The Myanmar (or Burmese) people we met would never talk freely about their government in a public place like a tea shop or on the street because there might be police, military, or citizen informants who would hear them and turn them in. Talk that is critical of the government or the country can lead to arrest and jail. It’s dangerous.
Author Emma Larkin refers to Myanmar as a nation of 50 million hostages.
Everyone who spoke to us was critical of their government. They loved their country, but hated their government. The Burmese people were typically informed about the world. They listened to the radio, particularly the BBC and Voice of America, that both transmit in Burmese. The government-controlled local Myanmar newspaper has ads that say that the content from these sources are lies! Access to TV and the Internet is limited by the government and has to be registered.
Those who spoke to us also were unanimously supportive of “The Lady”, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Su Kyi, who continues to live under house arrest.
All were skeptical about the upcoming elections because the only candidates that could run are the current cronies. In the last election, twenty years ago, a campaign leader for The Lady was jailed for 15 years for handing out leaflets critical of the government.
The people who spoke to us unanimously suspected that a recent bomb blast that killed eight people in Yangon (while we were there) was placed by the government. “The people don’t have bombs. Only the military does”. They saw it as a ruse to delay the elections.
One person told us – “We are powerless. If they would kill monks, they would kill us easily.” (Monks are revered in this devoutly Buddhist country. A few years ago, monks were protesting increased gas price increases due to the economy crumbling, while the government spent massive amounts of money on establishing a lavish new capital city. Many monks were killed and arrested by the government for protesting). “They (the government) have the weapons. We have nothing – only knives for hunting and not even sharp ones”, this person told us.
In Mandalay, a comedy troupe called the Moustache Brothers seems to be the only place where free speech and dissent is tolerated, but only after past jailings and lots of international attention. (Photo below)
One person told us that he had been jailed for fighting to defend a woman against someone assaulting her was an non-uniformed a police officer. At 25 years old, he got so little rice to eat in jail that he was not able to walk. Later, he was fed more so that he could perform manual labor (while in leg chains). When he was finally released after one year, he was so crippled that it took months for him to learn to walk again. He said he would have died had he not been young and strong going in
Hearing this firsthand was difficult. We laughed, listened, and shared with many people in Myanmar and talked together on quite personal levels. We created friendships. We had read about the political repression and brutal government, and when we heard with our own ears from people we liked, it was powerful.
We have asked ourselves: what we can do?
We are committed to do SOMETHING. One thing is to encourage independent tourists in Myanmar because this gets funds into the hands of the people in a country that is among the least developed in the world. It keeps information and resources circulating
A piece of our hearts is and will remain with this country and its people.