Aerial
Reconnaissance Of Melancholia
Encased
In the foliage
Is an eaten fuselage
Unfound unwanted
An accidental tomb
For a brave pilot
Lost in the war
Of the pacific
Lost to the ages
Like an ancient
Language unspoken
But with much to say
Like Burma
It is embedded
In the blood
Of the disappointed.
Totes Meer [Dead Sea] -- Paul Nash
The 2nd-largest Burmese empire emerged in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, but it had a long, ill-defined border with India, and the British East India Company, in charge of governing British India, began challenging native economic interests. Diplomacy, raids, treaties, and compromises, punctuated by 3 Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885), leading to British control over most of Burma (Myanmar -- both names are derived from "Mranma," an ethnonym for the majority Bamar ethnic group). Rangoon (Yangon) became the new capital and an important port between Calcutta (Kolkata) and Singapore. British rule ended in 1948. The economies of Southeast Asia had been devastated by the Depression and World War II, but Burma was particularly hard hit due to falling rice prices. The new government gave high priority to reforming the land tenure system and agricultural credit in order to build a base for a more diversified economy. But while Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines adopted an "outward-looking" policy focused on exports, Burma imposed an "inward-looking" one; afraid that once foreign enterprises were allowed to re-establish themselves they would re-impose the old colonial economic pattern of expropriation, the country nationalized a number of foreign-owned firms, adopted hostile policies to their entrepreneurial Chinese and Indian minorities, causing many to leave, and imposed export taxes on farm products that limited investment in infrastructure and new cultivation technologies which would have benefited smallholder. Even so, by the end of the 1950s the ratio of revenues to gross national product was almost double that of 1938/1939. Per capita GDP growth was around 3% per annum between 1951 and 1960.
ReplyDeleteIn 1962 general Ne win led a coup d'état and established a revolutionary council headed by himself. Almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were nationalized or brought under government control, and the "inward-looking" approach was intensified. Export was discouraged by increasing over-valuation of the exchange rate, and any new foreign investment in export-oriented agriculture, mining, or industry was banned. Rice production had regained prewar levels in the early 1960s, but population growth combined with government policies caused the exportable surplus to fall from 2.8 million tons in the late 1930s to under 0.5 million tons by the early 1970s. Export per capita was only 1/3 of 1934-38 levels. By the middle of the decade, government revenues were only about 12% of GDP, even as expenditures declined. Although the state budget was in surplus until the mid-1970s, the deficits of the state enterprise sector more than outweighed budget surpluses. A new constitution of the Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma was adopted in 1974, Ne Win and other military formally resigned, though he continued to rule behind the scenes, and the Burma Socialist Program Party became the nation's sole governing party. During this period, Myanmar became one of the world's most impoverished countries. By 1980 its share of ASEAN exports was less than 1%. In 1988, unrest over economic mismanagement and political oppression led to the 8888 Uprising, widespread pro-democracy demonstrations throughout the country. Security forces killed thousands of demonstrators, and general Saw Maung staged a coup and formed the ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council. In 1989 he declared martial law after widespread protests and renamed the country the "Union of Myanmar." In 1990 Saw Maung held free elections, and Aung San Suu Ky's National League for Democracy won 392 out of 492 parliamentary seats; however, the military junta refused to cede power and continued to rule the nation until 1997, renaming itself the State Peace and Development Council in 1997. Civil wars, usually in the form of struggles for ethnic autonomy, have been endemic since independence. By 2012 the ongoing conflicts included actions against the Pro-Christian Kachin Independence Army and against the Shan, Lahu, and Karen minority groups in eastern Myanmar, and a civil war between Rohingya Muslims and other groups in the west. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party claimed it won 80% of the vote in 2010; the military junta was dissolved in 2011, but the military continued to rule clandestinely, pursuing liberal reforms and a more mixed economy. More than 200 political prisoners were released, Aung San Suu Kyi's house arrest was ended, her National League for Democracy was allowed to operate openly, new labor laws permitted unions and strikes, press censorship was relaxed, and currency practices were regulated. The NLD won 43 of the 45 available seats in the 2012 by-elections, and obtained an absolute majority of seats in both chambers of the national parliament in 2015. The new constitution prohibited Aung San Suu Kyi from being president, but she was named state counsellor when her ally Htin Kyam became the 1st non-military president since 1962.
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