By Matthew FisherYANGON, Myanmar A giant caption proclaiming O-Burma over a full front-page photograph of Barack Obama was the Myanmar Timess joyous reaction to the news that the U.S. president was coming to this long-isolated Asian nation.For years there has seldom been unanimity in Myanmar about anything, including whether the country should be called Myanmar or Burma. But there has been universal agreement that the first visit ever by an American president on Monday is a cause for national jubilation.The only ones grumbling may be Chinese diplomats. Beijing is thought to be anxious that its strong trade ties and political influence in Myanmar may be harmed by the countrys sudden liberalization and its opening to the West.We must be happy because the most popular and powerful man in the world is coming to see us, gushed Sumyat, a 22-year-old mobile phone saleswoman who, like many Burmese, only goes by one name.Topping Sumyats rapture, 30-year-old Jasmine Chit The who runs a small womens fabric shop in a crowded bazaar said, having President Obama here will be the biggest day of my life.But Chit The cautioned that it was necessary to be realistic about what might be achieved. I believe we need more political freedom, but even with this visit I dont know how we can get it, she said. We now have the freedom to speak, but Myanmar still needs to change so much more.At a nearby stall stacked high with cloth, another merchant, Khin Soe Oo, was enthusiastic about Obamas visit but unsure about how much it might achieve.I think that the government will just be polite and pretend to listen to him, said the 45-year-old mother of two. It is wrong to think that our lives have changed much yet.Myanmars rapprochement with the West is still in its early stages, its outcome uncertain. It began with the release last year of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prize winning opposition leader who was held under house arrest by the countrys military dictators for most of the past 20 years. Since then this deeply impoverished country has seen a whirlwind of foreign visits, including two by Canadian cabinet ministers. Obamas surprise visit is the culmination of months of frenzied statesmanship and engagement, and a well-received tour of the United States by Aung San Suu Kyi.Not much information has been made available about Obamas schedule in Myanmar because of the usual security concerns whenever the U.S. president travels. But it is understood that the American leader will meet Aung San Suu Kyi at her home in Yangon, give a speech at Yangon University a colonial relic built when Burma was ruled by the British and then fly north to the new capital, Naypyidaw, to meet President Thein Sein, the reformist general who has been guiding Myanmars coming out party to the world.If Obama had any time to look around Yangon he would find that the city exists in an exotic time warp, barely touched by modernity. Trishaw drivers often wearing modified pith helmets still peddle passengers and cargo around town, and women whose beauty was remarked upon by Rudyard Kipling and others still glide by under parasols that they used to fend off the ferocious midday sun.While most of Asia has been busily transforming itself into an economic powerhouse, Myanmar has languished in crumbling splendour. With Phnom Penhand Ho Chi Minh City having finally gone the way of Bangkok, Shanghai and Singapore, with skyscrapers and mega malls paving over much of their heritage and uniqueness, Myanmar, like Cuba, has become famous as one of the last living museums of a bygone age. Visitors seeking an authentic Asian experience can stroll along leafy, broad unhurried avenues marvelling at glorious, gold-plated pagodas and hundreds of magnificent imperial buildings whose heyday, like the Raj, was a century ago or more.But the face of Yangon is changing rapidly now. The city is said to have one of the hottest real estate market in the world this year, with prices shooting up by 40 per cent and more. The few good hotels are charging at least twice what they did a few months ago and are booked solid months in advance as swarms of prospective investors, including Canadians interested in mining and insurance, rush to get a sense of what is and is not possible.But there are problems aside from the pace of democratic reforms that could interfere with the party. Of grave concern is the situation in Rakhine in western Myanmar, where the Muslim community, some of whom come from Bangladesh, have longstanding differences with the Buddhist majority. Dozens have died there in recent violence and more than 100,000 Muslims have fled their homes.I have some reason for optimism, said Matthew Gray, referring to how Obamas visit might help ease the situation in Rakhine. Gray is a Montrealer who heads the French NGO Solidarites International, which assists refugees there and elsewhere. If these visits dont shake things up, nothing will.As well as keeping international media interested in Rakhine, another way that Washington could play a vital role was to push the government on the issue of real humanitarian access in parts of the country where there was trouble, Gray said.Although it is home to Christian and Hindu communities as well as Muslims, Myanmar is renowned as a land of pious Buddhists. Large numbers of monks garbed in maroon robes and with shaved heads are seen almost everywhere. Although usually apolitical, they, too, have been touched by the prospect of having Obama in their midst.After praying at the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda, Ashin Taikkhanyana, a 21-year-old novice monk, stopped on his way to his monastery to say that he hoped Obamas brief stay in Myanmar would be good for economics and for politics. Some parts of our lives are changing. Others remain the same. The lives of our people in the countryside have not changed and are not very good. Whatever happens here in the democratic way, it must be fair for everyone.Another far more experienced monk, 54-year-old U Othara, said religious men must not become involved in such questions regarding who ruled the country. But this is a happy time for our people. Obama will do his job and we will do ours, which is to stay within our teachings and discipline and spread Buddhism. Matthew Fisher is a Postmedia News columnist.
