ASIA WITHOUT BORDERS

MEMORIES EDITION

No. 68 Issue 7/2009

Not forgotten
Aung San revisited
www.asiangeo.com

Killing power: The assassinations of great leaders

PPS 1367/06/2010 (028231)
Asia’s colonial chapter: As worlds collide
Dinosaurs: The old world order
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 22 PICTURESQUE
Postcards from the past
Spreading the word of photography as collectibles
by Editions Didier Millet’s Early Postcards Series
A fascination journey through postcards from way back
when reveals a myriad cultures and heritage long gone
from the minds of modern-day living.

62 FEATURE
Not forgotten
Aung San revisited: In Burma’s hour of need
by Penguin Books’ Freedom from Fear
The great Aung San is remembered. We go back to his days as
a student and remember him as a family man. His words are
humble yet empowering. He was a man of vision despite being
shun once during his youth for not being able to speak English
properly and for his lack of style in clothing. He remains an
inspiration in Myanmar today.

Additional reporting on Aung San Suu Kyi

by Jean Qingwen Loo

74 FEATURE
Killing power
Snuffed out too soon, the lives of many great Asian
leaders have ended at the hands of assassins
by Sean Mooney
It has been carried out by humans for countless
millennia, but we have only had a name for it for less
than 1,000 years – assassination. It’s the murder of
politicians, royalty and other people in the public arena.
Many an Asian leader has fallen victim to assassination,
a term that actually originated in Western Asia in the
11th century.

84 FEATURE
The colonial chapter of Asia
Worlds collide as Asia remembers its foreign past
by Stu Lloyd, Saphira T Zoelfikar & Robert Davies
An extensive journey awaits in this feature as ASIAN
Geographic looks at very personal lives that reflect the
descend of Europe, the US and the Middle East into Asia.
Countless remnants remain in every nook and cranny of
Asian heritage, including racial mixes and religion.

Additional reporting on the comfort women of Asia

by Kanquona Bhattacharjee
 FEATURE 1– Not Forgotten

7/2009 | 59
George W. Hales/Fox Photos/Getty Images
BOGYOKE (GENERAL) AUNG SAN
February 13, 1915 – July 19, 1947 (age 32)

1915 1932 1935–36 1936 1938

February 13
Born at Natmauk, a town-
ship in Magwe district,
central Burma.
Matriculated in the “A” Elected to the executive February Elected as president of
category with distinctions committee of the Expelled from the the Rangoon University
in Burmese and Pali. Rangoon University university for publication Students’ Union and the
Students’ Union and of the article, Hell Hound All Burma Student's
became the editor of at Large in the union Union. Appointed as a
the Students’ Union magazine. Expulsion student representative in
Magazine. of Ko Aung San and Ko “Rangoon University Act
Nu from the university, Amendment Committee”
which led to the by the government.
university strike. Later,
the government conceded
strikers’ demands and
retracted expulsion
orders.

“PERSONALLY THOUGH I FELT THAT INTERNATIONAL PROPAGANDA

AND ASSISTANCE OF OUR CAUSE WAS NECESSARY. THE MAIN WORK,
I THOUGHT, MUST BE DONE IN BURMA...” Bogyoke (General) Aung San

Not forgotten
AUNG SAN REVISITED: IN BURMA’S HOUR OF NEED
extracts from Freedom from Fear, Aun San Suu Kyi (Penguin Books)

Aung San was born in Natmauk, a small township in

the dry zone of central Burma, on February13, 1915, thirty
years after the third Anglo-Burmese War had ended the
monarchy at Mandalay and brought the whole country
under British rule.
The year that Aung San joined the university was the
year after the Hsaya San uprising had been suppressed
and its leaders executed. This rebellion, which had its roots
▶ January 13, 1947: Burmese
in the sufferings of the agrarian population, was played
revolutionary and statesman General down by the British as a mere peasants’ revolt led by a
Aung San (1915–1947) arrives at superstitious fanatic who wanted to be king.
Number 10 Downing Street to
negotiate independence for Burma But among the Burmese, it aroused greater sympathy
with the British government. than might have appeared from the degree of active

