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Dawei, Burma. When 200 activists in green T-shirts marched along a pristine Burma beach to protest plans for a coal plant, they expected a long, tough struggle against the powers that be.

But then, something bizarre happened. A deputy Cabinet minister asked for a meeting. He listened to their concerns about pollution. Then he told them the government agreed and would halt construction of the controversial 4,000-megawatt plant in Burma’s southern panhandle.

In a long-repressed country whose people have grown accustomed to living in fear of the government, it seemed too good to be true. Just last year, anyone who dared demonstrate in public would have have been beaten or detained by security forces.

“We were shocked,” said Aung Zaw Hein of the activist group, the Dawei Development Association, which held the protest last month. “He asked us, ‘Do you love your region?’ Then he said, ‘We love it, too. We just need to work together.’ ”

Hein’s group takes no credit for the decision to halt the plant, though, and is still suspicious of government motives. But President Thein Sein’s administration even sitting down and listening to protesters at all is a testament to the dramatic reforms here.

For almost half a century, the country was ruled by a reclusive, xenophobic clique of army officers who cracked down hard on any perceived dissent. It finally ceded power last year to a nominally civilian government which has embarked on an unexpected wave of reforms, including freeing political prisoners and allowing democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi to run for parliament.

Burma’s most vocal activist groups have been based abroad, where they can speak freely without fear of arrest. But there are about 800 registered non-governmental organizations and some 20,000 community groups working inside the country on charity, health and development issues, said Thant Myint-U, a prominent Burma historian and author.

Those local groups have quietly pushed for reform for years and are responsible for “a big part of the changes that have taken place in Burma,” he said.

In December, Thein Sein lifted a ban on demonstrations, allowing groups like the Dawei Development Association to protest legally. The civil society group was formed around the same time, and shortly afterward it sent an open letter to the president calling for the coal project to be canceled.

On Jan. 4, the activists staged a peaceful march along Maungmakan beach just outside Dawei, a town south of Rangoon. They wore T-shirts that said “No Coal” and “Only Green Development.” They took photos of themselves and posted them on the group’s Facebook page. They handed out fliers saying how the plant could taint Burma’s air and water.

A few days later, Deputy Railways Minister U Thaung Lwin asked to meet them. The official, who is chairman of a government committee managing a mass seaport project in Dawei that would include the coal plant, asked them “not to create a panic” by protesting the project, Hein said. Then he took them out to eat at a local guesthouse and paid the tab.

Despite the apparent victory, the environmentalists still wonder how it happened.

“We’re grateful the government did what they did, but ... we don’t trust them 100 percent yet,” Hein said.

While the government may have had concerns over pollution, it’s also possible a lack of funding played a part. The plant is an integral part of a $50 billion deep-sea port project by Thailand’s Italian-Thai Development construction company, which has been slow to attract investors.

The government may also be trying to boost its popularity among a skeptical populace ahead of April 1 by-elections in which Suu Kyi will run for parliament for the first time. Thein Sein is eager to show democratic progress to get Western sanctions lifted.

Sean Turnell, an expert on Burma’s economy at Macquarie University in Sydney, said there was growing national resentment over the sell-off of the country’s natural resources abroad.

Much of the electricity the coal plant would have generated was destined for Thailand, and “in this case, the efforts of such [environmental] groups nicely coincided with the interests of the government,” Turnell said.

Authorities have made at least one similar about-face before. In September, Thein Sein abruptly suspended a controversial Chinese-backed hydroelectric dam in the country’s north, the $3.6 billion Myitsone dam project.

Local activists praised that move, too, but suspected it had more to do with the government’s desire to assert independence from China or squash an issue that could unite political foes than to curb environmental damage.

Dawei’s environmentalists know they still face challenges.

A 400-megawatt coal plant is still in the works. It is needed for the seaport and a vast industrial complex which will link Burma’s Indian Ocean coast to the rest of Southeast Asia with railways, highways and oil and gas pipelines. Some 20,000 villagers will be evicted from their homes.

Hein said his group’s objective was not to stop the mega-project, which could help an undeveloped region where jobs are scarce, but rather to “make sure this is done responsibly, with transparency.”

That goal will be especially crucial as international investors increasingly rush to tap into a country widely considered one of Asia’s last unspoiled frontiers.

U Tin Maung Swe, who chairs a government body overseeing the Dawei project, said experts were studying other ways to fuel the still hoped-for 4,000 megawatt power plant. He spoke of possibilities like hydropower, solar power, wind power — just the kind of “green” options the Dawei Development Association would like them to explore.

But if that fails, Swe said, “we will choose coal-fired power.”

Associated Press