AUNG SAN SUU KYI
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machine. Historian and author Thant Myint-U also recalls dropping by
the Aris’ home in 1984: ‘Michael sat contentedly and quietly smoking
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 moment came in
March 1988. Suu Kyi’s mother had suff ered a stroke.Return to Burma
Suu Kyi immediately packed her bags to return to Yangon (Rangoon),
and Aris had ‘a premonition that our lives would change would for ever’.
Meanwhile there was growing turmoil in Burma as students and oth-
ers 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 po-
litical activists fl ocked to her mother’s home on Inya Lake to seek her
support.IN HER OWN WORDSOn 28 December 2010, Austin Bush, co-author of this guide, interviewed Aung San Suu
Kyi by phone.
We’ve decided to use both names for our book, but which do you prefer, Myanmar
or Burma? I prefer Burma because the name was changed without any reference to the
will of the people.
You were previously opposed to foreign tourists visiting Myanmar, but appear
to have softened this stance over the last few years. How do you feel now about
foreign tourists visiting Myanmar? I think the NLD came to this decision about six or
seven months ago. We are not in favour of group tourists, but don’t mind if individuals
come to Burma. Foreign tourists could benefi t Burma if they go about it in the right way,
by using facilities that help ordinary people and avoiding facilities that have close links
to the government.
Can foreign tourists do anything to benefi t the move towards democracy in
Myanmar? If they would like to meet people working for democracy, then it might help.
Why are there so many areas restricted to tourists in Myanmar? Do you think this
will change in the near future? I’m not quite sure. Along the border areas, it’s because
hostilities might break out again. It might have something to do with the fact that there
aren’t enough facilities for tourists in remote areas.
To many visitors, Yangon can appear as if it’s caught in a time warp. In your expe-
rience as someone who grew up there, how has the city changed over the years? I
haven’t noticed any great changes since I’ve been under house arrest. The changes I’ve
noticed are that there are many people using handphones, which I hadn’t seen seven
years ago. But the streets and buildings appear the same.
The museum dedicated to your father, located in his former home, appears to be
closed. Do you know why? I don’t think they want to encourage people to go there. They
don’t want to remind people too much of my father. Offi cially they haven’t allowed portraits
of my father to be hung in government offi ces over the last decade, probably because of
the association with me and also because of how my father regarded the role of the army.
What’s your favourite part of the city? It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to
explore Yangon. Shwedagon is very important, and the Sule Pagoda, but I spend much
of my time at the NLD offi ce.