Su Su Lwin: Not ‘The’ Lady, but Rather Burma’s Next ‘First’ Lady

By TIN HTET PAING / THE IRRAWADDY| Friday, March 18, 2016 |

Su Su Lwin seen at the Union Parliament on Friday. (Photo : Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy)

RANGOON — The world knows Burma for its Noble laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi. “The Lady” is a prominent political figure and leader of the pro-democracy movement who spent years under house arrest. But the people of Burma have a new lady in the spotlight now, the country’s incoming first lady, Su Su Lwin.

But who is Su Su Lwin?

Before her husband, Htin Kyaw, became Burma’s president-elect, people knew Su Su Lwin as the chairwoman of the Lower House’s International Relations Committee and head of the education committee in Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). She helped drafted the controversial National Education Bill, which in 2015 resulted in nationwide student protests. But her relationship with Suu Kyi and the NLD goes much deeper than that.

Even though the 63-year-old former educator wasn’t a party member when the NLD was founded in the late 1980s, she was no stranger to the party. Her late father U Lwin was a former colonel in the Burma Army and a leading figure in the NLD, which he helped found and later served as party treasurer. As U Lwin’s daughter, she witnessed the birth of the NLD.

At that time, Su Su Lwin had a post-graduate diploma from Sydney University, a master’s degree in English from the Rangoon Institute of Education and had worked for over 10 years at Burma’s education research bureau.

Suu Kyi took notice of Su Su Lwin’s education background and asked her to teach English to NLD youth members at her home, after all schools and universities across the country were closed following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising.

According to Zaw Aung, an independent social researcher who was then an NLD youth member and a student of Su Su Lwin’s, there were about 20 students in the NLD English class. They were all student activists who had been involved in the 1988 demonstrations and later joined the NLD.

He remembers her as a “great teacher” who was very passionate about education.

An illustration of Su Su Lwin. (Artist: KMoe Ko)

“Her teaching methods were different from any others I had ever received in my life,” he told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.

For Zaw Aung, Su Su Lwin’s student-centered approach was a new experience. The classroom was fun and interesting because Su Su Lwin was always friendly, lively and patient with the students, he said. She taught them not only language skills, but also used English novels and short stories to teach them critical thinking.

But after less than six months, the class had to stop when Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in July 1989. Su Su Lwin told her students to come to her home instead if they still wanted to learn from her. But former student Zaw Aung was also imprisoned and spent 10 years in jail.

Su Su Lwin’s commitment to education was noticeable to everyone around her. Suu Kyi’s former personal assistant, Dr. Tin Mar Aung, echoed Zaw Aung’s opinion.

“She is always so eager to share what she knows with others,” she said.

Su Su Lwin and Dr. Tin Mar Aung worked together at Unicef for about a decade, where they became close friends. She portrayed Su Su Lwin as a caretaker who treated everyone around her like family. They each have an intimate relationship with Suu Kyi and sometimes spent time together at Suu Kyi’s house talking about cooking and books, she said.

Before getting involved in politics, Su Su Lwin invested most of her time in the education sector. She worked for Unicef from 1990 to 2005 and later served as a freelance consultant for monastic education programs.

She founded a local non-profit organization called Hantha Educators in 2006 that partnered with local influential monks and focused on improving traditional monastic education, early childhood care and development programs. She was concerned about the lack of education opportunities for the poor, especially in Sagaing Division and Arakan State, and the failure of many development programs to reach those most in need. Her organization stressed the importance of child-centered teaching and critical thinking.

Her former student, Zaw Aung, crossed paths with her again after his release from prison, when they both worked at Unicef and then at Hantha Educators. Zaw Aung remembers her being a vegetarian and her tendency to bring vegetarian meals to her office for colleagues.

“She knows how to cook vegetables deliciously,” he said.

Zaw Aung said she was kind and modest, despite growing up in an elite family, with a father who served as a minister during Gen. Ne Win’s socialist regime.

“[Su Su Lwin and Htin Kyaw] supported Daw Aung San Suu Kyi closely, in their own different ways,” he said. “And in every possible way.”

“They were two of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s most trusted confidantes.”

She married Htin Kyaw in 1973 when she was 21-years-old. According to a 2007 interview with Htin Kyaw in local art magazine “Padauk Pwint Thint,” Su Su Lwin was even more familiar with Htin Kyaw’s father, the prominent Burmese poet Min Thu Wun, because she had translated some of his poems into English.

