Myanmar is making headlines around the globe like never before in light of its recent election. However, despite the recent press coverage, history buffs and curious readers often emerge empty-handed when seeking lengthier literature on the nation and it's turbulent past.
Journalist Richard Cockett hopes to fill in the gap with his new book Blood, Dreams And Gold: The Changing Face Of Burma. The author is based in London with The Economist, after working as its foreign correspondent in Southeast Asia from 2010-2014.
He spent five years in and out of Myanmar researching the book, titled after a poem penned by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda on Rangoon, now Yangon.
"The book is a single volume wrap up of the modern history and the contemporary outlook for Burma. It's an attempt to give an overall perspective on the country and of why things got so bad, the success of the military regimes and the hopes now under way to reform the country," he said.
The book was released in Thailand about a week prior to the election and is what he calls a combination of scholarship, reportage, as well as a thorough political and social analysis.
Cockett has composed a very particular interpretation of Myanmar's history, spanning the colonial period up to the reform period, pre-election, but the book is also an attempt to give first-time visitors and tourists a feel for the country by evoking the reader's senses with colourful descriptions and anecdotes of cities, people, buildings, landscapes and jungles.
When the journalist first came to Southeast Asia in 2010, Myanmar was a closed country and so he didn't anticipate spending much time there. In 2011, the country began rapidly changing and opening up, so that meant journalists no longer had to go in under false pretences and instead could move freely within the country, which he did. He soon became enthralled with the country and its intricacies.
"I kept on going back there a lot, and I discovered the lack of any good books on the subject or good general guides to what had happened in Burma so I thought, well I'll have to write one, and so I did."
Although he consulted secondary literature in his research, the book is primarily based on scores of interviews he did throughout the country as he travelled extensively, speaking with ruling generals, opposition and ethnic party members, monks, teachers, rebels, shopkeepers, ethnic Myanmarese and the ethnic minorities of Karen, Rohingya, Mon and Kachin.
"When I went out into the sticks, I would often meet people who hadn't spoken to a westerner, certainly not a journalist, for decades because they hadn't been allowed into Burma," he said.
He added that these people were keen to talk, which allowed him to gather a plethora of experiences of life under the military regime. "These first-hand accounts were very fresh and passionately felt of the Burmese peoples' recent past and what their hopes were for the future."
The writer is an academic historian by training, so naturally he always looks to the past. He felt that providing context was particularly important in Myanmar's complicated case.
Cockett believes people cannot begin to understand the issues or the nationalism that is rampant throughout the extremely diverse country without looking back, nor can the nation truly reform unless it begins to address the origins and reasons behind the persisting conflicts. He hopes the book may provide insights into the many challenges facing the country.
"It's not a coincidence that Burma took this particular tragic trajectory over the past few decades of military rule. It happened for good reason, which I hope I demonstrate in the book."
He argues the conflicts in the country today stem from British rule and says that since Myanmar gained independence, ethnic people have struggled to eradicate colonial influence as well as the influence of the thousands of ethnic immigrants that came with it.
This has made it impossible to move forward as a functioning, democratic nation as they have never really known peace, Cockett said, adding how in the book he examines evidence-based suggestions on how Myanmar can begin to rebuild, economically and otherwise.
His studies of the nation's history and an understanding of how much change the people actually want have left the author pessimistic about the probability of authentic reform. The election is a step forward but will not change everything and the country has a long way to go, he said.
Myanmar is sure to remain in the headlines as the election aftermath unfolds, which will remind them they remain under scrutiny, he said. He hopes the media will offer a more rounded coverage of the country rather than focusing solely on the internationally-known Nobel Peace Prize laureate and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"I wish the scrutiny and the media attention would extend beyond, because she's an important part of Burma of course, but she's one part of a very complicated jigsaw puzzle," he said.
"That's part of the point of reading the book as well. It's a book about Burma, not a book about Aung San Suu Kyi."
Blood, Dreams And Gold
is now available in bookstores such as Asia Books and Kinokuniya.