The Moral Minefield
By Aung Zaw
February 2007
So you’re planning to visit Burma? Then read this first…
One question often posed by foreign friends and visitors who come to my office is whether they should visit Burma. I find it difficult to offer a straightforward answer.
In order to sound out the opinions of others, I put the same question to other foreign friends and Burmese people involved in Burmese affairs and the tourism business. Understandably, their reaction is mixed and cautious.
Many shared the view that Burma has the potential to become a top tourist destination in Southeast Asia, if developed properly, but that it still has a long way to go.
Since last October, prior to the high season, local papers and pro-regime journals were upbeat. In early October, the 7 Day News journal reported on an American millionaire’s visit to Pagan and Mandalay—“An American named Mr Sam Zell who is on the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans and his six-member party arrived in Bagan (Pagan) by helicopter on 5 October.”
Hotels at Chaung Tha Beach, on the Bay of Bengal, were also ready to welcome tourists, and had received many reservations, the paper claimed, extolling the peaceful and relaxing holidays to be enjoyed there.
In December, a European traveler who often visits Burma noted that a Thai Airways flight to Rangoon was full. Although EU governments discourage their citizens from visiting Burma, holidaymakers included Swiss, German and French tourists.
“Your country has the potential to become a top tourist destination,” said the traveler. “Many want to visit Burma, but the regime has little idea how to promote tourism.”
He cautioned, however, that the tourism industry was still very much controlled by the military and its cronies. He saw taxi drivers, tourist guides and hoteliers enthusiastically awaiting the arrival of more tourists. If tourism ever became one of Burma’s main sources of income, the military and its cronies would monopolize it, he said.
I know that tourism brings both joy and tears to Burma. Since the regime launched the “Visit Myanmar Year” campaign in 1996, roads have been widened, hotels built and expanded, and some historical palaces have been renovated.
At Ngwe Saung beach, a popular tourist destination, villagers living along the beach were relocated when the regime wanted to promote the resort. Villagers still bitterly talk about the forced evictions, which occurred without compensation.
Hotels, roads and highways were built by regime-friendly companies. One of the top hotels in Rangoon, Traders, was built by the Asia World Company, which is run by former drug lord Lo Hsing-han and his son, Steven Law. There is no doubt that drug money has been poured into the tourism industry. Likewise, several ethnic businessmen and former warlords who were involved in shady business and illicit trade have invested in bus lines, transportation and the construction of hotels and resorts.
Be that as it may, the tourism industry is still at a standstill in Burma. Tour companies reacted only with optimism when Burma’s neighbors faced troubles and natural disasters. For instance, they saw only the benefits of a spillover of tourists when Bali was attacked by terrorists or when neighbors were hit by the 2004 tsunami.
In 1994, two years before the “Visit Myanmar” campaign, about 47,230 tourists visited Burma. In 1996, the regime set the target at 500,000. Only 10 years later, according to official figures, was this target somehow attained.
The trouble is that Burma’s military leaders have little idea of what tourists want to see in their country. The sleepy Hotels and Tourism Ministry moved to the new capital Naypyidaw, central Burma, in 2005. The irony is there is not much the ministry can do from there to lure tourists.
Consequently, local people and some tour guides in Rangoon told me that it is not the boycott campaign alone that is hurting tourism, but the regime must also share the blame.
I still think the famous tombs in Rangoon, including those of former UN Secretary General U Thant, independence hero Aung San, and Burma’s last queen Suphayalat, should be perfect tourist sites, but they lie neglected and overgrown.
Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who asked tourists to avoid Burma until democracy is restored, thought of tourism and its impact. She once confided to a visiting diplomat that if her party had been in power, the construction of Traders Hotel so close to the Sule pagoda in downtown Rangoon would not have been approved. But such thoughts and any helpful advice on tourism fall on deaf ears.
Just before the regime launched the tourism campaign in 1996, a local business magazine, Dana, prepared an article outlining prospects for tourism in Burma. The article contained some interesting points, including offering advice on how the country should promote eco-tourism, business and cultural tourism. The article urged Burma to focus more on economic development, agriculture and exports. The regime’s notorious censorship board axed the article.
