A Song for Myanmar

(This story is dedicated to the youths of Myanmar who risked their lives during the 1988 uprising. Many perished on the streets of Rangoon and in the jungles of Thai-Myanmar border. Many eventually relocated to third countries and some discovered love and soul mates along the way. The story was written in the winter of early 2012 when the secretary Clinton made a historic trip to Myanmar. Since then, further changes had taken place in the political landscape of Myanmar and sadly history may be repeating again with the 2021 military coup, birth of PDFs and the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine reversing the course of Glasnost. Some of the narrative in the story may seemed a bit outdated but the general theme and the characters in the story still ring true.) 

I follow the Moskva

Down to Gorky Park

Listening to the wind of change:

Those are the opening lines of one of Maung Ba Oo’s favorite songs, “Wind of Change” by the German band “Scorpions”. Of course, it is preceded by the famous “whistle” chorus. Supposedly the band’s front man Klaus Meine wrote this song during his visit to Moscow in 1989 in a tribute to the Perestroika and Glasnost fever that was sweeping across the Russian landscape under Mikhail Gorbachev at that time. He said he was following the river Moskva heading down to the famous Gorky Park while listening to the wind of change all the way long. How befitting? It was an instant hit and also became a song that Ba Oo had immensely enjoyed while wondering when he could sing a similar song for his country too.

Buddhism teaches that “Nothing is permanent”. He sincerely hopes that it applies true to the recent changes in his motherland Myanmar which is formerly known as Burma. It has been long overdue. The winds of change took place in the rest of the world quite a while ago starting from the collapse of the Berlin Wall to the end of the communism, to the fall of many dictatorial regimes in the Eastern Europe and capping with a recent Arab Spring in 2011. And for once it seemed Myanmar too was heading in the same direction with the democracy movements in 1988 that he had participated. Many had thought Myanmar would be joining the rest of the world during the last few days of the cold war. But the uprising was brutally crushed and subsequently things became even worse than the former socialist cum military regime of 1962-88. Yet the glimmer of hope had always been the resilience of his countrymen and women led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the activist, who was put under house arrest for close to 16 of the last 23 years. For most of the Myanmar people, she is simply known as “The Lady”. But the current crop of Myanmar generals who had formed a civilian government a year ago seemed more reform minded than before leading to a recent shift of political winds in Myanmar. Are we finally witnessing a “Myanmar Perestroika”? Is the “military dictatorship” in Myanmar entering its final chapters? He is cautiously optimistic that a new era may be ushering in. Will he be able to hum his favorite song “Wind of Change” all once again? And how about his own intimate moments of that era? Suppressed memories of the past two decades escaped to the realms of the present day. But a little synopsis of recent changes in Myanmar has to come first to give a perspective to those who are unfamiliar with the country.

For starters, the nightmare began in 1962 when General Ne Win came into power following a military coup. Since then and till 1988, there were many instances where the citizenry came up protesting his dictatorship but none ever came close to toppling him and his sham socialist government till 1988 at which point people thought they had finally seen the dictatorship at its deathbed. But they were inexperienced, fractious, disunited and perhaps euphoric. Or the military was more brainwashed than they had believed. Another coup by the army ended the uprising by brutally shooting down thousands of protesters. Daw Su (Aung San Suu Kyi), the daughter of the national hero General Aung San who fought against the British imperialism, was one of the main opposition leaders if not the main one. But she had just returned to Myanmar the previous year from decades long stay in overseas after getting married to an English man and raising a family in England. She hadn’t laid down her roots deeply yet in a sense. But she decided to continue fighting for the people of Myanmar instead of returning to her cozy family life in the west. She paid dearly for that decision. For the next 23 years, she and her political party were constantly harassed by the military government led by successive generations of generals. She was put under house arrest by the ridiculous laws that could only exist in a country like Myanmar. She was offered a permission to leave the country at any time should she desired. But she knew that she would never be allowed back once she had departed Myanmar. So, she put up with the hardships and stayed on. She was almost assassinated at one point. Her sons grew up without a mother during those times and her husband passed away from cancer in her absence. Of course, all those sacrifices didn’t go unnoticed. Where many other opposition leaders faded away or retired one after another, her star kept on shining year after year. The whole country adored her. She was offered countless awards from the international community including a Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. She had inspired a whole generation of world’s leaders. Yet the military government remained unfazed throughout those years. Sanctions from the west didn’t flinch them. United Nations was powerless despite repeatedly sending special envoys. As years passed it seemed Myanmar was going to witness the leader waste away by simply growing old. Or so most thought till the early 2011.

