Years ago, when the newly appointed United States ambassador to Myanmar, Scot Marciel, first visited Yangon in a different capacity, he came to the American Center, a US-backed outpost of books and learning that was a haven in a country full of secret dissidents and spies.
“It was a place where people could meet and talk freely,” he said on Tuesday in his first speech as ambassador, standing behind a lectern at the same center. “I remember I would come in and meet with a series of [Burmese] people who would introduce themselves ... and tell me how many years they had spent in prison.”
Myanmar is a different place now.
Social and economic reforms opened up the country in 2011. Political prisoners have been freed, and longtime dissident Aung San Suu Kyi guided her party to power in elections in November. You don’t need to go to the American Center to whisper about freedom anymore. You can do it on Facebook. (Courtesy of pri.org)
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