Battle of Wills in Myanmar

...I could almost see the fantasies of mysterious missiles emerging from the ether unfold in his head...

...Along the way we stopped at a store crammed with Western merchandise—Dewar's whisky, batteries, film, Nestle's coffee—where we were able to get a better rate of 110 kyats (the regular currency) to the dollar...

...The pagoda itself has benefited from new gilding, fresh silver paint and repairs of its ancient images...

...He not only didn't bat an eye, he was happy to take my FEC and give me change at a good rate in kyats...

...We were waved in together after a short wait and were greeted by her cousin, U Cho Aung Than...

...In late May, the generals sought to head off a 300-person conference it scheduled to mark the sixth anniversary of the 1990 election by arresting some 260 of the prospective delegates...

...General Maung Aye, the slorc Deputy Chairman, was subsequently quoted in the local press as promising the military would "resolutely annihilate" anyone threatening Myanmar's stability...

...Further details of the situation emerged the next day, Friday, when I interviewed a former Central Executive Committee member of the League for Democracy and Peace...

...He also told us that NLD's leaders had been placed under military intelligence surveillance...

...It is a maze of merchandise—everything from fabrics to silver boxes to plastic shoes...

...For a time he was kept in an 8' by 10' cell with 16 other prisoners...

...That worked well, given the official rate of 98 FEC for $100...

...Neither of us would be able to see her, he explained, because she was discussing with NLD leaders a crisis concerning the National Constitutional Convention being orchestrated by slorc...

...As I moved along I passed the chapels, one for each day of the eight-day Burmese week (Wednesday being split to accommodate two days...

...This party, founded in 1988 by independent Burma's first Prime Minister, U Nu, was deregistered in 1991...

...People sat in front of the barricades and on the walkway across University Avenue...

...In the next breath he admitted ruefully that you need a relative in the military to really pile up income...

...Their eyes moved back and forth over their assigned section of the crowd...

...Amid all this, Suu Kyi's unarmed guards stood stolidly in front of the gate and on both sides of the table that served as her platform...

...It won the 1990 elections for a new parliament, the last permitted in Myanmar, despite the fact that the junta then had her under house arrest—from which she was not released until July 1995...

...A substantial foreign press contingent was present, mostly from Japan (including the photographer), plus some from India and Hong Kong...

...The woman's emotional state indicated that the foreign community here is very edgy...

...It has been my experience that there is a way around almost everything in what used to be called Burma, and 1 was sure the FEC rule was no exception...

...Myanmar has changed markedly since my previous visit three years earlier...

...I asked him about the new buildings popping up like dandelions all over Yan-gon...

...Last November 29, Suu Kyi announced her party was quitting the Convention because it was "not heading toward democracy" and there was no evidence the people supported it...

...Much of it is being done by forced labor under the military's direction...

...When she came out, looking lovely in a blue traditional skirt and top with flowers in her hair, everyone got up and there was a great wave of applause, cheering and chanting...

...I expected someone to crash through a barrier, since the drivers' eyes were never on the road...

...But even if the people are willing to talk, they know very little about what is going on...

...Soon it dawned upon me that many of those driving by probably were reluctant to sit and listen for fear of suffering some form of retribution...

...They will kill her one day," the photographer observed...

...Now the government, they are really afraid of him," he said with glee...

...On June 7, the slorc mandated five- to 20-year jail terms for anyone engaging in such "destructive" activities...

...Her unanswered calls for dialogue began three days after her release from house arrest...

...And he has himself earned the military's displeasure...

...Now there are few rice paddies in sight...

...Like everyone I talked to, my interviewee predicted the slorc under Khin Nyunt would continue to fashion its own constitution and would take severe action against opponents...

...Myanmar, he lamented, is losing its middle class...

...I asked Gyi about Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) Party...

...Entry used to be free, but the slorc has introduced a 5 FEC fee for foreigners...

...Three years ago no one in Yangon would say anything to a foreigner, although once as I stood on a street comer waiting for a light to change a voice from somewhere in the crowd said, "The Army takes everything and leaves us nothing...

...Aung Than is frequently one of those who guard Suu Kyi each weekend when, from atop a table behind her gate, she speaks to her supporters...

