In the land of the fighting peacock

 

“Burmas Historia” (The History of Burma) is a book by Bertil Lintner, a Swedish reporter who is something of an expert on South Asian politics. “Burmas Historia” is probably the only book in the Swedish language dealing with the colorful but tragic history of Burma or Myanmar, as the nation is usually called these days. The book was published in 2014, and therefore doesn´t cover the latest eight years of the Burmese tragedy.

Lintner begins the story in 1057, when King Anawratha of Pagan created the First Burmese Empire. Important figures of Burmese history mentioned in the book include King Mindon, Queen Supayalat, General Aung San, U Nu, Ne Win, Thein Sein and Aung San Suu Kyi. Most of the chapters deal with 20^th century developments, when Burma went from being a British colony to becoming an independent state, only to succumb to military rule from 1962 onwards (with a short period of ostensible liberalization circa 2011-2021). Around 1988, the military regime changed its political spots from “socialist” to “capitalist”, but little seems to have changed in practice.

One of the problems of modern Burmese society is that the military (Tatmadaw) functions as a de facto political party, and directly controls not only politics and the media, but also the economy, not to mention the black market trade. This is the system then-dictator Ne Win passed off as “Burmese socialism” during the Cold War. (The Maoist CPB or Communist Party of Burma regarded the system as “fascist” and fought a people´s war against it, which may perhaps tell us a thing or two!) Another very obvious problem is that Tatmadaw has essentially zero popular support. Every time the military has allowed free elections, the democratic opposition party NLD and its allies have won essentially every contested seat. And yet, military rule always manages to reassert itself. One reason is surely its extreme brutality and total disregard for international public opinion, but other explanations also suggest themselves.

Burma or Myanmar isn´t an ethnically or religiously homogenous nation. The majority is Burman (also called Bamar) and Buddhist, but the large “border regions” are populated by other ethnic groups: Karens, Karenni, Shan, Mon, Chin, Kachin, Wa, Rohingya, etc. While some of these are Buddhists, others are Muslims or have adopted Protestant Christianity. Animism is also strong. Many of the ethnic minorities have long-standing grievances against the Burmans. One example are the Karens, who supported the British colonial power against their erstwhile Burman oppressors, only to become an oppressed minority group again when Burma finally regained its independence. Some of the Karens have converted to Christianity. A peculiar legend exists among Western missionaries about the Karens believing in a “older White brother” who would return one day and give them knowledge of the true god.

Opposition to the military regime is often made difficult by mutual suspicions between the ethnically Burman democracy activists and the minorities. For instance, many Burmans consider the Muslim Rohingya to be “illegal aliens” and didn´t really care when Tatmadaw attacked their settlements. Meanwhile, there is a plethora of armed rebel bands based on other ethnic minority groups. The military is smart enough to enter peace agreements on-off with such rebels, thereby weakening any united resistance against its rule. Mutually beneficial deals concerning illegal trade, or geopolitical considerations, have played a role in these agreements. For instance, the Wa people have a de facto independent state in close alliance with China, something tolerated by Tatmadaw since China is an important backer of Burma. An ironic twist to the story is that China permitted the Wa to overthrow the Communist Party of Burma in this region, when the militant CPB became too much of a nuisance to the more pragmatic Chinese leaders…

Still, the NLD and the ethnic minority groups have been able to unite from time to time, so there is probably still a chance that Tatmadaw will fall one day at the hands of a general popular insurrection. What will happen the day after, is another question entirely!