Finding the political in Myanmar, a.k.a. Burma

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 39, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 219-237

  Taylor, Robert H ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY; POLITICAL SYSTEM;

ASIA; EURASIA; MYANMAR; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 43149109716     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: 14740680     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463408000180     Document Type: Article

References (82)

1. Carroll John Daly, 'The third murderer', Black mask magazine, June, July and Aug. 1931, reprinted in Harlan Coben, Pulp fiction: The crimefighters (London: Quercus, 2007), p. 508.
2. State Law and Order Restoration Council Law No. 15/89, 18 June 1989, in Union of Myanmar, Myanmar laws (1988-1989) (Yangon: Office of the Attorney General, Mar. 1999), p. 207. The translation is by the Drafting and Legal Translation Department of the Attorney General's Office which notes that 'owing to the difference in the linguistic system and grammatical structure of the Myanmar language and the English language, there may be divergences or ambiguities in the interpretation of the text of the original language and its English translation', Foreword.
3. It is said that consideration was given to rectifying this anomaly at the time of independence but resistance by the British government, and the press of more urgent issues involved in concluding the independence treaties, plus perhaps the familiarity of English to the first set of state leaders, meant the matter was not pursued (Interview in Yangon, Jan. 2002). To my knowledge, no one has conducted research to determine if this memory is accurate. Most of the members of the army government in 1989 did not speak English fluently.
4. The first known use of Myanmar Pyi is in the Yadana Kon Htan inscription dated from 1235 CE at Bagan. Information supplied by Ma Thanegi.
5. This distinction has nothing to do with whether the research is conducted physically inside or outside the country. As for many years visas were difficult, if not impossible to get, and now some scholars are denied them or if are pursuing particularly politically sensitive subjects, some research and writing must be conducted by scholars physically outside the country.
6. This view is held, despite knowing of its own shortcomings in reality. See Robert A. Dahl, How democratic is the American constitution? (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001).
7. John Sydenham Furnivall, 'South Asia in the world today', in South Asia in the world today, ed. P. Talbot (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950), p. 6.
8. See G. E. Harvey, History of Burma (London: Frank Cass, 1967), originally published in 1925.
9. For an example of advocacy of the 'new liberal imperialism', see former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's foreign policy adviser and now top level European Union foreign policy adviser Robert Cooper's writings, including The breaking of nations: Order and chaos in the twenty-first century (London: Atlantic, 2003).
10. H. Fielding, Thibaw's queen (New York and London: Harper and Brothers, 1899), p. 7.
11. I am indebted to Stephen Lee Keck for reminding me of this interesting volume. See his 'Another look at "'Thibaw's queen": A challenge to colonial historiography', in Essays in commemoration of the Golden Jubilee of the Myanmar Historical Commission (Yangon: Myanmar Historical Commission, 2005), pp. 357-78.
12. Fielding, Thibaw's queen, p. 7.
13. Ibid., p. 8.
14. Ibid.
15. See Thant Myint-U, The making of modern Burma (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) for an elaboration of these arguments.
16. G. T. Bayfield, 'British political relations with Ava', supplement to R. Boileau Pemberton, Report on the eastern frontier of India (Calcutta: Supreme Government of India, 1835).
17. D. G. E. Hall, 'British writers of Burmese history from Dalrymple to Bayfield', in Historians of South East Asia, ed. Daniel George Edward Hall (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), p. 264.
18. Ibid., p. 266.
19. Sir Arthur Phayre, History of Burma (London: Susil Gupta, 1967), 2nd edn.
20. Hugh Tinker, 'Arthur Phayre and Henry Yule: Two soldier-administrator historians', in Historians of Southeast Asia, p. 273.
21. Michael Aung-Thwin, Pagan: The origins of modern Burma (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985).
22. Victor Lieberman, Burmese administrative cycles: Anarchy and conquest, c. 1580-1760 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).
