Many people have helped me in many different ways during the research and writing of this book, but some of my debts of gratitude antedate it by decades. It was Alexander Chancellor, my first editor at the Independent, who in 1991 agreed to send me to Burma with the photographer Greg Girard to research an article on the fate of Burma’s democracy movement for the Independent Magazine. Eleven years on, Leonard Doyle, foreign editor of the same paper, sent me to Rangoon to interview Aung San Suu Kyi and then made a fundamental contribution to the project by introducing me to Mark Farmaner and Anna Roberts at the Burma Campaign UK. Mark and Anna have helped me in innumerable ways since then, not least by reading the first draft and drawing my attention to many errors and omissions, and their colleagues, in particular Zoya Phan, have also been very kind. However, neither I nor anyone else involved in the book’s publication is connected to the Burma Campaign UK in any way, and all opinions and conclusions expressed in the book are mine alone.
Suu’s English in-laws are understandably shy of publicity, but I cannot avoid mentioning the kindness and warmth they showed me even when they had no idea whether or not I could be trusted. Since then we have become good friends, and they have contributed greatly to the value of the book, not only through endless conversations but by introducing me to other people and by reading the first draft and pointing out mistakes. Once they had read the book and decided it was worthwhile, they also did me the great honor of allowing me to quote from or at least look over certain material of a private nature, and to use a number of family photographs.
Harriet O’Brien, Lady Gore-Booth, Patricia Herbert, Martin Morland, Robert and Pam Gordon, Tom and Danielle White and Anna Allott are others closely associated with Burma and Suu who have been generous with their knowledge and contacts.
I met Dr. Maung Zarni much later in the process of research than I would have wanted, but he made up for lost time by providing me with much information that I could have obtained nowhere else, and by the endless stimulation of his ideas.
My old school friend Steve Weinman, his wife Khin Myint and Khin’s sister Tin Tin have made an important contribution to this project. Khin and Tin Tin have been constantly available to correct my errant notions and answer strange questions, and Khin in particular is to be thanked for an introduction which changed the book’s prospects.
Bertil Lintner was wonderfully generous with his time and memories when we met in Chiangmai, as was Nyo Ohn Myint in the same city. Gustaaf Houtman and Ingrid Jordt are two Burma experts who in their different ways helped me immensely. Maureen Aung-Thwin of the Open Society Foundations opened her address book for me, to the book’s great advantage. My elder son, Mario, lent me his genial company and his photographic brilliance on more than one exacting field trip. Claire Lewis was a fairy godmother whose wishes have yet to be realized but we live in hope. I offer a deep gassho to Dario Doshin Girolami for helping me once again to put my feet upon the Way.
Others to whom I would like to offer my thanks include:
Shankar Acharya, Gillon Aitken, Andrew Kidd and their colleagues at Aitken Alexander Associates, Jon Bernstein, Ian Birrell, Archie Bland, Richard Blurton, Vicky Bowman, Ruth Bradley-Jones, Katherine Butler, Mark Canning, Baroness Caroline Cox, Peter Carey, Federico Ceratto, Emmanuele Cappelutti and all my other Dharma friends in Rome, Sir Robin Christopher, Alan Clements, Steve Crawshaw, Jason Cowley, Rana Dasgupta, Cecilia Draghi, George Duffield, Sophie Elmhirst, George Duffield, Anne Gyrithe Bonne, Andrew Heyn, Christo Hird, Andrew Huxley, Laurence Earle, Keith Fielder, Jamie Fergusson, Jared Genscher, Imogen Haddon, Catherine Haughney, Suzanne Hoelgaard, Htein Lin, David Jenkins, Liz Jobey, Joshua, Malavika Karlekar, Simon Kelner, Judith Kendra, Sue Lascelles and all their colleagues at Rider, Paul Mander, Charlotte Middlehurst, Sarah Miller, David Modell, Junko Nakayama, Monica Narula, Terry McCarthy, Ohn Mar Oo, Anders Østergaard, Noriko and Sadayoshi Ohtsu, David Randall, Ann Pasternak Slater, Sam Popham, Ben Rogers, Juliet Rogers, Ros Russell, Debby Stothard and Nita Yin Yin May.