58 |
1942
March
Rangoon, capital of Burma,
fell to the Japanese Army.
The Japanese military
administration took over
Burma.
July
Reorganised BIA and
became Burma Defence
Army (BDA). Appointed
as Commander-in-Chief
Colonel Aung San.
September 6
Married with Daw Khin Kyi.
▴ A wedding photograph of
Aung San and Daw Khin Kyi,
1942. For the people of Burma,
Aung San was the man who had
come in their hour of need.
▶▴ 1942, World War Two:
Japanese soldiers marching
in downtown Moulmein,
during the fall of Rangoon.
1943 1944 1945
March August 1 August 1 March 27
Promoted to become Burma was declared an Declared Burma's Burmese troops through-
Major-General Aung San independent nation and independence status as out the country rose up
of BDA. Major-General Aung San fake in independence day against the Japanese.
became the War Minister. anniversary speech.
Invited to Japan and deco-
rated by the Emperor with November August
“Order of the Rising Sun”. The British troops Founded Anti-Fascist
hiding in the hills of Bur- Organization (AFO) and
BDA was renamed ma received Aung San's became the military
as Burma National plan to turn his forces leader of the organisation.
Army (BNA). against the Japanese.
“Personally though I felt that international propaganda
and assistance of our cause was necessary. The main
work, I thought, must be done in Burma, which must be
the mobilisation of the masses for the national struggle.
I had a rough plan on my own – a countrywide mass
resistance movement against British imperialism on a
progressive scale… co-extensive with international and
national developments in the form of a series of local and
partial strikes of industrial and rural workers leading to
a general and rent strike finally, also all forms of militant
propaganda, such as mass demonstrations and people’s
marches, leading finally to mass civil disobedience, also
economic campaign against British imperialism in the
form of boycott of British goods leading to the mass non-
payment of taxes, to be supported by developing guerrilla
action against military and civil and police outposts, lines
of communications, etc., leading finally to the complete
7/2009 | 61
BOGYOKE (GENERAL) AUNG SAN
February 13, 1915 – July 19, 1947 (age 32)

1945
May 15
Met with William Slim of
the Fourteenth Army.
June 15
Victory parade was held
in Rangoon. The Bur-
mese forces participated
alongside the British and
Allied forces.
1946
August September October January
The Japanese forces The British troops Civil government was Elected as president
surrendered. hiding in hills of Burma restored with Dorman- of the AFPFL.
received Aung San's plan Smith as the governor
AFO was expanded and to turn his forces against of Burma. September
renamed as Anti-Fascist the Japanese. Appointed as Deputy
People's Freedom League Chairman of the
(AFPFL). Signed an agreement to Executive Council of
merge PBF with Burma Burma with portfolios
BNA was renamed as Army under British com- for defence and
Patriotic Burmese Forces mand during a meeting external affairs.
(PBF). in Kandy, Ceylon Sri
Lanka.

paralysis of the British administration in Burma when we

should be able, along with the developing world situation,
to make the final and ultimate bid for the capture of power.
“And I counted then upon the coming over of the
troops belonging to the British government to our side –
particularly the non-British sections. In his plan, I also
visualised the possibility of the Jap invasion of Burma –
but here, I had no clear vision (all of us at that time had no
clear view in this respect though some might now try to
show themselves, after all the events, to have been wiser
than others).
…
“At this time, I am a person who is very popular with
the public. But I am neither a god, wizard or magician.
Only a man. Not a heavenly being, I can only have the
powers of a man. I am very young. The responsibility I
now bear is that of standing at the very head to carry the
▴ August 28, 1945: Military burdens of the whole country. I do not consider that I
Commanders of the Japanese forces
have all the qualifications necessary to bear that burden.
arrive in Rangoon to negotiate
the surrender of Japanese forces Also, many people know that I am short tempered. This
in South-East Asia. The formal is my nature. When I am busy and harassed, I get short
surrender is in Singapore when they
meet Lord Louis Mountbatten.
tempered. I shall try to correct that as much as possible.
“But you must also be patient. I too will be patient, and
▶ June 27, 1947: General Aung Sang,
if you will build up your strength to an even greater height
wearing national costume, leads a
demonstration from Bandoola square than that which you have displayed today, and support us
through Rangoon’s streets, to the in what we are doing for you, we shall be able to do more
Secretariat where the first meeting of
the constituent assembly was held.
to achieve the independence and the public welfare that we
want… That is why I would like to ask the people once more
▶ ▶ US Secretary of State John Foster
to stand firm and resolute.”
Dulles laying a wreath at the grave of
Aung San, martyred patriot who led …
Burma’s independence fight, during For the people of Burma, Aung San was the man who
a diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia.
Myanmar continues to remember
had come in their hour of need to restore their national
Aung San every year on July 18 pride and honour. As his life is a source of inspiration
(the day of his assassination). for them, his memory remains the guardian of their
political conscience. AG

