166
Nart Villeneuve and Masashi Crete-Nishihata
Recall that the information seen when a user enters the overkill.myanmarchat.org
server was “ ~xero overkill.name irc.doscoder.org xer0 H*:1 xero. ” It may be a coincidence but the “ xero ” is present in both. It is diffi cult to assess whether lynn was in
fact Lynn Htun. In the chat, “ lynn ” appeared to backpeddle from the post made on
Myanmaritpros.com, raising questions about whether the user was actually Lynn
Htun.
Lynn Htun ’ s profi le on Myanmaritpros.com indicates that he works for Myanmar
Online. The IRC group for Myanmar Online has an apparent rivalry with oGc, and if
anyone creates a channel with a name associated with oGc, such as “ ogc, ” he or she
is kicked from the channel and given the following message: “ You have been kicked
from the chat room by ChanServ with the reason ‘ lamer channel ’ and cannot send
further messages without rejoining. ”
In some of his posts on Myanmaritpros.com, Lynn Htun expresses views that appear
unfavorable toward the Burmese political opposition but do not necessarily refl ect a
“ progovernment ” position either. His perspective appears to be nuanced and stems
from what he refers to as the “ excessive politicization of our daily lives ”
53 as well as
the “ collateral damage ” that emerges as a result of tying economics to political reform
through the use of sanctions:
Unfortunately our beloved politicians have [intertwined] the development of the country with
political process. As such, as long as there are political deadlocks, our country ’ s developments
will be [hampered] and our IT industry will be stuck in a limbo forever more. I would like to
show your posting to those who claim that sanctions are working and that they are essential
for political transition. Insisting that economic and social development goes hand in hand
with political progress is like saying prostrate cancer can be cure[d] with cough medicine.
Yet, knowingly many insist that enforcing sanctions on Myanmar is a good thing because it
serve[s] the greater cause and of course all the negative side effects are acceptable collateral
damage.
54
General discontent with opposition media is refl ected in a thread on Myanmaritpros.com in which Lynn Htun and others expressed frustration over the coverage of
a competition to develop a search engine sponsored by the Myanmar Computer Professional Association. After The Irrawaddy posted an article suggesting that the competition may have been “ designed by the Burmese military junta in order to increase
its Internet restriction technology and ability to control Web sites and blogs, ”
55 Lynn
Htun called them “ democrazies ” and suggested that The Irrawaddy was opposed to
improving the state of information technologies in Burma: “ I don ’ t think that is on
the agenda of the ‘ democrazies, ’ politicians and exiled media outlets. . . . Looks like
they already cooked up some nasty accusations:-(. ”
56 This incident appears to illustrate
a tension in the Burmese IT community that suggests how viewing the sociopolitical
climate and its relation to technology in the country in black-and-white terms may
overly simplify the situation.
Nart Villeneuve and Masashi Crete-Nishihata
Recall that the information seen when a user enters the overkill.myanmarchat.org
server was “ ~xero overkill.name irc.doscoder.org xer0 H*:1 xero. ” It may be a coincidence but the “ xero ” is present in both. It is diffi cult to assess whether lynn was in
fact Lynn Htun. In the chat, “ lynn ” appeared to backpeddle from the post made on
Myanmaritpros.com, raising questions about whether the user was actually Lynn
Htun.
Lynn Htun ’ s profi le on Myanmaritpros.com indicates that he works for Myanmar
Online. The IRC group for Myanmar Online has an apparent rivalry with oGc, and if
anyone creates a channel with a name associated with oGc, such as “ ogc, ” he or she
is kicked from the channel and given the following message: “ You have been kicked
from the chat room by ChanServ with the reason ‘ lamer channel ’ and cannot send
further messages without rejoining. ”
In some of his posts on Myanmaritpros.com, Lynn Htun expresses views that appear
unfavorable toward the Burmese political opposition but do not necessarily refl ect a
“ progovernment ” position either. His perspective appears to be nuanced and stems
from what he refers to as the “ excessive politicization of our daily lives ”
53 as well as
the “ collateral damage ” that emerges as a result of tying economics to political reform
through the use of sanctions:
Unfortunately our beloved politicians have [intertwined] the development of the country with
political process. As such, as long as there are political deadlocks, our country ’ s developments
will be [hampered] and our IT industry will be stuck in a limbo forever more. I would like to
show your posting to those who claim that sanctions are working and that they are essential
for political transition. Insisting that economic and social development goes hand in hand
with political progress is like saying prostrate cancer can be cure[d] with cough medicine.
Yet, knowingly many insist that enforcing sanctions on Myanmar is a good thing because it
serve[s] the greater cause and of course all the negative side effects are acceptable collateral
damage.
54
General discontent with opposition media is refl ected in a thread on Myanmaritpros.com in which Lynn Htun and others expressed frustration over the coverage of
a competition to develop a search engine sponsored by the Myanmar Computer Professional Association. After The Irrawaddy posted an article suggesting that the competition may have been “ designed by the Burmese military junta in order to increase
its Internet restriction technology and ability to control Web sites and blogs, ”
55 Lynn
Htun called them “ democrazies ” and suggested that The Irrawaddy was opposed to
improving the state of information technologies in Burma: “ I don ’ t think that is on
the agenda of the ‘ democrazies, ’ politicians and exiled media outlets. . . . Looks like
they already cooked up some nasty accusations:-(. ”
56 This incident appears to illustrate
a tension in the Burmese IT community that suggests how viewing the sociopolitical
climate and its relation to technology in the country in black-and-white terms may
overly simplify the situation.