My Myanmar dilemma: Should I boycott or not?

By Yeoh Siew Hoon

Sometime in the early 90s, I was given a special “tourist visa” to enter Myanmar from Thailand.

After years of a closed-door policy, the Burmese government was at that time flirting with the idea of tourism and had granted rights to an airline, Lanna Air, to fly between Chiang Mai and Mandalay.

Because I was classified as a travel writer, my visa was granted – after much paperwork, of course.

I remember being struck by firstly, how untouched and beautiful the country was and secondly, how gentle and almost shy its people were – almost like deer scared of being caught in the headlights.

We had a driver, a tour guide and a man in sunglasses whose identity we never found out. The tour guide, April, was the most cautious, politically correct guide I had ever met, almost like the guide I had in Lhasa, Tibet, a few years after.

The man with sunglasses didn’t speak a word, never smiled and was always on my tail wherever I went. His mission, we suspected, was to ensure I did not speak to any locals. Once, a group of curious young boys gathered round me at a temple site, and he shooed them away.

We would break from our official itinerary and wander into little tea shops and eating places not on the official tourist route; and he would always be within spitting distance.

When we walked in, the locals would look up with curiosity but always with a welcoming smile. But as soon as he stepped in, the level of chatter would die down, conversations would be hushed and sidelong glances exchanged.

I remember thinking then what an atmosphere of fear for such gentle people to live under.

Fast forward a decade and more to now and I suspect a similar mood prevails.

Reading a report in the IHT this week about “Voices from Myanmar tell of a people under siege”, reporter Seth Mydans quotes a young man, “There is no more connection between people. It’s been broken. In our neighbourhood, the security groups will arrest anyone who is heard talking about these events.

“Even at tea shops, we can’t talk about these things. These thugs will remember who you are and come to arrest you. We can only talk to people we know on the street and never to strangers now.”

Words that brought back haunting memories of that first visit – he could almost be describing what I felt then.

Since then, I have returned to Myanmar several times and fallen in love with it a little more each and every visit. It is a country whose beauty, drama and tragedy touches you like no other place in Asia.

I have been resolute in my belief that boycotting travel to Myanmar would only hurt the very people we wish to help. To the military junta, rich and fat from their gems and drugs (Myanmar is now the second largest exporter of drugs, a label they ought to be ashamed of), a tourism boycott would be like a pin prick on an elephant’s behind.

But lately, I have found myself wavering, especially after watching video footage smuggled out by brave souls such as Al Jazeera’s Tony Birtley, who went undercover in Myanmar to report exclusively on the people’s protests and resulting bloody
crackdown.

I have found myself asking the unthinkable – if a total tourism boycott, along with a slew of other sanctions, might actually be what those stubborn, desperate, angry old men need to jolt them from their ivory tower.

At dinner last week, I discussed the move by the major gems manufacturers to boycott gems from Myanmar. A businessman who spent time in the diamond trade said, “Someone will always want a cheaper gem or stone and someone will always find a way to get them out.”

He dismissed any such moves as “pure public relations” and “playing to politics”.

John Watson, chief of Diethelm Travel, has been the first travel executive to voice his opinion about the situation in Myanmar.

In the release which we ran in the Café last week, he writes, “It has been my long-held view that boycotts only harm the people and are not agents for change. Inter-governmental trade in raw materials and energy accounts for far greater economic sums than tourism, where the majority of money spent trickles down to the small businesses and individuals who need it most.”

His more important message is that the company will not be “laying anyone off, putting staff on short-time, or cutting pay. We will get through the downturn ahead together, and we view supporting our people in difficult times as a fundamental principle of a caring employer who has operated in Myanmar for over a decade”.

I believe that the majority of the internationally-run travel and tourism companies will uphold that principle.

As for whether one should travel to Myanmar at this time, I am of the Ayn Rand school of thought. I dislike being told what to do by groups. It is an individual choice.

I suspect though with airlines cutting back on flights, major tour operators putting on hold their Burma programmes to wait-and-see, the continuing media spotlight which will constantly remind people of what is happening in the country and with so much choice out there where one can travel to without having to struggle with one’s conscience, individuals will find that decision easier than harder to make.

Which, if you look at it, is a bloody shame because Myanmar has so much going for it – if only those old men would stop wanting to turn back the clock to their idea of Dinotopia.

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