Tourism is certainly a mixed bag.
But at the end of the day, tourism could become one of the main sources of income in Burma. Thus, private sector and tourism officials in Burma should be on their guard to prevent overdevelopment and should learn the downside of tourism from the experience of neighboring countries.
Some Burma-based tour companies I spoke to talked about responsible tourism, eco-tourism, and quality tourism, but also community-based travelers programs such as home stays, ethno-museums, and educational programs that bring tourist dollars directly into communities.
Whether tourists can also encourage democracy in Burma is doubtful. When Suu Kyi was asked by a journalist whether democracy could be promoted and human rights abuses prevented more effectively by tourists than by international isolation, she shot back: “Burmese people know their own problems better than anyone else. They know what they want—they want democracy—and many have died for it. To suggest that there’s anything new that tourists can teach the people of Burma about their own situation is not simply patronizing—it’s also racist.”
True. Although more tourists have been visiting Burma in recent years, we have also seen the regime continue to imprison activists, put pressure on international NGOs, turn a deaf ear to the UN and increase its repression of ethnic minorities.
Thus, if tourists open up the world to the people of Burma so can the people of Burma open the eyes of tourists to the situation in their own country, if they are interested in looking.
In fact, tourists do not normally care whether a country is ruled by a dictator or a democrat. As long as they feel safe and sufficient facilities are provided, they will visit any exotic place. Hence, we see increasing numbers of tourists flock into Laos, Vietnam, China and Singapore.
As I am not a campaign activist, it is not my business to tell tourists to go or not to go. If you go, that is your decision.
But Burma is a moral minefield. If you want to be politically correct, you won’t go. But if you have doubts about the boycott campaign and want to see Burma with your own eyes, then I think you’d better buy a ticket now.
But if you do go, I ask you to be a guest of those ordinary Burmese people who also want to be able to travel, free from military dictatorship.
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So you%26rsquo;re planning to visit Burma? Then read this first%26hellip;
Fair comments....
The Lonely Planet guide book choose to spend 10 of it’s front pages on this issue.
While many who go may not care about who are in power and how many people are living in poverty or imprisoned for political reasons,
I%26#39;d say that many of us do.
I do support your last comment about minimising the money going to the government... but alas, it’s not money or the lack thereof that will change the ways for the marginalised in Myanmar society.
I%26#39;m sorry, I do not support the embargo.
I did go... and intend to go there again.... Tourism is one way for the world to see with our own eyes what’s happening.... Witnessing first hand the struggles of the people of Myanmar and hopefully broaden the understanding of the political issues involved, both in Myanmar and in our own respective countries.
So you%26rsquo;re planning to visit Burma? Then read this first%26hellip;
Exclusion is not the answer. Why intent on isolating the people of Burma/Myanmar through no fault of their own making. Nor, for that matter, economic sanctions.
What has the US/UK led dual policy of economic sanctions and stopping tourism achieved in the past 10 years? The only thing ever the economic sanctions in particluar has achieved is that the military has been able to enrich itself while the people had to suffer and continue to endure hardship and poverty.
Tourists have 2 very important effects on a country like Burma. They help keep the people in touch with the outside world; and they are the eyes and ears for the world.
To maintain the natural eco-system in Burma: To be fair the current policy in Burma of not allowing multistorey hotels along the beaches, for example, like in Phuket, Bali; not allowing speed boats in Ngapali (apparently no more permission - to date- after one hotel got one, and it%26#39;s effects realised) needs to be commended. In any case, the fact is you can%26#39;t influence the policies and yet keep the people excluded and isolated. It will become more important when much greater hotel capacities are needed.
The military in Burma is very well capable of looking after itself , especially with ';friends'; around the region like China and now India supplying it with military hardware and finance. India used to be very much against the military regime in the past, but now it has changed it%26#39;s tune in competition with China. So the arguments that the tourists%26#39; dollars help support the regime sounded a bit hollow.
The world should now wake up, after 10 years of the past experience, to think of much more clever ways to help the people of Burma than going on about isolating the people and economic sanctions.
