Inside Than Shwe's jungle fortress

[Our correspondent inside Burma recently visited Naypyidaw, the military dictatorship's bizarre new capital. A shorter version of this article appears in today's newspaper.]

Kenneth Denby
Naypyidaw, Burma

Even before you have arrived in the remarkable city of Naypyidaw, it is obvious that this is a place like no other in Burma. It’s not just the isolation, in a reclaimed jungle 200 miles from the sea; it’s not the ban on foreigners, which is circumvented easily enough. The most extraordinary thing about the world’s newest capital is the road leading into it.

Ten lanes wide, cut flat and straight through hills and forests, it is the grandest and fastest stretch of road in a country where potholed tracks qualify as major highways. Occasionally, a cement lorry rumbles by on its way to one of the city’s many building sites. From time to time, a rickety open-backed minibus drives past. But otherwise, the traffic on this mighty autobahn consists of sputtering motorbikes, horse-drawn carts, and lines of women carrying heavily laden baskets on their heads

This is Naypyidaw, the “Place of the Kings”, the most mysterious and bizarre capital city in the world. Its broad roads, grandiose public buildings and shopping centres are meant as a model of the advanced Asian city – but many of them stand empty and unused. Unknown millions have been lavished on its construction, in a country where most people live on less than a dollar a day.

Its inaccessible location is intended to protect the hated military junta of Senior General Than Shwe – but many believe that the government’s increased isolation is hastening its downfall. Naypyidaw is the Burmese dictatorship in microcosm, a monument to the generals’ ambition, xenophobia, paranoia, and simple barmy incompetence. Earlier this month, I became the first western journalist to visit the capital since the junta’s bloody crackdown on the pro-democracy protests last month.

Foreigners are supposed to have permission to visit Naypyidaw, and travel agents refuse to sell railway tickets to Pyinmana, the closest town to the capital. But no one stopped me from getting off the train, and after assurances that I would be staying for one night only, a slightly puzzled policeman noted down my passport details and showed me to a waiting minibus. A ten minute drive through the familiar south-east Asian bustle and smells of Pyinmana, and we turned on to the great highway and into the looking glass world of Than Shwe’s fantasy home.

The port of Rangoon had been Burma’s capital since the British conquest of the country in 1885, and remains the country’s greatest city – a seething stew of extreme poverty, lively commerce and rich culture. So it came as a complete surprise in 2005, when the junta announced that the foundation of a new capital and the relocation of all the government functions.

Over a period of months, long convoys made the ten hour journey along the rutted roads to Naypyidaw, carrying entire government departments and their civil servants. Many of the government workers had to leave their families behind; for those who had spent their life in Rangoon, the contrast with the sterile new capital could hardly have been greater. “I miss Rangoon,” said one man, an employee of the Planning and Economic Development Ministry, “I miss my life there, my parents and friends – my environment.”

In structure, Naypyidaw is hardly a city at all, but rather a series of distantly spaced “zones”, carefully dispersed to isolate the different parts of the city from one another. The hotel zone is where all foreigners stay, in hotels with names such as the Royal Kumudra, the Golden Myanmar and the Aureum Palace. For 70 US dollars a night (about three months average Burmese income), I enjoyed foreign cable TV channels, air conditioning in a self-contained bungalow. I saw not a single other guest.

The bottles of Johnnie Walker and Kahlua behind the bar were unopened. The staff occupied themselves by filling in the cracks that were already breaking out across the ceiling of the lobby. The government ministries are a 20 minute drive away – a journey there and back in a hired Mercedes costs another 70 US dollars.

Between the two zones is the civilian heart of Naypyidaw, a weirdly incongruous town of cheerily painted white, blue and pink four storey apartment blocks. Red engines stand beneath the tower of the fire station. Police stations bear the friendly English motto “May I Help You?” An area marked on the map “Shopping Complex” contains scores of commercial premises, all of them unfinished or unoccupied.

Not all of Naypyidaw is a building site. The city hall is an extraordinary structure of high white walls and curving tiled roofs, like the palace of Ming the Merciless. North of here, close to a giant roundabout fountain in the shape of a lotus flower, are the identical ministry buildings. The one I entered had manual typewriters instead of computers; the silvery-blue glass at the front was already showing cracks. But the first sign of life comes at the city’s market and bus station, the only place in Naypyidaw where messy human reality impinges upon Than Shwe’s sterile folly.

The Naypidaw telephone directory is 12 pages long, compared to 470 for Rangoon, but according to the government almost a million people live here. Members of Burma’s Muslim minority are excluded, and despite several shiny new Buddhist pagodas, there are almost none of the monks who turned against the government last month.

But the most surprising thing in Naypyidaw is the absence – except for a few unobtrusive policemen – of the armed forces. Than Shwe and his generals live in yet another zone, sealed off from the civilian quarter – the military city to the north, where soldiers parade before titanic statues of Burma’s ancient kings. Every Saturday morning, a convoy of military trucks and black windowed Mercedes races through  the town on a weekly inspection.

But the presence of the generals, and something of their taste, is revealed by the contents of one of the shops opposite the market – an gift emporium stocked with luxury items such as cooking oil, instant coffee and prestige alcoholic beverages. A gift basket, containing a litre of whisky, a carton of Horlicks and a jar of Nescafe sells for 223,000 kyat (165 dollars). “For the VIPs who come here,” says the shopkeeper. “From the generals.”

