The Voice of Hope [Paperback]

"[Shows] Aung San Suu Kyi's humour, erudition, wisdom and accessibility, and demonstrate[s] why she has become a world spiritual leader." --New York Times

"I am delighted that The Voice of Hope is being republished. This is a message that the world should hear."--President Jimmy Carter

"This is a remarkable book, as inspired as it is wise. Read it and learn from Aung San Suu Kyi's amazing life."-- Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

"Suu Kyi is one of the most remarkable and brave women of our time. Her dying husband Michael was refused permission to go to visit her. Even the phone calls I used to have with her have been stopped for some years. The regime in Burma is an outrage, and it is a blot on the international community that we have done so little about it. This book is testimony to the staunch commitment and sacrifice of an astonishingly courageous and visionary person"--The Rt Hon the Lord David Steel of Aikwood KT

"Aung San Suu Kyi is a remarkable and courageous human being. Listen to her voice and be inspired...Burma is the next South Africa."--Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"This remarkable testiment offers unprecedented insight into the heart and mind of one of the world’s most courageous and inspiring leaders"--Yoga & Health --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Prize Laureate, mother of two, and devout Buddhist, is one of the most inspiring examples of spiritually infused politics and fearless leadership that the world has ever seen. Daughter of the martyred Burmese national hero who negotiated Burma's independence from Britain in the 1940s, Aung San Suu Kyi led the pro-democracy movement in Burma in 1988. The movement was quickly and brutally crushed by the military junta, and Aung San Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest.
The Voice of Hope is a rare and intimate journey to the heart of her struggle. Over a period of nine months, Alan Clements, the first American ordained as a Buddhist monk in Burma, met with Aung San Suu Kyi shortly after her release from her first house arrest in July 1995. With her trademark ability to speak directly and compellingly, she presents here her vision of engaged compassion and describes how she has managed to sustain her hope and optimism.

Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of the assassinated Burmese hero, Aung San. Born in 1945 and educated in Rangoon, Delhi and at Oxford University, she married Dr Michael Aris and brought up their children in Oxford. In 1988 she returned to Burma to care for her dying mother but was caught in a national revolt against political repression. She became the leader of the reform movement and her party won a colossal electoral victory in May 1990. In July 1989 she was placed under house arrest and has spent many years incarcerated. She is still the focal point of the pro-democracy movement, which rose up against the government once again in 2007. In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, she has also been awarded the Sakharov Prize and the United States Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Alan Clements is a journalist, writer and human rights activist. He lived in Burma for many years in the 70s and 80s, nearly 5 years as a monk. He is the co-founder and director of the Burma Project USA/Canada, as well as a political satirist, performing his theatrical monologue to audiences around the world. Interviewed many times by the media he has also made presentations to the Soros Foundation and Mikhail Gorbachev's State of the World Forum.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

This book claims nothing more than its basic intention: to set down an exceptional series of conversations with a unique woman, currently, the world's most famous political dissident, Aung San Suu Kyi--recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and numerous other prestigious international awards for her courageous leadership in a non-violent struggle to bring justice, freedom and democracy to the people of Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi is, in the words of Václav Havel, one of the most outstanding examples of the power of the powerless.

Aung San Suu Kyi tells her own story in conversations compiled over the course of nine months--from October 1995 to June 1996--at her home in Rangoon. A rare glimpse into this extraordinary woman's values and philosophy is thus provided through her own words. She explains why she has chosen to risk everything in order to join, and ultimately lead, the struggle waged by the Burmese people, "large numbers of men and women who daily risk their lives for the sake of principles and rights that will guarantee...a...dignified existence." This book is a journey into the soul of that struggle set in the volatile context of present-day Burma, a South-East Asian nation of 45 million people, many of whom, at this very moment, may be risking their lives to win the right to choose their destiny.

I should like to mention why the book is arranged as it is--a series of conversations transcribed in their integrity just as they actually took place. Originally my plan was to conduct them following a strict chronological and thematic order. However, once in Burma, I had to abandon this outline. I had no idea how uncertain the situation was to become, despite Aung San Suu Kyi's release. It should be understood that she faced and continues to face the possibility of rearrest at any moment. In addition, I risked being deported from the country at any time. (Actually I have now been blacklisted from Burma permanently, as I was informed when I recently applied for a visa at the Paris embassy.) Each of our conversations took place with the full knowledge that it might be the last. With that in mind I chose to cover a range of topics in each session rather than concentrate on any single topic. So what you read is what occurred. Only slight editorial modifications, approved by Aung San Suu Kyi herself, have been made to the transcript of our interviews. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.