Aung San Suu Kyi Deflects ‘Big Brother’ Brainwashing!

Aung San Suu Kyi is an inspiring and awesome woman with a persona that is Mother Teresa, Margaret Thatcher, and Audrey Hepburn rolled into one. Her heroic, non-violent stance against the brutal and cynical regime in Myanmar is a perfect example of how belief, integrity, and bravery can overcome even the most barbaric juntas. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, and in my view, should have been awarded it several times since, having been kept under house arrest for the best part of twenty years.

Dr. Suu Kyi is quite an outstanding human being, but I must admit to being just a little surprised by her supposed comments in an interview with the BBCs Eddie Mair in advance of her participation in the Reith lectures later this month. She told Mair that she was helped in her survival of imprisonment by listening to the BBC World Service, and went on to praise one programme in particular, Dave Lee Travis’s ‘A Jolly Good Show’.  Dr. Suu Kyi said “It (the show) made my life much more complete”.

I confess to not having read the interview (in the current Radio Times), but Eddie Mair made the subsequent statement on Twitter earlier today, that Dr. Suu Kyi told him that she loved Dave Lee Travis! If true, this is most alarming, and smacks of 1984-like goings on while she was cooped up listening to DLT’s prattling. Though, on the other hand, even if she has been subjected to brainwashing during her incarceration, it says much for her strength of character, that despite the mind games of the despotic General Than Shwe (the leader of the Junta), Dr. Suu Kyi managed to resist. Instead of avowing her love for the despotic general, as Winston Smith professed love for Big Brother at the climax of 1984, she seems to have managed to avoid the intent of the brainwashing, and to divert her love to the BBC’s ‘Hairy Cornflake’ instead. The odious Than Shwe must be spitting blood in his anger and frustration!

IR 21/06/11