• Burmese
Saturday, July 19, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
29 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home Human Rights

Through Win Tin’s Looking Glass: Insights From 2012

Reid Lidow by Reid Lidow
April 29, 2014
in Uncategorized
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0 0
A A
Through Win Tin’s Looking Glass: Insights From 2012

Reid Lidow meets with Burmese democracy activist Win Tin on July 9

10.1k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

When I landed in Rangoon on an independent research trip in July 2012, I did not expect to be sitting across from Win Tin within 24 hours. But that’s precisely what happened. After walking into the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters and asking to speak with Win Tin, also known as Saya (the Wise One), I was referred to the D Wave newspaper offices across town. It was there that I met a senior staffer who rang Win Tin and said that a 20-year-old university student from the United States hoped to speak with him about the reforms taking place in Burma. With Saya on the line, the staffer gave me the phone and a 7:30 pm interview at Win Tin’s home was booked. Just like that.

There is a saying that “luck” is when preparation meets opportunity. The opportunity to interview Win Tin was realized, yet I felt decidedly unprepared. How could I, with only several months of Burma research under my belt, hold my own with the state’s longest-held political prisoner?

My youth and inexperience turned out to be the icebreaker that set a positive tone for the interview. Win Tin was so pleased to see a student taking a risk—leaving the comfort of a library—and getting out into the world where issues come to life. And for nearly two hours, he brought to life the issues that defined Burma’s past, influence its present, and will shape its future, as seen in the following topic-based sound bites from our discussion.

RelatedPosts

The UWSA and the Peace Process

The UWSA and the Peace Process

August 10, 2016
6.9k
Govt ‘Blacklist’ Practices Highlight Lack of Transparency

Govt ‘Blacklist’ Practices Highlight Lack of Transparency, Activists Say

August 4, 2016
4.5k
Advocacy Group Calls for Release of Arrested Arakan Activist

Advocacy Group Calls for Release of Arrested Arakan Activist

August 4, 2016
4.3k

On ensuring the NLD’s long-term viability: “Up to now, we have no form of tangible young leadership. When we choose candidates, our first priority is women. We want to bring up the women’s community. Our second priority is youth, third is ethnic people, and fourth is incumbent leadership.”

On China’s influence in Burma: “There are many people in the military and ruling class who know that it is not very good to be under the Chinese influence. Most of the people in Burma are concerned with this Chinese menace. The Chinese can be quite interfering. They will play very cleverly, deftly, because they are much more developed.”

On the US “pivot” to the Asia Pacific, and what that means for Burma: “The US presence in Asia is very tangible and rather great. So I think the US can help. We don’t know economically what the US effect will be. [The] US nowadays is not the great industrial nation [it once was], but helping democracy in this area [is possible].”

On Burma’s Asean chairmanship in 2014: “I think Burma’s rule [in] Asean will not be that effective. Asean is a machine—it has structure. Politically, we won’t change much.”

On the potential for a democratic Burma: “Burma will be democratic. Maybe there will be no more [opposition leader] Aung San Suu Kyi or NLD or whatever it is, but today the people are much more awakened politically. They are bolder. They have more embracement of their rights—political, human, and so on.”

On Burma’s Constitution: “Even if the NLD wins a landslide victory in 2015, we won’t change the whole Constitution. When we become democratic, we will change parts, not the whole. We can’t change the whole.”

Since I spoke with Win Tin nearly two years ago, Burma’s landscape—politically, ethnically and economically—has been reshaped. The reforms that left me enamored with Burma in 2012 seem like a distant memory today. Now that the low-hanging reform fruit has been picked, President Thein Sein’s government seems unwilling, and unlikely, to go after meaningful political reforms that have benefits beyond the Rangoon nucleus.

