Zaw Lin Hteik is currently the only Stanford undergraduate from Myanmar, a country of 46 million people in Southeast Asia that is also known as Burma. He’s a freshman struggling through the normal adjustment to college life, with the additional burden of living 36 hours and three plane rides from Rangoon, the capital of Burma, where he had lived his entire life before coming to Stanford.
Although the military government that took control of the country adopted the name Myanmar in 1989, the United States has never recognized the current government, and still officially calls the country Burma. While Zaw Lin Hteik bears a passport from Myanmar, his U.S. visa identifies him as being from Burma.
Burma has recently had a slight loosening of restrictions with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize winner and arguably the world’s most famous political prisoner. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won the democratic elections in 1990, but the military has never allowed her party to take power. Still, there is no thriving democratic movement. The last peaceful protests in Burma took place in 1988 and were crushed by the military, resulting in about 3,000 deaths.
Yesterday, The Daily sat down with Zaw Lin Hteik to talk to him about his experiences at Stanford and his take on politics at home.
The Daily: What’s it like being the first Burmese student here?
Zaw Lin Hteik: First of all, I feel kind of proud, you know, for my friends and my country. Another thing is I feel kind of lonely because I don’t have any Burmese students to talk to in my language.
TD: What made you want to come to the United States?
ZLH: Nowadays most of the students from my country go abroad after their high school education, at least to Malaysia, or Singapore, or another Southeast Asian country for education. Also, many students go to the States because they believe that it’s the best place for education. People in my country, like parents, they are very proud when their students come to the United States.
People are now more interested in coming to the United States. When I took the SAT, there were about 40 students who took the test. Then, this year, there are more like 150-200 students in the whole country taking the SAT. It seems like it is becoming more popular. Three or four years ago there were just two or three people taking the SAT.
TD: Why do students leave Burma for an education? Does that have to do with your government?
ZLH: [The government] is trying to change policies and improve the education system; however, in my country we don’t have much technology, even compared to Thailand, our neighboring country. Technology is very different. [Students] are quite sure [they] will get a better education abroad.
TD: Do you think the education will improve in Burma? Do you think there will be a time in the future when people stay?
ZLH: I don’t think there will be many bigger changes because we don’t have technology.
TD: Tell us a little about the government. It’s a military dictatorship, correct?
ZLH: Yes, but when I left my country, two or three months ago, the political situation was not very stable; people were kind of expecting a change. As far as I know, there hasn’t been a change yet. People are also quiet; they don’t take any initiative. At the moment, it’s kind of stable, but people are expecting a change. Usually [at home] we do not talk about politics at all.
TD: What’s the economic situation in Burma?
ZLH: Well, currently, two months ago, inflation was very, very high.
TD: Did that make it hard to save, and hard to have a stable income?
ZLH: Yes. Prices really were rising faster than incomes.
TD: So, the people generally don’t support the government, but no one wants to speak out against it?
ZLH: The media is somewhat controlled. It’s kind of the nature of the Burmese people. Even in history, Burmese people were very content with their life. They don’t try to change things. They will just focus on their life. Even when our country was a British colony, it was the same. It’s kind of a Burmese trait; people are very content with what they have. They just focus on their own life. It may be kind of the religion [Buddhism], as well.
TD: Do you have access to any media besides the state-controlled press in Burma?
ZLH: There are some weekly newspapers these days; they seem to be very informative. But they’re not for everyone. They’re a little expensive. Only the middle class can buy them, not the lower class.
TD: Do you have access to the Internet in Burma?
ZLH: They are trying to give us more access. Both the government and a private company are trying to give us access, but access is very expensive. We can’t get access to some sites, especially adult sites, gambling sites and maybe some political sites; I’m not sure. Most people still don’t have Internet access.
TD: What was it like coming to a country and speaking a language you’d never spoken before?
ZLH: It takes some time to get used to it. I often get lost. When I’m talking with a person one-on-one, it’s OK. When I’m talking at a dining table with four or five native speakers, I usually get silent. Because the stuff they’re talking about, I’m usually not very familiar with. I really miss talking in my language. When I talked on the phone with Burmese friends in other colleges, I was so, so happy. I’d never spoken English in school before I got here. I just learned it.