In addition, numerous Burmese people and some foreigners within Burma have helped me in the course of this project, offering me their time, knowledge and friendship at considerable peril to themselves, a peril I will not add to by naming them here.
Finally, my wife Daniela and our son Gabriel have lived with this book since its conception and have participated in its creation in more ways than they, or I, can be fully aware of. Thank you.
Despite all the help I have received, I take full responsibility for any mistakes that remain.
I will donate a portion of the earnings from this book to Prospect Burma, the charity supported by Aung San Suu Kyi which has been helping Burmese people study abroad since the crushing of the democracy movement in 1988, and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners—Burma.
The author would like to thank the following for permission to use copyright material: Anne Gyrithe Bonne, Bonne Film productions for quotes from Aung San Suu Kyi—Lady of No Fear (Kamoli Films, Denmark 2010); Eland Publishing Ltd for material from Golden Earth by Norman Lewis (© 1951, reissue 2003); Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC for material from The River of Lost Footsteps by Thant Myint-U (© 2006 by Thant Myint-U); Guardian News & Media Ltd for extract from “Review of Voice of Hope” by Mary Warnock (Observer, May 25, 1997; © Guardian News & Media Ltd 1997); HarperCollins Publishers Ltd for material from Land of Green Ghosts by Pascal Khoo Thwe (© Pascal Khoo Thwe, 2002); Gustaaf Houtman for material from his Mental Culture in Burmese Crisis Politics (ILCAA, 1999); Independent Print Limited for extracts from Independent newspaper articles: “Belief in Burma’s Future” by Aung San Suu Kyi (September 12, 1988), “The Road to Manerplaw” (May 25, 1991) and “Welcome to Burma” (February 21, 2011) by Peter Popham and the following by Terry McCarthy: “Burmese Army Coup” (September 19, 1988), “Burma Opposition Will Not Give in to Army Rule” (September 20, 1988); “Fragile Peace Settles on Rangoon” (September 21, 1988); “Ne Win Still Fights for Control” (September 28, 1988), “Rangoon Peaceful for Funeral of Widow (January 3, 1989), “Opposition Vote Leaves Burma’s Rulers Stunned” (with Yuli Ismartono, June 15, 1990), “EC to End Boycott of Burmese Junta” (June 15, 1990); Irrawaddy Publishing Group for material from “Memories of 8.8.88” by Dominic Faulder and interview with Gene Sharp, March 2011; Bertil Lintner for material from his Outrage (Kiscadale,1989); Lonely Planet for material from Burma, edition 4, by Tony Wheeler and Joe Cummings (© 1998, YR Lonely Planet); New York Times for “A Daughter of Burma, But Can She Be a Symbol?” by Steven Erlanger (November 1,1989); Oxford University Press, India for material from Remembered Childhood—Essays in Honor of Andre Beteille, ed. Marlavika Karlekar and Rudrangshu Mukherjee (Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2009); Pan Macmillan for material from Defeat into Victory by William Slim (2009); Penguin Books for material from Freedom from Fear by Aung San Suu Kyi (reissue 2010) and Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi (reissue 2010); Penguin Books and Michael Joseph for material from Forgotten Land; Rider Books, Random House and Editions Stock for material from The Voice of Hope by Alan Clements and Aung San Suu Kyi (2008); University of Pennsylvania Press for material from Karaoke Fascism by Monique Skidmore (2004); Washington Post for extracts from “Myanmar Crushes Monks” Movement” by William Branigin (October 28, 1990) and “Myanmar Moves on Opposition, 2 Leading Activists Under House Arrest” by Keith B. Richburg (July 22, 1989); Wisdom Publications, 199 Elm Street, Somerville, MA 02144 USA, www.wisdompubs.org, for material from In This Very Life by Sayadaw U. Pandita (reissue © Sayadaw U Pandita, Saddhamma Foundation, 1991); Zed Books for material from Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity by Martin Smith (1998). While every effort has been made to trace all copyright holders, if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the author and publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity.