Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Glossary
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Khin Myo Chit: The Voice of a Closet Feminist
- Chapter 2 Ludu Daw Amar: The Voice of Unity
- Chapter 3 Ma Thida: The Voice of Hidden Truths and Changing Times
- Chapter 4 Aung San Suu Kyi: The Voice of a Pragmatic
- Annexure I Chronology of Khin Myo Chit's Publications
- Annexure II Chronology of Ludu Daw Amar's Publications
- Annexure III Chronology of Ma Thida's Publications
- Bibliography
- Copyright and Sources of Photographs
- Index
Chapter 3 - Ma Thida: The Voice of Hidden Truths and Changing Times
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2016
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Glossary
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Khin Myo Chit: The Voice of a Closet Feminist
- Chapter 2 Ludu Daw Amar: The Voice of Unity
- Chapter 3 Ma Thida: The Voice of Hidden Truths and Changing Times
- Chapter 4 Aung San Suu Kyi: The Voice of a Pragmatic
- Annexure I Chronology of Khin Myo Chit's Publications
- Annexure II Chronology of Ludu Daw Amar's Publications
- Annexure III Chronology of Ma Thida's Publications
- Bibliography
- Copyright and Sources of Photographs
- Index
Summary
“And darkness fell on you,
And darkness fell on me.
Some grabbed each other by the hair,
Some slipped and fell.
…And we played the tune of the times,
With its false doctrines”
The Years We Didn't See the Dawn, Tin Moe“In the eye of the B.S.P.P. man is more than mere matter. He is a being who is endowed with feeling, intelligence and the creative power to think… cannot be regarded as an animal or a mass of material molecules.”
The Specific Characteristics of the Burma Socialist Programme PartyHey! Is that it? Twenty years!
2 September 1994, Insein
It is my twenty-eight birthday today, the second that I have spent in prison. From where I lie, flat on my back with my arms under my head, I can see a pocket-sized sky. The window is set high in the wall and through its iron grills and the roll of barbed wire I watch the clouds shift and the sky darken as day turns to night. It is the time when the Shwedagon shimmers like burnished gold and the smell of freshly fried fritters fills the air. I think that is what I miss the most – the colours and smells of my town outside.
I think of my other birthdays when we would start the day with a visit to the monastery and my siblings, friends and relatives would crowd in into our already crowded apartment at Sanchaung. But now the nest is empty – a brother is in Taiwan, trying to keep the family afloat with his meagre pay and the youngest – Win Aung – the last of the brood, everybody's favourite, is imprisoned here with me at Insein, accused of substance abuse. And my ageing parents…
Suddenly the walls of my cell seem to close in on me. I feel angry; beads of sweat dotting my forehead. I pace the cell in closed circles, my breath catching in my throat.
…I suppose I am yet to learn to think like a prisoner. And yet I have spent most of last year in this cell, in this 12×8 bit of space where life is measured out in tiny tin cups while the ocean roars outside! Imperceptibly one day of my solitary confinement slides into the next as I watch the rats scuttle from one hole to another and ants share my scanty rations.
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- Information
- The Female Voice of MyanmarKhin Myo Chit to Aung San Suu Kyi, pp. 155 - 239Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015