This fine essay by Aung San Suu Kyi is an excellent example of a special genre of prose writing: the political autobiography. A political autobiography is both a statement of historical facts and a personal testament. The person who writes it not only discusses her life in the context of a particular historical period, but also explains and discusses her political, moral and intellectual dilemmas in her work.
In this essay, we find Suu Kyi narrating the history of contemporary Burma as well as offering a personal vision of freedom and justice. Her argument comprises two parts. In the first part she dissects the emotion which most characterises societies ruled by dicators: fear. She offers a Buddhist interpretation of this emotion but what is interesting here is the way Buddhist categories such as Chanda-gati are used to explain political choices and behaviour. Buddhist categories also help her to distinguish long term political gains from provisional victories. She sees the student unrest against a cruel and unjust government as a positive thing but also shows how fear, the fear she characterises as bhay-agati, has eaten into the heart of Burmese society. The little verse she quotes suggests that the Burmese people are "as water in the cupped hands" of the government. They lack form and identity. Yet, Suu Kyi is no pessimist. She recalls her father Aung San's courage and his sense of sacrifice to argue how important it is for people in Burma to remain fearless. This, then, is the subject of the second half of her essay: how to conquer fear and aspire towards freedom of the body, mind and spirit.
For Suu Kyi, freedom cannot be guaranteed through external laws alone. As she points out, it is not enough if a bad and authoritarian government is replaced by a government which has another set of plans for its people. The spirit of the people who rule and those who look up to them needs to be transformed. This transformation requires that people exorcise fear from their hearts and develop the courage to speak the truth, accept criticism and acknowledge their mistakes. Here, Suu Kyi draws inspiration from Gandhi and Nehru. She describes their courage as a freedom from fear, a sort of "grace under pressure". A person possessed of this freedom does not give up and is able to keep alive hope and an inner calm. Suu Kyi has praise for the everyday acts of "grace under pressure," for those insignificant, daily acts of courage which help preserve human dignity in a society ruled by fear.
Suu Kyi ends her essay with a plea for a just and human society. She displays faith in the human being's capacity to redeem himself/herself, for, as she so well puts it: "saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying." For Suu Kyi, politics alone does not help make a good society. A good society must also be an ethical society.
- Notes by: Ms.Geetha Vardarajan, Alumna of MCC
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