If and when they do, I hope a little more light can be shone on figures like the Wan Bao representatives (website motto: “Win-win originates from cooperation”) hanging back in the shadows and letting the local government evict familes from land which Wan Bao has stolen ($600 for ten acres–a rounding error compared to the long term value of those ten acres as part of a producing mine. I would definitely call that a steal!).

I disagree that the World is somehow complicit in the displacement of native farmers across the world because it highlighted the violent crackdown by police against peaceful protesters here.

I went up to Latpadaung last week to understand more about the copper mining project, the land seizure that happened there and the growing protest movement against the project. Originally the piece was set to highlight complaints about land seizure by local authorities, businesses and the government. But I was in town when the police broke up the protest camps and so the story shifted its focus. 

At a time when the government is showing its democratic credentials to the world someone ordered a brutal crackdown against people who peacefully disagreed with them. It is not the case that the violence against the protesters eclipsed the newsworthiness of the land seizure in Monywa – the voices of Aung Zaw Oo and Ma Aye Nwe are there to highlight the legitimate grievances people have over land grab in the area and some of the very real tensions around land rights in the country. With only 5 minutes to cover such a complex story, one of the main question coming out of Monywa last week was – how does the Myanmar government respond to ordinary people’s criticism and dissent?  

Inside Myanmar the events at Monywa are seen as a test of how committed parts of the government really are to democratic reform, or whether, as has happened for so long, people’s voices will be trampled over, ignored and violently oppressed. This will be fundamental in answering the question that you, quite rightly, worry over – the confiscation of land from local people and the collusion of repressive governments with corporate interests. 

In the fields outside of Monywa I met with day labourers, small hold farmers and market sellers who described speaking out for the first time in their lives. Again and again I was told that now Myanmar is on the road to democracy, people were not afraid to talk, sign petitions and to protest. The fear that was so entrenched for so long seems to be ebbing. 

In a country where the majority of people live in rural areas, the right to farm the land your family has farmed for generations is incredibly important. But so is the right to protest and speak out. Land seizure without proper consultation has been an issue here for decades. It is, as you say, far more complicated and multi-faceted than only the issue of compensation. It touches on who will really profit from the development of Myanmar and how decisions are made over that development. It brings into focus decades of corruption, collusion and abuse. It is without doubt, one of the most important topics facing the country during this transition. But so is the right for people to express their opinions, openly and without fear. Last week, as monks and farmers nursed their wounds, the question of what it means to speak out took precedence.