YANGON, Myanmar — For decades, Canada had no diplomatic ties with the brutal military dictatorship in Myanmar.
In fact, Canada had some of the toughest sanctions against the country.
But in 2010 the dictatorship slowly began to loosen its iron grip on the country and, when it became clear that Myanmar was moving towards a new era of openness, Canada began to consider ties.
The Canadian government opened an embassy a little more than a year ago.
“We were a little bit late here,” says Canadian Ambassador Mark McDowell. “Our licence plate is number 43 which indicates we are the 43rd embassy to set up shop here.
“We are relatively small, but now we’ve grown to 10 staff and we are able to deal with a lot of different types of issues now.”
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The issues he’s referring to really run the gamut and ranges from consular services to provide assistance to the growing number of Canadian tourists heading to the country, to the many Canadians already based in the country working for NGO’s and jumping into the new economic opportunities in the country.
Slowly, Canadian companies are starting to recognize the potential for business here.
“This market has incredible potential. This is a country of over 50 million people. It needs infrastructure, it has a lot of natural resource potential but I think what’s been holding it back obviously is the political situation,” says McDowell. “And now they have to deal with the incredibly painstaking process of creating the regulatory environment that’s going to allow Canadian companies to feel confident doing business here.”
Canada also established its first visa centre in Yangon, this past summer, making accessing a Canadian visa easier than ever before.
It used to be that people in Myanmar could only get a visa to go to Canada by traveling to Bangkok and applying in person.
That meant going to Canada was not in the cards for much of Myanmar’s population, whose average citizens still make much less than US $100 a day.
Although consular services, visas and trade are all important to strengthening the relationship between Canada and Myanmar, it’s the pockets of funding that Canada has been putting towards various initiatives in the country that’s really had the Canadian Embassy staff hard at work so far.
“The first priority is supporting the reform here and that means the political reform and the economic reform,” says McDowell.
Canada has been supporting the reforms in the country on a number of fronts in fact.
One of those fronts is in human rights.
Canada has been a big supporter of the first ever human rights film festival in the country and its ongoing programs conducted throughout the year by festival organizers.
“We supported the training program for documentary films,” McDowell says. “So now you have a new generation of documentary film makers who are able to go to villages and document things like problems with land grabbing. So they serve as an early warning system.”
McDowell adds this kind of support is vital to continued reforms in the country.
“We are at a very crucial juncture right now where we can’t be satisfied with the gains that have been achieved… we have to keep working to consolidate and enlarge these human rights gains.”
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This is why the Canadian Embassy is also supporting smaller niche programs that are still not being dealt with in a big way in Myanmar.
“We’ve been able to be a real key niche player in a lot of issues, for example, LGBT rights and freedom of expression,” says McDowell.
Rights activists like prominent LGBT activist Aung Myo Min say this kind of niche support is really important and makes a difference.
“Many people feel human rights should be prioritized more than the LGBT issue. But I cannot accept that. I see LGBT people as part of the society and also human beings. So, whenever you talk about human rights this kind of marginalization of particular groups should be discussed.”
Canada has also made contributions to human rights related issues in an indirect fashion through their support of various programs including recently donating equipment that can be used to combat human trafficking — a constant problem in the region.
This summer, the Myanmar customs and border protection agency received a donation from Canada called the verifier.
The machines are used to help detect fraudulent passports used to move people illegally.
Canada has also supported dialogue programs that bring together many of the ethnic minorities in workshops to engage with each other and understand their cultural and religious differences in a new way.
Not only is Canada providing the funding for these workshops, but Canada is also the example in many of the discussions that happen. Canada is the example of a federalist state that’s working says Nai Lawel Aung, a civil society organizer from Mon state and participant in one of the workshops held in Yangon this past summer.
As Myanmar takes its next steps into the future, many are optimistic that it’s on a strong path to modernization and is leaving its brutal military dictatorship past behind. Canada continues to invest in its future relationship with the country.
“I’m very excited to see how this movie ends. I mean this is an incredibly dramatic year in the history of Burma,” McDowell says. “The work plan over the next 5 to ten years is incredibly ambitious and we want to be part of that.”
Melanie de Klerk travelled to Myanmar as a recipient of the 2015/2016 Asia Pacific Foundation Media Fellowship.
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