Letters from Burma by Aung San Suu Kyi.

Visiting Rites

The Burmese are reputed to be one of the most hospitable people in the world. When I was a child I took it for granted that formal invitations to lunch or tea or dinner were issued only to foreigners. Burmese friends simply dropped in and shared whatever you happened to be eating. And there was always enough for visitors, however unexpected. Often friends would suddenly appear in the evening, hot green tea, plum candy, fried beans and /laphet/ (preserved tea leaves) would be brought out and there would be an impromptu party. Sometimes the conversation flowed so happily and the atmosphere was so congenial the guests would decide to stay for the night. That would be no problem at all: some smooth /thinbyu/ mats, pillows and mosquito nets and any room with a fresh breeze bowing through would be instantly transformed into a pleasant guest dormitory. Night would descend on a household replete with food and the sense of hospitality well discharged.

There is no tradition of inns or hotels in Burma. Visitors from out of town stay with friends or relatives for as long as it is necessary. Considerate guests come laden with food and other gifts and everybody enjoys the opportunity to exchange news of births, deaths, marriages, mild scandals and success stories. Sometimes guests stay on so long the hosts become a little restive. But there are also guests so cherished their visit is extended day after day at the behest of the hosts. Having guests to stay is an informal and elastic process.

Hospitality is no longer so simple. Apart from the high food prices that make most people hesitate to impose themselves on friends, staying overnight in a house other than your own involves more than friendship, good conversation an a cool mat. Visitors must make up their minds before too late an hour if they intend to stay the night because their presence has to be reported to the local Law and Order Restoration Council (LORC) before nine o'clock in the evening. Failure to "report the guest list" could result in a fine or a prison sentence for both the guest and the host. Nobody may go away for the night from his own home without informing the local LORC as well as the LORC of the place where he will be staying. The authorities have the right to check at any time during the night to see if there are any unreported guests or if any of the members of the family are missing. Households which shelter members of the National League form Democracy or their supporters tend to be subjected to frequent "guest checks" these days.

These periodic checks can be a mere formality conducted with courtesy or they can be a form of harassment. There are no lack of cases where the authorities have marched in the dead of night and flung up mosquito nets to ascertain that the sleeping population tallied with the names and numbers on Form 10. Form 10 is the list of all members of a family. In some households which comprise more than one nuclear family there may be more than one Form 10. Domestic employees who sleep at their employers' homes also have to be registered on Form 10 or they have to be reported as guests. A person may be registered on only one Form 10 so if it is necessary for him to be entered as a member of another family fro some reason, his name has to be removed from the original family list. During the days of the Burmese Socialist Programme Party, Form 10 played a central role in the daily lives of the people of Burma. It was in accordance with the household members listed on the form that it was decided how much a family was entitled to buy of such essentials as rice, oil, salt, chilies, onions, soap and milk powder from the government cooperatives. Today the cooperatives no longer supply consumer necessities so Form 10 has ceased to be important in the economic life of the average family. However it still features large in the family's social life because it decides who may or may not spend the night in a house without reporting to the authorities.

And what can happen if a family fails to let the local LORC know they have an overnight guest? Both the guest and the host are liable to minimum fine of 50 kyats, or to a prison sentence ranging from two weeks to six months. Since 1988 the cases of prison sentences meted out to unreported guests have increased hugely. Some of the cases are tragicomic. A young man caught spending the night as an unreported guest was taken to court together with his host. The court handed down a prison sentence of six months to the guest and two weeks to the host. The host, a hospitable man with a long experience of paying fines for his unexpected and unreported guests, involuntarily clicked his tongue against his teeth in astonished disgust. The acting magistrate heard the loud click and promptly changed the sentence on the host to one month's imprisonment for contempt of court. The price of hospitality in Burma can be very high.