If more was done by the international community to ensure that defectors could have place of safety, then more defections would happen and more information would come out.
Q. What specifically are the issues, challenges and dilemmas for a potential defector as he or she weighs-up such a momentous decision?
A. Thailand and other neighbors have an agreement with the regime to return any Burmese soldiers or officers they find, and this makes any defector vulnerable to deportation, and the consequences once he or she is returned to Burma. Otherwise, defectors who come out and are outspoken face attack, assassination or can be disappeared by agents of the regime, for examples in places like Mae Sot near the Thai-Burma border. Another barrier is the attitude of the international community, which has a more complex approach to defectors than other asylum seekers, and countries are generally much more reluctant to accept defectors. Strangely though, when people defect through embassies, it seems to be much easier than if some one tries to defect through Thailand for example.
Q. Than Shwe seems to be trying to re-brand his regime with allusions or references to Burma's ancient kings and kingdoms, hinting at his own supposed links to a mythologized past. Is Than Shwe a reincarnation of Burma's long-dead kings?
A. Than Shwe sees himself as a sort of warrior-king, a modern version of those figures from Burma's history. For example, Burma's kings liked to build and establish new capitals for themselves, something that he has replicated by building a new capital in Naypidaw, which of course means "Seat of Kings" in Burmese. Though of course he has other reasons for building the new capital—be that paranoia about another uprising in Burma, the need to hide military facilities, fear of an attack from a foreign power. As irrational as some of this might be, these are factors in his thinking.
Q. Can you tell us more about Than Shwe's psychology of rule? He is rumored to be heavily influenced by astrology and highly superstitious. Is this the case?
A. Astrology is a factor, but it conditions his thinking more about the timing of events, the duration of prison sentences, for example, than it is an over-arching or guiding principle. Certain events are timed to run on given auspicious dates, but that does not mean that Than Shwe is merely a crazed superstitious tyrant, and we must not fall into the trap of stereotyping him or underestimating him. He is brutally clever and adept at divide and rule. Astrology is arguably more important in his wife's way of thinking than in his own.
Q. How strong an influence is his wife on him personally and politically? Is she a Lady Macbeth figure or is that an overstatement?
A. First, the limitations of how close I could get to Than Shwe come into play here. I wasn't a fly on the wall in their home, and that is an understatement! But she does have some influence, particularly when it comes to Aung San Suu Kyi. Daw Kyaing Kyaing dislikes her as much, if not more, than her husband.
Q. Can you tell us more about that dislike? Is it personal, political, or a mixture?
A. It is a combination. Politically she represents a challenge to Than Shwe, who sees himself as the elderly father figure in ruling his country. She is younger and upsets that patriarchal vision. She is also everything, frankly, that Daw Kyaing Kyaing is not: she is beautiful, internationally savvy, cultured, well-educated.
Q. As well as your role as East Asia specialist with Christian Solidarity Worldwide, you work closely with the Conservative Party in the UK, which recently returned to power. First, has Prime Minister David Cameron or Foreign Secretary William Hague read your book? Secondly, how do you hope it will influence policy in the UK and internationally.
A.