...The photographer and I discussed the situation with Aung Than...

...Not far from the Shwedagon, a new pagoda commissioned by Ne Win is rising...

...Renovation is going on all over the country...

...The French couple and I therefore ended up checking into a less convenient guesthouse owned by a friend of Gyi's...

...KAREN SWENSON, a previous NL contributor, is a poet and a freelance journalist specializing in Southeast Asia...

...I am so tired after I have stood watch during a speech, I cannot stand anymore," he said...

...They had made transportation arrangements at a good price with a young driver, Gyi, and asked if I would like to go into town with them...

...Echoing Gyi, he added that people with the right connections get the lion's share of the new business opportunities, while the young are leaving to take jobs in Japan and Korea...

...The day before, the junta had reasserted its already existing ban on Suu Kyi's weekend speeches...

...As I turned to leave, I met a French couple I had talked to briefly in Bangkok...

...From Suu Kyi's house I went to what some refer to as Aung San Market, in honor of her father...

...The woman, who had an English accent, told me that after the NLD declared the Constitutional Convention a fraud, a junta member promised to "annihilate" anyone who obstructed its progress...

...As it crawled by, people hanging out of car windows, the backs of buses and trucks were waving...

...A sober Aung Than responded, "She is the only hope of my country...

...The narrow road between the houses that have sprouted up is filled with cars, many of them newly imported from Japan...

...The Saturday I listened to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, we Westerners tended to seek each other out as we walked along University Avenue after her speech...

...When I looked at the faces around me I couldn't tell who had spoken...

...In the interim I went to the Shwedagon Pagoda, one of the architectural marvels of Southeast Asia...

...The photographer and I estimated the crowd at 3,000-4,000...

...Like Suu Kyi, whose father, Aung San, is considered the founder of modern Burma, Aung Than is the child of a well-known politician...

...I noticed, too, that the police were having difficulty keeping the traffic on the avenue moving...

...He came back to inform me that she was in a meeting, but might be available at two o'clock...

...He went on to talk about her brother, rumored to be working on the American Star Wars military project...

...As Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner and the most popular politician in Myanmar, has noted: "One of the ways the government tries to stop people from being involved in the democracy movement is to encourage them to take an interest in business and not in politics...

...Once we reached the city I found that my old haunt, the somewhat run-down yet centrally located and cheap Strand Hotel, had been completely refurbished by the junta and foreign investors...

...Indeed, Myanmar's people have been imaginative evaders of the numerous regulations handed down by the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), the military junta that abolished the presidency and disbanded the unicameral People's Assembly in 1988...

...Part of the reason for the continuous unrest in Myanmar has been distrust—encouraged by the slorc— between ethnic minorities and the majority Burmese...

...He confirmed that Suu Kyi has sought to open talks with the generals, and not to undermine the nation, as they claim...

...She asked us, in English, to sit down so those behind us could see...

...Her style was open, informal and obviously humorous, because she and the people laughed frequently—although once in a while she would get very serious...

...RETURNING at the designated hour to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's house, I found myself standing outside the entrance with a handsome Japanese photographer...

...An ordinary person, for instance, can buy jewelry and wear it in the street without being hauled in by the police for questioning about where the money used to purchase it came from...

...Perhaps we were feeling a little guilty knowing we had airplane tickets out...

...Each person worships in the chapel of his or her birth day...

...While browsing, I struck up a conversation with a member of Yangon's growing expatriate community and inquired about the dispute between the slorc and the NLD...

...I had the feeling he rather relished the thought, not out of malice but out of a sort of lust forthe sensational...

...Eventually he was moved to somewhat roomier quarters, however, and a warden who had admired his father slipped him a cigar every day...

...For tip of five FEC I change $100 for you," I finally heard the clerk repeat for about the fourth time after I laid my head on the counter near the change-dispensing slot...

...The junta countered by declaring the boycott a danger to the national interest...

...But the regime was not his only worry...

...All their information comes from the slorc, whose most powerful member at present is the Director of Defense Service Intelligence, Lieutenant General Khin Nyunt...

...Oh, Suu is very good girl," he said, destroying in one sentence Myanmar's reputation as a Southeast Asian country where there is equality between men and women...

