A Novel Way to Travel

This trip I didn’t prepare for in my usual way --- which is to immerse myself in Lonely Planet, Trip Advisor posts, etc.  This time I decided to forget the guidebooks and get lost in great literature. 

When I was in school, Myanmar was called Burma.  And while in Myanmar, I read two books:  Burmese Days by George Orwell and Finding George Orwell in Burma by Emma Larkin.  They were very interesting, especially reading them back-to-back.

George Orwell’s Burmese Days is a very pessimistic novel with neither a British nor a Burmese character that you liked enough to root for.  While not a happy read, it likely portrays “colonial” attitudes fairly well.  Prior to reading this, I had not known that George Orwell spent five years of his life - from the ages of 19 to 24 - as a military policeman in Burma.  This period is said to have affected his lifelong views about imperialism. 

Finding George Orwell in Burma is non-fiction, but reads like a novel.  Part biography of George Orwell, part travelogue, this book tells what has happened to Burma (i.e. Myanmar) since the British left - and it posits the idea that George Orwell may have foretold some of this in his books 1984 and Animal Farm.  Unfortunately, it is also not a happy read, as it reports that the country has experienced years of cruel dictators, intelligence police everywhere, and a people cut off from the rest of the world.

This latter book helped me learn about Myanmar’s more recent history and leaders.  For instance:

·         During WWII, Aung San was a student nationalist who led a small group of fellow freedom fighters to Japan for military training to fight what he considered British colonizers.  He and his “thirty comrades” marched back with these Japanese forces.  But the conquering Japanese were brutal to the Burmese people.  So, in 1944, Aung San and his comrades switched sides to the Allies to help evict the Japanese.  At the close of WWII, Aung San negotiated with the British for Burma’s independence.  He was positioned to be its first leader.  However, in July 1947, just months before Myanmar’s independence, he was assassinated by a rival politician.  His daughter, Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was a toddler at the time.

·         A series of military leaders followed.  Ne Win was particularly brutal and paranoid.  He is considered chiefly responsible for closing the country completely to the West for almost 40 years.  He established vast networks of internal “spies” re: the populace.  I thought it interesting that his belief in numerology may have helped bring about his downfall.  Ne Win loved the number nine – and in 1987, he replaced all the money with new notes that were divisible by 9 (such as 45 and 90).  People’s already small savings were degraded, and some say this prompted them to join in the 1988 uprising.  There were other catalysts, too.  Monks conducted a passive protest – overturning their rice bowls (i.e. not accepting food donations) from any military leader.  This was very effective.

·         On the eighth day of the eighth month in 1988, there was an popular uprising for democracy. ("8-8-88" is still a mantra heard.)  In the elections held in 1990, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won overwhelmingly.  However, the military ignored the election results, put Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest, and kept on ruling.  Some say the military leaders just “changed their clothes” – from army uniforms to business suits, but remained the same people ruling the country.  For the last seven years or so, though, the country has been gradually opening its doors to western tourism and influences.  Aung San Suu Kyi has been released from years of house arrest.  

      There will be another election this fall 2015.  Under the country’s new Constitution, Aung San Suu Kyi is prohibited from running herself, but her party has put forth candidates.  People are quietly watching to see if actual democracy can be achieved - and then maintained.