NATIONAL COALITION GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION OF BURMA
OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER
March 28, 1999
NCGUB MOURNS THE PASSING OF DR. MICHAEL ARIS
Dr. Michael Aris was a scholar, a gentleman, a good and decent man. He dedicated his professional life to helping the world understand Asia's Himalayan cultures. He dedicated his personal life to the wife and sons he loved. In the trying events of the past ten years, these projects became one and this quiet teacher lived an extraordinary lesson in compassion, courage, patience, and most importantly, love.
Those of us who knew him will remember him as a man who saw need and tried to help, who saw wrongs and tried to right them, who saw ignorance and tried to teach. The people of Burma will remember him as the man who supported, loved -- and was loved by-- the woman they need. When circumstances forced them apart, he raised their young sons to manhood. He scrupulously avoided involvement in Burma's politics in order to protect his wife. When attacked in hatred, he had the courage and the wisdom to respond with compassion.
Dr. Aris, in his introduction to "Freedom From Fear", recounted a moving conversation with Aung San Suu Kyi as they were about to begin their lives together. He recalled her words that "Sometimes I am beset by fears that circumstances and national considerations might tear us apart just when we are so happy in each other that separation would be a torment . . . And yet such fears are futile . . . If we love and cherish each other as much as we can while we can, I am sure love and compassion will triumph in the end."
Dr. Aris' contribution to the democracy movement was his whole-hearted understanding that Burma needs Daw Aung San Suu Kyi more and his ungrudging consent that she should be with her people in their struggle for democracy and human rights. We remain grateful.
# # # # #
815 Fifteenth Street, NW, Suite 910, Washington, DC. 20005, Tel: (202) 393 7342, Fax: (202) 393 7343