Myanmar’s returning diaspora are anticipated yet still hesitant.
Since Myanmar opened up under the semi-civilian government in 2011, the diaspora have been encouraged to return.
As persecution on the basis of political activity or ethnicity is often the reason they left, many are reluctant to return permanently to what is an unclear political situation. As a result, brief stays are common. After so many years away from home, family and friends, it is difficult to image the experience of returning.
Twenty-four years after leaving his home for a new life in Australia, Saya Nai Tin Aye, my Burmese teacher, applied for a tourist visa to return to Myanmar. The process took longer than it does for regular tourists, as the Home Affairs, Foreign Affairs, and Immigration ministries must approve the application. It so happened that my trip to Myanmar would coincide with his. He invited me to visit his home village.
Nai Tin Aye, once president of the Australia Mon Association, is a softly spoken man, with a keen interest and knowledge of history. He has an inspiringly fastidious memory for dates. He left his home in Kawkareik Township, Kayin State in 1991. Formally a star volleyball player and school principal, he was well known and liked in the area. He also spent eight years in the armed resistance, living in the jungle and resisting the Tatmadaw (Burma Army).
In the 1990 elections, Nai Tin Aye worked for a local Mon politician. A warrant was issued for his arrest after authorities alleged irregularities in the campaign accounts. He fled to Thailand, registered with the UNHCR and was resettled in Australia in 1996. Between living in the jungle, Thailand and Australia, he has been away from his wife and three children for over 30 years.
Arriving in Nai Tin Aye’s village I was at somewhat of a loss; the place was considerably larger than I had expected, and I did not know the address. I hadn’t been able to make a telephone connection from Yangon. The motorcycle taxi driver who had reluctantly driven me out here suggested retiringly that I spend the night in a nearby town instead. We approached a group of men in a teashop, and our concerns eased. They had no doubt it was the Sayar Gyi (“principal” or “great teacher”) who we were looking for, and escorted us to his home.
Nai Tin Aye emerged from the house, happy that I had accepted his invitation, and relieved I had arrived despite not calling earlier in the week. He had been there two weeks already, and was evidently comfortable back home. In his longyi and shirt he switched between Mon, Burmese and English as he greeted us all. The house was concrete, with floorboards, a change from the bamboo huts he had left there.
Touring the village, an old friend approached for a chat, held hands with Nai Tin Aye and walked with us. They had been classmates in the village some 60 years ago. In the evening we ate soup and chicken curry, before retiring to watch the television, with Nai Tin Aye seated central to the scene. Before long, a blackout brought complete darkness to the neighbourhood, a regular occurrence. In a candle-lit discussion it was clear that Nai Tin Aye felt no discomfort, despite the differences from Canberra.
The ease of our journey reflects substantial changes in Myanmar, and makes it evident that the conditions for Myanmar people have improved in this short decade. As a former wanted man known for his anti-government activities, Nai Tin Aye could not have imagined returning to his country even five years ago. Old friends he met in his village said they thought they would never see him again. Free to travel through Kayin and Mon states, Nai Tin Aye was surprised at how much the villages have developed since 1991, and how crowded the roads have become.
In August 2011, the new quasi-military government began encouraging the diaspora to return home. The brain-drain which occurred after the 1962 military takeover meant that Myanmar lost many of its brightest and best-educated. It is not known how many more fled the country after the 1988 crackdown.
Both the government and diaspora are confident that the community can contribute to the political transition. Of course, the situation is complicated. Many have settled with families overseas. Furthermore, the procedure for permanent return is unclear, and the uncertainly is compounded by the uncertain political situation. While acknowledging improvements since 2011, many overseas Burmese are reluctant to return to what may be a precarious situation. Nai Tin Aye and others say they will consider returning once their status is transparent.
Throughout the three days I spent with Nai Tin Aye and family, I was struck by how proud he was. He walked tall, and his age and stature elevated him. He was proud to be back in the home he spent most of his life working and fighting for. Despite the overwhelming welcome he received, he remained humble, if confident and comfortable. I sensed his homecoming was relieving. It was also fulfilling, and he is proud of his work for change in Myanmar.
“To see my family and old friends again made me very happy,” he told me. “Now, my plans are to return for another visit in 2017. If the situation is clear, I will think about returning to live.”
The numerous sites around Mon State we visited included the famous Kyaikhtiyo Pagoda (on the Golden Rock), and the waterfront monastery of Kyaikkami, said to contain 11 Buddha hair relics. We ate with friends and family and stopped frequently for sweet Burmese tea. Each meal was preceded with a healthy serve of fish paste – something Nai Tin Aye had evidently missed considerably.
This was the first pilgrimage Nai Tin Aye had made to Kyaikhtiyo, the jewel of Mon State. After a long journey with family and friends he sat peacefully and content at the Golden Rock. He mediated, cross-legged in silence. On his trip to the pagoda he had this to say; “the first time, and, I think, the last time.”
He hopes however, to return home again.
James T. Davies is a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, Canberra.
Thank you for raising this important subject. The recent case of Timor Leste shows the important role a diaspora can play in a democratic transition. It also shows that the relations between “those who stayed” and “those who left” are not always easy.