My conscious is very clear when I answer questions from foreign visitors whether they should visit Burma/Myanmar or not.
This writeup is certainly fair enough. Please remember that the author (and others from exiled groups) have political agendas which they are pursuing. Everything is not always as it seems, on both sides of the disputes here.
I have decided to visit Burma after very many years of indecision. i have recently been involved with a Burmese dissadent%26#39;s efforts to remain in the UK and I now have morally legitimate reasons to go. However I am keen to avoid putting money, however small, into the obscene governments pocket. The question is where does one find a source of genuinely private guides, transport, and accomodation etc??
Impossible to avoid putting SOME money into the government%26#39;s coffers. Use common sense. If you are patronizing a business that produces a carbon copy of receipt for you, some of the money will likely go to the government. If you buy something from a street vendor or hire a private guide (i.e., NOT from an agency,) none of that (or a minute amount) will likely make its way to the government. Any kind of transport, even if you hire a private vehicle, will benefit the government. They make money from the sale of gasoline (petrol.)
I suggest that you and everyone else who spends hours agonizing over how to avoid giving money to the government think of this instead: the junta does not make significant money on tourism. The big hotels pay any taxes simply because they all operate at a substantial loss, and many of them are joint ventures. If you look around on the web many Burma scholars (not people with political interests) actually believe that the junta LOSES money on tourism, and that the only reason they continue to allow it is because it releases some of the pressure from the international community.
Please remember that many of your expectations will likely be smashed when you are there, and the issues that seem clear cut before you leave will become rather blurred.
I%26#39;m living in downtown Yangon at present %26amp; I can tell you the same thing that has been said time %26amp; time again, Burmese people are struggling. The many shop owners that I have been in contact with struggle with their business because there are no tourists,local people have very little money to spend. There is money here, %26amp; like most countries in the world, it is only the very small percentage that have it. The rickshaw %26amp; taxi drivers are plenty but the customers are not. I own a car here but decide not to use it everyday, I get taxis to downtown %26amp; rickshaws around town, the couple of dollars that these guys can earn makes a small difference, but it%26#39;s a difference between having some money %26amp; no money. Usually a few times a week I get in to a cab, the cab driver wants to practise his English on me, takes me around town the long way to show me the sites, drops me off at my destination %26amp; doesn%26#39;t want paying, it was his pleasure to show me his city %26amp; is very happy that I have decided to live in yangon. No matter how many times this happens to me it still brings a lump to my throat %26amp; I always pay over the going rate.
In my short time here in Yangon I have found the Burmese people the most charming, kind %26amp; tender people I have ever met. Their generosity to foreign people is the most amazing I have ever experienced %26amp; I havn%26#39;t even ventured outside of Yangon yet.
I%26#39;m going to be writing some reports here %26amp; on other sites about living in Myanmar as a foreigner %26amp; hoping that some people read it %26amp; decide to come. I can honestly say that if my first month in Myanmar is anything to go by, it%26#39;s going to be the most amazing 3yrs of my life. It%26#39;s a privilage to be here.
BZRV
So delighted to read your posting and that you have settled in so well.
I hope your words help the ';ditherers'; who are undecided whether to visit.
If sensibly planned - by choosing the right guides ,the right hotels and transport- then most of their $%26#39;s will end up in the hands of the Burmese people.
How wonderful an opportunity to be able to live and work in Myanmar. Thanks so much for your observations and views.
Many monasteries in Yangon and in the townships have English classes for which the pupils will offer rice, water or fruit. If you have any spare time, you can volunteer your services to help teach a bunch of kids. It%26#39;s quite an experience. They will hang on to every syllable you utter, and you could be impacting many of their lives. A good number of guides learned English from monks and other volunteers in classes like these.
I read lonely planet too and heaven forbid I am going on an organized tour. Sorry but I have a handicap so it is best for me. However I am balancing this with donations to 2 schools which I have found due to to 2 great contributors to this forum
Don%26#39;t beat yourself up. Trust me, regular people will be happy to have you there.
