What Do You Call What’s Happening in Myanmar?

Some kind of something has been moving forward with increasing momentum during the past several months in Myanmar, but it’s hard to know exactly what to call it.

Some would say it was “progress” when both Thein Sein, who has been country’s president for about a year, and Aung San Suu Kyi, who last month was elected to Parliament, met with Hilary Clinton on December 1st. Others use the word “transformation” to describe the recent steps toward democratic rule, even though when Suu Kyi was asked a few days ago to rate Myanmar’s democracy on a scale of one to ten, she said, “On the way to one.”

The Economist quoted one of the “reform”-minded ministers as saying, “There are 60 decision-makers in this country: 20 have seen the light, 20 are asleep, and 20 are waiting to see which way to jump.”

An especially big hurdle in the way of “real change” is a constitution that makes sure the military dominates Parliament. Maybe the most realistic moniker for what’s going on is “new era”—a time when lots of work will need doing so that the elections of last month aren’t just a tactic to convince Western nations to lift the years of economic sanctions.

Call it “movement”? Call it “makeover”? Whatever you call it, everything new over the past year could disappear in a heartbeat.