Could there be subtle changes taking place at Radio 4 HQ? Late last Friday night, A Good Read was dropped in favour of a repeat of a half-hour profile of the extraordinary Burmese campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi. Maybe the new Controller of Radio 4, Gwyneth Williams, who has spent much of her BBC career at Bush House, most recently as director of the English branch of the World Service, is beginning her makeover of the station, tilting its axis of interest outwards to the world beyond Portland Place.
The timing was perfect — just after the news broke of Suu’s imminent release from house arrest — which set me thinking about Burma and its democracy campaign and struggling to recall why Suu had been imprisoned in the first place. The programme’s title, Freedom from Fear, comes from Suu herself, and her passionate belief that it’s not power that corrupts but fear: ‘For not only does fear stifle and slowly destroy all sense of right and wrong, it so often lies at the root of corruption.’ A novel understanding of the abuse of power that has far-reaching applications. But why, I wanted to know, had she sacrificed so much for her country, even when this meant abandoning her two sons and her husband as he lay dying of cancer?
Mike Wooldridge’s short study (movingly produced by Simon Hollis) was such an inspiring listen, at the end of a grey week. You’ll probably have read by now all you need to know about how Aung San Suu Kyi became embroiled in the struggle for freedom in Burma, her father’s legacy, her dignity, her principles, the extraordinary way in which, armed only with integrity and courage she has so successfully intimidated the military leaders of her country.
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