Aung San Suu Kyi hasn’t triumphed alone: a timely portrait of Burma’s dissidents
In June 2015, KFC opened its first outlet in Myanmar. It is fitting that after decades of military rule the original fast-food chain to be established there should be fronted by “the Colonel”. The benevolent grin of Harland Sanders, though, bears no likeness to the Burmese Tatmadaw. For the generals, democracy is “disciplined” or not at all; a peace of the prison yard.
Before the elections of 8 November, which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has won, and which the army has pledged to accept, Amnesty International, as well as Fortify Rights and the human rights programme at Harvard Law School, documented the continued imprisonment of rights activists, community organisers, student leaders, teachers, union officials and lawyers. Over the years, these people have struggled with fearless enterprise against the military regime in the name of democracy and popular sovereignty. They are the focus of Delphine Schrank’s gripping account of Myanmar’s radical underground.
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