In what some former students have dubbed a short-sighted move, London’s prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) has announced it is terminating the post of Professor of Burmese, just when post-coup Myanmar is in the midst of crisis.

An online petition has been set up with the help of the Myanmar Research Centre at the Australian National University to call on SOAS to reconsider. The position is due to be closed in September.

Burmese lanɡuaɡe studies and research in the languages and linguistics of Myanmar and Southeast Asia is run by Professor Justin Watkins who has been referred to by fellow academics as a remarkable, generous and dedicated participant in the scholarly communities of Burma Studies and Southeast Asian linguistics.

Professor Watkins runs the Burmese language programme previously headed by Mr John Okell, and has spent over two decades in the position. Alumni of the department include the former UK Ambassador to Myanmar Vicky Bowman who is in the news last week following her arrest by the junta authorities in Yangon.

SOAS was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and sought to cut costs.

“The Professor of Burmese post was selected arbitrarily for termination when SOAS was in crisis, but given a two-year stay of execution,” Professor Watkins told Mizzima. “In those two years, the institution has recovered substantially and is in a good financial position, so why chop the post now?”

In his appeal, Professor Watkins suggests the financial circumstances of SOAS have improved and that a rethink would be wise.

As he writes: “With concern and sadness, I'm sharing the news that the post of Professor of Burmese at SOAS, University of London, has been scheduled for termination and, if things go as SOAS plans, more than a century of scholarship in Burmese and research in the lanɡuaɡes and linɡuistics of Myanmar and mainland SE Asia will draw to an end next month, in September 2022. Some very limited Burmese language teaching may continue for now, but not by me, even after 23 years of service. It is some comfort that dear John Okell is not alive to see his legacy being dismantled.

“It's not clear why the Professor of Burmese post has been selected for removal, now that SOAS is under new leadership and recovering well from the financial meltdown of 2020. It is particularly at odds with the ethos of SOAS to be cutting UK scholarship in Burmese at a time when Myanmar is facing such an awful situation, and also at odds with the founding charter of SOAS ‘to accept a special commitment to language scholarship relating to Asia, Africa and the Middle East’.

“Further, I call upon academic colleagues, former students, and all those who would wish SOAS to reverse this decision, to write in the most persuasive and supportive way you can, making the case for keeping the Professor of Burmese post at SOAS,” he noted.

Professor Watkins suggested it was unfortunate that now SOAS is in a more stable position, post-pandemic, that they are not reconsidering their position.

“I had a chat with (Myanmar businessman) Ivan Pun this morning. When SOAS first threatened to cut the post in 2020, he and Serge (Pun) put together a wonderful fundraising campaign which, over a number of years, would have enabled the post to be endowed. We got so far, then the coup put paid to that - and he is very disappointed for SOAS to have been ready to accept help from Serge Pun when it needed it, but not to help itself now that it can,” he said.

Professor Watkins suggested the approach was shortsighted, and that it was important to “keep Burma on the radar” given the crisis the country is facing and will face for years.

As academics from the Australian National University put it: “At a time in which Myanmar is mired in political difficulty, including authoritarian rule, internal conflict and increased human rights and migration issues, discontinuing this support of Burmese scholarship is preposterous. Engagement and cross-cultural understanding, of which language learning and scholarship are fundamental, could never be more crucial.” Professor Watkins has asked supporters to sign an online petition at: https://tinyurl.com/y5hxmeyw