62 |
1988 1989
March 31 August 15 September 18 October-December January 2
Informed by telephone of Suu Kyi, in first political Military establishes State Defying ban, Suu Kyi Funeral of Daw Khin Kyi.
mother’s severe stroke, action, sends open letter Law and Order Restora- makes speech-making Huge funeral proces-
she takes plane next to government, asking for tion Council (SLORC). tour throughout country sion. Suu Kyi vows that
day to Rangoon to help formation of independent Political gatherings of to large audiences. as her father and mother
care for Daw Khin Kyi at consultative committee more than four persons had served the people of
hospital, then moves her to prepare multi-party banned. Arrests and December 27 Burma, so too would she,
to family home on Univer- elections. sentencing without trial Daw Khin Kyi dies at age even unto death.
sity Avenue next to Inya reaffirmed. Parliamentary of 76.
Lake in Rangoon. August 26 elections to be held, but January–July
In first public speech, she in expectation that multi- Suu Kyi continues cam-
July 23 addresses several hundred plicity of parties will paign despite harassment,
Resignation of General thousand people outside prevent a clear result. arrests and killings by
Ne Win, since 1962 mili- Shwedagon Pagoda, soldiers.
tary dictator of Burma. calling for democratic September 24
Popular demonstrations government. Michael and National League for February 17
of protest continuing. her two sons are there. Democracy (NLD) Suu Kyi prohibited from
formed, with Suu Kyi standing for election.
August 8/8/88 general-secretary. Policy
Mass uprising throughout of non-violence and civil April 5
country. Violent sup- disobedience. Incident in Irawaddy
pression by military kills Delta when Suu Kyi
thousands. courageously walks
toward rifles soldiers are
aiming at her.
◀ Myanmar pro-democracy activists
hold placards during a rally against July 20
the country’s military junta near the Suu Kyi placed under
Myanmar embassy in Seoul on August house arrest, without
8, 2009. A group of some 30 activists charge or trial. Sons
demanding the opposition leader already with her. Michael
Aung San Suu Kyi’s immediate release, flies to Rangoon, finds
staged a protest to mark the 21st her on third day of hunger
anniversary of the 1988 pro-democracy strike, asking to be sent
uprising, which ended in a massacre to prison to join students
by Myanmar government troops. arrested at her home.
Ends strike when good
treatment of students is
promised.

Her last public appearance was in 2007 at the gate of

her home to receive blessings from Buddhist monks who
were marching in support of human rights. In May this
year, as her latest detention period was about to expire, the
untimely intrusion of John Yettaw resulted otherwise.

Crack of dawn?
With both the junta and Suu Kyi sticking firmly to their
guns, it seems that the way forward would depend on how
they react to engagement with the West, and persuasion
from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
a 10-nation organisation, which Myanmar is part of. ▴ Myanmar policemen stand
guard by a shed outside opposition
Dr Pavin Chachavalpongpun, a visiting research fellow leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s house in
at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, thinks it is very Yangon on August 11, 2009, after
clear that the priority of the Burmese government lies in its the democracy icon was driven back
to her house under tight security.
maintenance of political power.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI (RECIPIENT, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 1991)
June 19, 1945 – Present (Under house arrest)
Source: nobelprize.org

