THE VOICE OF HOPE Aung San Suu Kyi Conversations with Burma s Nobel Peace Laureate and Alan Clements

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1 It has been 16 years since Clements was in Burma and now is the time to return to reconnect with Aung San Suu Kyi and her key colleagues. The goal is to bring forth their views on global issues and global revolution and present them in a New Print Edition of The Voice of Hope and an Enhanced E-Book (multimedia) Edition. The estimated expenses involved in Clements return to Burma for a month to interview these heroic revolutionaries and produce the book is $10,000. A PROPOSAL FOR A NEW EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED BOOK THE VOICE OF HOPE Aung San Suu Kyi Conversations with Burma s Nobel Peace Laureate and Alan Clements One of the few people Suu Kyi trusted enough to take her message to the world is Alan Clements. The Voice of Hope is the result of the secret and dangerous meetings they had over the course of six months, and offers unquestionably the most wide-ranging collection of her views on the political situation inside Burma, her nonviolent approach to democracy and human rights, her Buddhist beliefs, and how she keeps a sense of meaning and purpose under the most appalling conditions. ~ Random House, publisher s overview. The Voice of Hope is a message that the world should hear. ~ Former President Jimmy Carter Under house arrest for the better part of the past 18 years, Aung San Suu Kyi is not only the leading voice for democracy in Burma, she is a world spiritual leader, standing alongside Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and the 14 th Dalai Lama in the international struggle for freedom and human rights. Whatever the future of Burma, a possible future for politics itself is illuminated by these conversations. ~ The London Observer

2 Introduction Burma: Enter one of the most politically ravaged yet spiritually vibrant societies on Earth. Ruled for decades by a ruthless dictatorship with a military machine of 400,000 soldiers, Burma is a prison within prisons where, only until a few months ago, there is no regard for human rights. The 66-year old Nobel Peace laureate is an international icon symbolizing the power of the powerless and the determination of her people s struggle for freedom. Released from incarceration on November 15, 2010, she spent most of the past 20 years either in prison or house detention. Nearly starving at times and mostly without medical care, she was held incommunicado for years and prevented from seeing her husband and children, even before his death in She was not alone: the prisons were filled with fellow political prisoners, including monks and nuns; many suffering torture. Her message has remained consistent from the time she entered politics in 1988: Be free. Nobody can imprison your mind. They can imprison your body, but they cannot imprison your mind. We must always remember this. Free your mind. Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavor, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one s actions, courage that could be described as grace under pressure - grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi 54 University Avenue, Rangoon, Burma, the heavily guarded home of Aung San Suu Kyi where she spent nearly 16 years under house arrest. 1

3 Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 Aung San Suu Kyi s struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades. She has become an important symbol in the struggle against oppression. In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 1991 to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honor this woman for her unflagging efforts and to show its support for the many people throughout the world who are striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means. ~ The Norwegian Nobel Committee, 1991 The First Edition of The Voice of Hope THE MAKING OF THE BOOK In 1995, shortly after Aung San Suu Kyi s release from her first term of detention, Alan Clements clandestinely returned to Burma where he had lived for many years in a monastery as the first American to be ordained there as a Buddhist monk. His goal was to contact the world s most celebrated yet least known Nobel Peace laureate and invite her to share her remarkable story and the core philosophy guiding her country s nonviolent struggle to overcome dictatorship. Aung San Suu Kyi s spirituallyinformed political doctrine is one that is based on the principles of love, fairness, and reason, as found in Burma s ancient wisdom tradition the most preserved form of the classical Buddhist teachings in the world today. The intention was that their recorded conversations would serve as the basis of a book. Clements waited quietly for weeks holed up in a government-run hotel room in Rangoon to receive word from Aung San Suu Kyi s people about when it would be appropriate to begin their critical project. When the political crisis inside of the country intensified, the Vice-Chairman of Suu Kyi s party, the former Army General U Tin Oo informed Clements that their re-arrests were imminent. U Tin Oo also urged Clements to leave the country at once, as his freedom was in serious jeopardy as well. Once back at the hotel Clements packed his bags to head to the Rangoon airport. Then the phone rang: Aung San Suu Kyi requested that Clements come to her lakeside home immediately. The next morning Clements was escorted by a dozen of Aung San Suu Kyi s student party members past military police and security personnel through the high iron gates of 54 University Avenue, the most famous address in Burma the dilapidated Rangoon home of Aung San Suu Kyi. Within minutes Clements and Aung San Suu Kyi began their first of what was to be six months of regularly scheduled conversations in full knowledge that any day either of them might be arrested, deported, or imprisoned. Aung San Suu Kyi s house was essentially a prison surrounded by armed soldiers and encircled with barbed wire. The house itself was bugged. Her phone was tapped. Men behind binoculars recorded every move. Clements was watched night and day. His hotel room was routinely searched. How and why he was allowed to meet regularly with the world s most high profile political dissident and her key colleagues remains an utter mystery. However, her first words to Clements were unmistakably clear. She outlined the conditions for her involvement in their book: 1. My two closest colleagues and mentors U Tin Oo and U Kyi Maung their voices have to be equally included with mine. 2. Should I be re-incarcerated [which she was] and should my two mentors and colleagues also be reincarcerated [which they were as well] this book [The Voice of Hope] shall serve as a vehicle for the world to understand more fully the nature of our nonviolent struggle here in Burma for peace, justice and human rights. At the six-month mark of their conversations, Clements was deported. 2

