We are back on the night train!
Heading south from Chiang Mai back to Bangkok for a hot
minute and then on to Hua Hin for a pre-Christmas R&R. We did not have nearly enough time to
appreciate all of Chiang Mai, and I think that’s going to be the story for most
of this trip – a sampler of Thailand and Burma, with 2-3 days in each location
and a lot of time on trains and planes in between. It’s enough to get a taste of the different
regions, but just enough to make us want to go back for more!
Chiang Mai was much less intense than Bangkok. Of course, we used about a whole day to get
over jetlag while we were there, and we had the luxury of staying with the
delightful and hospitable Stephan and Wan while we were in town. So we were in a good place to get our feet
back underneath us.
Even so, we did get a lot of ‘work’ done on our first day in
Thailand. Tuesday we managed to meet
Raymond from The Border Consortium, formerly the Burma Border Consortium – their name has changed due to the expanding
scope of the borders that they handle.
Ray seemed very busy, but managed to squeeze us into his schedule so
that we could interview him.
Photo of Ray - coming soon (it's on the hard drive)
The more people we talk to, the better we understand the
Burma situation. It’s a very interesting
time for people involved on all sides of the issue. Everybody that we speak to in Thailand about
the potential changes that are coming up in 2015 has a different perspective,
but they all have questions. The big
question seems to be: Where will all of
the Burmese residents of Thailand go after the 2015 election? (Ok, so perhaps the bigger question is, will
Aung San Suu Kyi become president in 2015, but that is a question for another
blog. For more opinions on that score,
visit the Democratic Voice of Burma website for a wealth of information about
the ongoing political upheavals in the region.)
But we’re talking about the people. Where will the Burmese people go in
2015? Will it be safe for them to return
to Myanmar? Will they be able to start a
life in Myanmar after (some) have been living in refugee camps for as many as
28 years? TBC does a lot of job training
for refugees living in the camps along the Thailand/Burma border, but will
these skills be useful in war-torn regions of tribal borderlands of Myanmar
riddled with landmines? Some people
wonder what will happen to the Thai economy if they lose the millions (about 2
million said one USAID worker that we interviewed) of low-wage Burmese workers
that have played a crucial part of Thailand’s growing economy for nearly the
last thirty years?
Most importantly, it seems, is whether or not it will be
safe for people to return. Than of the Democratic Voice of Burma expressed skepticism regarding the safety and security of Burma’s
leadership after the elections.
Than at the DVB headquarters
Will there be another coup?
Will the economy be strong enough to support its people? Will the infrastructures be sufficient to
support independent media organizations such as his that require free access to
internet, radio, and satellite television twenty-four hours a day, seven days a
week? Will free speech exist under the new
government, in whatever form it takes?
The questions, once they start coming, seem endless. The covers on the TBC reports speak
loudly. One picture shows Aung Sun Suu Kyi seated next to Thein Sein (check spelling), both in front of a portrait of
her father, each with a rather uncomfortable expression on their
faces. Aung Sun Suu Kyi herself was imprisoned for
twenty years and was only released from prison early in 2012. She is the elected chairperson for the National League for Democracy of Burma and stands a good chance
of replacing the man by her side, and leading the same country that her father
did, only under much different circumstances.
The other cover depicts a family, presumably in a refugee
camp in Thailand. The family is all
seated around a table with visions of their future dancing in thought bubbles
over their heads. The mother seems to be
remembering a country that surely doesn’t exist anymore. The father imagines the stark realities of
trying to start subsistence farming in a countryside filled with mines. The daughter imagines a bright future
attending a school. The son sees the
future as a metropolis filled with airplanes and skyscrapers. The baby’s image perfectly sums up the
region’s unpredictable future with question marks. Everyone knows that Myanmar is changing, but
no one knows exactly in what way it is changing and what that means.
It’s a blank slate that will take a lot of effort and
compromise to fill in a peaceful and equitable manner.
Vivian
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