1990 1991 1992 1994 1995

May 27 July 10 Suu Kyi announces that February July 10
Despite detention of Suu European Parliament she will use $1.3 million First non-family visitors SLORC releases Suu Kyi
Kyi, NLD wins election awards Suu Kyi Sakharov prize money to establish to Suu Kyi: UN repre- from house arrest after
with 82% of parliamen- human rights prize. health and education trust sentative, US congress- six years of detention.
tary seats. SLORC refuses for Burmese people. man, New York Times
to recognise results. October 14
Norwegian Nobel Com- reporter. 1996–2009
October 12 mittee announces Suu 1993 Suu Kyi is tehn returned
Suu Kyi granted Kyi is winner of 1991 Group of Nobel Peace September–October to house arrest after a
1990 Rafto Human Peace Prize. Laureates, denied entry SLORC leaders meet few month of freedom.
Rights Prize. to Burma, visit Burmese with Suu Kyi, who From here on, she
December refugees on Thailand still asks for a public serves out her time
Freedom from Fear border, and call for Suu dialogue. under another period of
published by Penguin Kyi’s release. Their appeal
house arrest.
in New York, England, later repeated at UN
Canada, Australia, Commission for Human
New Zealand. Also in Rights in Geneva. 2009
Norwegian, French, May
Spanish translations. Shortly before her most
recent sentence was
December 10 to be completed, Suu
Alexander and Kim ac- Kyi was arrested and
cept prize for mother in charged with breaching
Oslo ceremony. Suu Kyi
the terms of her house
remains in detention,
arrest after an intruder
having rejected offer to
free her if she will leave (a US citizen) entered
Burma and withdraw her house compound.
from politics. Worldwide
appeal growing for her August 11
release. A criminal court
inside Insein prison
in Rangoon sentenced
“Letting Suu Kyi participate in the upcoming elections Suu Kyi to 3 years of
imprisonment for violat-
risks the regime losing power so they have every reason to
ing her order for house
continue to lock her up,” he says. “After all, Myanmar has arrest, with the sentence
shown that it has been able to manage its domestic politics reduced to 18 months, to
without any restraint all these years.” be served under house
arrest.
Furthermore, the growing strength of Suu Kyi’s
popularity over the last two decades of her house arrest A widespread belief,
and the lack of a succession in the NLD party has made her within and outside of
even more indispensable in Myanmar’s political struggle. Myanmar, that this
latest conviction was
Others caution on tying the political crisis in Burma
designed to prevent Suu
too closely with Suu Kyi alone and see another possible way Kyi from participating
out beyond hard sanctions and boycotts. in multi-party elections
ASEAN and the West should instead explore new scheduled for 2010.
avenues of connection with a paranoid military leadership
Photos: Getty Images

