Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
his pipe, their kids playing in the room nearby' while Suu Kyi gave him 'polite and
somewhat schoolmarmish' advice on his educational options. 'In later years', he writes,
'I felt I had a sense of the happy life both she and Michael had given up.'
Pasternak Slater, like many others since, recognised Suu Kyi's 'courage, determination
and abiding moral strength' - qualities that were already in evidence in some of the 187
letters Suu Kyi wrote to Aris in the eight months before their marriage. In one she asks
'…that should my people need me, you would help me do my duty by them.' That mo-
ment came in March 1988. Suu Kyi's mother had suffered a stroke.
Return to Burma
Suu Kyi immediately packed her bags to return to Yangon, and Aris had 'a premonition
that our lives would change would for ever'.
Meanwhile there was growing turmoil in Burma as students and others took to the
streets calling for a change of government. Back in Yangon, where injured protestors
were brought to the same hospital her mother was in, it was something Suu Kyi could not
ignore, especially when political activists flocked to her mother's home on Inya Lake to
seek her support.
It was at this point, as the street demonstrations continued to mount, that Suu Kyi de-
cided to join the movement for democracy. Her speech at Shwedagon Paya on 26 August
1988, with her husband and sons by her side, electrified the estimated crowd of half a
million, and sent ripples of excitement and hope throughout the country. Elegantly at-
tired, the trademark flowers in her hair, the 43-year-old Suu Kyi brought a hitherto- un-
seen sophistication to Myanmar politics as she launched what she called 'the second
struggle for national independence'.
The brutal reaction of the military brought the protests to an end a month later.
According to local custom, Aung San Suu Kyi's name, like that of all Burmese, should be
spelled out in full. It's also commonly preceded by the honorific title Daw. We follow the
international convention of shortening her name to Suu Kyi.
Braving the Generals
Suu Kyi, however, was just getting started, and in September 1988 she joined several
former generals and senior army officers (including Tin Oo, army chief of staff in the
1970s, who had been jailed for his role in an abortive coup in 1975) to form the NLD. As
the party's general secretary, she travelled around the country attending rallies.
