Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has been nominated by readers of Time magazine as ‘Asia’s Online Hero’ for 2004.

A total of 37,617 votes, or 40.4 percent, favored Suu Kyi in recognition of her steadiness and her steadfast belief in the powers of democracy and peaceful protest. Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama came second, having received 18,879 votes, comprising 20.3 percent of the votes cast.

These two leaders were nominated from among a list of 20 prominent Asians, which also included Indian and Pakistani Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Shaukat Aziz; Social activist Anuradha Koirala, who has rescued many people from prostitution and slavery in Nepal; founder of the information technology giant Infosys, N.R. Narayan Murthy; environmental activist Medha Patkar and Tarun Tejpal, investigative journalist who is the editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine.

Time had invited suggestions from its online readers on who they would pick for the magazine’s annual Asian Heroes special. More than 2,000 people nominated their personal heroes before Time’s editors whittled down the list of nominees to 20.

The daughter of Aung San, who helped free Burma from colonialism under the British, Aung San Suu Kyi led the pro-democracy movement that was suppressed since the 1990s by Burma’s ruling military junta. She has spent most of the time since then under house arrest, but remains a beacon of hope for her people. In 1991 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and is the only living recipient of that award incarcerated.

(Compiled from a press release from Charles Isaac)