Book Review: The Voice of Hope by Aung San Suu Kyi with Alan

Clements

The Voice of Hope

by Aung San Suu Kyi with Alan Clements
Seven Stories Press, 1997
New York, NY
301 pages, $25 hardcover
When Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi defied her house arrest
and set out for a meeting with a colleague, the ruling dictatorship showed
just how badly they wanted her stopped: Armed soldiers physically lifted
Suu Kyi's northbound car, rotated it with her still inside, and pointed her
south again. Faced with imminent physical danger, Suu Kyi responded with
her characteristic calm. She simply refused to move.
For 27 hours.
Finally, the weary soldiers gave in. The determined Suu Kyi got to see her
ally in the democracy movement. [As YES! went to press, Suu Kyi was
engaged in another car-bound standoff with SLORC (State Law and Order
Restoration Council) soldiers – this time, she had been in her car for over a
week.]
This story exemplifies Burmese politics. For nearly a decade, the military
junta known as SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration Council), has
attempted to reverse the progress toward democracy in Burma, just as they
reversed the direction of Suu Kyi's car.
Alan Clements, whose incisive interviews with Suu Kyi make up the whole
of the The Voice of Hope, knows firsthand the SLORC's repressive tactics.
After the publication of the book, Clements was banned for life from Burma.
Clements, who lived in a Rangoon Buddhist monastery for five years, brings
an interesting perspective to the book, allowing the reader a keen insight into
the spiritual foundations of Suu Kyi's work. There are times when Clements'
inexperience as an interviewer shows – he shies away from some of the
tough questions – but his expertise in Burma's spiritual culture more than
makes up for this reticence.
The Voice of Hope gives insight into the life and ideas of this remarkable
woman, from her views on Burmese politics to Buddhist philosophy to the
status of women in Burma and the world. Through these diverse topics, a
portrait is painted of Suu Kyi that is at once inspiring and demystifying. It
isn't just admiration we feel, but the sense that we, too, can inspire others
through our actions.
Suu Kyi's forthright and eloquent responses seem crafted to serve this end.
Rather than the intricacies of political change, most of her thoughts are
related to personal change as a prerequisite for any fundamental
transformation – a “revolution of the spirit,” as Suu Kyi puts it, rooted in the
spiritual ideal of unity with humankind. And she lives her remarks: Though
imprisoned six years by the Burmese dictatorship, Suu Kyi resolutely
refuses to give in to bitterness. “I have never felt vindictive towards
SLORC,” she says. “Of course, I have felt very angry at some of the things
they've done. But at the same time I can sense their uneasiness – their lack of
confidence in good, as it were. And I think it must be very sad not to believe
in good.”
One could easily forgive her if she had become angry or lost her own faith
along the way. Though Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy
(NLD), won over 80 percent of the seats in Burma's parliament in the 1990
elections, her government was never allowed to take power. Instead, she saw
the Burmese junta slaughter thousands of student demonstrators, imprison
many opposition leaders, and rise to the top of Amnesty International's list of
countries with the most human-rights violations.
However, Suu Kyi repudiates the notion of armed struggle. For her, not only
is violence morally bankrupt, it is an ineffective strategy because it leaves
out any possibility of personal advancement. Suu Kyi's Buddhist outlook
urges her to encourage work on oneself first – her “revolution of the spirit”
emphasizes preparing oneself for democracy as well as preparing the
government.
The Buddhist concept Suu Kyi seeks is the advancement of metta or
“loving-kindness.” Her brand of “engaged Buddhism” seeks to “make metta
grow” as a force for positive change. For example, Clements tells Suu Kyi a
story about a shopkeeper in Rangoon tearing up a letter Clements had
photocopied in his store. The letter contained references to the NLD, and the
shopkeeper was afraid of going to prison. Suu Kyi's response shows her
philosophy on fear and metta:
“These things are happening because there is not enough active compassion.
There is a very direct link between love and fear. It reminds me of the
biblical quotation, that ‘perfect love casts out fear.' I've often thought that
this is a very Buddhist attitude. ‘Perfect love' should be metta , which is not
selfish or attached love. ... I think we need a lot more of this kind of love.”
And though Buddhism is central to Suu Kyi, she is far from exclusive in
discussing how one's actions affect others. Her impassioned appeals to
people in faraway lands not to forget the plight of Burma's people remind us
of our “shared human status” with those who don't live next door: a
remarkable achievement for any book.
Reviewed by Jeff Shaw. He has been involved in Free Burma campaigns in
three cities over the last five years.