When U Nay Htun Naing’s article was published by Eleven Media on March 31, he could not have predicted the rant/lecture/Sermon on the Mount that it would induce in none other than U Myint, President Thein Sein’s chief economic adviser, who fired off what may be the greatest – and most condescending – potshot of a piece of journalism ever written.
The adviser, whose subject line for the April 4 response is “Open Letter on your article titled ‘Would Myanmar plunge deeper into recession?’, starts off with a few warm-up paragraphs discussing the role of media in society while going out of his way to give Nay Htun Naing an A for effort.
“I find that you must have devoted a lot of time and effort in its preparation,” he says in reference to the piece, sounding like a teacher talking to an underperforming student after class. “I have no doubt that you have written the article with good intentions and that you sincerely want to protect the people of Myanmar from the serious consequences of the country plunging into a ‘deeper recession’ as expressed in the English text, and ‘collapse of the economy’ as it appears in the Burmese text.”
So far, so good. But the letter then abruptly shifts tone, entering full battle mode and launching an attack sustained throughout the letter. First, U Myint accuses the writer of engaging in an act of holy war.
“I also note with considerable interest that you have declared jihad on President U Thein Sein, his government, his advisers, the Hluttaw [Parliament] and the opposition.”
He cites two sentences that say if the economy collapses in 2015, Thein Sein and his government should be held accountable first. After that, the presidential advisers should take some heat. He then challenges Nay Htun Naing to come up with a few replacements.
“In going through your article I get a feeling that you think the country will be better off if the [sic] U Thein Sein’s government and its advisers are removed from office. Speaking for myself and on behalf of my four fellow economic advisers, if you think we are ineffective and should be removed, especially in thinking about [the] make-up of the next administration, I would be interested if you could give me five names that meet your expectation [sic] of who you consider will be good economic advisers.”
Stepping back for a few seconds to praise the “important issues” and “good points” that were brought up in the article, U Myint catches his breath and moves in for a few more body blows.
“Unfortunately, the good points you have made are not likely to have the desired impact they deserve because the quality of your article in terms of journalistic merit, command of the English language and knowledge of the subject matter of economics are far below local standards.”
Note the ever so subtle “local” in “local standards.” The bar was already low in Myanmar’s media, he seems to be suggesting, and you just lowered it.
Turning his attention to specific sentences, U Myint picks apart point after point after point after point. He does this 18 times. Though the text is too long to quote in full, here are a few choice pieces of advice following statements that U Myint found inaccurate, unclear and sensational.
“I have difficulty in understanding what is meant by an opposition’s ‘duty to alarm’ the government. Please explain. I hope it does not mean that an opposition has [the] duty to overthrow the government by inciting violence, civil disobedience and social unrest. These will have tragic consequences on the people of Myanmar.”
“As we all know, it is obvious [that] sitting back and watching mistakes do [sic] not solve anything. So saying something obvious in different words to create an impression of being provocative, wise and smart does not add anything to an argument. It is called a tautology.”
“The meaning of NLD ‘ruled the power’ is not clear. It will be desirable to redraft this statement. Ask your editors to do it for you.”
“’Running private enterprises fall’ is poor English and poorly drafted. Suggest redraft.”
“As far as I am aware, President U Thein Sein, his advisors, the government, Hluttaw and the opposition are not sitting back and enjoying the situation at present. Please rest assured, trying to recover from fifty years of mismanagement and systematic destruction of the country’s institutions, there is no soft landing and none of us are sitting around and enjoying ourselves.”
“Recession, depression, economic collapse and economic failure are used interchangeably in the article. It will be helpful if you could tell us how you go about defining, recession, depression, and economic collapse in Myanmar.”
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