Despite her close relationship with Suu Kyi, she told The Irrawaddy that she officially became a NLD party member just before the 2012 by-election, when she won a seat along with dozens of fellow party loyalists. She dived into Burmese politics before her husband, and has represented Rangoon’s Thone Kwa constituency in Parliament ever since her 2012 victory, winning re-election to the seat last year.

While working for Unicef, she was not supposed to show any political affiliation, so she avoided being in the public eye. But as the daughter of U Lwin, she witnessed every change and development of the NLD, Zaw Aung said.

“It’s remarkable that not only the president-elect, but also the first lady, played historic roles in assisting Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” he added. He believes that Su Su Lwin can be more than a first lady.

Given her proven independent streak, passion for worthy causes and dedication to country, Burma’s next first lady promises to be a trailblazer in her own right, breaking a mold set by recent predecessors at a time of countless firsts in a democratic transition that continues to unfold.

Additional reporting by Kyaw Phyo Tha and Sandy Barron.

พระเครื่องดีที่สะสมมาแรมปี

เหล่านี้คือพระเครื่องชั้นนำที่สะสมเปิดให้ชมเป็นวิทยาทานประมาณสามสิบองค์  แต่ละองค์ๆสวยน่าสะสมและใช้เป็นบทเรียนเพื่อการเรียนรู้พระเครื่องต่อๆไป "หมั่นศึกษา แสวงหา และสะสม" การสะสมพระเครื่องแท้ก็ช่วยให้เรามีความสุขได้ ความสุขที่แท้จริงนั้นคือความเข้าใจHappiness is understanding, isn't it?

A eulogy for Nancy Reagan — and for Reaganism

Andrew Romano 3 hours ago 

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SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — After leaving the Republican debate stage Thursday night, Donald Trump, the tinsel-haired GOP frontrunner, took to cable news to describe the event as “elegant” — again and again (and again). But Nancy Reagan never had to tout her own elegance. She lived it instead.

On Friday, the former first lady, who died on March 6 at age 94, was laid to rest beside her husband here, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, as rain dampened the patchwork hills, shrouded the Santa Susana Mountains in the distance and pattered upon the large white tent where politicians, celebrities, former heads of state and a dwindling circle of old friends came to pay their respects. Wayne Newton, Anjelica Huston, Tina Sinatra and Joan Rivers’ daughter, Melissa, evoked the Reagans’ Hollywood years; Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Caroline Kennedy and former President George W. Bush represented their reign in Washington, D.C.

Lucid to the end, and demanding as ever, Mrs. Reagan spent her final months planning every last detail of the service, from the readings (Proverbs 31:10:30 — “When one finds a worthy wife, her value is far beyond pearls”) to the music (“Ave Maria,” “Amazing Grace,” “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”) to the letter from “her Ronnie” to be read by former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney (“There could be no life for me without you”).

The casket carrying Nancy Reagan’s body leaves the funeral service at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. (Photo: Jae C. Hong/AP)

Slideshow: Saying goodbye to Nancy Reagan >>>

Standing before Mrs. Reagan’s burnished mahogany casket, heaped with white roses and peonies, the former first lady’s children, and a few of her most famous friends, took to the podium, one after another, to reflect upon her life. They mentioned the usual things: how devoted she was to her husband, how she shielded him from those who wished him ill, how lonely she felt after he died. But there was another note they kept sounding, almost without realizing it; they kept contrasting the way she was with the way politics is conducted today.

“Unlike too many people these days, [Nancy] didn’t harden differences into definitions,” said ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer as she recalled their lunches together — lunches at which Mrs. Reagan would eat “microscopic amounts of food” and Sawyer would “hide [her] bread and butter under the table” so as not to “offend.”

“She knew … how to stand her ground, and once it had been resolved, to move on,” said NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, as he recalled the various times he had, in fact, offended the former first lady — first by questioning whether President Reagan’s “poor-boy narrative was overblown” and later by forgetting to acknowledge her presence at Gerald Ford’s funeral.

“Most of my mother’s buddies are gone now,” added her son, Ron Reagan. “She’s among the last of her cohort, the old gang, her generation.”

None of this year’s Republican presidential candidates, it’s worth noting, were in attendance.

