Nice country, shame about the government.

I have met so many friendly Burmese people that I am coming damn close to that sweeping paternalistic generalisation: the people are all just lovely. Expressions like this usually make my blood run backward because of their generality, because the loveliness of the people is sometimes offered as a redemption for bad living conditions, because they are so often used by wealthy Westerners about very poor people from developing countries and tend to fetishise sweet little others. So let me say that I have had the privilege to meet many kind and hospitable Burmese people and have not encountered any nasty, aggressive, hostile or rude people. There’s a fair amount of haggling over prices but all is conducted in good humour. Wherever I have been, I have met people who are keen to chat, to practice their English, to see if I am OK, to help me out. Hot topics: the weather in Australia, religion, family, will I return to Myanmar, Burmese food. Random acts of charity abound and I have been completely overwhelmed by the kindness of strangers. People have invited me into their homes, led me around pagodas, given me lifts and gifts (I had to say no to a caramel coloured four week old kitten, alas), helped me order food and generally made my days very merry.

Obviously though, not all Burmese people are friendly and compassionate because the government stinks. Almost twenty years after Aung San Suu Kyi was elected to government, she is still under arrest. The military government is completely corrupt and inefficient and seems utterly disinterested in the welfare of the people. Electricity supply is sporadic at best and hence there are plenty of generator shops and fix-it supplies for sale on every corner. The out of sight (and smell), out of mind principle does not govern sewage or garbage disposal. There’s reasonable but not drinkable water supplied in the cities but not in the countryside. Most of the bottled water is sold by government run businesses. Health care is non existent. Education is difficult to access, especially for people in the villages. A kind of freedom of religion exists on the condition that there is no intervention in political matters by religious leaders. There is no freedom whatsoever of political communication. Ten thousand politicians are in jail. There are a million troops in a nation of 56 million people. Mail can be confiscated randomly. The government controls the banks and can and do requisition people’s money whenever. You see forced labour gangs supervised by military police fixing up the roads. Everybody I have met works very very hard to maintain a low standard of living. It’s horrific. Some people will come right out and condemn the government straight away but having heard stories of people being reported to the police for talking politics to foreigners, I’m reluctant to bring the topic up. There are very faint visible echoes of big bad global culture, but very few. Some knock off clothing, 80s rock styling (a band call Iron Cross are the big Myanmar rockers, a guy called Jojo told me), weird ads, but not much else. Myanmar has restricted trade relationships with ASEAN nations and a wide open door to China. Diplomatic relationships have just been re-established with North Korea too. Belching trucks from China roll down the highways to the ports in the south of Myanmar and there are, people tell me, more and more Chinese businesses popping up, legitimate and illegitimate.

Anyway, there is a school of thought which says that travel to Myanmar entails tacit support of this regime. I don’t entirely agree but I do think that it is important not to be a completely passive voyager through the country. It would be hard to do so as people are very chatty and it’s pretty hard to ignore the signs of a completely dysfunctional system of governance. Indeed, outside government buildings and businesses there are all sorts of very sinister signs which could have been scripted by Orwell. I’m definitely not game to take any photos in these places as there are generally armed military cops nearby and I stick out like a sore thumb. Outside Mandalay Palace is a big one which reads ‘The Tattadaw (army) will never betray the interests of the Nation.’ Outside the Defence Training Academy in Pyin U Lwin, 'The Triumphant Elite of the Future.' On the way to Amanapura, on a billboard outside a government owned cigarette factory is a very chilly list of ‘The People’s Desires’, written in Burmese and English. ‘Destroy internal and external influences which jeopardise the stability of the nation.’ The stability of the nation, of course, means the stability of the inherited military regime – the current leader is the son of the man who led the coup in the 1960s. Even though the US and other parties in the Coalition of the Willing don’t trade with Myanmar and issue stern injunctions about regime from time to time, it’s not hard to concoct some cynical responses to the pro-democratic rhetoric impelling regime change elsewhere. Idle conspiracy theorists could start by considering Myanmar’s significance to US military-industrial interests and relationship to China and go from there.