A visitor to Burma coming back for the first time in 38 years sees much that has changed, but also much that endures. A country that seemed frozen in time now speaks in many voices—some of them voices that were once silenced. Talking with a dissident no longer requires a furtive meeting at midnight far from one’s hotel. But one thing in Burma’s largest city of Rangoon, at least, hasn’t changed—something hard to define but easily noticed on arrival: an eagerness on the part of many Burmese to welcome outsiders.
But private daily newspapers continue to be banned and regulations against publishing information “harmful to state security” remain in place. And a 2004 law still on the books states that it is unlawful to use electronic transactions to receive or send information relating to “state security.”Broadly interpreted, this law could severely restrict the flow of information via the Internet and send a violator to prison for up to 15 years. The press council is expected to replace a much-maligned censorship board, but editors say that the make-up of the members of the new council does not bode well for press freedom.
Meanwhile, journalists, artists, poets, and filmmakers act as if they must forge ahead at top speed in order to make up for lost time. No one epitomizes this sense of urgency more than Zarganar, a comedian and documentary filmmaker, who was jailed several times in the late 1980s and 90s. So far in this year alone, he’s organized a film festival, created a company to produce documentaries, and screened a film about the government’s 2007 crackdown on protesters. Zarganar is currently working on a film about a company that is attempting to evict hundreds of villagers from a copper mining site. The mining project is a joint venture between a Burmese company and a Chinese one. He shows me raw footage for the film of a Burmese police officer waving a pistol in the air and yelling at a protesting village woman to “shut up.” The woman refuses to shut up. And I conclude this may be the most important change taking hold at the moment: Many Burmese are no longer willing to remain silent.
“Burma’s greatest asset is its people.”I think that still holds true today