23. William Koenig, 'The early Konbaung polity, 1752-1819: A study of politics, administration and social organisation in Burma' (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1978);
24. Burmese Sit-tans 1764-1826: Records of rural life and administration ed. Frank Newton Trager and William J. Koenig (Tucson: University of Arizona Press for the Association for Asian Studies, 1979).
25. Myo Myint 'The politics of survival in Burma: Diplomacy and statecraft in the reign of King Mindon, 1853-1878' (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, May 1987).
26. For a complete bibliography of Furnivall's writings, see Furnivall of Burma: An annotated bibliography of the works of John S. Furnivall, ed. Frank N. Trager (New Haven, CT: Yale University Southeast Asian Studies Bibliography Series no. 8, 1963).
27. See Hoai Julie Pham, 'Empire, nationalism and Fabianism in the thought of John S. Furnivall' (M. Phil diss., Cambridge University, 2002);
28. 'Ghost hunting in colonial Burma: Nostalgia, paternalism and the thoughts of J. S. Furnivall', South East Asia Research, 12, 2 (2004): 237-68
29. and 'J. S. Furnivall and Fabianism: Reinterpreting the 'Plural Society' in Burma', Modern Asian Studies, 39, 2 (2005): 321-48.
30. J. S. Furnivall, 'The fashioning of the Leviathan', Journal of the Burma Research Society, 39, 3 (1939): 1-138.
31. J. S. Furnivall, Colonial policy and practice: A comparative study of Burma and Netherlands India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1948; reprint New York: New York University Press, 1956).
32. J. S. Furnivall, An introduction to the political economy of Burma (Rangoon: People's Literature Committee and House, 1957).
33. 'An architect of our destiny', Oway, 7, 1 (1937): 2-3. The editors of the journal at that time included Hla Myint who was eventually Professor of Economics, University of London, at the London School of Economics; Nyo Mya who became a famous journalist in Myanmar after studying in the United States; and Ba Swe who became minister of defence, deputy prime minister and briefly prime minister of Myanmar in the 1950s.
34. See John Leroy Christian, Modern Burma: A survey of political and economic development (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1942) and the second edition of the same volume with a discussion of the Japanese period, Burma and the Japanese invader (Bombay: Thacker, 1945). Christian, who was in the US Army Air Force stationed in India, died in action in 1944.
35. See L. A. Mills, 'American historical writing on South East Asia', in Hall, Historians of South East Asia, p. 297 and the dust jacket to his posthumous Burma (London: Collins, 1945).
36. The work of journalists, particularly Martin Smith and Bertil Lintner, has also been important for understanding the country's political situation. See especially Martin Smith, Burma: Insurgency and the politics of ethnicity (London: Zed Press, revised edn, 1999)
37. and Bertil Lintner, Burma in revolt: Opium and insurgency since 1948 (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 1999), 2nd edn.
38. Hugh Tinker, The union of Burma: A study of the first years of independence (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, Oxford University Press, 1967), 4th edn, first appeared in 1957.
39. Hugh Tinker, The foundations of local self-government in India, Pakistan and Burma (London: Athlone Press, 1954).
40. Frank N. Trager, Burma from kingdom to republic: A historical and political analysis (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966). The British edition is subtitled From kingdom to independence (London: Pall Mall, 1966).
41. Particularly helpful was the book by Frank N. Trager, Burma: A selected and annotated bibliography (New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1973). He notes that among his seven students who assisted him in preparing the volume, one was Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who enrolled in a Masters programme at New York University while living in the city in the late 1960s.
42. Josef Silverstein, 'Burma' in Government and politics of Southeast Asia, ed. George Kahin (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1964), 2nd edn, pp. 75-181.
43. The arguments here are further elaborated in the Burma, military rule and the politics of stagnation (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977).
44. See especially David I. Steinberg, Burma's road toward development: Growth and ideology under military rule (Boulder: Westview Press, 1981).