From left, California Gov. Jerry Brown, first lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush leave after the funeral. (Photo: Reuters)

All funerals are about loss. But Mrs. Reagan’s memorial felt like it was about more than the end of her life, or even the end of the era of elegance she embodied. It felt like the end of a political age. The services Friday threw into sharp relief how the Republican Party — the party her husband reinvigorated and redefined over more than a quarter century of leadership — is consuming itself in perhaps the most surreal presidential primary in U.S. history, which seems to be coming down to a contest pitting an opportunistic reality television star against a senator roundly despised by virtually the entire Republican caucus.

Trump is the most obvious apostate, his style the most obvious apostasy. Where the Reagans conveyed a kind of nostalgic glamour — she in her Adolfo suits, he in his Stetson hat, both of them writing mushy love letters back and forth — Trump, with his Chardonnay-colored comb-over, conveys only the nouveau-riche glamour of marble, gilt and his own name in oversized bronze letters. At his primary-night press conferences, Trump hawks Trump steaks, Trump wine, Trump magazine, as if campaigning to become QVC-pitchman-in-chief. He has no use for Reaganesque decorum or restraint; he slings more insults in a single speech than the Reagans did in their entire lifetimes.

Trump’s politics are a departure as well. In the debates, he likes to mention that President Reagan was also a former Democrat — a fellow convert to the Republican cause. But after Reagan became a conservative in his 40s, he remained a conservative; he sounded much the same in 1984, running for reelection, as he had in 1964, delivering his pivotal “Time for Choosing” speech. Trump has been a member of the Democratic Party, the Independence Party and the Reform Party; he has quit and rejoined the GOP twice since first registering as a Republican in 1987; his views are all over the map andoften the opposite of what they were a few years before.

Presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich observe a moment of silence in memory of Nancy Reagan at the start of the Republican candidates’ debate in Miami on Thursday. (Photo: Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

Being Republican has long meant being like Reagan — or at least saying you’re like Reagan. Republican Dinesh D’Souza neatly captured the conservative conventional wisdom when he suggested that the right “simply need[s] to ask in every situation that arises: what would Reagan have done?” If Trump is nominated — if Republican voters select as their standard bearer someone who wants to impose trade tariffs on China, who mocks and demonizes Mexicans and who supported single-payer health care as recently as last September — it will mark the demise of Reaganism as the GOP’s primary organizing principle. Trump is about Trump. He is a party of one.

Ted Cruz, on the other hand, seeks to cast himself as Reagan’s heir. On the stump he promises to “reassemble that old Reagan coalition.” He often frames the GOP primary as a “time for choosing.” And he even compares 2016 to 1980, with Barack Obama as Jimmy Carter and (you guessed it) Ted Cruz as the Gipper.

But what Cruz actually represents, with his tea-party purity tests and vintage 1980s-era policy positions, isn’t the second coming of Saint Ronnie but rather the apotheosis of a certain strain of willful Republican misremembering. In the years since Reagan left the White House, a vocal contingent of Republicans has sought to enforce current party orthodoxy — cut taxes at all costs; limit government spending (except on defense); be guided by the Bible, as interpreted by Jerry Falwell and his acolytes — by insisting that Reagan was its source. But while these concepts often shaped Reagan’s campaign rhetoric, they didn’t define how he governed once in office. As a result, the Reagan that Republicans now revere — a mythical founder figure who always cut taxes, always rattled his saber and always consulted Jesus — barely resembles the more pragmatic Reagan who actually ran the country.

“Reagan is a difficult icon for Republicans,” biographer Lou Cannon once told this reporter. “He was an achiever and, by and large, a successful president. But he wasn’t a successful president in the way that the Republican hero-worshippers describe him. Of course ideology was important to Reagan. But he was a success because of, and in spite of, ideology. He cared more about getting stuff done.”

Ronald Reagan, with Nancy, campaigns in Miami in 1975 after announcing that he was a candidate for the presidency. (Photo: Bill Hudson/AP)

Slideshow: Nancy Reagan – A look back >>>

Reagan’s pragmatism was pervasive. While he was personally opposed to things like homosexuality and abortion, he almost never let his religious views dominate his policies. (HIV/AIDS was a prominent exception.) As Reagan speechwriter Peter Robinson once noted in the Wall Street Journal, “Reagan dismissed ‘the illegal alien fuss’” and “again and again declared that a basic, even radical, openness to immigration represents a defining aspect of our national identity.” When it came to taxation, there were two Reagans: the pre-1982 version, who did more than any other president to lighten America’s tax burden, and his post-1982 incarnation, who was willing (if not always happy) to make up gaps in the government’s revenue stream by raising rates. And despite his hawkish rhetoric, Reagan was a believer in arms control and only rarely resorted to military force against America’s enemies.

