Myanmar, formally Burma, is a destination that needs some thinking about. There are many different views on the way tourists affect the country. Is it good or are we encouraging the present government? It depends on how you see it and who you ask to. It is impossible to obtain all the infos we would need to get the real picture. Let me give you a very quick history of Myanmar. Again, I am not an expert in those matters and there are so many events that took place that it will really be a summary to attempt to explain the present situation.
Britain conquered Mandalay in 1885 and they took controlled of the teak , gem, rice and petroleum exports. During their reign they encouraged Indian and Chinese to immigrate in Myanmar and because they were more experienced in business, they succeeded to stimulate the economy. They were so good that Burmese people had difficulties to compete.
Myanmar finally achieves independence from the British in 1948. They had a promising young leader talking about democratic election but he was killed, some say by the military. They had many problems following that. The country inhabited by many different ethnic groups that do not trust the new government started fighting and rebel groups formed. The Chinese also tried to invade border regions. The government took control in the mid 50s finally but the economy was not doing so good. There was a military coup in 1962 and the army took control of the country. They started closing off the outside world and the foreigner’s visa was of 24 hours. In the mid 60s, they made a list of items that would be allowed to be sold only in certain shops. That gave rise to a vigorous black market but many shops owners did not have enough business to survive. Those shop owners were in majority Indians and Chinese… They were thrown out of the country and could not get their money out with them!
It continued to get worst for the economy and the people got fed up in the late 80s. Riots started and at least 3000 deaths were reported. A new political party for democracy was formed and led by a woman, Aung San Suu Kyi. The government got scared and tried to divert the attention of the populace by building new roads and painting buildings, interfering with the election process and postponing the election. All of it did not work. Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in 1989 before the election. The democratic party took 392 of the 485 seats anyway but around 100 of those leaders were arrested, exiled or killed. Those events had the effect of raising the attention of the media and the world.
Under the build up created by all the publicity, Aung San Suu Kyi was released in 1995 and gave few speeches for the democratic political party. As she tried to meet with supporters in 2000, she was again put under house arrest, released for a short time and arrested for a third time after a manifestation in 2003. She is still under house arrest today and it is still forbidden to hang a picture of her in your house! Around the same time, the USA banned new investment of American companies in Myanmar. Other countries followed. Foreign banks packed up and left the country as well. In 1999, there were sanctions to the country for the used of forced labor and because they used civilians as … landmine detectors.
In 2007, the price of gas went up 200% and the people protested. Even the monks marched to support the populace. Guns were fired by the army and one monk was beaten to death. 100 more monks were arrested. The Monks association refused to give alms to military officials after those events! A soldier also shot a Japanese photographer and it was caught on tape. Two days later, the protest had stopped and internet was not accessible anymore.
In 2008, the first election in two decades are to be held. Unfortunately, a cyclone hit Myanmar and 2 millions people are left without shelter and food. Myanmar actually refused some of the international assistance! It will take more than a week before some external aid is able to reach the people in needs. In the meantime, the government still held the election, even after the cyclone, and it was determined that the majority of the voters wanted to keep a military government.
There are few reasons not to come. They used forced labor to build some site to attract tourists. They also relocated thousands of families to be able to built hotels, many of those families being the poor ones. There is a fee to some of the sights to visit and most of the money goes directly to the government. The routes for the foreigners are pretty much determined. They make it easy to travel in one direction and not in the other direction so that the tourist who has not much time will choose the easy route. Some areas require a permit from the government. There are also many regions that are not accessible at all for foreigners, and i am not just talking about transport. They will block the road so that you won’t go there. The reasons behind those restrictions are numerous. In the south, you still have some rebel groups fighting. In the north east region, you have lots of gems that can be dig up by the people owning the land. The government do not want tourists buying gems at low price when he can get a cut. There also some talks about spies going around to ask you where you are going in some smaller villages…
Now, there seems to be more reason to go for me. When I look around the streets, I get the impression that most of the people here are happy to see us. They stop us on the street to shake our hands and they thank us. They want us to like their country, they are proud of it. If they spoke a little more English or if I spoke a little more Burmese, the exchange would be great for their knowledge of the world outside their border. However, we still have to be careful about the subjects we ask about. They could get in trouble if they talk against the government and if we provide outside sources of knowledge like magazines that can put their country in a bad light. We are trying to avoid all hotels that are run by the government so that we contribute to local economy. We try to travel by pick up trucks and buses (private) instead of train (the government takes more than 90% on the fare). We vary our place for food to spread the money around as much as we can. Lastly, the regions that are accessible are beautiful!
How does this type of government affect my travelling in Myanmar? First of all, let me tell you that the visa was not a problem. We applied March 1st in Kathmandu and the visa was ready the next day! They did not even asked for an itinerary and we were in for 28 days of travelling in Myanmar. Since we only have 28 days (with a non-official possibility to overstay for 3$ a day…) we are OK with some regions being restricted, we do not have the time to do it all anyway.
The boycott by many international countries is the main problem really. Imagine being in a country for 28 days without an ATM being available! We had to get money before getting in the country and if your money get stolen, you have to get out of the country my friend! I am pretty nervous about carrying that much money on me knowing especially that I can not easily get more. I will actually write about the money in a shorter story…
The guidebook is absolutely necessary to travel here. There are a limited numbers of guesthouses that can accept tourists. Some town do not have such hotels and you need to move on! It is a little more expensive because of that monopole.
Internet access has also been troublesome. Most internet places have installed programs to unlock the major sites used by locals and tourists. However, some sites are not accessible, they are locked. You need to go through a website that will give your computer an IP address that is outside the country. That makes the process very long and the success rate is about 50%. If it fails, you keep trying and eventually it might go through. It took me 2 hours to check my mails and upload 3 blogs last night! Any download is actually blocked in most internet places.
During the water festival, 3 bombs (or grenades according to rumors) went off in Yangon killing 9 persons. I am not sure if it is related but 2 days later, the internet access was cut off. The official story was that a submarine destroyed the cable!! I haven’t verified that yet…but if some people really believe that, the government has more power than I thought. Anyway, just so that it is clear that, what is supposed to be a half hour business in the smoking room of internet cafes, becomes a 2 hours sit down with lots of patience.
There is overall much more good things than bad things in this country. So far, it’s been great and I would recommend a stop in this beautiful country and to take the time to mingle with the locals. Even as a girl, I would travel in this country with no fear of something happening to me. I know that I have been saying that people were the nicest in every country I visited so far but, it’s true, they are really the nicest!!
Saturday, April 24, 2010
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