“Young people didn’t have access to new ways of thinking. They hated the military. But they still had the same idea as the military of a Burma that was unchanged from millions of years ago. They didn’t know what had been the product of the British and what was not. We talked about all these things. About how the country’s borders themselves were new. This opened their eyes. Some were very upset. ‘No, Myanmar was always there!’ some said. But then they changed. With that they came to accept a more pragmatic approach. It wasn’t going to be about bringing back a glorious past.”
