ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the power struggle between Suu Kyi and the military establishment between 1990 and 2010 as a metaphor of a non-level playing field, where the Tatmadaw (the army) was both a player and a referee. It will start with Suu Kyi's house arrest (that was politically more a blessing than a curse), her deluge of international awards (including the Nobel Peace Prize), her party's pyrrhic electoral victory of 1990, followed by her lectures over the gate, the sanctions on Myanmar, the enforced separation from her family and the death of her husband. It will describe her party policymaking and Suu Kyi's worst moment: the assassination attempt. It will conclude with an outline of Myanmar's lost decade (2000s). Suu Kyi lost the power struggle but nevertheless established her credentials both inside Burma and outside.