4 Miraculously the book was made. Aung San Suu Kyi and Alan Clements at her home in OVERVIEW OF THE NEW AND UPDATED EDITION OF THE BOOK The Voice of Hope is the definitive portrait of Burma s Gandhi, Aung San Suu Kyi, 1991 s Nobel Peace Prize laureate and leader of her country s ongoing struggle for democracy. One of the most distinguishing features of the multimedia edition of the book is that it relies on 60 hours of audio and video tape smuggled out of Burma at great risk, which includes six months of conversations between Aung San Suu Kyi and Alan Clements. Most of these groundbreaking recordings were conducted secretly during one of Aung San Suu Kyi s only periods of freedom in the last 20 years and represent the largest archival collection of never before heard or seen voices and images of this remarkable leader and her colleagues. This new and updated edition of The Voice of Hope, produced by Alan Clements, the one westerner who has spent more time with Aung San Suu Kyi than any other person since her first incarceration on July 20, 1989, uses the dramatic true story of the making of The Voice of Hope, as the framework for the new multimedia edition of the book. Through this unprecedented collection of audio and video recordings, along with the new materials to be gathered from Clements return to Burma next month, readers and viewers alike will experience firsthand why Aung San Suu Kyi is both a spiritual icon and a world political leader, who stands alongside Mahatma Gandhi on the forefront of the global struggle for freedom and human rights. The Voice of Hope will carry this renowned woman s illuminated vision, in which politics and spirituality are inseparable. The new edition of the book will embody the conciliatory message for all of humanity from the world s most honored revolutionary and her impassioned call for international action to safeguard global human rights and the environment. That is, she maintains, if enough of us become voices of hope ourselves. 3

5 THE ESSENCE OF THE VOICE OF HOPE This book is not just a story of one woman s archetypal struggle or her nation s quest for freedom. Rather, it is a rallying cry to more deeply understand the value of freedom, especially freedom of expression and access to truthful information, as they are the most vital forces to achieve and safeguard individual freedoms, strengthen democracy, and preempt repression, conflict, war, and genocide. You see that pale, blue dot? Al Gore asks in his film An Inconvenient Truth. That s us. Everything that has ever happened in all of human history has happened on that pixel. All the triumphs and all the tragedies, all the wars, all the famines, all the major advances...it s our only home. And that is what is at stake, our ability to live on planet Earth, to have a future as a civilization. I believe this is a moral [and spiritual] issue; it is your time to seize this issue, it is our time to rise again to secure our future. As An Inconvenient Truth increased awareness of the climate crisis and compelled audiences to become agents of change, The Voice of Hope will ignite an awareness of global human rights and empower people in everyday revolution daily actions that safeguard freedom, the Earth, the future of life itself. We are either the enemies of progress or the friends of it, Aung San Suu Kyi states. We are either takers, or givers. Creators or destroyers. Please help Alan make this urgent trip for the creation of a new edition of The Voice of Hope. Your generous support is deeply appreciated. Donations are tax deductible. Donors will receive an acknowledgement both in the new edition of the book and the enhanced e-book edition. In closing, there is no certainty of Alan s success with this mission. However, he has entered the country on four previous occasions (all of them underground) that resulted in four books, a film and several hundred feature interviews, worldwide. There is always a risk involved in attempting to enter a dictatorshipturned-democracy so your generous support must be offered unconditionally yet spent giving it his best. ABOUT ALAN CLEMENTS: Alan Clements is widely considered to be one of the world s leading authorities on Burma s nonviolent revolution and the country s unique expression of Buddhism. Clements spent nearly five years living in a monastery as the first American Buddhist monk to have ordained in that country. During the course of his career Clements has been interviewed on numerous television and radio programs, including He has been interviewed on ABC s Nightline, CBS Evening News, Talk to America, CBC, VOA, BBC, and by the New York Times, London Times, Time and Newsweek magazines, and scores of other media worldwide. In addition, he has presented to such organizations as Mikhail Gorbachev s State of The World Forum, the Soros Foundation, United Nations Association of San Francisco, and many others, including a keynote address at the John Ford Theater in Los Angeles for Amnesty International s 30th year anniversary. How to describe Alan s presentations? A tall order. Love poems/riffs/odes/chants to the goddesses of compassion, deeply inscribed with the blood of Burmese slaves, soldiers in Iraq, Palestinian children, freedom fighters anywhere. A momentary entry into an internal tête-à-tête, ad infinitum; a glimpse at all that inner discursive dialog which marks us unequivocally as members of the human race. Just in case we get too spiritual, let s not forget that we are required to, by nature, include everything. To paraphrase the Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hahn s poem, Please Call Me by My True Names, I am both the 12-year-old raped girl and the pirate who raped her. It is difficult to reconcile seeming opposites, and it takes the heart of a poet. Thich Nhat Hahn is a poet; Alan is one as well. Marcia Jacobs, a psychotherapist specializing in victims of war, rape, and trauma; a senior U.N. representative for refugees in Bosnia and Croatia, ; and a former officer of the International War Crimes Tribunal 4

6 Clements has authored or co-authored the following books. With our planet in peril, it is imperative that we act now to provide a secure future for our children and future generations. Make Alan Clements magnificent and courageous book your guide, mentor and friend. Dr Helen Caldicott, Author of Nuclear Power is Not the Answer and If you Love this Planet; Founding President Physicians for Social Responsibility. Thank you for your generous support in making this important journey and book possible. 5