Ethnically, the picture has gone from bad to worse. Our July 2012 interview came less than one month after the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by a group of Muslim men. In the two years since this atrocity, ethno-sectarian violence has erupted, resulting in a human security crisis where, according to Tom Andrews, president of the US-based activist group United to End Genocide, “the building blocks of genocide are in place.” And economically, Burma seems committed to a path of collecting natural resource rents rather than pursuing a holistic economic growth story. The picture is changing, and I am afraid it is for the worse.

As I understand it, Win Tin looked forward to Burma’s bright future, and not back to its dark past, in the time since we last spoke. The next two years will be pivotal for Burma as it is forced to confront many of the challenges Win Tin explored with me, from constitutional revisions ahead of the 2015 elections, to ensuring a meaningful Asean chairmanship. As all this happens, observers must resist the urge to abandon the conventional understanding of “success” and declare Burma a success story. With Win Tin’s death should come a moment of national introspection. Ultimately, Burma will have to write its own story, a task made all the more difficult by Win Tin’s passing.

Reid Lidow is an undergraduate researcher at the University of Southern California where he studies international relations and political science. He has conducted research in Burma on three occasions. He is a Gates Cambridge Scholar-elect and will pursue a master in philosophy degree in development studies at the University of Cambridge beginning this fall.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: ContributorsMore
Reid Lidow

Reid Lidow

Reuters

Similar Picks:

The Lady
Burma

The Lady, Surrounded by the Generals and Their Families

by Thuta
July 23, 2016
8.2k

For national reconciliation, Suu Kyi must build pragmatic, reconciliatory relations with former and current generals who once regarded her as...

Read moreDetails
Burma’s Sexist School Requirements Hurt Women—And Society
Specials

Burma’s Sexist School Requirements Hurt Women—And Society

by Khin Hnin Soe
September 7, 2014
11.5k

Universities seem to be systematically discouraging women from pursuing many leadership roles, and it’s a great loss for our country’s...

Read moreDetails
ABSDF Report Finds Torture
Burma

ABSDF Report Finds Torture, Leaves Questions in Killing of Its Own

by Nyein Nyein
March 16, 2015
6.2k

A report into the killing of 35 members of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front by its own leadership documents...

Read moreDetails
‘Twilight Over Burma’ Tells Tragic Tale of Austrian Shan Princess
Burma

‘Twilight Over Burma’ Tells Tragic Tale of Austrian Shan Princess

by Nyein Nyein
May 30, 2016
11.2k

Movie about Inge Sargent, an Austrian who became a Shan princess, is screened in Thailand, shedding light on human rights...

Read moreDetails
Posthumous Award Revives Memories of a Shan Prince
Culture

Posthumous Award Revives Memories of a Shan Prince

by Withaya Huanokk
October 8, 2015
6k

The late Sao Kya Seng, the last Shan prince of Hsipaw, is honored with a Distinguished Achievement Medal commending outstanding...

Read moreDetails
A Story of Modern Slavery in Thailand
Burma

A Story of Modern Slavery in Thailand

by Saw Yan Naing
August 21, 2015
6k

Hoping for a brighter future, Maung Htay left Burma when he was just a teenager. He is now 42, but...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
A DJ Returns to Mix Things Up in Burma

A DJ Returns to Mix Things Up in Burma

A Conversation With Indonesian Presidential Front-Runner Jokowi

A Conversation With Indonesian Presidential Front-Runner Jokowi

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

What the ‘Snake Charmer’ Analogy Gets Wrong About Myanmar

4 days ago
1.4k
Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

Chinese Investment Reshapes Myanmar’s N. Shan as MNDAA Consolidates Power

1 week ago
3.5k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Airstrikes Protecting Irrawaddy Flotilla Kill 20

    Myanmar Junta Airstrikes Protecting Irrawaddy Flotilla Kill 20

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • More Than 20,000 Displaced As Myanmar Junta Burns Homes Around World Heritage Site

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta’s Recapture of Nawnghkio Shows Strategic Missteps by TNLA

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Indian Top Brass Visit Myanmar After Cross-Border Drone Attack

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta’s Power Transfer Looms, but Real Control to Remain With Regime Boss

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.