defined by a nationalistic worldview that “Myanmar is

beset by opponents within and without,” says Dr Abbott.
“International pressure and condemnation simply
confirms this outlook and even ironically strengthening
their obstinacy,” he added.
Yettaw’s release could be a prelude to a new era of
politics between Myanmar and the West. The fact that US
Senator Jim Webb was allowed to meet Suu Kyi after UN
Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was denied a similar visit
earlier is encouraging.
The most significant development from this bizarre
episode, perhaps, came from none other than the Lady
herself. Reports of Suu Kyi softening her stance towards
the tourism boycott and sanctions are emerging for the
first time in many years, and could well be pivotal in
steering Burma towards brighter days. AG
 VOICE OF ASIA
Wuer Kaixi has put on weight in the last two decades and his hair
no longer flops over his eyes in the style he affected as a student at
Beijing Normal University, but some things have not changed.
He is, for example, still on the list of 21 student dissidents
that Beijing identified as the ringleaders of the Tiananmen Square
protests 20 years ago.
Now 41 and living in Taipei, he has also been told that China will
never grant him amnesty and that he can never return home.
“I went to Hong Kong in 2004 to mark the 15th anniversary
of Tiananmen Square and I thought that as I had been granted
permission to the Special Administrative Region then maybe the
most wanted list had expired,” says Wuer Kaixi, in his favourite coffee
shop just off Zhongxiao Road. “But they got word to me that as far as
I was concerned, the warrant would never expire.”
He has not seen his parents since being smuggled out of Beijing
after the students’ movement had been crushed by tanks and
machine guns on the night of 3rd and 4th of June, although he is able
to communicate with them via the Internet.
“I’m past the sad phase
now and I'm just very angry,”
he says. "Living as an exile is
tormenting and impossible
for anyone who has not
experienced it to understand.
“At first, I felt hatred for the
regime, but that soon passed,
as hatred can bring no good.
But the anger is there every day.
Sometimes, I can’t control it but
I have to learn to live with it.
“There is also the guilt I feel
as a survivor.”
The estimates of the number who died varies from
the Chinese government’s position that there were no
deaths in the square – avoiding the question of those
killed in surrounding streets in the capital – and body
counts provided by underground groups that put the
figure as high as 5,000.
Wuer Kaixi knows that he was very fortunate to
have avoided being killed, or if he had remained in
China, having to do a lengthy prison term. Many of the
20 other students on the list have served repeated jail
sentences.
Wuer Kaixi
A member of the Uighur minority from the far
west of China, Wuer Kaixi was in his first year studying
education administration at Beijing Normal University, one of the top
three institutions in the country, when the unrest commenced.
Students had initially wanted to mark the death
of Hu Yaobang on April 15. Hu was the former party secretary general
who had been in favour of political liberalisation and economic
reforms. The protests
grew, posters deriding the Communist Party’s leaders appeared
throughout the city and crowds began to
gather in Tiananmen Square. Disorganised and unfocused, they
sought a leader. Wuer Kaixi stepped forward.
“People were starting to get impatient. They were saying we were
all cowards, that we were impotent,” Wuer remembers. “I realised
that I was cursing myself. My personality would not allow that, so I
shouted ‘Make way’ and I stood on the base of a monument.
“I had no idea what I was going to say, I had no microphone
and I was not prepared for the moment at all. But then I saw a red
text JULIAN RYALL
light at the back of the crowd and I knew I was being filmed by the
authorities. And I knew what I had to say.
“I shouted out my name, my class and my course. The crowd
roared because that was enough to have defied the authorities.”
Through April and May, the protests grew and the Chinese
government appeared increasingly paralysed. Sensing their demands
might be met, several of the protestors – including Wuer Kaixi –
began a hunger strike. Admitted to hospital, he returned to the
square when the Chinese premier, Li Peng, agreed to talk with the
demonstrators.
Still dressed in his hospital gown, Wuer Kaixi interrupted Li
Peng’s speech live on national television, earning himself instant
fame with those who advocated reform. Initially, there were signs
that the unrest was going to spread across the country, but Wuer
Kaixi says he knew that the announcement of martial law on May 20
signalled that a crackdown was imminent.
“June 3rd and 4th were the darkest days in Chinese history,”
said Wuer Kaixi. “They sent troops with live ammunition and tanks
against unarmed and peaceful
petitioners. And even if no one
had died, it was still a brutal and
inhumane thing to do.”
He says he heard gunfire,
saw tanks ramming buses that
had been set up as makeshift
barricades and hospitals with
floors soaked in blood. Friends
urged him to leave the city, as
it might be in the interest of the
government for the People’s
Liberation Army not to catch
him alive.
The release of the 21 names on the government’s
most wanted list was enough to convince him to go,
and he fled with a group of friends on June 15. It took
Wuer Kaixi five days to get to Hong Kong and another
five days to get to Paris.
After studying in Paris and at Harvard University,
he moved to Taipei in 1996, married a Taiwanese
woman and became a citizen in 1999. He has two sons,
aged 10 and 14, and has been an outspoken radio talk
show host and consultant for international companies.
He now invests his money in start-up companies
and works for a US-based investment fund. But he is
still in touch with the 20 other men and women who
have been on Beijing’s most wanted list. “China is a very different
place today,” he said. "Our movement should take the credit for
forcing the country to gradually open up after the 1989 massacre.”
With the introduction of a free market and acknowledgement
of property rights, the regime has adopted measures the students
had sought. And while Chinese have more disposable income and
a higher standard of living than they could have dreamed of two
decades ago, the next thing they will inevitably seek is the right to
express their free will, Wuer Kaixi believes.
“Democracy is still the most essential element that is missing
in China today.” AG
Julian Ryall is a freelance reporter based in Japan.
He also writes for the Telegraph in the UK.