22.04.2007
Speaking with Thierry Falise,
Author of “The jasmine or the moon”, a biography of Aung San Suu Kyi
Carried out by Raluca Enescu
As campaigners for human rights, we all meet, at one point or another, people who inspire us and whose example convince us to carry on even in moments of strongest doubt. Thierry Falise is one of the people who inspired me. You can see why, by my discussion with him.
Based in Bangkok, Belgian photojournalist Thierry Falise has covered South-East Asia and beyond since the mid-eighties, both features and news reporting (as a correspondent for Gamma photo agency and today for Bangkok-based Onasia photography agency). In 2003, TV colleague Vincent Reynaud and Falise were arrested in Laos after completing a forbidden story on a Hmong minority waiting for the return of its former American ally. Sentenced to 15 years of prison, the two reporters were released after five weeks in jail thanks to an international solidarity campaign.
Falise also worked on corporate, NGOs and institutional assignments.
In 2005, he published his first novel in French, “Les Petits Généraux de Yadana” (Anne Carrière Editions).
In February 2007, he published the first biography in French of the Burmese pro-democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, “Le jasmin ou la lune”
BURMA
DIGEST:
First of all, I'm sure our readers would like to know more about your book. What
is it about? Is it a full biography of Aung San Suu Kyi, or did you prefer to
focus only on certain aspects and moments of her life?
Thierry Falise: It’s a biography of Aung San Suu Kyi written as a human story (opposed if I can say to an academic book), it’s a book written for a wide audience, meaning for the readers who are not familiar with Burma but also people who know this country well (I am sure they will also learn of details for instance). I have always been frustrated by the portraits of Aung San Suu Kyi I read. I always found them rather flat, telling all the same story. I wanted to show and develop the human being behind the icon, to show Aung San Suu Kyi with her qualities but also her defaults, her successes and her failures. I wanted to show that Aung San Suu Kyi, although being a woman of highly respectable principles, is also more flexible than some people (her adversaries but also some pro-democracy lobbies) claim.
The book is divided into 20 chapters going on chronologically (starting with Aung San assassination in 1947) and then (from 1988 onwards) developing each according to a specific theme and the role or position of Aung San Suu Kyi related to those themes. For instance, there are chapters focused on Aung San Suu Kyi and Buddhism, Aung San Suu Kyi and the business community, Aung San Suu Kyi and the ethnic issue, Aung San Suu Kyi and the sacrifice of her family, Aung San Suu Kyi and her relationships with the generals, Aung San Suu Kyi and the use of and xenophobia against her, Aung San Suu Kyi and the press, Aung San Suu Kyi and the political prisoners, etc. The British actress and singer Jane Birkin who met Aung San Suu Kyi in 1999 and since dedicates all her concerts to her accepted to write a foreword for the book and to be part of the 90 days to release Aung San Suu Kyi campaign.
BD: What inspired you to
write a book about Aung San Suu Kyi? When and how did you become interested in
Burma's
struggle for democracy?
TF: As a journalist covering Burma for 20 years (especially since 1991 when I set up in Bangkok), I like have been following Aung San Suu Kyi destiny. I have (and still do) spent a lot of time covering the ethnic issues in Burma through many aspects (rebellion, narcotics, refugees, cultural, etc). As a correspondent based in Thailand I was also requested many times to report on the situation of neighbouring Burma.
In 1996 I interviewed and photographed Aung San Suu Kyi in her Rangoon house for a French magazine. It was not a scoop (at that time many journalists and other people were able to visit her) but it was a very interesting interview and a good photo session during which she showed patience and a great sense of humour. For technical reasons, I could not use all the Aung San Suu Kyi’s quotes at that time. I use some of them in the book. And meeting her personally was of course worth reading a thousand stories about her...
A concrete reason why this book interested a publisher in France is just because we realized that there was almost nothing about Aung San Suu Kyi written in French. There were a couple of translations of book on her or by her but they were either old or outdated. And the rare biographies of Aung San Suu Kyi either in English or French were all rather hagiographic or more in an academic style.
BD: The action of another
novel of yours-"The little generals of Yadana" is set in
Burma.
What is it about?
What is the message you want to transmit?
TF:
The little generals of Yadana is a novel based on the true story of the twin
Karen boys Johnny and Luther Htoo who around 1997 (they were aged from 7 to 9
years old at that time) created a so-called God’s Army, a kind of small guerilla
group more or less of a breakaway from the Karen National Union. This mystical
movement was rather fascinating because it was born from the despair of many
Karen people forced to flee their villages in
Southern
Burma
after a new offensive from the Burmese army. I was actually (with a journalist
friend of mine) the first journalist to “break” that story in 1998. The twins
made the world headlines in January 2000 when a group of ten Burmese students
coming from the twins headquarters took a few hundreds people hostage in a Thai
provincial hospital. They were raided and killed by the Thai Special forces
after a 24 hours standoff. I later went back to the border and spent some time
to complete the investigation about that God’s Army. In the novel I relate this
group to the pipeline carrying natural gas from the off-shore Yadana field. This
pipeline is operated by the French oil company Total.
