Meet the Expert: Dr Michael Marett-Crosby on Burma / Myanmar

1.11.16 | Oliver Broad

In this post we hear from Dr Michael Marett-Crosby, confidant of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who will be escorting a special Burma Charter tour departing in January 2017.

Dr Marrett-Crosby will share his insider knowledge of Burma’s dramatic history and recent political upheaval. A profound speaker and fascinating storyteller, his remarkable knowledge together with his passion for this magical country makes for a journey second to none.

What year did you first visit burma and why did you undertake that first trip?
I first visited Burma in 2011 at the invitation of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who had just been released from house arrest. It was not only my first trip to Burma, but my first to Asia. I had not travelled much before then, and was completely unprepared for the change of life that followed on that trip.

What aspect of the country has changed most in the intervening years (apart from the advent of democracy)?
I think it is the growth of hope. When I first came to Burma, few of the people I met were willing to risk articulating their belief in the future of the country. There were too many listening ears. It was as if a blanket of resignation smothered the people. Now, every activist, every taxi driver, every young person in a university, has a dream for themselves or others that they want to share. Myanmar is freighted with hope, and that is both the opportunity and the burden that the new government has to bear.

What is the one characteristic of the people of burma which most draws them to you?
I hope the answer I give is the same as that which the guests on the cruise will give during and after their time in Burma – it is the hospitality and friendliness that all the people of Myanmar show towards visitors. This is all the more remarkable when one remembers that over many decades they had been taught to believe that foreigners were dangerous. That deceit never undermined the people’s openness to others.

Do you have a favourite place in the country?
There is a corner of the Shwe Dagon Pagoda where I was shown how to make the proper offering to the day of the week when I was born. I don’t pretend to understand the deep teachings of Buddhism, but I return to that place whenever I can to seek inspiration and blessing in the work I do for Burma.

How did you first meet Aung San Suu Kyi?
I have known Daw Suu all my life. Her husband Dr Michael Aris was a close friend of my mother, and our families were always very close.

What is it about her journey since which has most and least surprised you?
Her journey is far from over – the greatest challenges, the greatest opportunities, perhaps they lie ahead. My own belief is that she has a unique position now from which to make peace in Burma, which after more than half a century of civil war requires not just treaties but changing the hearts and minds of peoples who have known nothing but struggle.Achieving this would be a great thing, and a huge surprise against the weight of history. And yet it will in another way not be a surprise at all – she seems to me to bring a dedication and clarity of purpose to her work for Burma such that anything is possible.

What influence do you think her stay in oxford had on her?
I think it has to be the potential for education to make a difference. I think she learnt this from the example of her mother, Daw Khin Kyi. But Oxford embodies the value of an education, and Oxford graduates have always taken what they have learnt into the world.

How can that be most clearly seen now, do you think?
Daw Suu always espouses the transformative potential of education. In a country where the higher education system was deliberately weakened by government, and where reform of curricula, schools and teacher training is only now having any impact on parents and children, this is a message of hope. As Daw Suu has said, Burma was “left behind because our education system was weak, because our political system was undemocratic and because our people were never given the chance to realise their potential. Now she wants “young people to have the right equipment, the right intellectual, mental and spiritual equipment to shape the country that they want to live in.” It seems to me that this is a very “Oxford” vision.

What aspect of yangon do you think every visitor should see?
It has to be the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, the heart of Burmese Buddhism. Its grace and prayerfulness feel especially powerful to me in the early mornings and at night.

Burma is not particularly known for its cuisine, however is there any particular dish which you would suggest?
Burma is a country of many different parts, and the foods of the different regions are well worth exploring. I always enjoy Shan cuisine when I can. The Burmese breakfast of moyingha is a surprise to begin with for those brought up on a blander English palate, but I have come to love it.

What are the most important challenges for your old college, university college oxford?
“Old” is the word – Univ is probably the oldest college in an old university, and its challenge is to make that original inspiration relevant today. My own way of thinking was challenged, my presumptions undermined and my view on the world changed by the tutorial system I experienced as an undergraduate, and by the discussions that underpinned my doctorate. I was given the chance to listen and debate ideas with Univ Fellows of extraordinary insight and learning.

I still carry their lessons with me. A college like Univ must, in my view, maintain that opportunity for young minds to be formed by brilliant scholars, against the pressure to commodify mass-market education on grounds of cost, not quality. Oxford has been the alembic wherein so many advances in human knowledge have been discovered. But each of these was first tested – in laboratories, in books, above all in debate. The challenge for Univ is to keep that debate alive, to allow the next new insight to flourish.

What has changed most since you were an undergraduate?
Two things strike me when I return to the college. The first is that Univ has become more caring of those who belong to it. Oxford will always be competitive and challenging, and rightly so. But the college has created mechanisms of support undreamt of when I was an undergraduate. I know I and others around me would have benefited from this sense of community. The other change I think I see is that the college is more international in its outlook now that before – with more graduate students from all over the world contributing their insights to the university. At a time when it seems so tempting to some to build walls, to turn in on themselves and shun the unknown, Univ seems to be becoming a place where the free exchange of ideas from different traditions and histories will still be treasured.

If you are only going to visit Burma once in your lifetime, this is the way to do it, click here for the tour page…

 

 

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