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Changing Burma: Preserving the old,

embracing the new

Monks in a Yangon flower market. Pic: Joanne Lane, www.visitedplanet.com

By Jo Lane Apr 01, 2015


When I first came to Burma, also known as Myanmar, in 2009 it felt like a country
frozen in time due to its years of isolation and stagnation. Indeed I recall penning an
article for Jet Star, something along the lines of it being one of the few places left you
could glimpse the Asia of old, one that existed some 50 years ago. And at that time,
within the glittering modernity of much of Asias new sky rise cities, that was oddly
appealing but also a rather simplistic perception.

Today, five years after the countrys first democratic elections, that sense of it being a
new frontier has well and truly been cemented, both for tourists and business, and as a
result much is changing, particularly in Burmas cities and well-visited tourist spots
such as Yangon, Inle Lake and Bagan.
Tourists have poured in with record visitor numbers every year and surface changes
have been enormous not only is there the freedom to vote but also the freedom to
drive a car, to get a SIM card or handset (cost prohibitive for some even 12 months
ago), watch foreign television channels, access an ATM and speak freely.
Names like General Aung San and his daughter Aung San Suu Kyi can be uttered
without having to look over ones shoulder and their photos adorn the street side
pavements, walls and other spaces without any fear of reprisal.
Road surfaces and cars have improved, supermarkets now stock Western goods like
cheese, bread and Ovaltine, and there are rumours of KFC about to launch (most likely
to be the first major international chain in the country).
So what? you may well ask. The truth is minor changes like these alone have
revolutionised the country. People are connected not only with each other but the
outside world, and there is a freedom for people to express themselves whether in their
hair, clothes, voice, profession or hobbies.
With that have come some interesting parallel developments locals discouraged that
new-found democracy often is not bringing the changes theyd hoped for, and the
challenge of how to develop commercially with the threat of development on every
corner, while balancing and preserving culture and traditions, or simply a colonial
building or age old pagoda.

A classic old building in Downtown Yangon. Pic: Joanne Lane, www.visitedplanet.com


In my conversations with locals across the city last month I asked them whether they
thought the country had improved since the 2010 elections.
Yangon tour guide Saw Hla Moe was dubious about the changes Burma has
experienced and didnt think the country could handle democracy. He said bus drivers
never raced along and so flagrantly disobeyed traffic laws under the former military
rule.
This is democracy, he said pointing at the chaos of traffic that gridlocked much of the
city as if to illustrate the point. He also pointed out the paved over cemetery which now
houses the huge shopping mall Junction Square as an example of progress not
considering tradition.
Traffic has indeed escalated in Yangon due to the increase in the city population to 4.5
million and the relaxation of laws that now enable everyday people to get a drivers
license. The freedom of wealth has also enabled many to afford cheap, foreign cars. But
Saw Hla Moe bemoans all the new vehicles on the road saying tradition has been lost
with decades old buses that worked fine, thanks to constant maintenance by
ingenious mechanics, now being consigned to the scrap heap.
Melody on the other hand, an English education consultant who has been in the
country since 2005, says one of the positive changes in the city has been the ability to
sit in a taxi and lean on the door without the fear of it suddenly flying open.
Australian Andrew Rogers, who works in Yangon in conjunction with MyKids
Australia and Myanmar Vision International on developing sustainable businesses,
said the increased traffic was just a sign of a prospering nation. He said many locals
had become jaded about the changes but there was no doubt there were far more
liberties available to everyone now.
He said the ability to visit peoples homes without fear of reprisal was a significant
change for foreigners. He also noted the introduction of fibre optic cables, a city-wide
rubbish collection system for improved sanitation, increasing commercial and
residential development, and the installation of telecommunications backbones and
phone towers around the city.

Ty
pical Yangon street wiring. Pic: Joanne Lane, www.visitedplanet.com
This doesnt mean of course that sagging power lines, rubbish strewn streets or pot
holes are a thing of the past in Yangon, but they are slowly being dealt with. And they
are not the only areas in which significant leaps have been made. Melody said changes
in the style of education with increasing adaptation of Western style curricula and
teaching methods has improved the learning experience for children.
New schools have started that are not state schools and we are seeing new styles of
teaching and how thats been effective as children are flourishing without the use of the
stick. Its exciting to see those kinds of schools being established and that kind of
practice being taken on by local people, she said.
Of course the flip side to all the development is that some things will be lost.
Professions like roadside phone shops are now almost obsolete, as are the traditional
mechanics, typewriter clerks and rubber stamp makers all outpaced by cheap mobile
phones, cars with microprocessors, computers and photocopiers. Much of what used to
occur on Yangons streets and pavements is also starting to move indoors to air
conditioned shopping malls and office blocks.
Melody sees some negatives in this.

