Burma -- a Land Where Nonsense Holds Sway

I want to share the following funny article by Dominic Faulder.

Call the country what you will, it's no place for a visit. By Dominic Faulder, in Asiaweek published on August 13, 2001.

A combat-ready infantryman fixed me with an unfriendly gaze, his assault rifle pointed in my direction. Before I could pass, he flicked open the flap on my bag and rummaged through my cameras, lenses and tape recorder. Presumably satisfied that I was not an off-duty ninja, he pushed open the door into a gloomy chamber I knew all too well. Right beside the Sule Pagoda in the center of Rangoon, I was once again in the reception room of the Ministry of Hotels and Tourism. In fact, I was there to meet Burma's 'Mr. Hospitality' himself.

The gentleman concerned rose from his chair. He wasted little time on pleasantries before sounding off on one of his pet peeves: foreign journalists. Lt.-Gen. Kyaw Ba was a powerfully built man who bristled in his crisp, dark-green uniform. He brought rare experience to Burma's embryonic hospitality industry. Previously, he had held one of the northern commands, a job that involved shooting Kachin insurgents when they popped up from their jade mines. One of the greatest disappointments of his career was failing to capture a Swedish journalist who had taken an extended walking tour across northern Burma with his wife and daughter but without, shall we say, "official permission."

Kyaw Ba was still vexed by this incident from nearly a decade before, and an aide had to remind him gently that I was actually a different journalist. With that cleared up, we got down to talking serious hospitality. We discussed hotel developments, airline capacity, visas, and promoting winter sports (that's another story). I have to say this was one of the stranger interviews in my career. Kyaw Ba spoke good English but was a big-picture man who didn't trouble himself much with detail. Whenever I asked a specific question, he would nod in the direction of a large pot plant. A junior officer would pop up from behind this camouflage, stand to attention and bark out the correct answer. "Can you tell me how many visitors came here last year?" Pot plant rustles. "Sixty-one thousand, sir."

That odd encounter came flooding back to me as I read the latest issue of Holiday Asia, which devotes many pages to the charms of Burma, unquestionably one of the most enticing and photogenic countries in Asia. Some things never change. Amid glorious scenes from the Irrawaddy, Pagan and Inle Lake was an announcement from Burma's Ministry of Transport concerning a new aviation tie-up with Singapore's Region Air. And what Burmese delight is showcased in the accompanying photograph? A welcoming inflight crew? A golden pagoda? No. It is a mug shot of the transport minister, Maj. Gen. Hla Myint Swe, in full uniform with all his campaign medals on display. Nice gongs.

Clearly, it still has not dawned on the powers that be in Burma that the last thing prospective visitors want to see is generals flaunting their battle honors. Holidaymakers and soldiers just aren't a natural mix. But it's very hard to explain this kind of thing to soldiers. Take just one example: Burma's delegation to the Beijing Women's Conference in 1995 was led by a man, the social welfare minister, Maj. Gen. Soe Myin. Keep that in mind next time you read some overly optimistic prediction of an early political settlement with Burma's most famous lady, Aung San Suu Kyi. In November 1996, Kyaw Ba launched a massive charm offensive on all fronts. Visit Myanmar Year was slated to attract 500,000 foreign tourists, never mind the problems of accommodation and airline capacity. "Negative publicity will not dampen the success of Visit Myanmar Year," boomed Kyaw Ba. The target was hopelessly missed -- even after Visit Myanmar Year had been extended for another year. Did foreigners stay away because they perceived Burma to be unsafe or because of the boycott campaign endorsed by Suu Kyi? Hard to say. But however safe Burma actually was and is, there is no question that most foreigners do not want to visit a country where the military may be prowling around on the streets living up to its well-earned reputation for treating the locals badly. That's a bit of a non-starter, boycott or not. Perception is everything.