BD: As a photojournalist,
do you feel that you have responsibilities towards people you are writing about?
TF: If it’s related to the sources who helped me for the book, the answer is yes of course. Quite a lot of people accepted to talk to me. Some hesitated, initially saying no but calling me back later when they knew more about me and my experience in Burmese affairs. For obvious reasons, most of the sources requested not to be named. In Burma itself, I spent a few weeks meeting extraordinary people. For instance, I had long meetings with the three of the old politicians who contributed a lot to the political involvement of Aung San Suu Kyi in politics in 1988. They gave me their authorization to mention their names. I also met people who directly witnessed the Depayin incidents in May 2003 and other Burmese who in a way or another have met or worked Aung San Suu Kyi or who remembered her parents time (some of them took great risks to talk to me as you can imagine). I also met people who used to be close to Aung San Suu Kyi (some close friends for instance). They accepted to open their souvenir book for me; I will never be grateful enough for their trust. Most of the remain anonymous, some just because they still want to be able to travel in Burma.
BD: The launching of "The
Jasmine or the Moon" has been correlated with a campaign entitled "Free Aung San
Suu Kyi in 90 days". What did this campaign consist of?
TF:
This campaign was launched on February 27, three months (90 days) before May 27,
the day when the junta has to decide to either release Aung San Suu Kyi or to
extend her house arrest.
The campaign is organized by a couple of people including the French actress
Philippine Leroy Beaulieu. The main tool is a web site (in French only,
www.asskforfreedom.org) which proposes information on Burma (a country that
few people actually know in France), columns, pictures, a petition, a guest book
and a video contest (one minute for freedom).
BD: What can one person
do, in 90 days, in order to help free Aung San Suu Kyi?
TF: One person can probably do nothing to help free Aung San Suu Kyi, except if his name is Than Shwe... But as always, the more people will learn about the situation in Burma, the more there are chances that they will spread the news about that and, who knows it might end up into the hears of a government or any institution with some kind of political leverage.
BD: What do you think the
role of writers and artists should be in the campaign to free Aung San Suu Kyi
and the people of
Burma?
TF:
As Burmese nationals and artists, they have of course a major role to play and
quite a few of them are already, and often bravely engaged in political
activities. If by chance there are Burmese writers who speak and write in
French, they will be most welcome to be part of this 90 days campaign.
BD: What about
Burmese writers? Many of them (those still living in the country and not in
exile) are not free to express themselves and anyway, by all its propaganda and
repression a dictatorship irremediably affects the country's literature. What
would be the future of Burmese literature, according to you?
TF: I think that the talent of an artist can never be subdued by a dictatorship even tough some artists have to bend down for a while and keep a low profile. But as you know, Burmese artists (I mean those who are against the junta...) have their own and subtle way to use their talents against the junta.
BD: By the way, speaking
of the future...how do you thin
Burma
will look like in, let's say, twenty years from now on?
TF: That’s a billion kyat questions... The only think I am sure about is that the day there will be a reconciliation government in Burma, this country has all the resources, human and natural, to develop fast and get back to what it used to be, although too shortly, before the independence and a few years after, a leading country in South East Asia. Although I am not the kind of person to teach lessons to anybody else, I would hope (and there I closely follow Aung San Suu Kyi’s opinion) that a future development respects the rich culture and environment of Burma (in opposition to what happens for instance in Thailand).
BD: Now that more and
more people worldwide are involving in
Burma
campaigns, can we say yet that there is a global movement for freedom in Burma?
Do you feel that you are part of a global campaign?
TF: I am not sure that we talk about a global campaign. I believe that this word “global” is overused and lost a little bit of its meaning. But yes, there are some opportunities such as Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday when people from many different countries act for a same cause in their own way.
As for me, yes I am probably part of a campaign, but I try to remain realistic and I know that my book –or any other book on Burma- is only a link in a long chain (but obviously, there would be no chain without links!).
BD: What should the
international community do about the situation in
Burma?
TF: To keep on acting on both levels, lobbying openly (and sometimes “aggressively”) but also talking and maneuvering discretely (diplomatically). Both strategies can be complementary. For instance I believe that foreign governments and independent agencies should address more to the rare people who can have a real influence on the Burmese generals, naming the Chinese government, and increasingly the Indian government.
.
Comments:
May Ng said _
Thank you, Raluca Enescu for your hard work. Awareness about Burma is spreading.
This is how change takes place. Your friendship has been a blessing.
Your Comments here_
Request: If you can kindly volunteer to translate BURMA DIGEST English articles into Burmese, please let us know burmadigest@tayzathuria.org.uk .
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