The military held a rigged election in November 2010. Surprisingly the new civilian government led by a former fourth tier general, U Thein Sein, had broken away from the shadow of the past generals and had introduced reforms, albeit in baby steps. They first released Daw Su followed by a few other political prisoners. They had given more media freedom allowing citizens to criticize the government, again in Lilliputian natures. But those meant a lot in the tumultuous short history of modern Myanmar given how repressive the previous regimes were. Granted there still are thousands of political prisoners behind the bars. They have a track record of breaking promises and cheating the international community. They had played the bad cop, good cop scenario before (for example between General Khin Nyunt and the other hardliner generals) fooling the rest of the world. But the single most difference this time is U Thein Sein’s public recognition of Daw Su and the admission that he had talked to her and that he was willing to work with her for the benefit of the country during the recent ASEAN Bali conference. Previously Daw Suu was treated as if she didn’t exist and most often referred to as “that woman” in the official media. Of course, the equal credit goes to Daw Su. Gone are the early days of her party which had publicly asked for a Nuremberg style court martial of the former military leaders for their handling of 8888 affair where many protesters were shot to death. That had made the hard liners in the military very queasy and provided no room for the moderate military leaders to maneuver or negotiate. This time she had kept a firm stance but a low profile. She had remained mum about her former staunch demands such as the present government be dissolved or her party be handed over the power to form a new government since it won the election in 1990 the results of which the former military regime had nullified. And despite her many years of detention, she remained magnanimous and offered her availability for discussion on national reconciliation at any time. For the record, U Thein Sein’s government still has a long way to go from achieving the state of a truly reformed institution or a real Perestroika before he can be bestowed with the title Gorba Sein! And the constitution based on which this civilian government was elected still had many flaws.

But encouraged by such a shift in the political winds, the Obama administration and the United States had taken a huge gamble in deciding to reward Myanmar in their carrot and stick strategy. They didn’t want Myanmar to become a China’s minion either. First came the East Asian and Pacific Affairs Assistant Secretary Kurt Campbell’s visit to Myanmar followed by the nomination of Derek Mitchell as Special Representative and Policy Coordinator for Myanmar in mid-2011. But the most profound policy shift came in November 2011 when President Obama announced that he will be sending the secretary of state Hillary Clinton to Myanmar. That was huge since USA didn’t even have an ambassador anymore in Myanmar. In protest of the oppressive military regime, the United States had long downgraded its representation in Myanmar by recalling its ambassador in the 90s. Its highest diplomatic officer in Myanmar had been a Charge d’Affaires. Economic sanctions had been put in place and the State Department had banned issuing visit visas to the high-ranking Myanmar government officials. The last time a high-ranking US government official such as a secretary of state visited Myanmar was fifty-five years ago by the then secretary John Dulles. So, this was historic. Finally in the first week of December secretary Clinton visited Burma for three days meeting with both U Thein Sein and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The graceful pictures of the world’s two most famous women hugging each other affectionately were plastered in the front pages of all the major newspapers and will ever be enshrined as wall posters at many Myanmar households. And Secretary Clinton was followed by a flurry of visits by other notables that included British Foreign Secretary William Hague, which was another first in the past fifty years and the billionaire activist George Soros within the past few weeks.

Understandably there are many doubters given the bad rap of the military regime. Some worried that the west and the opposition were giving in too soon and too much. But for  Ba Oo, this is the right path to be pursued. Look at how many decades Myanmar had lost already due to internal infightings? From the rice bowl and the most educated of the south East Asia to one of the world’s poorest countries in fifty years. Do we want to waste another twenty years remaining in a stalemate? A change of course is direly needed. He wants to be cautiously optimistic while standing fully behind Daw Suu. And he wants to be able to whistle his favorite song again, just like he was in England in the 90s. A walk down the memory lane became inevitable.

Following the 8888 uprisings, like many young students and intellectuals who had participated in the movement, he ran away to the Thai-Myanmar border with a dream of forming a student army when military started the crackdown. But life in the jungle was much tougher than expected for a city slicker like him. He then was a freshly minted idealist medical doctor who had graduated from the Institute of Medicine, Rangoon just the year prior. Revolutionary fever rather disappeared quickly when one had to battle malaria, soaking monsoon rains, constant hunger, lack of funds, political bickering among the fellow freedom fighters and a vastly outnumbered and out armed Myanmar Army in the jungles along the Thaungyin River (Moei River) and the Karen Hills on a daily basis. He very soon learned the bitter truth about the fatal flaw in their strategy too. It was that they would never be able to liberate the nation in this armed struggle format. The last straw was when his close friend platoon medic Tun Myint of ABSDF Regiment 102 was killed by a friendly fire in the Battle of Naw Ta. He swallowed the pride, admitted to himself that he is no Che Guevara and decided to quit then. He gave up the arms, slipped into Thailand via the Three Pagoda Pass, applied for a political asylum through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and was eventually relocated to England. He also decided to resume and focus on his medical career there.

It was the Christmas weekend of 1991 in England. By then he had passed the arduous Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) exam, suffered through the initial hardships of an immigrant doctor, earned his stripes and had finally secured a job working as a senior house officer at Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle, a city in northern England. A lot of changes were taking place in the Eastern Europe then. The communism was in its last flicker. The Berlin wall had come down reuniting the two Germanys. Solidarity movement leader Lech Walesa had just become the president of Poland.  Perestroika and Glasnost were common household words. Gorbachev was more famous than Madonna. Befittingly the German band “Scorpions” had released its power ballad “Wind of Change” which became very popular at the discos especially as a song for the last dance. It became one of Maung Ba Oo’s favorite songs too.