You dont want the West to be imposed everywhere. I look at the people and think
dont lose your identity dying your hair and wearing a shorter skirt, you want people to
have the freedom to do that but there is a style that they have You think dont throw
it away because you think ours is better, she said.
She had also noted the increased number of people driven to interface with their
phones rather than each other, the sky rocketing cost of things such as hotel rooms
without the quality to match, and the potential loss of old buildings and heritage with
increased development.
In some ways of course development can and will help preserve culture and tradition.
For example photography, which is burgeoning in Burma, is helping to record and
document age old traditions before they are lost entirely. During my visit to the
country this month I went to the promising Myanmar Deitta, a fantastic documentary
art space in Downtown Yangon on 44th Street. In this community space local
photographers are encouraged to showcase their work and there is a regular
changeover of images featuring Burmas cultural, social and other scenes or
photographs from as far afield as India or Iran.
The exhibition on display at the time was by Myanmar Street Photographers capturing
moments in city life from its pavements, parks and markets. Myanmar Deitta also
showcased work from the group in the My Yangon My Home Art and Heritage
Festival in which art galleries and even public spaces across the city displayed work
from local artists from March 1-15. A photographic installation was put in place on
Pansodan Bridge with images from a recent competition featuring the home. The
British embassy by the iconic Strand Hotel also showcased images on their walls. This
kind of public installation would have been unheard of several years ago.

Ph
otography installation on Pansodan Bridge. Pic: Joanne Lane, www.visitedplanet.com
Photography and art are not the only mediums opening up. Media has developed
substantially with 20 daily newspapers and dozens of weekly journals now operating in
the city, although many operate under a kind of self censorship and thats because the
risks of open criticism of the countrys institutions, such as the military or religious
orders, are still high and real.
The recent arrest and imprisonment of New Zealand bar manager Phil Blackwood for
insulting Buddhism is a key example of this and many fear what this says about the
countrys path towards religious freedom. Ex-pats, as reported earlier on Asian
Correspondent, were surprised at the harsh verdict handed down to Blackwood and
two of his Burmese colleagues given the other freedoms now allowed in the country.
But they also said to some degree it was a useful wake-up call to be careful of any
behaviour that could be considered in the same light and that not all things have
relaxed.
The speed of development and change in the country has arguably played a part in the
legal decision, with monks pushing for adherence to the countrys major religion,
perhaps to some degree as a reaction to recent liberalisation and loss of traditional
values. The current push in Burma towards religious nationalism has however seen the
removal of freedom for minorities, in particular the Muslim Rohingya population.

This balancing of tradition and change is a struggle Burma will continually battle in the
years ahead. As with most things here, the issues are complex and a tourists romantic
notion of the preservation of all age old practices such as street side markets
or decaying colonial buildings is far too simplistic.
Melody said there was also a responsibility within the liberalisation and new freedoms
to use them to better the country.
In the road theyve gone down towards voting and democracy, there is a responsibility
to vote as some say I dont bother its the same old regime and it wont count, she
said.
The challenge is also what do they do with that freedom. Do they address the
injustices, the street kids that dont get an education because theyre working for the
family or living on the streets? How are people going to use that freedom? Will they sit
back and live for themselves or do they use it to bring about greater change?
The change is there but its minimal in many ways. I remember in the past being
asked what its like sitting on an airplane. Ive had young people tell me we are jungle
people. Thats the tension; this generation has gone from living in the jungle, cooking
on the fire and living under the stars to have the opportunity to go overseas and live in
a city thats developing at an extraordinary rate.
Dr Thant Myint-U, chairman of Yangon Heritage Trust, said in an interview with the
ABC: I think we can be reasonably confident that this degree of political liberalisation
will continue. We can be somewhat confident that moves towards democracy will
continue as well, but I think how ordinary life will change, whether income inequality
will simply get worse and whether the lives of the poorest half of the country two
thirds of the country if that will change, I think remains a big question mark.
You dont have to travel very far from downtown Yangon to see that the majority of
people in the city still live without regular electricity services and that despite a vast
increase in foreign investment projects in recent years and an incredible increase in
mobile internet users (half have come online in the past year), real change is still a long
way off for some.
And for people like Andrew, Melody and Saw Hla Moe a sense of delay in some areas of
city life is also welcome.
One of the good things is that not too many regulations have come in so the place
keeps that sense of madness, said Melody. They havent got it all sorted so it still

holds what is quintessentially Burmese; the street sellers, the crazy pavements that
demand you watch every step you take and the sense when you go around the corner
that you dont know what youll find. All madly brilliant things.
Posted by Thavam

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