Worshipping Reagan’s myth, as Cruz does — and pretending that his campaign promises and rhetoric represent his entire legacy — is almost as un-Reaganesque as dismissing him entirely, as Trump does. Instead, a true Reaganite would study how the Gipper actually governed, then modernize his approach for today’s world.

He would also study Nancy Reagan.

Most famously, Mrs. Reagan pushed her husband to update his views on guns. Even after he was shot and nearly killed by an assassin in 1981, President Reagan maintained that access to firearms was not “where the problem lies.” But Mrs. Reagan began to have her doubts.

“After what I saw in that hospital, I’m not sure I agree with him,” she wrote in her 1989 memoir, “My Turn.”

Eventually, President Reagan came around. “With the right to bear arms comes a great responsibility to use caution and common sense on handgun purchases,” Reagan said in a March 1991 speech. He went on to support the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks and was named for Reagan’s press secretary, Jim Brady, who was also shot (and more seriously injured) during the assassination attempt. When critics argued that background checks were ineffective because criminals would simply cross state lines to buy guns, the former president fought back. “All the more reason to have a federal law that fills the gaps,” he wrote in 1991. “This level of violence must be stopped.”

Patti Davis, daughter of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, speaks at her mother’s funeral. (Photo: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

For Mrs. Reagan, this sort of pragmatism was a crucial part of her husband’s legacy, and she carried on in his spirit after he died — even when it put her at odds with her fellow Republicans. On Friday her daughter, Patti Davis, told another, less familiar story about her mother’s insistence that a conservative could change with the times — and still be conservative.

“On one occasion, I am quite certain that she was channeling my father,” Davis said. “I had gone up to her house and found her very busy making phone calls to elected officials, trying to gain their support for stem-cell legislation — something she was quite passionate about. She ended one phone call and gave me a somber look.

“‘Well,’ she said, in a calm tone, sounding much more like my father than herself. ‘Karl Rove is dogging my phone calls. Everyone I call, he calls right after and tries to get them to oppose stem-cell legislation.’

“‘Right after?’ I asked. ‘Are you sure your phone isn’t bugged?’

“‘No, I had the Secret Service check on that.’

“‘You must be furious,’ I told her, puzzled by the fact that she didn’t seem furious at all. She shook her head no, and her entire demeanor was not only calm — it was practically Zen.”

Davis paused for a moment to joke that “even people who never met my mother will know that the word ‘Zen’ has never been applied to Nancy Reagan.” The crowd laughed. Then Davis returned to her story and recalled what her mother told her next.

“‘There’s no time to get upset,’ she said. ‘There’s work to be done. I can’t get distracted. I have to keep moving forward.’”
 

Ron Reagan and his sister, Patti Davis, pay their respects to their mother during the funeral. (Photo: Mike Blake/Reuters) 

Cover tile photo: Jae C. Hong/AP

Who Will Be The Next To Take Burma’s Top Job?

By THE IRRAWADDY| Friday, March 11, 2016 |

President Thein Sein meets with foreign envoys at the President’s Office in Naypyidaw in April 2012. (Photo: Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters)

Since the country gained independence in 1948, Burma has seen eight presidents in 68 years under three constitutions. With presidential candidates put forward by Parliament on Thursday, National League for Democracy (NLD) nominee Htin Kyaw looks likely to become Burma’s ninth president; the power transfer is scheduled for March 31. The Irrawaddy reviews the personalities who previously held the position in Burma’s past governments.

Sao Shwe Thaik, the first president of Burma. (Photo: Public Domain)

Sao Shwe Thaik (1894 –1962)

Sao Shwe Thaik, an ethnic Shan, was the first president of the Union of Burma and the last Saopha—or hereditary prince—of Shan State’s Yawnghwe. Sao Shwe Thaik served as the head of state alongside Prime Minister U Nu, from the date of Burma’s independence on Jan. 4, 1948 until March 12, 1952. Before he was President, Sao Shwe Thaik had served in the British army. When Gen Ne Win took power in a military coup in 1962, the Shan prince was arrested. He later died in prison.