The obvious question about Naypyidaw is: why? There are several theories, none more than informed speculation. Many Burmese believe that the main reason for the move is superstitious, a vision imparted to Than Shwe by a seer - according to rumour one of his own grandsons. Others say it is strategic, and based on the junta’s far fetched fear of foreign invasion – to put distance between the strategic nerve centre and an attacking US carrier fleet.

But most convincing plausible is the theory that the generals are escaping from their own, increasinglyclamorous people. Rangoon, after all, is city of protest and opposition, of the democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, still a threat to the junta even under house arrest. By removing the civil service, it can at last avoid a repeat of the 1988 uprising, when government workers took to the streets alongside students. “The move to Naypyidaw will be the undoing of the generals,” says one foreign diplomat in Rangoon. “Their isolation from the population makes them less intimidating for start, and it’s a death blow to their intelligence gathering.”

So perhaps this is the irony of the generals’ retreat to the jungle – that, far from being a demonstration of strength, it is a symptom of fear. “She is a simple, good person and she did nothing wrong,” one shopkeeper said to me, of Ms Suu Kyi. “But they are afraid of her, even after the lock her up. And because they are afraid, they run away to here.”

Comments

[Tim Rogers]

Astonishing. Lets hope its a sign of a moribund leadership, and look forward to the 'capital' being occupied by hoardes of the homeless in Rangoon very soon??

[crpatel]

The world was spellbound for a few days about Burma.Now more or less nothing.Just like a tempest in a cup of coffee ! Don't forget actual count of Buddhist Monks who have been cremated somewhere in the jungle. C.R.Patel, Columbus,Ohio

[John]

This is a fascinating article. I've been to Yangon a few times, but have always wondered what this new place is like. I also spoke to government employees who were very depressed about having to move away from their families to such an isolated place. I heard they wanted the embassies to move there too but the ambassadors refused, understandably, to leave their colonial palaces in Yangon.

[ing Weber]

Dear Editor,
The world knows that military regime led by general Than Shwe is not credible, ruthless, brutal and hily corrupt.
The high ranking generals are regarded
as butchers and criminals.
how can Burmese people bring them to international tribunal to try these criminals for the atrocities done by them on monks, students, normal public and political prisoners and other prisoners.
I would highly appreciate if you continue cover the news report on Burma and reveal what these criminal 's evil things including the cremation of evidences by cremating death and injured indiscriminately with rituals and without informing the relatives.
They defied UNSC Statement and have gone ahead with hunting the people, torturing, killing and eleminating the bodies and evidences.
Please urge UN, USA, UK and EU to take the strong actions including military intervention.
Thank you
Ing Weber

[Tim Footman]

In amongst this superb description of Mad Jack McMaddery, it seems silly to pluck out such a tiny eccentricity, but here goes: I will never, ever understand the kudos that the Southeast Asian middle classes attach to instant coffee.

[Ian McNabb]

Interesting, but sloppily edited. Such lines as "... according to rumour one of his own grandsons ..." and "... most convincing plausible ..." and "... their own, increasinglyclamorous people..." are distracting. And are "black windowed Mercedes" black Mercedes that have windows, or are they Mercedes that have heavily tinted windows?

[Michael]

Horrible and personally very strange.I was Gen Shwe best friend at school, he was a nice guy I remember him showing me a photo of himself when he had been a Buddhist monk for a day.He was my first contact,with Buddhism,and later on in life I became a Buddist.The Burmese people need all of our support.

"In amongst this superb description of Mad Jack McMaddery, it seems silly to pluck out such a tiny eccentricity, but here goes: I will never, ever understand the kudos that the Southeast Asian middle classes attach to instant coffee.

Posted by: Tim Footman | 16 Oct 2007 11:15:26 "

best quote, ever.

[mr. rose]

ian are you an english teacher?

[wah_siew]

The military junta are out-of-touch with progressive modern socities and will continue to meet resistance from its people no matter how cruel the means employed to suppress them. Let divine intervention through massive thought prayers, candle light procession help to alleviate the sufferings of the Burnmese people

[Claire Rainville]

For those that think nothing is going on "The world was spellbound for a few days about Burma.Now more or less nothing"
see: http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/
and https://secure.avaaz.org/en/end_the_burmese_blackout/1.php?cl=32441118

The dragon's tail is also being twitched by govs and the UN.
The UN Envoy Gambari is also on missions to Asian govs... more twitching of the Dragon tail.

[Claire Rainville]

If anyone wishes to see how the world's caring people are continuing efforts to help IDP hiding in Burma's jungles see:
http://www.freeburmarangers.org/About_Us/

[David]

It is very tragic that after the generals are gone, history and the UN will make sure that NO ONE is called to account. If you have ever lived in SE Asia, you will understand this. Cambodia is a perfect example.

[Dee]

The most tragic thing about Burma is that NO ONE will ever be called to account: the UN will fail miserably in this regard, as it has failed in Cambodia, and as it is failing in Darfur and Zimbabwe.When tyrants like the generals in Burma see that their type are NEVER brought to justice, what do they have to fear? At most, exile in China or North Korea, whre their privileged lifestyle will not be interrupted.

[wen]

Such a soft and pathetic article about the murderous dictatorship. To call this 'remarkable', 'mysterious' and 'bizarre' makes me sick, and this author needs to wake up to reality.