacy by allowing for a national election. Aung San Suu Kyi and her nascent National League for Democracy (NLD) decided to participate. On the campaign trail, she and her followers (including her confidante, Ma Thanegi, whose diary provides the basis for much of Popham's account), soon found themselves confronting the guns of the junta. In April 1989, the contest of wills finally came to a head in a town called Danubyu:

More party members were being arrested: The persecution of democratic activists was already growing familiar. And, as Ma Thanegi noted, word of the growing discord between students and their elders inside the party had reached the outside world.

"April 3: In evening met with families of NLD members arrested in Mon state . . . Ma Ma [a familiar reference to ASSK] saw Asiaweek article about split between students and NLD . . . Someone denied having sent out an open letter about the split . . ."

The next day Suu, Ma Thanegi and their convoy were on the road again, back to the Irrawaddy Delta for the fourth time since January -- heading for the encounter which would imprint forever an image of almost unbelievable courage on Suu's name.

Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images

 

Peter Popham has toured Burma as an undercover journalist several times since his first visit to the country in 1991. A foreign correspondent and commentator with the Independent newspaper, he covered South Asia (including Burma) for a period in the late 90s. Popham interviewed Suu Kyi when she was released from house arrest in 2002, and met her again in 2011.

THEODORE RONZONI

3:27 AM ET

April 24, 2012

The Lady and the Peacock,

Peter Popham, the author of The Lady and the Peacock, a spellbinding biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, has great timing. Burma and Suu Kyi are in headlines, in large part because of Suu Kyi's compelling personal story and her party's electoral sweep in Burma's recent parliamentary by-elections. After the exciting events of the Arab Spring and their unsettling aftermath, this is a welcome narrative of good triumphing over evil, and of steely determination confronting military rulers determined to keep power.
The arc of Suu Kyi's story is well known around the world. She is the daughter of Aung San, assassinated hero of the Burmese independence struggle; an Oxford student who met and married her late husband Michael Aris and with whom she had two sons; the steadfast and courageous leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), serving multiple years of house arrest; the winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights";

 

NOXON MILLER

3:19 AM ET

April 28, 2012

The Lady and the Peacock

No doubts, Peter Popham gives a really clear-sighted appraisal of how the regime's brutal methods have produced this crippling state of fear. Key events include the 1988 violent crackdown on student-led protests and the equally bloody suppression of the monks' 2007 "Saffron Revolution". - Cupones Hostgator

 

NEELY MACE

6:52 AM ET

April 28, 2012

The Lady and the Peacock

Popham's biography of Aung San Suu Kyi is a piece of well-written and carefully crafted research with interviews from the people around her who not only understand her actions, but many of the reasons behind them. These interviews help this biography steal a march on countless predecessors, which - whilst historically and factually accurate - are often anaemic without this human touch.

As always, Suu herself remains forever enigmatic, but that is part of the challenge faced for every biographer. Popham uses his extensive interviews to shed light on the woman trapped within the icon.

I found that some of the details that the author reveals of her earlier "solid and safe and decent" life in Oxford quaintly endearing - when her dreams, whilst doing the washing up, stretched no further than the creditable ambition of launching a chain of public libraries across Burma.

Much has changed in Suu's life since that time, but Popham helps us make sense of it on a much more personal level, which is high praise indeed for any biography on this remarkable lady's life.

 

JOHNNY MELARO

3:01 AM ET

May 4, 2012

The Lady and the Peacock

I think and agree that she could have left Burma at any time during her long periods of detention but didn’t, knowing she would never be allowed back. She chose her country above all else. If this carefully researched and clearly written biography doesn’t satisfactorily explain why, it may be because the question is unanswerable. Suu Kyi is an uncommon woman. This is a revealing account of her life. como eliminar verrugas | como quitar verrugas

 

STEVIE CORREL

3:15 AM ET

May 4, 2012

I agree with you

Totally agree and more than that I think that this is a highly readable biography…a fresh approach, responding to the renewed interest in her since her release, and a fascinating archive – the campaign diary of her dearest confidante turned betrayer. Anyone who haven't read it yet I highly recommend it. how to get rid of tonsil stones

 

LOWELL DEMARC

5:59 AM ET

May 4, 2012

The Lady and the Peacock

Things have moved fast since this book was completed. Nevertheless, it gives a thorough account of Aung San Suu Kyi’s life up to late last year — her birth as the daughter of the man who’d negotiated Myanmar’s independence with the British authorities, her marriage to the Oxford University academic and Tibet expert Michael Aris, her own career at St Hugh’s College in Oxford, her Nobel Peace Prize of 1991, her time in Bhutan (where her husband was for a time tutor to the royal family), the period she spent working at the UN, and so on. Inevitably the years she spent under house arrest in Rangoon were less eventful, but Popham analyses the political developments, such as they were, that took place during those times with aplomb. plans for building a shed

 

DEBORA BENEZE

3:14 AM ET

May 5, 2012

The Lady and the Peacock

I was incredibly excited to read this book.
I had been fascinated by Suu Kyi's story and when I saw this biography in the bookstore I bought it and rushed home to read it.

The prose is UNREADABLE.
After scouring the pages for the Translator's name, I was blown away to find out English is Mr. Popham's native language -- and that he makes a living as a journalist! The editors of this publishing company should be fired. Bad writing is bad writing, but bad editing is unforgivable. | how to prevent tonsil stones

If you won't take my word for it, just read through Amazon's digital copy of the first chapter (the Prologue is bad, but the first chapter is completely nonsensical). The "narrative" meanders inexplicably across two hundred years of history without any attempt at thematic, character, or political coherence. The chronology darts all over the place and reads like poorly taken notes from a textbook. | como quitar verrugas

There is no trajectory to the chapters. Grammar mistakes abound. Popham's run-on-sentence style RUINS a beautiful and inspiring story. I can only conclude that this is a rush-job that is trying to cash in on Suu Kyi's bravery. For shame. | mejor alojamiento web

 

KARAN PADGETTE

8:17 AM ET

May 6, 2012

The Lady and the Peacock

Totally agree with you. I also was expecting more from this book since I was hearing about it for long ago and honestly dint fed my expectations neither. seo