The Voice of Hope

“The dialogues [in The Voice of Hope] express Aung San Suu Kyi’s humor, erudition, wisdom and accessibility, and demonstrate why she has become a world spiritual leader.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Reading this book, one can well understand why [Aung San Suu Kyi] has been compared to such heroes of freedom as Nelson Mandela and Václav Havel.”—San Francisco Chronicle

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 was called upon to lead 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 leader of the National League for Democracy, which achieved a decisive victory in the last Burmese national election, held in 1990. The junta has refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of that vote. She has lived under house arrest for twelve of the last eighteen years.

Alan Clements is the author of Burma: The Next Killing Fields? and Burma’s Revolution of the Spirit. Since completion of The Voice of Hope, he has been permanently blacklisted in Burma.