|
Literary Review
Waiting for democracy
THIS study is an important contribution towards understanding the history, politics and social life in Burma. There are nine chapters, several maps, photographs and an annotated bibliography besides a chronological guide to the Burmese Civil War. The study starts with the review of literature and ends with problems and possibilities of Burmese politics. The author has not referred any Southeast Asian writers while reviewing the literature. Thaut Myint U, Htin Aung, Maung Maung Gyi and Mya Maung have made pioneering contribution towards understanding Burmese society and politics but they are not considered worth mentioning.
Shelby Tucker has examined ethnic and cultural diversities and mentioned the social and cultural milieu of the Kokangs, Was, Akhas, Lahus, Karens, Rakhines, Chins, Kachins and Mons in the backdrop of ethnic Burmans. They have been coexisting and have been influenced through the literature, customs and traditions of one another. These issues are analysed in chapter two which deals with geography and ethnicity. It gives detailed account of Irrawadi, Salween and Sittang and their tributaries. These rivers provided the passage to successive waves of migration from China, who preferred the flat, fertile and open tropical valleys of Burma along the shores of the major rivers. The study reveals that Indonesians might have been the first inhabitants of Burma followed by Pyus, Karens, Chins and Rakhines. It is understood that Pyus were proto-Burmans (Tibeto-Burmans) who came to Irrawady valley in large numbers (p. 10).
The author says that an understanding of the demographic composition of Burma is complicated due to centuries of cultural assimilation and crossbreeding amongst different ethnic groups and migrants. They exchanged language, modes of dressing, customs, beliefs, ideas and blood. The Mons and Burmans absorbed the Pyus and similarly Burmans and Shans and Burmans and Chinese and others mixed with each other and influenced the life-style of one another. However ethnic Burmans emerged stronger and it is interesting to know that the Burmans claimed suzerainty over the hill tracts for centuries, but their hold on them was never secure. The hill people very often paid tributes to Chinese or Siamese overlords than the kings of Burma.
The third chapter deals with British verses Japanese control over Burma and touches the issue of nationalist movement. The fourth, fifth and sixth chapters are devoted to the role of Bogyoke Aung San, his opinion about national minorities, his stand about British colonial rule, his visit to Japan and support for co-prosperity sphere and his heroic performance in the negotiation with the Britishers for the transfer of sovereignty and the developments leading to his tragic assassination. Chapter seven has examined the problem of trade in narcotics, its massive production and illegal trade in the international market. It is interesting to know that Burma produces half of the world's opium. All the insurgent groups have been associated with the production and sale of narcotics and all depend in some measure on the drugs trade to finance their armies (p. 169). The following chapter deals with the role of the Armed Forces in the management of the economy and their attitudes towards privatisation in the recent past. The last chapter, entitled, "Whither Burma", has concluding observations and it says that "the military regime will not last, and its end may come sooner than many Burma scholars expect. However devolution of power to civilian rule will not of itself conclude Burma's troubles. Half a century of torching villages, herding people in concentration camps, using them as human mine sweepers, poisoning crops, raping women and lopping off the ears of those suspected of colluding with insurgents to force Burma's minorities to submit to Burman rule has replaced what once was mere distrust with a legacy of profound and intense hatred, compounded by enduring problems of corruption, ambition, greed and mendacity" (p. 217).
This observation suggests that the author has accepted government as the government of the Burmans, but this is a misnomer. The minorities have suffered a lot but ethnic Burmans have also been torched. Again ethnic "Burmans verses the minorities" syndrome leads to wrong conclusions. Sun Kyi has been suffering despite being an outstanding Burman leader. All those supporting democracy movement irrespective of their ethnic origin have suffered. The influx of refugees coming out of Burma are from different ethnic backgrounds. Whoever has opposed military rule and has faith in regional autonomy or restoration of democracy is considered hostile and treated harshly by the military junta. The existing regime in Burma may be projected as the government of the military, for the military and by the military. It is surely not for ethnic Burmans and accepting this government as the government of the Burmans, is equivalent to extending support to military rule inadvertently.
Shelby has rightly observed that the outstanding reasons for the continuing crisis in Burma are insensitivity of the successive administrations towards the problems of minorities, the greed and corruption of trading in drugs and 26 years of Ne Win's corrupt dictatorial rule. The military leadership has been advocating that the administration is promoting the interests of ethnic Burmans, that the military always stood for them and also that the minorities are hostile to their interests, but this logic is neither convincing nor appealing in the repressive system. The majority support democratic reforms and sustainable development.
Although it is stimulating to understand the differences of opinion on the nature of the polity even amongst the armed forces, no focus has been given on the evolving new constitution. The military assured to provide a new constitution in 1990 and since then it has been oscillating and vacillating in finalising it. As and when the new constitution is adopted and elections held, democratic developments would take their own course and there would be rapid changes in Burmese polity in view of popular aspirations.
Burma: The Curse of Independence, Shelby Tucker, Penguin Books, 2001, p.282. Rs. 295.
GANGANATH JHA
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Literary Review
|