Dr. Ba U, the second president of Burma. (Photo: Public Domain)

Dr. Ba U (1887 – 1963)

Dr. Ba U was the second president of Union of Burma and an ethnic Bamar. Ba Oo graduated with a law degree from the University of Cambridge and served as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Burma before he succeeded Sao Shwe Thaik as the President in March 1952. He served in the position for five years, until March of 1957.

Mahn Win Maung, Burma’s third president. (Photo: Public Domain)

Mahn Win Maung (1916 – 1989)

Mahn Win Maung was an ethnic Karen Buddhist and the third president of Union of Burma. As a former government minister, he was selected by Prime Minister U Nu for the Presidency and succeeded Dr. Ba U in March 1957. Mahn Win Maung served until March 1962 when General Ne Win ousted U Nu’s government in a military coup. He was then imprisoned for five years.

General Ne Win, military general and the fourth president of Burma. (Photo: Public Domain)

General Ne Win (1910 – 2002)

Born as Shu Maung, Ne Win briefly took control of Burma in 1958, during a period of military rule known as the Caretaker Government. He came to power more permanently in March 1962 through a military coup, and would act as Burma’s head of state for nearly 20 years, until Nov. 9, 1981. A military commander of Bamar-Chinese descent, he founded the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) in 1962 and served as its chairman until 1988, resigning during the student uprisings that year. Throughout this period, the BSPP was the only legal political party in the country, and through it, Ne Win championed the nationalization of business and ushered in a period of intense xenophobia. Ne Win remained the commander-in-chief of the military for a total of 26 years. He later died while under house arrest in Rangoon.

General San Yu, Burma’s the fifth president. (Photo: Public Domain)

General San Yu (1918 –1996)

Gen San Yu, also of Bamar-Chinese descent, was the commander-in-chief of Burma’s military and the fifth president of the country, which was then known as the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma. He served from November 1981 until July 1988, a time during which Ne Win was still the BSPP party chairman. Before San Yu became president, he played an integral role in drafting the military’s 1974 Constitution.

Brig-Gen Sein Lwin, the “Butcher of Rangoon,” and the sixth president of Burma. (Photo: Public Domain)

Brig-Gen Sein Lwin (1923 –2004)

Sein Lwin, an ethnic Bamar, served as the sixth president of Burma for only 17 days, during a period of intense pro-democracy uprisings. During his rule—from July 27 to August 12, 1988—he was better known as the “Butcher of Rangoon” for giving the order on Aug 10, 1988 to open fire on student demonstrators near Rangoon General Hospital. The protests continued until Sein Lwin stepped down. He was reportedly taken care of by the government, and provided with cars, food and support for many years that followed.

Dr. Maung Maung, the seventh president of Burma. (Photo: Public Domain)

Dr. Maung Maung (1925 –1994)

Dr. Maung Maung, an ethnic Bamar, was the seventh president of the Union of Burma and a well-known writer. He studied law in Netherland’s Utrecht University and at Yale University in the US, and served as the Chief Justice under Ne Win’s BSPP government. He served as the president for only one month—from August 19, 1988 until September 18, 1988, before being ousted in a military coup led by Gen Saw Maung. Burma’s government would undergo name changes, from the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) to the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), led by military men like Snr-Gen Than Shwe. The country would not have another leader with the “President” title until 2011.

Thein Sein, the eighth and outgoing president of Burma. (Photo: President’s Office)

Thein Sein (1945 – )  

Selected by the Union Parliament for the presidency in March 2011, the general-turned-politician became Burma’s eighth president after an election which was boycotted by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and described by Western countries as “neither free nor fair.” Thein Sein served as the prime minister in the previous military regime from 2007 to 2011. In 2010, he retired from the military, where he had attained the rank of Brig-Gen, and instead led the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). His tenure as the country’s president ends on March 30, 2016.

In search of Donald Trump's Scottish roots

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The US Republican presidential contender Donald Trump has German ancestry on his father's side - but his mother was Scottish. For BBC Newsnight, Stephen Smith went to the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides to find out more.

Lewis is a windblown, God-fearing outcrop notable for its Gaelic heritage, its peat, and its jealously guarded sense of propriety.

Trump's mother, Mary MacLeod, was born there in 1912, to Malcolm MacLeod, a fisherman, and his wife, also called Mary.

Young Mary left the island at the age of 18 for a holiday in New York, where she met a local builder by the name of Trump - and the rest, as they say, is histrionics.

