Rangoon Confidential

Episode #344: Dominic Faulder’s decades of reporting on Myanmar began serendipitously in 1981, when a Thai coup disrupted his travel plans and led to an impromptu journey to Burma for Thingyan. He was immediately struck by the atmosphere—enticing yet oppressive—and quickly became fascinated by the country's complexity, secrecy, and resilience. In the 1980s, he uncovered the unreported Mandalay fire, which destroyed a sixth of the city, and found that a similar catastrophe in the town of Taungdwingyi had also gone unnoticed. These early stories revealed the regime’s ability to conceal massive tragedies from the outside world.

Faulder reported extensively on the events leading up to the 1988 uprising. He witnessed the bravery of students, the absence of police in early demonstrations, and the eerie silence before the storm. His proximity to key figures—Aung San Suu Kyi, U Nu, Min Ko Naing—gave him unique access as history unfolded in real time.

Faulder eventually conducted a rare interview with General Saw Maung, a junta leader, an extraordinary feat given the regime’s paranoia. Despite Suu Kyi’s frustration that generals would speak to media but not political leaders, Faulder defended the role of journalists in documenting the moment. His reporting emphasized not just the courage of the protesters but the regime’s brutality, the fractures within the opposition, and the impossible balance journalists had to strike between access and truth-telling.

Like many other past guests who have described their multi-decade relationship with the country, Dominic reflects on the pull that Burma exerts on those who come to be involved with its story. “Foreigners get involved with Southeast Asia and stay much longer than they ever anticipated. But Burma, it is the one story that you always go back to, [asking] what-ifs and why do you think that is?”