Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been warned for referring to the country as ‘Burma’ instead of ‘Myanmar’ by government officials.
The comments come in the midst of Suu Kyi’s European tour, during which she has repeatedly used the term Burma in speeches and interviews.
The Burmese electoral commission published a statement in the New Light of Myanmar newspaper saying “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.”
A spokesperson for Suu Kyi’s opposition party National League for Democracy had responded by saying that referring to the country as Burma “does not amount to disrespecting the constitution.”
The change to Myanmar was adopted in 1989 by the then military rulers and has been in widespread use since.
Burma was argued to be a colonial leftover and only representative of the dominant Burman ethnic group.
Use of the old name however has continued as a defiant gesture among opposition groups and Western groups and organisations. Burma is also used by the UK and US governments.