In this age of information, there was hardly any body willing to part with information in Burma, especially if the information is political in nature. All become tightlipped if the query is about the lady most in international news, Aung San Suu Kyi.
A local man, who became a good friend said by way of a caution that the mention of the lady’s name can land you in serious trouble, including prison. While he was thus off guard, I did manage to get him to say something very revealing. To the question if she would be come to power if free and fair election was allowed, his prompt answer was, yes. To another question before he put on his guard again, he said it is unlikely there ever would be another election in the near future. Maybe not even in Suu Kyi’s lifetime.
Except for the forced amnesia about Suu Kyi, life otherwise is very pleasantly normal in Mandalay, at least outwardly. We did not stay long enough or travel widely enough to know the nuances of dissident political undercurrents in the country. Otherwise, petty crime rate is low, although official corruption we were told is notoriously high. People of both genders, young and old are out on the streets till late into the night going about their everyday businesses and living out life as they have always known it to be.
Contrary to expectation, missing throughout the journey was the overbearing presence of the military. In fact, the presence of the olive green would be much more in the streets of Imphal or Kohima.
No armoured vehicles, no long military convoys, no foot patrols. While we were there, we literally forgot we were in a country ruled by a military dictatorship. We did see some military personnel on our way back.
The vehicle we were traveling in had the second tire puncture about 10 km from Sikhanji town towards the dusk of November 28. Our bus being the last in the convoy of three buses and a Tata Sumo vehicle, were left stranded on the road for a long time. Some of us then decided to take a lift to Sikhanji and get help.
After a long wait, a crowded local mini bus came along and stopped for us. We boarded it to find civilians and military personnel traveling together. The atmosphere was informally cordial with civil and military passengers making room for each other, helping unload each others luggage at stops etc.
The seeming normalcy is unmistakable. One of Mandalay’s striking features is the number of eating places it boasts of, most of it with a beeline of customers. The culture of eating out seems very much a part of the average Burmese.
At dinner time we were surprised to see the street outside our hotel in central Burma fill up with make-shift eating places consisting basically of a bench or two and a table, with hurricane lamps augmenting available lights from the street lamps and shops along the street. A kiosk where the cooking is done either on coal lit braziers or else two burner gas stoves, stand by each of these outdoor eating arrangements.
The place, at its peak hours between 8 pm and 9 pm becomes so crowded that you literally have to walk sideway so as not push over somebody. The fares offered are also basically meat of beasts and fowls, roasted or cooked, boiled rice, salads etc.
The real taste of a place is, as they say, in roadside eating places and we did sample the food on this street, and it was to say the least, sumptuous, that is if you have no scruples about what meat you palate.
The normality of life kept a question returning to mind. Is the resistance against the military regime wearing out? Is the Nobel Peace laureate, Suu Kyi, destined to fade away? She has been under house arrest for a decade now and only recently, in total disregard of international opinion, the military junta extended her detention term by another year.
According to the sections of the media which have access to the members of her party, the National League for Democracy, NLD, she is unlikely to be released ever.
The question that follows is, what is it exactly that is making the military dictatorship so cocky and contemptuous of world opinion. Is it under no pressure to play a fair game in making the people decide who should run the country?
The more pertinent question is, and disturbing for sympathizers of the pro-democracy movement in the country is, are the Burmese leaders set to do another China where an event as murderous as the Tiananmen Massacre was kept under wraps and those responsible actually have come to the fore of international attention both in economical as well as political terms? Would the Burmese leaders also succeed in keeping the dictatorship going and win back the world by a gradual but steady liberalization policy?
As of today, it is difficult not to doubt this can actually happen. Welcome as the Indo-ASEAN car rally may be, such events reinforce the basis of this doubt.
For indeed, the abiding impression that first time visitors like this writer return with is that Mandalay is a city rearing to go. There is already an increasing traffic of dollar and euro spending tourists arriving in the city. Most of these we bumped into at restaurants and tourists spots were Germans. There were many British amongst them too.
Obviously expecting a growth in First World tourism, modern 5-Star hotels are springing up. Most of these, like the “Sedona” which overlooks the magnificent moat and fortification of the “Glass Palace” and the “Mandalay Hill Resort”, are investments from ASEAN countries like Singapore and Thailand. Opposite our hotel, a 3-Star standard accommodation that sells for approximately 15 dollars a room, is a massive 25-storey shopping complex under construction at hectic pace, obviously again a foreign investment in the cash strapped country.
In short, the feeling is, there is an economic churning building up in Burma, and fate willing, it just might rise again.
The answer to the million dollar question, what is giving the Burmese military junta the confidence to thumb its nose to its critics around the world is, the continued business interest the world, most specifically those in the region it belongs to, the ASEAN, China, India, Japan and indeed many European countries.
It is interesting in this light that it was when leaders of the ASEAN during the two-day summit they held in the Laotian capital Vientiane late November, intimated Burma to improve its human rights record and begin the process of democratization that the latter announced its decision to extend Suu Kyi’s detention by another year.
It gauged the ASEAN countries’ interest in its natural resources well and rightly assumed they would not abandon it for a mere ideal as democracy. As it is, most of these countries are far from being shining examples of democracy or champions of human rights themselves.
Burma has also been thumbing its nose to the West in like fashion. The manner in which the military regime recently removed Prime Minister Khin Nyunt, a known moderate with too much ear for protests from the West is just an example. He was replaced by a known hardliner with little sympathy for the pro-democracy movement, Soe Win.
It is also not, it seems, overly worried that pressures from the West, particularly the US, would mount beyond a point, having accurately read the superpower’s foreign policy priorities which grade its adversaries in terms of their status as “rogue nuclear” states. Burma does not have a nuclear program so it feels safe from US scrutiny on this front.
Democracy in Burma then seems still a far cry, that is, unless the pressures and sanctions on it come from its regional neighbours first and foremost. The developments in the recent times definitely does not suggest this is about to happen. Even India has joined the frantic prospecting of the country, with its own strategic security and business interest in mind. No matter how much it is against our moral sense of propriety, the Burmese junta may end up having the last laugh.