The Hidden History of Burma by Thant Myint-U

Author:Thant Myint-U
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Epub3
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

ON NEW YEAR’S DAY, Nay Win Maung died from a heart attack. He was forty-nine years old. He had been a crucial catalyst in the reform process so far. He was also a coordinator. He had become a trusted aide of Aung Min and Soe Thane—the ministers closest to the president. And he had supported Shwe Mann in his attempts to bring life to the new parliament. To these most senior leaders he sent boxed sets of DVDs of The West Wing so they could better familiarize themselves with the workings of a democratic government. I communicated with him daily and saw him frequently, as did dozens of others, including diplomats and UN officials.

Over the previous months, he had begun to see his work bear fruit. He pushed himself harder as a result. Even after his heart attack in the early hours, before he died that morning, he was still on his mobile phone, relaying thoughts for the president’s meeting with George Soros the next day. Shwe Mann, Soe Thane, and Aung Min immediately sent their condolences. Aung San Suu Kyi visited the Egress office a few days later, to pay her respects and see a photo display about Nay Win Maung’s life put together by his former students. With his death, one of the few people who might have brought Burma’s disparate factions together was gone. It was an irreparable loss.

For a while, though, the positive news kept coming. On January 12, a government team led by Aung Min agreed to a ceasefire with the Karen National Union, the oldest rebel group in Burma and the longest-running insurgency in the world. A day later, as part of a separate process shepherded by Soe Thane, hundreds of political prisoners were released, among them the organizers of the 1988 uprising, the Buddhist monks who led protests in 2007, and activists from many different ethnic minority communities. Freed as well that January was Khin Nyunt, the old spy chief who had been jailed in 2004. Not long after, the government would remove nearly all the 2,000 names on the official blacklist, effectively allowing anyone, including those who had until recently been seen as a threat to national security, to obtain a visa and come and go as they pleased.

Many of the reforms of 2011–12 were the results of efforts by individuals who took advantage of a new dynamic to finally do something positive for their country. Aung Min and Soe Thane were vital in convincing Thein Sein to take risks in a reformist direction. But others also played key roles. Aung Kyi, for example, was then minister of labor. Also a former army general, he was now working hard to stamp out one of the old regime’s worst legacies: the use of forced labor. The practice had died down considerably over the past years, but legislation permitting it was still on the books. Because of this, Burma was under International Labour Organization restrictions, which in turn were linked to European Union sanctions.

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