As I entered the arrivals hall, I was recognized by a journalist from the Yangon Times. He started taking photographs and interviewed me as I was leaving the airport. Other journalists joined in and the news of my arrival spread. The Voice, linked to Myanmar Egress, managed to get the news out immediately on Facebook while the print weeklies did not report my arrival until the following week. Like my Irrawaddy interview, my other interviews with True News and the Financial Times were conducted before I got my visa. They just happened to be published when I was in Rangoon.
Q: The SHAN article gives the impression that almost all of your contacts in Burma were overwhelmingly positive about recent developments. Only one person cited in the article, an associate of Aung San Suu Suu Kyi, seemed to express any real skepticism about President Thein Sein's intentions. Did you meet anyone else who seemed to have doubts?
A: The article inadvertently gave the wrong impression. The person referred to was initially doubtful but he was also positive when I met him. People I met did not doubt President Thein Sein’s intentions. What they were concerned about was the government’s ability to deliver given the inertia and the lack of initiative by the bureaucracy. The old machinery is still functioning under old rules, while the upper echelons seem to want to change. For example, while the president announced that exiles could return, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs still has not issued a Standard Operating Procedure for embassies on how to deal with exiles wanting to return. Doubt was expressed by some ethnic people about the government’s peace initiative since the fighting was intensifying in Kachin State. Other than that, I did not meet anyone who had doubts.
Q: Anyone visiting Burma a little more than a year ago would have heard a great deal of skepticism about the election and the country's political direction. Why do you think the tone has changed so decisively since then? Do you think the average “man in the street” really feels that things have changed that much?
A: There was a lot of skepticism about the elections and the new government up until the end of July this year. I was skeptical too and surprised by the President’s inaugural speech [in March]. The Euro-Burma Office even published an analysis of it. But things seemed to be on hold. Then suddenly in August everything started to move forward—the president met with Aung San Suu Kyi; she responded positively; he said exiles could come back; the government announced peace talks with the ethnic armed groups; the president reversed the decision about the Myitsone dam; proceedings of parliamentary debates were published and the range of topics discussed was very broad and included sensitive topics like peace talks, national reconciliation, amnesty, release of political prisoners, censorship, and even the nuclear program—topics that would have been out of bounds under previous regimes; a Human Rights Commission was formed; a new labor law allowing trade unions was passed and political prisoners were released. I cannot speak for the average “man on the street.” But the people I met did feel that things have changed.
Q: one shopkeeper you spoke to suggested that your presence in the country after so many years was itself a sign that the situation in Burma is improving. Do you think that that might have been the point of inviting you—to make people think that things are really changing?
A: It may have been. But the fact that I was able to visit does represent a real change. When it was clear by 1999 that we could not bring about change by depending on pressure from the international community, I met with Dr Kyaw Win (Burma's former ambassador to Canada and later the UK) with the agreement of Aung San Suu Kyi and Dr Sein Win, to discuss common concerns and proposed that a dialogue between the government and Aung San Suu Kyi would be useful. He arranged for me to meet with Foreign Minister U Win Aung in New York at the UN, who agreed to arrange for me to visit Burma and persuade Aung San Suu Kyi to enter into a dialogue with the government. All arrangements were derailed when Burmese students seized the embassy in Bangkok. From 2000 to 2003, I briefed UN Special Envoy Razali Ismail, while he tried to mediate the dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and the government. After the talks broke down and Gen Khin Nyunt was arrested in 2004, I was interviewed by the BBC Burmese Service on how we could change the situation in Burma. I replied that the Tatmadaw had to lead the change. The Defense Ministry sent an emissary to ask me to clarify my position.
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