Regular readers of The Interpreter will know that, over the past few years, this site has closely followed the Australian government’s efforts to grapple with the diplomatic implications of the formal change of Burma’s name in 1989 to Myanmar. The indications are that this saga may finally be over.
At first, Australia followed the lead of the US, UK and other Western democracies opposed to the new military regime, and continued to call Burma by its old name. This was also in accordance with the wishes of the country’s main opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who took the view that a country can only change its name if there is a popular mandate to do so.
Aung San Suu Kyi also felt that ‘Myanmar’ was not an inclusive term, as it was merely a literary form of ‘Burma’, which referred only to the majority ethnic Bamar, or Burmans. How her preferred name ‘Burma’, a colonial creation based on exactly the same premises as ‘Myanmar’, was more representative of the country’s 135 or more national races was not explained.
By following this line, Australia was forced to adopt a two-track approach to the country. Canberra’s formal correspondence with the military government always referred to ‘Myanmar’, as required by diplomatic protocol. However, in all official statements and press releases, and on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) website, the Australian government called the country ‘Burma’.
This policy complicated relations both with the authorities in Rangoon (later Naypyidaw) and other capitals in the region, where ‘Myanmar’ was readily accepted. However, the mixed approach was deemed symbolically important. Canberra claimed that it helped register concern over human rights abuses by the military government and was a gesture of support for the country’s embattled democracy movement.
This clumsy arrangement ended in 2012 when Foreign Minister Bob Carr accepted that a confrontationist approach to the military regime made it more difficult to promote meaningful reforms. Australia had fallen out of step with the international community, which increasingly favoured the use of ‘Myanmar’. Carr decided that Canberra would henceforth call the country by its formal name, a rule that was observed during President Thein Sein’s state visit to Australia in March 2013.
Please click here to read the full “More name games in Burma/Myanmar” article in the Lowy Interpreter by Griffith Asia Institute Adjunct Associate Professor, Dr Andrew Selth.