While some journalists have been pursuing the juicy story of the property developer's German grandfather, who appears to have supplied hard liquor and showgirls to gold prospectors in the Wild West, I decided to concentrate on the more understated but deeply enigmatic narrative of his maternal line.

I was encouraged in this by Trump himself, who has spoken fondly of his Scottish roots, and even went so far as to make a characteristically hush-hush visit to Lewis in 2008, his airliner "Trump 1" scorching the heather around the catwalk-like runway.

He flew into the island for a grand total of three hours or so, as councillors were debating a controversial Trump golf resort, a solid 2-iron away on the mainland. (The course is in business, though he's cooled on it ever since he failed to block a nearby wind farm.)

At the time, he said: "I have been very busy - I am building jobs all over the world - and it's very, very tough to find the time to come back. But this just seemed an appropriate time, because I have the plane... I'm very glad I did, and I will be back again."

Image copyrightPA

When our own twin-prop flight touched down in Lewis, I sucked in a lungful of rarefied northern air and began to grasp what the Trump family liked about the place.

It's perfumed by an intoxicating blend of kelp and nitrate-rich sod that would have the apothecaries at in a cosmetics laboratory rending their white coats in despair.

At night, the sky's as clear as the small print on a Trump contract, and the stars seem close enough to touch.

Image copyrightGetty Images

Perhaps it's this transparency - a sense that what you see is what you get - that accounts for their gruff rectitude. I'm reliably informed that Donald Trump is the talk of the place, but they won't necessarily talk about him to an outsider, on the charitable basis that if you can't say something nice about someone…

There's that, and there's also a formidable tradition of Calvinism, which has earned Lewis the TripAdvisor-friendly tag of "the last bastion of Sabbath observance in the UK".

This is such an established part of Lewis's reputation that the hostile environment specialists who brief BBC teams before assignments issued us with hipflasks. In fact, I found the pubs of Stornoway open til the witching hour even on a school night.

Retired healthcare worker Kathy McArthur told me, "When I first came here years ago, the swings were still padlocked on a Sunday so the children couldn't play on them. But now you see people out in the town with their children on a Sunday whereas it used to be just people going to church. There have been a lot of changes."

That said, I heard one outlying settlement described as a "religious village".

One thing that Trump has in common with adherents of the old religion on Lewis is that he takes the pledge. He does not drink. He suffered the horror of watching his own brother die of alcoholism, which reinforced whatever strictures he absorbed at his mother's knee.

Mary MacLeod was raised in the little village of Tong, among low-rise garrison-style homes "finished in pukey pebble-dash", as one Lewis writer puts it.

---

Who was Donald Trump's mother?

Image copyrightGetty Images

• Born 1912 in the small village of Tong on the Isle of Lewis
• Father was a Gaelic-speaking fisherman
• Met Fred Trump on holiday to New York - she emigrated and they married in 1936
• Had five children and lived in a wealthy area in Queens, New York, and was active with charities
• According to Donald Trump, she was religious and loved the Queen
• Died in 2000 in New York aged 88

---

Trump's cousins still live in Tong, not far from the capital Stornoway. I was very firmly informed that no-one would talk to us. After I made my apologies and left, I tried to put my finger on what the experience reminded me of.

Perhaps I caught the family on a bad day, and no doubt they are weary of the world's press beating a path to their door, but it struck me that it had been like visiting the scene of a mortifying calamity. I hesitate to say it, but there was a sense of shame as well as irritation.

In a Stornoway pub, I recounted the experience to Ian Stephen, a storyteller in the island's age-old fireside tradition, and author of an acclaimed Lewis novel, A Book of Death and Fish.

"Oh yeah, I can imagine it. You would like to picture Donald with that lovely hair being caught by an island breeze and him helping to carry around a big basket. And what do you get instead? These outbursts of his - and everybody goes like that..." Stephen cradled his head in his hands in mock horror.

Image copyrightGetty Images

"It's not fashionable, but in Lewis our main passion is a bloodsport… genealogy," he went on. "You know, 'Who are your people?' So we're very proud of the people who have an impact on the wider world."

"So you're proud of Donald Trump?" I asked.

Folk musician Gerry Blane said: "Personally I think Trump's behaviour is questionable. There's a lot of intolerance there and you would never see any of that on the island. People used to think of the island as being intolerant and it's not. There's a mix of religions here now and people are very open, very honest and very kind."

Stephen Smith is culture correspondent for BBC Newsnight. You can watch his report on iPlayer (UK only)