45. John Badgley, 'Progress and polity in Burma' (Ph.D. diss., University of California, 1962) and Politics among Burmans: A study of intermediary leaders (Athens: Ohio University, Centre for International Studies, Southeast Asia Programme, no. 15, 1970).
46. Lucien Wilmot Pye, Politics, personality and nation building: Burma's search for identity (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1962).
47. William Johnstone, Burma's foreign policy; a study in neutralism (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1963).
48. Dorothy Guyot, 'The political impact of the Japanese Occupation of Burma' (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1966).
49. Though an anthropologist by training, Manning Nash's The golden road to modernity: Village life in contemporary Burma (New York: Wiley, 1965) is full of political insight and analysis.
50. Richard Butwell, U Nu of Burma (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1969), 2nd printing.
51. Lucian W. Pye, The spirit of Burmese politics: A preliminary survey of a politics of fear and charisma (Cambridge: Center for International Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, undated), p. 31.
52. For example, Ba Thann Win, 'Administration of Shan states from the Panglong conference to the cessations of the powers of the Saophas 1947-1959' (MA diss., Rangoon Arts and Sciences University, n. d.), or San San Myint, 'Hpa Has Pa Lat Hkit Myanma Naingnganyei Thamaing 1948-1958' [Political History of Burma in the AFPFL Era, 1948-1959] (MA diss., Yangon Arts and Sciences University, 1979).
53. Robert H. Taylor, Marxism and resistance in Burma, 1942-1945: Thein Pe Myint's 'Wartime Traveler' (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, Southeast Asia Translation Series no. 4, 1984).
54. Robert H. Taylor, The state in Burma (London: C. Hurst; Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press; Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1987).
55. See inter alia, 'Burma's national security and defence posture', Contemporary Southeast Asia, 11, 1 (1989): 40-60;
56. 'Sangha reforms and renewal of Sasana in Myanmar: Historical trends and contemporary practice', in Buddhist trends in Southeast Asia, ed. Trevor Ling (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), pp. 6-63;
57. Tin Maung Maung Than, State dominance in Myanmar: The political economy of industrialisation (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2006).
58. Mary Patricia Callahan, Making enemies: War and state building in Burma (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003).
59. 'Reconsidering the failure of the Burma Social Programme Party government to eradicate internal economic impediments', South East Asia Research, 11, 1 (2003): 5-58,
60. and 'Burma: Civil society skirting regime rules', in Civil society and political change in Asia: Expanding and contracting democratic space ed. Muthiah Alagappa (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004), pp. 389-418.
61. Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung, Behind the teak curtain: Authoritarianism, agricultural policies and political legitimacy in rural Burma/Myanmar (London: Kegan Paul, 2004).
62. Maung Aung Myoe, Military doctrine and strategy in Myanmar: A historical perspective (Canberra: Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, 1999) and others in the series;
63. and M. Aung Myoe, Neither friend nor foe: Myanmar's relations with Thailand since 1988: A view from Yangon (Singapore: Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, Nanyang Technological University, 2002).
64. Ashley South, Mon nationalism and civil war in Burma: The golden sheldrake (London; New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003).
65. Morten B. Pedersen, Promoting human rights in Burma: A critique of western sanctions policy (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2007).
66. Mya Than, 'A Burmese village - revisited', South East Asia Review, 2, 2 (Feb. 1978): 1-15,
67. and Khin Maung Kyi et al., 'Process of communication in modernisation of rural society: A survey report on two Burmese villages', The Malayan Economic Review, 18, 1 (1973): 55-73.
68. Edmund Leach, The political system of highland Burma (Boston: Beacon Press, 1966 and other editions).
69. 'Ethnic categories in Burma and the theory of social systems', in Southeast Asian tribes, minorities and nations, ed. Peter Kunstadter (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), vol. 1, pp. 93-124.
