On a recent hot and dusty Sunday afternoon, a crumbling neighbourhood in downtown Yangon was heaving with local pop music.

In smoky roadside kiosks, young men and women traded giggles over cold beers, while watching a Thai television soap opera.

Myanmar is better now. Not like before when you cannot talk about anything, said a young man who wanted to be identified only as Thant Min just before the April 1 by-elections.

Outside, street vendors pushed colourful T-shirts printed with the picture of opposition leader and Noble Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, while at a roadside kiosk, older men in the traditional Burmese sarong called longyi engaged in more serious political talk.

A Yangon resident had expressed confidence that the National League for Democracy (NLD) will win because the people want change.

The NLD, led by democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, won 43 of the 44 seats in the by-elections. While there will be no change in who controls the parliament, tne NLD’s strong performance boosts the party’s presence in Myanmar politics.

Myanmar’s legislature has 664 seats with more than 80 per cent held by members of the Union Solidarity and Development Party backed by the military. The 45 seats in this month’s by-elections were vacancies created by the promotion of parliamentarians to the Cabinet and other posts last year.

With the victory of NLD, an air of optimism has swept through the Southeast Asian country.

International business delegations have flocked to Myanmar over the past year eager to seize opportunities as the country embraces capitalism to rebuild its collapsing but resource-rich economy.

Asian businesses reckon they have an edge over their Western counterparts.

“Our governments weren’t imposing sanctions against Myanmar and we are more comfortable with the way business is done,” said a Singaporean businessman who spent two weeks in Myanmar’s capital scouring for opportunities.

But long-time residents, diplomats and business executives caution that the optimism needs to be tempered and that Myanmar’s frontier economy carries equal amounts of promise and pitfalls.

This is no Klondike, said a Western diplomat, referring to the great gold rush in Alaska’s Yukon region in the late 1890s. A lot of people will be disappointed because those in government and the military don’t like being rushed.

That is only part of the problem.

Before foreign investment can start to flow, Myanmar will need to put in place basic building blocks for a functioning economy. These range from establishing a formal exchange rate for the kyat, the local currency, to overhauling the country’s decrepit telecommunications and power infrastructure and rebuilding the tattered civil service.

Infrastructure is not only the hardware but also the software such as putting in place a capable workforce. That will be the major challenge not just for the country but also our industry, said Philippe Bissig, the managing director of luxury travel group Orient Express, which has a regional office in Yangon.

Then there are the bloody conflicts between the military and ethnic populations who live in resource-rich regions.

Myanmar can have all the resources and make the right noises about reform. But if there is no stability, particularly with regard to ethnic conflicts, the reform plan won’t be sustainable, said David Tegenfeldt, a long-time Myanmar resident and country representative of the Canada-based HOPE International Development Agency, which promotes development programmes in troubled regions.

Still, there is no denying that Myanmar is turning the corner. The renewed confidence has resulted in property prices more than tripling in value in parts of Yangon over the past 18 months.

Foreign visitors are taking advantage of relaxed travel rules and hotels are running at peak occupancy rates.

There were also surprising developments on the political front.

Recently, the Union Ministry of Mines took the unprecedented step of initiating legal action against a local newspaper, The Voice, for defamation over a report alleging misappropriation of funds and graft by ministry officials.

In the past, the editor would have been summoned and slapped so hard for an offence like this, and the newspaper would shut down after that, said a Southeast Asian diplomat, who notes that several local newspapers are actively testing the limits of reporting political and economic development in the country.

The results of the by-elections have also turned Suu Kyi from a dissident outsider to an active partner of the civilian government in national development.

The problem for Myanmar and the government is that Western countries look at us through the Suu Kyi lens. If she says it is okay, then it is okay. If it is bad, it is bad, said a local businessman who asked not to be named.

But this election will also show her supporters whether she can deliver as a politician and has the country’s interests at heart, he added.

More immediately, a thumbs-up from Suu Kyi for the polls will jump-start the rollback of sanctions imposed by Western governments.

The government and the military realise that she (Suu Kyi) is the best asset that they have to push ahead with developing the country, said Andrew Heyn, the British Ambassador in Myanmar.

By Leslie Lopez

(The Straits Times )