Freedom from Fear and Other Writings by Aung

San Suu Kyi

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Original Title: Freedom from Fear and Other Writings

ISBN: 0140171363
ISBN13: 9780140171365
Autor: Aung San Suu Kyi/Michael Aris (Editor)
Rating: 3.5 of 5 stars (4466) counts
Original Format: Paperback, 368 pages
Download Format: PDF, DJVU, iBook, MP3.
Published: December 1st 1991 / by Penguin Books / (first published 1991)
Language: English
Genre(s):
Nonfiction- 47 users
Politics- 28 users
History- 18 users
Biography- 17 users
Autobiography >Memoir- 12 users
Cultural >Asia- 12 users

Description:

A new collection of writings by the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner includes her acceptance
speech as delivered by her son during her six-year incarceration and numerous reminiscences on
her role in politics and her fear for her people.

About Author:

Myanmar opposition leader, daughter of Aung San (a martyred national hero of independent
Burma) and Khin Kyi (a prominent Burmese diplomat), and winner in 1991 of the Nobel Prize for
Peace.
Aung San Suu Kyi was two years old when her father, then the de facto prime minister of what
would shortly become independent Burma, was assassinated. She attended schools in Burma
until 1960, when her mother was appointed ambassador to India. After further study in India, she
attended the University of Oxford, where she met her future husband. She had two children and
lived a rather quiet life until 1988, when she returned to Burma to nurse her dying mother. There
the mass slaughter of protesters against the brutal and unresponsive rule of the military strongman
U Ne Win led her to speak out against him and to begin a nonviolent struggle for democracy and
human rights. In July 1989 the military government of the newly named Union of Myanmar placed
Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest and held her incommunicado. The military offered to free
her if she agreed to leave Myanmar, but she refused to do so until the country was returned to
civilian government and political prisoners were freed. The newly formed group with which she
became affiliated, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won more than 80 percent of the
parliamentary seats that were contested in 1990, but the results of that election were ignored by
the military government.
Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from house arrest in July 1995. The following year she attended the
NLD party congress, but the military government continued to harass both her and her party. In
1998 she announced the formation of a representative committee that she declared was the
country's legitimate ruling parliament. The military junta once again placed Aung San Suu Kyi
under house arrest from September 2000 to May 2002. Following clashes between the NLD and
pro-government demonstrators in 2003, the government returned her to house arrest.

Other Editions:

- Freedom from Fear (Paperback)

- Freedom from Fear (Paperback)

- Freedom from Fear: And Other Writings (Kindle Edition)

- Freedom from Fear and Other Writings (Paperback)

- Libera dalla paura. Aung San Suu Kyi (Paperback)

Books By Author:
- Letters from Burma

- The Voice of Hope

- Aung San of Burma

- Let's Visit Burma

 - Aung San / Leaders Of Asia Series

Books In The Series:

Related Books On Our Site:

- The Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi

- The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma

- For Us Surrender is Out of the Question

 - The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and the
Vietnam War

- From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey

- Finding George Orwell in Burma

- Love in Action: Writings on Nonviolent Social Change

- Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC

- Little Daughter: A Memoir of Survival in Burma and the West

- The Lady and the Peacock: The Life of Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma

- Galileo: A Very Short Introduction

- Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution

- The Silk Road in World History

- Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet

- Searching for Hassan: A Journey to the Heart of Iran

 - De kleine keizer: verslag van een passie

- The Theory of the Four Movements

- Arctisch dagboek

Rewiews:
Nov 29, 2011
Neil
Rated it: it was ok
Having just come back from a visit to Burma I was really interested to pick up this book. I had tried
to find it before I left and was unsuccessful but read up a reasonable amount on the country before
I arrived.
Frankly, my feelings were mixed. Part 1 ,which actually takes up about half the book, is a series of
essays on Burma published by Suu Kyi before she became politically active. Although there was
some interesting information on the history of Burma and her father I felt as if these were
Having just come back from a visit to Burma I was really interested to pick up this book. I had tried
to find it before I left and was unsuccessful but read up a reasonable amount on the country before
I arrived.
Frankly, my feelings were mixed. Part 1 ,which actually takes up about half the book, is a series of
essays on Burma published by Suu Kyi before she became politically active. Although there was
some interesting information on the history of Burma and her father I felt as if these were a little
out of place for an average reader and tended to all discuss similar issues repeatedly (background
on her father and the Thakin's) or provide large amounts of information that was hard to digest
(going through all the provinces of the country and talking about their key characteristics). They
didn't really convey any sense of who the author was to me or give me much understanding of her.

I understand that due to her lengthy incarceration there are not a huge volume of speeches and
other materials to draw on but reading through part 1 I rapidly found myself losing interest. I feel
bad saying that but it is just my honest feelings - it was almost as if they were put in as fluff to add
some length to the text (not saying that was the reason but how I felt). In particular I felt the essay
titled "Intelectual Life in Burma and India Under Colonialism" was a gruelling read and just not
relevant enough or set at a reasonable level for someone who does not have an indepth
knowledge of Burmese or Indian history to understand. It seemed to be a very indepth, analytical
dissertation style piece that is very hard for a casual reader such as myself to take much from.
Once Part 2 begins we move onto her political works and this is where I really found myself
enjoying the book. Some of her speeches and writings really are truly inspiring. There is no
question she is an incredible person but for the first 167 pages of the book I found it hard to
connect with her. The background on her father (who is clearly a vital influence on her politics)
was appreciated at first but became tired as I felt after essay number 1 no new ground was really
covered. It's a real shame for me that I felt Part 1 was such a struggle as it really restricted my
overall enjoyment of the book. They could easily have cut out 2/3 or even 3/4 of this section, left
enough to provide some background history on her father and Burma, suggested some other
readings for those interested, and moved on.
I dont want my overall review to seem harsh but after struggling through over 1/2 the book I feel
like it would be just as productive to do a little background reading on Burma before picking up this
book, read the introduction and then skip straight to Part 2.
Hopefully in the next few years we will see an another piece of literature from Suu Kyi where she
can speak freely on her experiences these last 20+ years. That is something I cant wait to read.
7 likes