MAGAN'S WORLD:'BY BUYING this book you're helping support the military junta," warned the hastily scrawled note on a torn sheet of foolscap paper in the Lonely Planet guide to Myanmar (Burma) that my friend bought in the airport before we left. In 10 words it crystallised the concern on all of our minds as we boarded the flight to Rangoon (Yangon); the unsettling fact that we were holidaying in a tyrannical military dictatorship, a country of forced labour and torture.
Tourism was frowned upon by human rights groups until last year when the Daily Telegraphreported that Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy had dropped their opposition to tourism to Burma, saying that visitors might help draw attention to the oppression of the people. The authenticity of this statement has since been questioned by Tourism Concern, muddying the water yet again.
As cyclists, buses and pick-ups wind their way past the beautiful Inya Lake in Rangoon with the glorious golden dome of Shwedagon Temple rising in the background it’s hard to imagine you’re in a country with one of the worst human-rights records in the world; that the love-sick students walking hand-in-hand past booksellers bent over their dusty Penguins face an ever-present threat of torture and imprisonment; that a vast network of military intelligence spies and their informers have the place under surveillance.
Rather than any sense of tension or malevolence, the country feels remarkably peaceful. Everyone is unfailingly polite and welcoming; even the dogs are friendly – they don’t bark at foreigners, which is always revealing. It is said that only one tourist has ever been killed – a Japanese man who was wearing a longyi at the time, and was thus mistaken for a local. One senses elements of the spirituality of southern India, mixed with the sweet shyness of Tibet. And, it is perhaps this placidity that has ensured the longevity of the military regime. Burma is profoundly Buddhist and so accepts corruption, abuse and economic devastation with stoicism, aware that all suffering is temporary, all is an illusion of samsara.
In some respects the military appear to be efficient administrators. The country has a lower rate of HIV and TB than its Asian neighbours and all children are vaccinated against smallpox, etc. The roads and bridges are well maintained (at least, in areas where tourists are allowed access), although this is partly due to communities being forced to provide temporary slave labour to get the job done. The army has been less successful in encouraging entrepreneurship or high-tech development.
For a military regime there are remarkably few soldiers visible. The main sign of their presence is in the newspapers where the generals feature in almost every story. "We favour peace and stability", begins a propaganda announcement in the English-language newspaper, Light of Myanmar, before continuing to warn readers that, "Anarchy begets anarchy, not democracy. Riots beget riots, not democracy. Do now allow ourselves be swayed by broadcasts designed to cause trouble. VOA , BBC – sowing hatred among the people". To ensure the reader is in no doubt as to what they mean, they add: "We oppose unrest and violence. Wipe out those inciting unrest and violence." Gulp!
Suddenly one sees beyond the smiling market sellers and demure tea waiters, to the fact that arcane torture methods are still practised here, and monks who dare voice concern are stripped and beaten. As a tourist it’s important never to forget this element of Burma, as even the most innocuous question to a local can lead to imprisonment for seven years if their answer is deemed hostile to the regime. The one question I would love to have answered is whether George Orwell, who served as a police officer here in the 1920s, saw all this coming.