TIME Asia's Hero 2004: Aung San Suu Kyi

For her steadiness and her steadfast belief in the powers of democracy and peaceful protest, 40.4% of voters nominated Aung San Suu Kyi as Asia's Online Hero for 2004. The daughter of Aung San, an independence leader who helped free Burma from colonialism under the British in 1948, Aung San Suu Kyi rose to the fore of the pro-democracy movement, only to see it violently suppressed in the early 1990s by Burma's ruling military junta. She has spent most of the time since then under house arrest, locked up in her family home on University Avenue in the Burmese capital of Rangoon, but remains a beacon of hope for her people. In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and remains the only living recipient of that award incarcerated.

Hundreds of readers wrote in to nominate Aung San Suu Kyi as Asia's Online Hero, many praising her courage and integrity. "She has remained determined and dedicated to freedom even under circumstances most of can't even imagine," wrote one reader. "Having traveled to many parts of Burma, I was amazed at the respect, inspiration and hope she brought to Burmese people everywhere," added a visitor. Another reader lauded that her long-running, one-sided struggle with Burma's generals, noting that "she is only one citizen, whom 450,000 strong soldiers are afraid of." As one Burmese reader summed up, Aung San Suu Kyi "is the hero of our nation."

Here are the full voting results:

Aung San Suu Kyi 40.4% | 37,617 votes
Anwar Ibrahim 35.9% | 33,379 votes
Dalai Lama 20.3% | 18,879 votes
Anuradha Koirala 0.5% | 482 votes
Yang Liwei 0.5% | 482 votes
Narayana Murthy 0.4% | 373 votes
Corazon Aquino 0.3% | 266 votes
Liu Xiang 0.3% | 264 votes
Manmohan Singh 0.2% | 227 votes
Sakie Yokota 0.2% | 173 votes
Kim Dae Jung 0.1% | 124 votes
Shaukat Aziz 0.1% | 116 votes
Martin Lee 0.1% | 98 votes
Chen Chih Hsin & Chu Mu Yen 0.1% | 97 votes
Lee Hsien Loong 0.1% | 86 votes
Dat Nguyen 0.1% | 84 votes
Liang Congjie 0.1% | 83 votes
Medha Patkar 0.1% | 74 votes
Tarun Tejpal 0.1% | 67 votes
Wang Shuo 0.1% | 49 votes

Total Votes Cast: 93,022

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