Orwell's Old School Sold to Burmese Tycoon

The Htoo Group of Companies owned by Tay Za, a close associate of Burmese junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe, has reportedly bought the police headquarters buildings in Mandalay, according to local sources.

Businessmen in Mandalay said Htoo, which is on the West's economic sanctions lists, will control one of the prime business locations in the central area of the city. There was no information about the price paid for the buildings.

Eric Blair (George Orwell) stands third from left in this photo from his days at the Burma Provincial Police Training School, dated 1923.

The old police station is bounded by 27th and 28th streets and 66th and 67th streets near the city’s moat and Sedona Hotel. Some buildings in the compound date back to the colonial period.

One building, the old Burma Provincial Police Training School, is the site where George Orwell was trained as a British police officer and is mentioned in his classic “Burmese Days.” Orwell served as police officer in Burma from 1922 to 1927. 

“Not only Orwell, but recently the writer Emma Larkin wrote about the school in her book, 'Finding George Orwell in Burma,'” a journalist in Mandalay told The Irrawaddy on Friday. “We see it as a historical building. It should not be for sale.”

Previously, Tay Za reportedly bought various state-owned buildings in Rangoon, including a high school in Insein Township.

Along with other businessmen close to the ruling generals, Tay Za is targeted on the sanctions lists of the US, UK, EU and Australia, following the junta’s crackdown on demonstrations in September 2007. 

In November, Tay Za received permission to import 900 vehicles for sale in Burma, a rare concession. Newer model cars are still relatively rare in the country. At the end of 2009, his company also won contracts for two hydro power dam projects in Upper Burma.

Tay Za is involved in nearly all of the key industries of Burma, including logging, gems, jewelry, tourism and transportation, civil engineering, construction, international trade, rice, rubber and other agricultural products, while importing machinery. He is also involved in the regime’s newly built Yadanabon Cyber City near Mandalay.

Recently, he was awarded one of the highest honorary titles, Thiri Pyanchi. Burma analysts and pro-democracy activists say junta head Snr-Gen Than Shwe and his family do business through Tay Za’s companies.

“Tay Za can be considered the only representative of Than Shwe’s family businesses, and he can influence the heads of two of the country’s biggest conglomerates, the Union of Myanmar Economic Holding Company and the Myanmar Economic Cooperation company,” Burmese researcher Win Min wrote in an academic paper on the Burmese military.

Tay Za has also been linked to arms deals for the junta, including the purchase of MiG-29s from Russia. The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control describes Tay Za as “an arms dealer and financial henchman of Burma's repressive junta.”