NayPyiTaw in Bloom

… A day of Silence …

April was a month of festival holidays: a New Year’s celebration both in Bali and in Myanmar. April was also a month that spun into a wealth of brilliant unexpected inspiration moments in room 5, surprising news, unexpected turn of events, closing ceremony and wrap up in NayPyiTaw.

New Year’s Celebration in Bali, in Myanmar: Nyepi a public Hindu holiday in Bali …
The Myanmar parliament in NayPyiTaw, is closed for 2 weeks, however we were away for almost 3 weeks, which includes wellness days away from the ongoing Cuso Myanmar’s drama. For example, instead of receiving a constructive response, dialogue, we are either told ‘It’s classified information (when it’s not and may be looked upon as a legacy that was left behind to share and disseminate among volunteers), OR, solve it, and if we don’t like it, Leave!’  Of course this is Old news , I’m afraid. This thread of old news, I understand has traveled to various Cuso volunteers whose placements throughout Myanmar haven’t worked out. As a result, dissatisfied with their placements, dissatisfied with lack of support, transparency, and no one to turn to, they have left their placements prematurely.

Wednesday, April 4, 2018, Kevin and I arrived in Bali, Ubud to be exact, for a well-deserved holiday with lots things to do to distract us away from the misery, from endless unethical political situation at work .

Ubud is dotted with a myriad of temples, shops, cafés, restaurants … and yes, Western people that we can talk too …

As you may have well guessed, we’re not really museum or temple goers, instead, we’ve relished the cappuccinos, café lattés, good Western food and a good 2 – 3 hour walk early in the morning while Ubud still sleeps. A spa with a good massage and or a healthy lunch awaits us each day, before having an afternoon snooze. Just what the doctor ordered!
We also toured the island where we swam, read, slept a lot and did day tours. Considering that April is the hottest month of the year in Southeast Asia, Bali, on the contrary was comfortable in every aspect of the word …

Saturday March 17, 2018 was a public holiday in Indonesia. Marked on the Balinese Saka calendar, the Hindu community that mostly lives on the island of Bali celebrates Nyepi, the Day of Silence a.k.a. the Hindu New Year. Nyepi is a day of reflection for the Indonesian Hindu community. As a result, all activities come to a complete standstill from 6 in the morning to 6 at night! This means that Hindus are not allowed to cook, work, eat, talk, use their cell phones to communicate with the outside world, nor are they allowed to listen to music, or use any type of transportation … In other words, locals stay home with their families for a day of silence.

While we were in Bali, Myanmar celebrated the Water Festival known as the Thingyan Public holiday or Myanmar New Year. The Thigyan holiday, an auspicious day that last 3 days, is a time to wash away sins and to begin anew. Unlike the day of silence practiced by the Balinese people however, the Myanmar people, sing, dance on streets and use trucks with heavy water pipes to either hose people down or use water buckets to throw water at each other …
For us, for me, like the Balinese people, it too, was a time of reflection of our year in NayPyiTaw, Myanmar. It was a time to try and make some sense of some things that worked, and some things that still nagged me at the core. Things that still needed to be ironed out, especially now that the big boss was no longer in sight to bat for me.

U Bone Kwi Aung had been conveniently shuffled a mile away, so it seems, to another Chamber, the Phyitu Lower House. Now that he was no longer working with me, for instance, Parliamentary staffs had been told that they were no longer allowed to help with the Myanmar translation or to help out with the last minute details of the book. However, ignoring the risks, the requests, the staff felt it important to complete their project and consequently went ahead with it. What’s more, the bid of the closing ceremony orchestrated by the same two expat individuals who disputed with the leaders, that it was of no importance for my students (whom I had for the year), to have a year end celebration, despite having gone through the proper channels for approval …. However, in the end, on our return from Bali, miraculously things fell into place.