70. 'Toward a basis of understanding the minorities in Burma: The Kachin example', in Ibid., pp. 125-46.
71. For example, compare the arguments and assumptions in Lian H. Sakhong, In search of Chin identity: A study in religion, politics and ethnic identity in Burma (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies; London: Taylor & Francis, 2002) with some of the essays in Exploring ethnic diversity in Burma, ed. Mikael Gravers (Copenhagen: NIAS, 2007) especially those by Mandy Sadan and Sandra Dudley, 'Constructing and contesting the category 'Kachin' in the colonial and post-colonial Burmese state', pp. 34-76. Also 'Reshaping Karenni-ness: Education, nationalism and being in the wider world', pp. 77-106.
72. For a more avowedly political analysis, see the discussion of the public policy questions that impact on this question by comparing Kyaw Yin Hlaing, 'The politics of language policy in Myanmar: Imagining togetherness, practising difference?', in Language, nation and development in Southeast Asia, ed. Lee Hock Guan and Leo Suryadinata (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2007), pp. 150-80 with Mary P. Callahan, 'Language policy in modern Burma', in Fighting words: Language policy and ethnic relations in Asia, ed. Michael Brown and Šumit Ganguly (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003).
73. For an informed discussion about how this subject has been shaped and understood in the South East Asian context, see Anthony J. Langlois, The politics of justice and human rights: Southeast Asia and universalist theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).
74. As prison experts and criminologists discovered when interviewing prisoners in Latin American prisons in the early twentieth century. When they had been radicalised by political prisoners amongst them, collective action was the result. Carlos Aguirre, 'Prisons and prisoners in modernising Latin America (1800-1940)' in Cultures of confinement: A history of the prison in Africa, Asia and Latin America, ed. Frank Dikötter and Ian Brown (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007), p. 41.
75. Such as the claim that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was badly injured or on hunger strike following the Dipayin attack which presaged her re-arrest in 2003. This was seen by many as true only until it was refuted by Ambassador Razali Ismail and a spokesperson for the ICRC. For an example of political analysis that places heavy dependence on diplomatic sources, see Donald Seekins, Order in disorder: The army-state in Burma since 1962 (Bangkok: White Lotus, 2002).
76. It seems it was ever thus in diplomatic reporting from Yangon and perhaps most other capitals. Note this account by Professor John F. Cady about his stint at the American consulate in Burma, between Dec. 1945 and Apr. 1946: 'My title was Chief Economic Reporter, although I was no economist at all, just a plain historian. I was afforded full cooperation by Mr Abbey, and he was willing to support all of the reports that I sent home. I was also made responsible for liquidating Burma's OSS files, which I knew all about, much to the disgust of the major who had previously been in charge. We got him sent home after it became clear that he was doing nobody any good. He was usually drunk at 10 o'clock in the morning and he paid out unvouchered funds to informers who found out what he wanted to hear. His reports consequently predicted war breaking out almost any weekend.' Oral history interview with Professor Cady, the Truman Library, pp. 24-5, 31 July 1974, accessed online from the Truman Library 25 Oct. 2007.
77. Fielding-Hall, Thibaw's queen, p. 6.
78. 'The 1990 elections in Myanmar: Broken promises or a failure in communications?', Contemporary Southeast Asia, 29, 1 (2007): 33-54.
79. Speech to foreign and local journalists on 5 July 1989, in State Law and Order Restoration Council Chairman Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Services General Saw Maung's addresses (Yangon: News and Periodicals Enterprises, Ministry of Information, 1991), pp. 159-60.
80. See Michael Aris, 'Introduction', in Freedom from fear and other writings, ed. Michael Aris (London: Penguin Books, 1991), p. xxi.
81. Alan Clements, The next killing fields (Berkeley, CA: Odian Press, 1991), p. 30.
82. Maung Maung, The 1988 uprising in Burma (New Haven: Yale Southeast Asia Studies Monograph, 49, 1999), p. 9.