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What’s in a name — battle rages over ‘Burma’ vs ‘Myanmar’

By Frank Zeller

Political exiles and the US prefer the old name, ‘Burma’, while the United Nations, Japan and many other nations have adopted ‘Myanmar’ as the official name

BURMA or Myanmar? As the military regime has cracked down on pro-democracy protests in the Asian country this week, a war of words has flared again over what to call the troubled nation.

Political exiles, the United States and the BBC prefer the old name, ‘Burma,’ which stems from British colonial days, while the United Nations, Japan and many other nations have adopted ‘Myanmar’ as the official name.

The country’s ruling junta made the switch to ‘Union of Myanmar’ in 1989, the year after its soldiers massacred some 3,000 activists supporting Aung San Suu Kyi, the pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The regime derived the English name from the traditional ‘Myanma Naingngandaw,’ symbolically breaking with the era of the British Raj when the colony was called ‘Burmah’ after the dominant Burmese ethnic group. They made a host of other geographical name changes, turning what was then the capital, ‘Rangoon,’ into ‘Yangon’ - similar to changes made later to Indian city names, such as the switch from ‘Bombay’ to ‘Mumbai.’

But critics say the move lacked legitimacy because it was made by an unelected junta and should be ignored by the world. Some have even drawn parallels to the change from ‘Cambodia’ to ‘Kampuchea’ which was made by the murderous 1975-79 Khmer Rouge regime but reversed after their overthrow by Vietnamese troops.

“A lot of exile groups still use ‘Burma’ because that was the name of the country before they fled after the 1988 protests,” said David Mathieson of Human Rights Watch (HRW), whose group has stuck with the name Burma. “The US and many organisations who call it ‘Burma’ made an official stance saying they’ll stick with the pre-1989 name. The UN, on the other hand, is bound by what the sovereign government says.”

White House spokesman Tony Fratto this week said Washington’s refusal to use the junta’s term was “intentional” because “we choose not to use the language of a totalitarian dictatorial regime that oppresses its people.”

“And we have freedom of speech here, maybe they don’t,” he quipped.

US President George W. Bush - and First Lady Laura - have stuck with “Burma” in line with the US State Department, which pointedly notes that the 1989 name change never won approval from the country’s legislators. “The democratically elected but never convened Parliament of 1990 does not recognize the name change, and the democratic opposition continues to use the name ‘Burma’,” the State Department website says.

“Due to consistent support for the democratically elected leaders, the US government likewise uses ‘Burma.’” Mathieson, a long-time expert on Burma/Myanmar affairs for the New York-based group HRW, said the point is perhaps more hotly debated outside the country than by its citizens, many of whom have got used to the change.

“It would be great if the country was free and there could be an open debate about it,” he said. afp

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