Hello-
I am soon arriving in Burma and currently reading The River of Lost Footsteps, a work critical of the Myanmar military junta. Do I need to be careful bringing this book into the country? I'm concerned that if my luggage is searched upon arrival and the title is found, I will be denied entry.
Any thoughts/experience?
Thank you.
Normally, they don't search your luggage. If your luggage is too big, they will only ask you to open the luggage and then you will be passed. They aren't serious on ordinary tourists. The worst thing that can be occurred is that they just keep your book and you will be easily passed. They don't reject a visitor because of such a trivial matter.
What will you gain by taking it? A good rule of thumb in totalitarian police states is don't f with the man because he might f you up or the guy next to you - it don't matter to him.
There's no politically sensitive literature in Myanmar - you can take anything in, and anything can be purchased in the bookshops in downtown Yangon. Oddly enough, the government does have tight controls over what gets published inside the country. So: publishing is controlled, import and (2nd hand hand) sale is not.
Just a further note on bun-cha's description of the Myanmar police state: yes, it is, but it's not a very competent one. All decisions come from the top, and in the absence of a decision the default is to do nothing. Thus it comes about that the top has decreed that publishing and the sale of new publications are to be controlled, but nobody has pointed out to them that books can also be imported and sold second-hand. Plus, I suspect, they see no reason to worry about anything in English. Anyway, neither you nor any Burmese friends should have any problem with the River of Lost Footsteps in, and you luggage won't be searched.
I think you're >95% right on this. Problems very unlikely. But if anyone is hurt it will be someone else - as in a Burmese person the cops don't like. I don't mind some risk when the person at-risk is me and when the pay-off is great, but I wouldn't do it.