Thant Myint-U: Don’t Force Democracy in Burma
[Thant Myint-U is the author of the forthcoming“The River of Lost Footsteps: Histories of Burma.”]
... Though interest and concern over Myanmar has mushroomed in recent years, few really understand its history. There is, for example, the myth that Burma emerged, at its independence from Britain in 1948, a rich and promising country only to descend into poverty and violence under the present military regime.
In fact, Burma in 1948 was already at war with itself, a bloody civil war that became one of the longest-running armed conflicts in the world. For more than four decades the Burmese Army battled communist insurgents as well as an array of ethnic rebels and drug warlord militias.
In the course of this civil war, the army learned from the United States, Britain, Australia, Israel and other countries, becoming ever more professional, growing in size and eventually, in 1962, overthrowing the civilian government, in part to prosecute the war without interference from politicians and party politics. Once numbering only 2,000, the Burmese Army is today, at more than 400,000 soldiers, among the biggest and most experienced in the world.
For many on the outside, the story of Myanmar’s last 20 years has been one of a pro-democracy movement held down by repression. But the generals see it as a civil war finally coming to an end with the collapse of the communist insurgency in 1989 and the cease-fire agreements, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, between the army and 17 of its remaining battlefield opponents. For the generals, the near conclusion of the war is the very beginning of a long state-building exercise (on their terms), rather than a time to hand over power to the politicians they distrust.
We incorrectly see Myanmar as a “democracy transition” problem, sort of a Velvet Revolution gone wrong. But it actually represents a post-conflict challenge, more like Afghanistan or the war-torn societies of sub-Saharan Africa — and therefore incredibly complex....
Read entire article at NYT
... Though interest and concern over Myanmar has mushroomed in recent years, few really understand its history. There is, for example, the myth that Burma emerged, at its independence from Britain in 1948, a rich and promising country only to descend into poverty and violence under the present military regime.
In fact, Burma in 1948 was already at war with itself, a bloody civil war that became one of the longest-running armed conflicts in the world. For more than four decades the Burmese Army battled communist insurgents as well as an array of ethnic rebels and drug warlord militias.
In the course of this civil war, the army learned from the United States, Britain, Australia, Israel and other countries, becoming ever more professional, growing in size and eventually, in 1962, overthrowing the civilian government, in part to prosecute the war without interference from politicians and party politics. Once numbering only 2,000, the Burmese Army is today, at more than 400,000 soldiers, among the biggest and most experienced in the world.
For many on the outside, the story of Myanmar’s last 20 years has been one of a pro-democracy movement held down by repression. But the generals see it as a civil war finally coming to an end with the collapse of the communist insurgency in 1989 and the cease-fire agreements, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, between the army and 17 of its remaining battlefield opponents. For the generals, the near conclusion of the war is the very beginning of a long state-building exercise (on their terms), rather than a time to hand over power to the politicians they distrust.
We incorrectly see Myanmar as a “democracy transition” problem, sort of a Velvet Revolution gone wrong. But it actually represents a post-conflict challenge, more like Afghanistan or the war-torn societies of sub-Saharan Africa — and therefore incredibly complex....