The generals can't understand this sort of argument because for them uniforms, gongs and guns are the stuff of normal life, just like ordering people around. The bizarre highlight of the Visit Myanmar Year opening ceremony was a vast parade, mostly of young women dressed in ethnic costumes. They looked superb, but the effect was totally ruined by a senior army officer standing ramrod straight out front barking instructions at them over the PA system. To Kyaw Ba and the other generals beaming from the grandstand, this was just a march past in fancy dress with everybody following orders. Situation normal.

Of course, in most other places army officers marching ethnic maidens around stadiums would be considered distinctly abnormal. But if you want clearer evidence of the huge gulf between the way the generals think and the way most others think, look no further than the country's name problem. In 1989, it was changed officially from Burma to Myanmar by the de facto military government, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). In fact, the country went from Union of the Socialist Republic of Burma, to the Union of Burma to the Union of Myanmar in about six months. A lot of people were very upset, and have carried on calling the country Burma to register their disgust with an illegitimate regime that rose up out of a sea of blood. Twelve years on, most English-speakers still call it Burma. If that is not a ringing, inexpensive, international, vox pop rebuke, what is?

Some argued that it should have been Myanma, and others plunged into obscure and pedantic debate about whether Burma or Myanmar was more etymologically correct. In fact, if the generals had renamed the country Slorcland, the issue would have been the same. "Although in Burmese 'Bama' and 'Myanma' are used interchangeably for the name of the country, the choice of names in English has political connotations," explains Cristina Fink in Living Silence, a recent study of the country under military rule. "The military unilaterally changed the English name of the country without consulting the country's citizens."

To be even more contrary, the generals changed a lot of place names too. Rangoon became Yangon, Pagan became Bagan, Pegu became Bago, and so on. For a country supposedly promoting tourism, this was asking for trouble. The confusion continues to this day. There is also a muddle over the correct related adjectives and nouns. For example, are the good people of Myanmar (the Burmese as most people still call them) Myanmars, Myanmarish, Myanmaries, Myanmies, Myanmaies, Myanmaese, Myanmese, Myanmarese, or what? Got a headache? Join the club. I fear the militarily correct, but linguistically sad, answer is that the Burmese are now, officially, Myanmars.

The good news is that this battle will be fought not in Myanmar, but in the English-speaking world, and it will be common usage that dictates whether the people of Myanmar are referred to as Burmese or Myanmars, not the junta. I hope it's Burmese because at the end of the day it is simply a much more beautiful word in English. Saying that, of course, invites immediate official condemnation for being a sentimental colonialist stooge, so I'll go a step further: Burma is one of the most evocative and enchanting place names in the world -- a name to conjure up unforgettable holidays.

The more clipped Myanma would be an improvement on Myanmar, but I fear that irritating 'r' will be rolling around for years to come. But I shall of course be calling the country Myanmar in print except when referring to it when it was still known as Burma. Like it or not, this is the official name of the country accepted by the United Nations, ASEAN, etc., and tacitly by any country that accredits an ambassador there.

It does not matter whether I approve of that state of affairs or not. The world is chaotic enough already without having journalists running around making gratuitous political statements. Perish the thought.

Retrived from www.voicesforburma.org

Gambari in Burma

Kyaw San's words to Gambari

Kyaw San is the information minister.

"We are very astonished and dismayed for your involvement in this matter [releasing a letter on Aung San Suu Kyi's behalf in November]," Kyaw Hsan was quoted in the newspaper as saying.

"Sadly, you went beyond your mandate. Hence, the majority of people are criticizing it as a biased act. Some even believe that you prepared the statement in advance and released it after coordinating with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi," he said.

"The statement was dangerous to the degree of hurting the prevailing peace and stability of the nation," the minister said.

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When Tun Myint Aung shifts from one safehouse to another, he goes armed with two items that have become indispensable. They are a mobile phone and a portable, Chinese-made radio, to listen to such anti-junta stations like the Democratic Voice of Burma, based in Oslo, Norway.

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