Justin Wintle - Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi, Burmas Prisoner of Conscience

ONE of the satisfactions of writing a biography is that research contacts may become friends. Donna Jean Guest, who long held Amnesty Internationals Burma/Myanmar brief, provided the insiders ongoing encouragement any writer engaged in a long-haul project needs. As importantly, during a period when US foreign policy entered one of its darker phases, she persuaded me, just by being herself, that the flame of decent American liberal idealism burns brightly yet. I owe an equivalent debt of gratitude to Martin Morland, Britains ambassador in Rangoon during the upheavals of 1988. Both read a draft manuscript and offered many helpful comments. I must, too, express particular thanks to Patricia Gore-Booth, the widow of Lord Gore-Booth, another British envoy to Burma. For whatever reason, she put her trust in me. My earnest hope is that her trust has not been misplaced.

One former ambassador to (amongst other nations) Indonesia, Sir Robin Christopher, and one former ambassador to Thailand and Vietnam, Derek Tonkin, gave generously of their time and thoughts. Sir Michael Holroyd, amongst contemporary biographers the best there is, lent encouragement when it was needed most: at the outset. Of the many Burmese encountered, Ma Than ninety-seven when I met her at her retirement home in Oxford slew me most. The firmness of her parting handshake and the clarity of her mind and memory are indelibly imprinted. Aye Chan and Angeline Naw generously shared work-in-progress with me. And then there is Dr Zarni, a well-known dissident living outside the country of his birth who has enraged other expatriates with his criticisms of Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD. His contentious but challenging views cautioned me to take nothing for granted.

Special thanks are likewise due my erstwhile co-agent Barbara Gorna, and continuing main agent Peter Cox, of Redhammer Management. Barbara, in a moments inspiration, redirected an interest in, and concern for, Burmas beleaguered minority peoples towards Aung San Suu Kyi herself. Peter turned that deflection into two years vastly stimulating work. I am also greatly indebted to my editor at Hutchinson/Random House, Paul Sidey old friend and peerless professional; to his assistant Tess Callaway; to my painstaking copy editor Mandy Greenfield; and to Roger Walker.

From the start I elected to listen to anyone prepared to talk to me, regardless of their political affiliation. Those other helpers and informants who can be named (and there are very many who cannot be, non-Burmese as well as Burmese) are (in roughly alphabetical order): Abel Tweed; Dr Shankar Acharya; Bo Aung Din; Bo Kyi; Vicky Bowman (another former ambassador to Burma); Aung Kyaw Zaya; Professor Michael Aung Thwin; Aung Zaw; Aung Zaw Oo; Saw Ba Thin Sein; Joan Bird; Dr Peter Carey; Professor John Carroll; Marie-Pierre Champagne; Baroness Cox; Dr Cynthia Maung; Professor Frank Dikotter; Andrew Dilnut; Doh Say; Faith Doherty; Dave Eubank; Eva (Tin Hlaing); Patricia Herbert; Noriko Horsley; Guy Horton; Htoo Htoo Lay; Dr Julie Jack; Larry Jagan; Dr Richard Jones; Jue Jue; Hick K; Malavika Karlekar; Ko Aung; Wendy Law Yone; Bertil Lintner; Mahn Robert BaZan; Maung Too; Min Zin; Dr Kosuke Mizuno; Jenny Morland; Moses Soe Moe Naing; Professor Kei Nemoto; Nerdah Mya; Nita Yin Yin May; Nurul Islam; Nyo Ohn Myint; Michael Reilly; Ben Rogers; Daw San San; Josef Silverstein; Martin Smith; the staff of the library at SOAS; Soe Aung (not the Soe Aung referred to in Chapter XXXV); Dr Margaret Stearn; Debbie Stothard; Hirokuni and Keiko Sugahara; Professor Robert Taylor; Teddy Buri; Than Win Htut; U Kyaw Win; U Tin Moe; U Win Khet; Dr Win Naing; Win Thein; Dr Justin Watkins; Yongyut Losupakarn; Bill Young; Kirsten Young; Zaw Min; Zin Linn; and Zoya Phan.

Although this book is dedicated to Nat and Sugar Yontararak, and to Khun Supinya, another valiant South-East Asian freedom fighter, the underlying debt is, as ever, to wife Kimiko Tezuka-Wintle: in her own, Yamanashi way as steadfast as Suu Kyi.