A particular concern in the case of Myanmar is to ask the question to what extent has the experience of exile reinforced senses of ethnic difference, being part of a minority group, rather than a sense of being part of a larger Burmese national community? I note that the person cited in this article headed a Mon, not pan-Burmese, association in Australia.
My very limited personal contact with the Burmese diaspora in Europe has given me the impression that the experience of exile for the conveniently labelled ‘diaspora’ has accentuated ethno-religious senses of minority difference. The Rohingya (or Rakhine Muslims if you prefer) are an extreme case but there are examples amongst the Karens particularly.
ASSK, under house arrest and as a democratic icon provided a unifying rallying point for the diverse diaspora during the period of the military junta. Now she has, inevitably and with good reason, become a Bamar politician, to mix metaphors, will the “glue still stick”?
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Funny thing with Aung San Suu Kyi, this and that icon with plentiful glassware from around the world with Oford scholarship named after her, blah, blah, blah is that if you count the last 20 postings on Burma in New Mandala, there was only one about her and to get written she has to go all the way to China.
It is even funnier that if you watch Lord of the Rings, every time Saruman is mentioned, one cannot help remembering her! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saruman
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Is it too callus to think that the reason why many of these former Burmese nationals won’t be returning permanently is because they won’t have the same level of livelihood as they would in Australia?
It’s romantic to think of these brave souls, who fought a military regime, now returning “home” to continue the good fight toward greater political liberalization and democratization.
But in raw material terms, Nai Tin Aye would be taking a step down if he returned to his “homeland.”
Especially, if the poor fellow is coming from Australia, where the roads are better, the internet is faster, the electricity runs night and day, the water is safe to drink from the tap (though I grant maybe not so tasty), the healthcare is free and world-class, consumer goods of all kinds are readily available, and I’m guessing if he’s too old to work, the Aussie government assists him with a place to stay that is relatively safe, clean, and overall reliable.
In these basic material terms, well, Myanmar is kind of a crummy place to live in comparison. Remember, Nai Tin Aye and others like him aren’t coming to fourth world countries in SE Asia in order for excitement or to escape some tawdry bourgeois demons like so many westerners drawn to the exotic east.
Why is it we are so reluctant to recognize that despite leaving Myanmar for political reasons, people like this choose to stay away for economic reasons.
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You’re right. I can imagine that hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas would also love to come to Australia for purely economic reasons. The same is ttrue for all these migrants from Africa trying to get into Europe. This is the price you pay for “globalisation” in the modern capitalistic world (and you can write hundreds of politically correct Ph.D. theses about the social and cultural impact on various minority groups, not just in Burma!)
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Couldn’t agree more. Welcome to the brave new world of capitalist globalisation.
Free organised movement of international capital matched by a freefall of ‘irregular/illegal migration’ of international labour organised by another great capitalist enterprise – human trafficking.
Both Labour and Tory in the UK, not just the UKIP, play the immigration card nowadays, but never let on that the bosses want more immigration not less as a source of cheap labour, and go easy on the growing labour black market, at the expense of the local work force. Profits before people, the undeclared basic tenet of global capitalism.
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It’s great and inspirational to read about a Mon teacher. It’s sad to see Mon language and culture have been in a steep decline since the Burmese King Alaungpaya drove Mon people off from their heartlands. The rise of ultra-nationalist Alaungpaya clan was a “butterfly effect” in Burmese history, vanquishing the kingdoms of Arakan and Hanthawaddy, ravaging Ayutthaya, Manipur, Assam and giving birth to nationalist Burma. Mons remember this painful history vividly. I hope they would reunite to save their culture which is disappearing in Lower Burma.
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Perhaps, the Mons should reclaim the glorious Shwe Dagon Pagoda their ancestors had built in Dagon, later renamed Yangon (End of Strife) by the Bamar conquering king. And the Rakhines, the revered golden Maha Mya Muni Buddha image, carried away to Mandalay as war booty by Bamar invaders.
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I’m guessing the response will be a variation of the British response to the Greeks reclaiming the Elgin Marbles. At least these iconic ‘artefacts’ of religious veneration albeit war booty in the case of the Great Image of Arakan are not display pieces with triumphalist connotations in a museum.
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Combined with “power holder worship” innate in their mindset and cocooned under successive irresponsible, ruthless and short-sighted “rulers”, Burmese never get mature enough to overcome super-nationalistic chauvinism to realize all those killing, looting and thefts are not something to be proud of.
How can one expect these masses to think rationally in the current globally hysterical atmosphere of mis-information and calculatedly in calculated paranoia?
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. . . then, return the Great Image to Rakhine country where it belongs. It’s never too late.
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The ugly side of all nation states is their origin in conquest and enslavement. Both Myanmar and Thailand have developed little since their ugly origins. Unlike national cultures, the Great Culture that unites humanity celebrates diversity in the arts of all the world’s cultures. It does, however, work to extinguish their power structures, and their evidence-denying and chauvinistic beliefs.
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[…] As persecution on the basis of political activity or ethnicity is often the reason they left, many are reluctant to return permanently to what is an unclear political situation. As a result, brief stays are common. After so many years away from home, family and friends, it is difficult to image the experience of returning. Read more […]
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