NayPyiTaw in Bloom … Unexpected turn of events at the Parliament
Every tree, bush, plants, tall, thin, fat are in bloom. With multi-coloured flowers lining the NayPyiTaw boulevards, a new wave of young, eager–looking potential recruits have been invited to the Myanmar Hluttaw Union Assembly, Pyidaungsu Zabuthiri building to be tested in law, economics, and IT skills. Results will be posted in the large white board in the open hallway , just outside the library. Like children, they gently place their right hand on the back of the person’s shoulder (in front of them) to form an impeccable row. The rainbow longys, mostly women with few men, stand in row upon row to answer to the roll call, to their names, while there is much shuffling back and forth (from some leaders) to oversee that each row is in a perfect line. Shouting and excitement and clarification continue throughout the roll call as par for the course; to ensure that all requirements are met before testing, oral interviews begins.
On our return from Bali, U Zaw Hen, Director General of Pyidaungsu, (once ordained as a Buddhist Monk), had returned to work, the parliament in NayPyiTaw with a shaved head (from his time away at the Yangon Monastery) to mark the Myanmar New Year 2018. With a smile, a nod, hands firmly pressed together in a prayer, he said ‘I spent 3 days praying in a monk’s monastery to wash away my sins and to give hope to the people of Myanmar’. Now ordained, he also said, ‘I will be spending much time caring for my ill-health mother in Yangon’.  He too, with his other colleagues had arrived to work early to tests the kaleidoscopic-looking newcomers. Later that day, despite testing, interviewing and dealing with a backlog of urgent matters that needed to be attended to, U Zaw Hen took care, took the time in dealing with the unresolved ‘closing ceremony’ issue. In the end, he and other leaders of the Myanmar Hluttaw Union Assembly, Pyidaungsu Zabuthiri building overruled the 2 expats and approved the go ahead with the closing ceremony …

Surprising News
Nwe Nwe Soe: April was month with surprising news. Nwe Nwe Soe, who eagerly tried to reach me while we were away in Bali, bounced-in with joy into my office first thing Monday morning to announce that she had been accepted to join the 6 months’ Parliamentary Institute of Cambodia (PIC) Fellowship Programme: July to December 2018.  Whilst in Phnom Penh, Nwe Nwe Soe, 6 colleagues from Myanmar together with Lao PDR, Myanmar and Thailand will also join the Regional Fellowship Program in Parliamentary Research. She is absolutely thrilled and couldn’t believe her luck after having applied with PIC 4 times. With this unbelievable news, Nwe Nwe Soe, also told me that she and 4 other parliamentary staff were invited by Myanmar Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) to spend the first week of May with the UK House of Commons Parliament to learn and observe some of their strategic plans, tools to take back with them in Myanmar.  Later, I learned that U Bone Kyi Aung was too, one of the chosen invitees for this UK trip.

Kyaw Nain Tan: Remember, the line manager that in so many ways appeared to be agitated, obligated to drift wherever the wind blew because he was managed by so many people, including the 2 expats ? Remember how he had arrived at the Myanmar Hluttaw Union Assembly, the same time as me? Well, NayPyiTaw is indeed in bloom with surprising news! With a wide grin, from ear to ear, he too bounced in to my office to say that he was finally leaving the NayPyiTaw Parliament and joining the Yangon Ministry of Education at the end of May where he could be with his wife and son. Since this surprising news, Kyaw Nain Tan became friendlier, transparent, and more respectful toward me. A ton of weights fell off his shoulder as he spoke to tell me that he was no longer working with Cuso Myanmar or had to answer to the 2 expats. Throughout the rest of April and May whilst we worked parallel to each other, Kyaw Nain Tan seemed happier, his shoulders lighter, more erect as he walked with an air of confidence around the office.

Ni Ni Aye: When I first arrived at the Hluttaw, I was greeted by a stern-unhappy looking woman, who not only escorted me to my office, to my desk, after barely meeting the line manager, but to tell me how I should dress for work: long skirt with a long sleeve blouse. This revelation was made only to Cuso Volunteers. However, paid international business partners’ attire, although (some) came to work dressed inappropriately, nothing was said. Ni Ni Aye, like Kyaw Nan Tan, had been demoted, transferred from department to department throughout the Hluttaw with a bad reputation attached to her name. Unfortunately, any one with a bad reputation ended up working in one of the busiest department in the Hluttaw, the Research department where I was base.
Despite this however, Ni Ni Aye had some very good attributes to her name. She spoke English very well and spoke it better than most in the parliament. As a result, for a short while, she was based in the International Relations department where she dealt with international expats’ entry work visas and general documents for Myanmar. She later, joined the Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) department and, at the end of May will take over Kyaw Nan Tan’s position at the Research department, where she was, alas,  originally posted.

Once I really got to know the real Nyi Nyi Aye, I found her to be professional, efficient, and extremely effective in her work! Some parliamentary staff would say that despite her bad temper, sometimes offensive and abrupt disposition, she’s ‘open and direct and a really good manager and knows the Hluttaw inside out’. To say that she is a hard worker is an understatement! She is competent, skillful, capable, talented officer. I found her to be warm, fun and easy to deal with. In the end, it was a pleasure to work with her.

