Finding voice in the face of change

A Burmese skater posing with his board at Nanat Taw Bridge in Yangon. Photo by Ye Aung Thu/ AFP.
02 December 2013
A Burmese skater posing with his board at Nanat Taw Bridge in Yangon. Photo by Ye Aung Thu/ AFP.


Burma’s youth are the future of that country but are too often ignored or marginalised by the state and politics, writes Jacqueline Menager.

Last Friday I came face-to-face with one of the world’s most recognised political figures – Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

I was part of a group of ANU students given the chance to talk to ‘The Lady’ about my work on her country, before she received her honorary degree.

When I was asked for my thoughts, I wanted to offer reflections based on my last year of PhD field research in Yangon.

My research looks at elite young people in Yangon and how they fit into Myanmar’s evolution. In large part, they do not belong and are jolting conservative attitudes towards gender relations and repressive social mores, and discriminatory tendencies towards Myanmar’s minorities – something which Aung San Suu Kyi stated she too is working to change.

But, when I was sitting in the roundtable, I was struck by a glaring contradiction; here was Aung Sung Suu Kyi engaging with Australian students, while there is an absence of any explicit engagement by the state or politics with young people in Yangon.

Of course, the argument can be made that everything in Myanmar is political, and it is true that young people will often speak about the government when questioned. However, this is almost always in the abstract.

Young people lament their situation, their poor education system, the low wages and high unemployment, but it is rare for them to engage with the government or to consider its role in their lives in any meaningful way.

For the most part, they do not consider how the state can practically implement changes to the education system, healthcare infrastructure and economic opportunities. They have spent most of their lives avoiding the government rather than engaging it.

This is understandable when those who have spoken up or attempted to work with the system have faced persecution – Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest is but one example, and as she pointed out herself, a lenient one compared to her colleagues imprisoned, exiled or killed.

And this led me to three observations about young people and politics in Myanmar.

First, politicians are struggling to gain traction with young people. What is Naypyidaw to young people? I can tell you: it’s where the best skate park in Myanmar is.

Since the makeshift skate park in Yangon was knocked down a few years ago, the only real skate park left is in the new capital. The Myanmar Skate Association are campaigning to get a new one built in Yangon but, until then, they travel to Naypyidaw once a month.

The building of a skate park in Naypyidaw and not Yangon, where the majority of young people with an interest in the sport are, highlights the current government’s tokenism towards young people.

Second, politics can isolate young people. I remember talking with some rappers when the Press Scrutiny Board was dismantled late last year and was rather shocked when they replied with a simple “ho lah” (really?)

Now these are underground rappers, who have never released official albums as they would not have passed the censorship board. I was sure that the lifting of official censorship restrictions would be something they would know about. But no.

Instead, they have spent their lives skirting the censorship board’s rules and regulations: publishing their songs online and performing live. They have spent their lives developing strategies to work independent of government, as it was little more than an institution that sought to repress their creative abilities, for fear of their revolutionary potential.

Third, eloquence is everywhere. Young people in Yangon are some of the most intelligent and eloquent people I have ever met, in Burmese and in English.

Some of the most moving conversations I have had in Yangon have been with young people discussing religion, politics, gender inequalities, racial tolerance and ethnic politics. Over the last year it became clear to me that young people are perhaps the least jaded and most progressive in Myanmar.

Having spent the entirety of their lives under military rule, they are patently aware of the constraints of the military system. But they are more tolerant of religious difference and ethnic diversity than their elders, and more progressive in terms of female empowerment than their more entrenched conservative parents and grandparents.

Their voices represent the future of the country, and they have an important and valuable contribution to make to politics and their country.

Naypyidaw should not just be somewhere they go to skateboard, and they should not hear about the end of censorship from somebody like me. They should be in Naypyidaw ending censorship themselves.

Jacqueline Menager is a PhD candidate at the School of International, Political and Strategic Studies, ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.

 

 

Updated:  16 October, 2013/Responsible Officer:  Web Communications Coordinator/Page Contact:  Web Communications Coordinator