Those days, the National Health Service (NHS) of England provided free accommodation to its junior doctors who were singles. Usually, it would be a tiny flat (apartment) with 3-4 bed rooms, a shared common area, a kitchen and a few bath rooms. Maung Ba Oo’s team was on call for that Christmas weekend of 1991. Everyone except the on-call persons had left the hospital for the holidays. His house officer for the past three months was a German girl named Kristin with whom he had grown quite close to. Unlike in the USA, UK teams were small and remained the same for 4-6 months whereas the team changes every month in USA. No wonder the house officers (interns) and the senior house officers (residents) often became quite close. Living in the hospital accommodation provided a college dorm atmosphere and improved the camaraderie too. In many nights it would not have been unusual to find a houseman knocking a couple of doors at 10 o’clock to start up an impromptu party. Half of the party goers were student nurses from the nearby nurses’ residences. Such were the days.

The workload at the hospital had been light that day and both finished work in the wards quite early in the evening. The Casualty (British term for the ER) looked promisingly empty. They had expected a quiet night and decided to return to their rooms. Kristin who lived in a different flat had invited Ba Oo to come over to her place after dinner to watch a few classic Christmas flicks. He decided to bring along a bottle of wine. That night somehow his shower took a couple of minutes longer than the usual and he was also found to be suddenly searching for his cologne bottle which he had otherwise used only about once a month. Snowflakes were coming down on his way across the lawn that divided the two flats. As expected, none of her flat mates were there, visiting their families during the holiday season. They had the living room and the TV all to themselves. Kristin must have just come out of the shower too. Her brunette hair looked still wet. She complimented on his cologne and asked what brand it was. He was quite embarrassed since it seemed too obvious and also since he couldn’t remember the name of his own cologne. She looked very casual in jeans and a simple blouse. She took out a plate of Liverwurst Pate’ and some crackers. Ba Oo opened his Pinot Noir and they both plunked down on the living room sofa after settling the drinks and the food on the table. As usual, the movie “It’s a wonderful life” was on the TV. Both of them had watched the movie before and knew the story line. So, they paid only a casual attention to the movie and started chatting. By then they had somewhat gotten to know each other’s personal lives after working together for the past three months. She had a boyfriend in Germany and planned to return to Germany for good within the next few months. She met her boyfriend after the German reunification and he was from former East Germany.

Hence the fall of Berlin wall had a special meaning to her. But she had also claimed that similar to the country’s reunification hiccups, the relationship had been more challenging than she had expected. They hadn’t met each other for a few months and she didn’t want to elaborate further. As for Ba Oo, he couldn’t tell much. He pretty much felt like a vagabond at that point, not knowing anybody in England. He didn’t know where he would end up eventually, returning to Myanmar if the political situation improved or move to America or to try to stay put in England. He had not been able to reach any of his family members for a few years. She was quite familiar with Myanmar and also of his past life as a student rebel, a topic that came up quite regularly in the conversations. She was more optimistic than him on reforms coming to Myanmar very soon, just like in her boyfriend’s country.

The topics were much more varied that night. They talked about the colleagues at the hospital, some light hearted gossips about other people, own hobbies, the site of the next hike they should go, food, music and movies while emptying the bottle of Pinot Noir between the two of them. It was getting close to midnight. Both had become a little tipsy. She would drift and leaned on his shoulder time and again. Next the song “Wind of Change” popped up in their conversation. Turned out it was one of her favorite songs too. Ba Oo mentioned that once his country become free and democratic, he would rewrite the lyrics as “I follow the Irrawaddy, down to Mandalay, listening to the wind of change”. Then he imitated the famous whistle. She chuckled and accused him of plagiarism but suggested they play the song as she had a CD of the album. She said it was a nice song for a slow dance. Somehow Ba Oo blurted out, “Then why don’t we dance to the song now?” Before he knew what he was doing, Ba Oo had turned off the light and was standing in the middle of the living room waiting for her to join him. Then suddenly the fear set in. What if she had taken this as an unwanted advance? This rejection was going to be quite painful. But to his pleasant surprise, she slowly got off the sofa, turned down the volume and joined him for the dance. She put her left hand on his shoulder and he had his right hand on her waist. In no time both were moving in harmony to the tune of music in near darkness. The only light came from the faint night lamp in her bedroom nearby. She rested her head on his shoulder with eyes closed. Her hair with a sweet citrus fragrance from the recent shampoo was brushing his face. Soon both bodies were locked in an embrace. She was warm and soft. He caressed her shoulders. She gently lifted up her face. Instinctively, he kissed her lips softly and found no resistance. They were sweet and warm. She responded in earnest. Two hungry hearts had met their equals. He held her even tighter. He kissed her passionately as if there were no tomorrow.

Outside the snow fall had become thicker. The crescent moon didn’t provide much of its usual silver-coated rays to ignite the night or bathe the room they were in. The whole world seemed to have stood still except for their heaving breaths. Even the music sounded mute. Occasionally they could hear the distant chime of the church bells. Finally, the song came to an end. Yet no one let go the other and they just didn’t care. Everything seemed to have drifted away in a slow motion. It was serene. The night was long and a journey had just begun.