At the end of my placement, Ni Ni Aye was frank with me and revealed that it was the 2 expats who instructed she and Kyaw Nain Tan to follow their orders. Through them, as messengers, they’d oversee that no parliamentary materials was shared with Cuso Volunteers. They’d cancel Cuso Volunteers ‘ requested meetings with the JCC, cancel invitations to events for Cuso volunteers (democracy day), excluded Cuso from social events and so forth.  Ni Ni Aye personally apologized in the end for 2 expats’ unethical behaviour. She also wanted to let me know that her hands were tied and that her job was on the line if she spoke up. In short, she didn’t have a voice to bat for others.

Thet Oo Zaw was one of my students who didn’t like to miss my class. As a shy student, a man of few words, he hardly spoke in class, let alone comment on anything that was discussed in class. Today however, was different. There was a break through with Thet Oo Zaw! For the first time, during one of our many-heated discussion, he got up from his roller chair to announce that he too, had something to say. Mindful, careful of what he was about to say, ‘though this is my opinion and we are in Room 5’. He and others talked about the role of wealthy Myanmar’s businessmen, the rich powerful retired Tatmadaw generals; from terrorism, persecution and inhumane treatment against the Rohingyas to corruption and greed … Indeed, that day our discussion turned into a wealth of brilliant unexpected inspiration moments in Room 5, both from Thet Oo Zaw’s perspective and from other students who had built up the courage to express their thoughts about the sad state of affairs of their country.

Closing Ceremony
Despite the political problems I experienced throughout my placement, despite the last minute bid to deny the closing ceremony for my parliamentary students, despite the rough start, success prevailed! My motto: Keep an open mind, observe, listen, wipe the slate clean, be objective and receptive to new ideas …

Today, a year later, my 60 parliamentary students received their certificates, together with a recently published Parliamentary Resource Curriculum that magically arrived at the Hluttaw Union Assembly, Phidaungsu on the morning of the closing ceremony. Like the house of cards, U Bone Kyi Aung, a high parliamentary official and others like him that were reshuffled somewhere a mile away in the grandeur of the parliament, was leaving for the UK the morning of the closing ceremony, and, still had set aside, his time and energy to honour my students at the ceremony. With his usual grin, his usual firm handshake, he said, ‘I wouldn’t miss the closing ceremony for the world’. The Myanmar people opened their hearts, gave their love, their friendships …
Sadly, Cuso Myanmar staff were not interested in taking part of the ceremony, despite the fact that they were invited by both the Hluttaw Union Assembly, Phidaungsu parliament and me to attend.

‘Good afternoon to all you;
Letting you know that I’m about to write to JCC, who arranges our activities and the rooms, to request Room 3 to hold a closing ceremony for 90 people on April 27, 2018. Will one of you be able to attend the closing ceremony – is it customary for a Cuso Myanmar to attend such an event? I have also invited both Geoffrey and Francois to attend this event, which they have already accepted. Will keep you posted with updates re the closing ceremony .’

Cuso (LF) Myanmar’s response ‘… I know that our travel budget is very much diminished this coming (new) year so she (Cuso administrator) will have to see if it is possible.’ ‘…. pomp and ceremony mean nothing!’ For my parliamentary students and me, it’s about celebrating the successes and milestones together with the people whom they got to know and to love.

Wrap up in NayPyiTaw                                                                                                                     Once the ceremony was done, and books, the parliamentary curriculum was disseminated among parliamentary staff and leaders, I spent Monday at work to wrap up loose ends, to say goodbye over luncheons and dinners with close staffs, friends, where we cried, laugh and cried again …
News travel fast! Since the book was published, since the closing ceremony event took place last week, people that we don’t know, boldly come up to us Cuso volunteers, introduce themselves, shake our hands, and with a smile say, ‘You must be Cuso’.   ‘We hear good things about you, about the great work that you’re doing here’. ‘Your English book is one of a kind. The first ever to be published in Myanmar!’

What’s more after reviewing the book further, after the ceremony, the Hluttaw parliamentary leaders printed 35 more copies for the parliament. And Cuso Country Office Myanmar also printed more copies.

More later …in the meantime, wishing you fun reading and lots of laughter for May 2018….:)