To boycott or not to boycott?
Critics of the military regime say tourist dollars help perpetuate Burma's repression
source :The Toronto Star
Martin Regg Cohn
ASIAN BUREAU
BAGAN, Burma - THE HOT air balloon soars over a panorama of ancient Buddhist temples at sunrise. The setting is sublime but quickly turns surreal. Once the tour group touches down on a farmer's field, the balloon's breathless crew pour glasses of chilled champagne for the paying passengers - while impoverished villagers stare in silence.
The contrast between luxury travel and local living conditions couldn't be greater that in this tortured Southeast Asian nation.
To foreigners breezing through Burma, it seems a land of smiling faces, unspoiled colonial architecture and magnificent Buddhist history. But behind the veneer of tropical paradise lies an iron-fisted military regime that tramples on human rights and builds golf courses for army officers while cheating villagers of decent education or health care.
In the decade since the military massacred protesters, cancelled an opposition election victory and closed universities to punish student activists, the country has bankrupted itself - morally and financially. Now, it is counting on infusions of hard currency from visitors to shore up its sagging image and finances.
Against that backdrop, what's the well-meaning, fun-loving foreign tourist to do? Should travellers eschew the grandeur of the sumptuously restored Strand Hotel in post-colonial Rangoon, where teak-panelled rooms range from $525 to $1,350 a night?
For opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her resistance to the regime and who remains under house arrest in the capital, there is no dilemma. Foreigners should simply stay away, to avoid shoring up an illegitimate regime.
``I still think that people should not come to Burma because the bulk of the money from tourism goes straight into the pockets of the generals,'' Suu Kyi said in 1999. ``If tourists really wanted to find out what's happening in Burma, it's better if they stay at home and read some of the many human-rights reports there are.''
It's hard for tourists to close their eyes to the abuses, such as the thousands of residents the government has dragooned for forced labour projects. Leaving the Mandalay airport for the drive into town - the road was built with forced labour, according to the Burmese opposition - visitors can still see child labourers working on the paving crews.
In Bagan, one of the world's most remarkable Buddhist sites, the influx of tourist dollars has clearly benefited the economy. But development remains uneven. To enhance the appeal of Bagan's Buddhist temples, the military moved thousands of residents to a neighbouring township.
There is now electricity 24 hours a day, but the power lines bypass many villagers, who are also banned from cutting firewood.There is a multi-million-dollar museum showing off Buddhist artefacts, but not enough money to run the local hospital.
Such scenes have given ammunition to pro-democracy groups calling for a boycott.
When guidebook company Lonely Planet produced a new edition on Burma last year, a British lobby group, Tourism Concern, called for a boycott of the publisher, including a postcard campaign that proclaimed: ``The cost of a holiday in Burma could be someone's life.''
Another group, the Burma Relief Centre, made a point of returning corporate donations from Lonely Planet because it objected to the guidebook.But Lonely Planet's founder, Tony Wheeler, makes no apologies and plans to reprint the guidebook shortly with a personal essay, based on an investigative trip to Burma last month. He met foreign ambassadors, talked with travel operators and came away convinced that tourism can help people break out of poverty and isolation.
``There are lots of people who make their living from the tourism business,'' he said in an interview.``They would be unemployed if these boycotters had their way.''
The publisher of the Rough Guides series disagrees. It recently announced that as long as the military remains in power and the opposition opposes tourism, ``Rough Guides will not publish a guide to the country.''
Beyond the rhetoric, it's clear that many Burmese view tourism as a two-way street. Ordinary people had little hesitation in welcoming tourists, despite the glaring contradictions and hardships.While disdaining investment projects by foreign corporations (Canada is now the country's second-biggest foreign investor), they draw a distinction between visits by individuals and tour groups.
``Without tourists, we would be blind,'' says one guide in his late 20s who still has not earned a degree because university classes were cancelled for years. His identity cannot be disclosed because talking to the foreign press is forbidden.He sympathizes with the political objective of boycotting Burma but argues that ordinary people as well as tour guides pay a heavy price for such isolation. Deprived of regular contact with foreigners, guides would miss the flow of information, encouragement - and money.
Private e-mails are illegal. Regular mail is routinely steamed open and the contents intercepted. Books, magazines and newspapers are censored. Sealed in cellophane, they are for sale only to foreigners at hotel bookshops.
`We have no access to the Internet,
just what we get from backpackers and visitors.
We have fruit from our orchard,
but we need food for our minds'
- An anonymous Burmese,
arguing that tourists bring news from outside
``We have no access to the Internet, just what we get from backpackers and visitors,'' says one university-educated man who is starved for books.``We have fruit from our orchard, but we need food for our minds.''
The country has become a popular tourist destination for French and Italian tour groups who are drawn to Burma's exotic allure. But there are few individual travellers from Canada, Britain or the U.S. Overall, only 150,000 tourists arrive in a typical year, generating about $50 million in revenue. By comparison, neighbouring Thailand attracts about 8 million visitors and earns about $12 billion annually.
According to the Myanmar Investment Commission, about 15 per cent of the more than $11 billion in foreign investment over the past decade went into hotels and the tourism industry. Today, hotels with low occupancy rates are shutting down or converting their ballrooms into discotheques.
Of those foreigners who visit, many flit through Burma oblivious to its hardships. Tour groups are typically whisked from one sightseeing stop to another, with little opportunity for genuine interaction with Burmese, who are closely watched by government informers.
``You don't see soldiers with guns on the streets, but military intelligence is everywhere,'' says one Burmese man.
``We want our country to be free. When that happens, we will welcome foreign friends, as many as possible, including foreign investment.''
One Rangoon-based diplomat says she supported tourism initially as a way to enhance the exchange of ideas. But she now sees luxury tour groups as a money machine for the government, with visitors arriving - and leaving - in ignorance.
``I think tourism should be absolutely banned,'' the diplomat says.``Ninety per cent of tourists are rich people who don't even know there's a military regime here. They think it's so nice: Everyone smiles, it's sunny, it's pretty.''
The Canadian Friends of Burma, an Ottawa-based group of democracy activists, argues that ``tourism fuels oppression'' in a country where forced labour is commonplace.
``The bulk of tourism revenue goes straight to Burma's rulers, not to its impoverished peoples. Tourists cannot help contributing to the regime's wealth.''