...He was the country's strongman until '88 and remains a behind-the-scenes power...

...I saw no other Western journalists, though many Westerners were in the audience...

...Apparently it hopes such fees will help balance the books...

...She spoke for an hour and a half in Burmese...

...The trip into Yangon used to be a peaceful journey past large fields and scattered houses...

...Most of them will be offices or hotels, he said, and are being financed by firms from Singapore, Thailand and South Korea...

...The military has dominated Burmese life since 1962, when General Ne Win overthrew the civilian government...

...As part of its effort to boost an economy some feel it has nearly ruined, the junta has declared 1996 Visit Myanmar Year...

...What was impressive was the absolute contact, the unity between her and the audience...

...In the late 1980s he was arrested and sent to Insein Prison, where the regime's political opponents are held...

...As condemnations of the government's crackdown came in from the United States, Japan, Australia, and Britain, she seemed more determined than ever to face down "the bully's challenge," and announced plans for initiatives that include the writing of an NLD draft constitution...

...Gyi is inadvertent proof of the effectiveness of junta strategy...

...The junta has since stepped up pressure on the NLD...

...The ex-official, who is planning to reenter public life, understandably agreed to answer my questions only on condition of anonymity...

...In the Buddhism of Myanmar, building a temple is a way of buying off the possibility of a bad reincarnation for evil deeds in one's present life...

...As the time for the speech drew closer, a lane off the avenue facing the house started to fill up...

...Barricades wrapped with barbed wire stood between the street and the sidewalk around the gate...

...A TRAVELER'S NOTEBOOK Battle of Wills in Myanmar BY KAREN SWENSON YANGON I TOLD THE agent sitting behind a thick plastic partition at the airport currency booth that I would only be in her country five days, so 1 would have no use for the $300 in unreconvertable Federal Exchange Certificates (FEC) that Myanmar law requires visitors to purchase...

...The van awaiting us had crimson plush upholstery, with white crocheted doilies over the backs of the seats...

...Following the walkout, the slorc revoked the NLD's membership in the Convention...

...In several of them pulsing neon lights halo the image of the Buddha...

...But I was right about the citizenry's ingenuity...

...Particularly striking is the willingness of the Burmese to talk...

...ON SATURDAY I joined the crowd that gathers weekly in front of Aung San Suu Kyi's house to hear her speak...

...That body, convened in 1993, is drafting a set of fundamental laws the junta plans to impose on the country...

...Defying the generals, she has continued to address her public weekly, but the atmosphere in Myanmar has grown increasingly tense...

...The one word I could understand that she said repeatedly was "democracy," but it made no difference...

...As for the withdrawal from the Convention, it came only after the NLD had sent several ignored notes requesting clarification on two points: (1) the Convention procedures, and (2) the junta's practice of censoring proposals that touched on basic principles of government...

...But Suu Kyi convened the meeting anyway with the relative handful left to attend...

...He also expressed anxiety about the Shans, an ethnic group from eastern Myanmar that he said drives around Yangon with guns...

...Gyi, who was positively voluble, believed conditions in the country had improved slightly...

...But some of the old stairs that lead up to it have been torn down—an affront to Buddhist ethics, since the stairs were built with money from people who were thus earning spiritual merit...

...In 1989 it renamed the country Myanmar and changed the capital's name from Rangoon to Yangon...

...One of three young men at the gate to her house took my card...

...On the other hand, he feels nothing can be done about the government, so he ignores its mouthpieces—the newspapers and TV—and focuses his energies on making money...

...Its size is important, because Suu Kyi needs to show the police directing traffic as well as the spies watching the proceedings that her supporters are there and growing...

...But on June 8 she appeared on schedule, and spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of over 5,000...

...its least expensive rooms were $300 a night...

...When she finished the applause and cheers went on and on...

...With the cool marble walkway beneath my bare feet, I circumambulated the glorious main golden dome of the stupa...

...which is topped by a kind of tiered umbrella studded with gems that rich Burmese have contributed...

...The following morning, with some paranoia, I hailed a taxi and asked the driver to take me to 54 University Avenue—Suu Kyi's address...

...Many people pointed small tape recorders toward the loudspeakers mounted on the gate...