Burma hosts SEA Games – with a little help from its friends

After a lavish and electrifying opening ceremony last week, Burma is currently hosting the South East Asia Games (SEA Games) for the first time in 44 years. The government hopes it will provide a chance to showcase its ongoing reform process and woo international confidence.

The largest multi-sports event in the region returns to Burma after a half-century as a pariah state under successive dictatorships. For the 22-day SEA Games, China has provided nearly $33m in technical assistance, including with the opening and closing ceremonies, in an attempt to strengthen the two countries’ relationship and secure the business concessions in this resource rich country.

“Assisting Myanmar in organising the 27th SEA Games is a very important project for the Chinese government,” said Wang Shengwen, from China’s Ministry of Commerce.

It’s good they are investing in these stadiums for Myanmar. But of course we are also a poor country, so they must invest to change that too. Than Than Aye

“It shows the ‘pauk-phaw’ friendship between the two countries,” he said, referring to the Asian concept of fraternal relations.

Since he took office in 2011, President Thein Sein has initiated a series of reforms including amnesties to political prisoners: 44 were released ahead of the games.

It may be a sporting event, but economic interests also loom large. Last year, the European Union lifted economic sanctions against Burma, and the US suspended most of its sanctions.

This improving relationship with the West has made China doubt its continued economic and political influence on its backdoor neighbour. During her trip to the game’s opening ceremony, China’s vice premier Liu Yandong called on Burma to maintain a neighbourly policy between the two countries and ensure continued good relations in the long term.

But China is still Burma’s largest investor, channeling between $14bn and $20bn into the country since 1988.

Photo: dancers perform during the opening ceremony of the 27th SEA Games

‘We are also a poor country’

The Games are now underway, and as a sign of how much has changed, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was seen at an equestrian competition last week, cheering at her own stallion’s performance – a gift from a riding club linked to one of Burma’s leading companies.

The authorities were worried that only a few people would show up to cheer on the athletes, so they students in the capital of Naypyidaw were encouraged to fill the seats in the stadium for the opening ceremony of equestrian competition.

Ms Suu Kyi, now a member of parliament, is advocating an amendment of the present constitution to her domestic and international supporters. The present constitution, drawn by the previous military junta, bars her from competing presidency in 2015 because of her marriage to a foreigner – the late British academic Michael Airs.

Despite welcoming the game at purposed-built 60,000 seat stadium, the nation of 60 million people remains one of the world’s poorest. Only a tiny portion of the budget was spent on education and health.

“It’s good they are investing in these stadiums for Myanmar (Burma), for our sports,” said Naypyidaw resident Than Than Aye. “But of course we are also a poor country, so they must invest to change that too.”