'Call us Myanmar', Burma tells Aung San Suu Kyi
30 June BBC
Burmese officials have told opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to
call the country by its official name, Myanmar.The country was renamed
Myanmar in 1989 by its then military rulers and the change has been
widely adopted since. But opposition groups have continued to use the
old name as a sign of defiance, along with some Western governments and
media organisations.
Ms Suu Kyi was freed from arrest in 2010 and elected to parliament
this year amid continuing political reforms.She is set to return from a
high-profile trip to Europe, during which she referred to her country as
Burma.She also used the term Burma during a speech to the World Economic
Forum in Thailand on 1 June, apparently annoying her country's
military-backed civilian government.Correspondents say the authorities
may be trying assert themselves after Ms Suu Kyi, who leads the National
League for Democracy (NLD), was feted throughout her European tour.
In a statement published in The New Light of Myanmar newspaper, the
electoral commission said: "As it is prescribed in the constitution that
'the state shall be known as The Republic of the Union of Myanmar', no
one has the right to call [the country] Burma."It is announced that the
commission... has again informed the NLD to write/address the name of
the state as prescribed in the constitution... and respect the
constitution."NLD party spokesman Nyan Win responded by saying that
referring to the country as Burma "does not amount to disrespecting the
constitution".
The then ruling military chose to rename Burma two decades ago,
arguing that the old name was a hangover from colonialism and only
represented the dominant Burman ethnic group.Etymologists and others
suggest that this argument is false, as both Myanmar and Burma come from
the same root - referring to the Burman ethnic group - and have been
used interchangeably for centuries.The US and UK governments still use
Burma to refer to the country, as do some media organisations, including
the BBC.
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