The Mysterious Burma

Between 1962 and 1988 Burma was almost a land that time had forgotten. If the USSR's was an Iron Curtain and China's is made of Bamboo, maybe the cloak hiding Burma away from the modern era should be called the 'Jade Curtain', as Burma has the best in the world. And just like that beguiling gemstone, for years Burma the nation has remained a mystery.

What truly defines this little-known country? Is it the aptly-named military dictatorship of SLORC? Is it the seven-headed hydra drug cartels of the Golden Triangle? The beautiful and gentle Burma, as depicted in the Japanese anti-war classic "The Harp of Burma", or the endless civil wars of the Karen, Mon, and Shan minorities? Is it the romantic imperialism of Kipling’s "Road to Mandalay"? Or is true Burma the Burma of the beautiful, courageous Aung San Suu Kyi, so graceful and dignified?

I have never been to Burma, nor had any direct association with it. In my Uni days I did have some "Burmese" friends - but they were Karen people who never called themselves "Burmese", as such (maybe that was clue number one for me about their nation). However, the more I read about Burma today, the more I am struck by its similarities with Indonesia in its history, its struggles for nationhood and with militarism.

This article is a broadbrush view of Burma, one dedicated to the democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Rivers of Life

Out of the snowy mountains of the Himalaya and the Tibetan plateau flow seven great rivers and waterways of Asia. In the east, there is the sorrow of China, the Yellow River. In the south, four great rivers flow side by side within 80kms of each other, running almost in parallel through the Chinese southern province of Yunnan and skirting the Chinese-Burmese border. One is called the Jinsha, which turns sharply east and becomes the mighty Yangtze. The next is the Mekong, flowing through China, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam before emptying itself into the South China Sea. The other two are the Salween and the Irrawaddy, which pass through Burma en route to the Andaman Sea.

In the west, the sacred rivers of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra flow through northeast and northwest India, to join up again in Bangladesh and create the vast delta area of the Bay of Bengal.

It is said that when modern man (Homo Sapiens) came out of Africa and began populating the Asian mainland, he first settled in the areas where the Yangtze, Mekong, Salween and Irrawaddy travelled together, and there slowly evolved into the Tibeto-Mongoloid race. These are the fertile sub-tropical regions of present-day Southern China: the intersection between the provinces of Yunnan, Tibet and Sizhuan. Some people went east and became Chinese, Korean, Japanese, the Eskimo and even the American Indian. Some went south to become the people of South-east Asia, from Burma to Indonesia and beyond.

The Richness of Burma

Like Indonesia, Burma is very rich in natural resources and very fertile. The basin of the Salween and Irrawaddy River has produced the best rice in Asia. For the Asians, rice from Burma, Thailand and Vietnam are superior, but it was Burma that was once called "the rice bowl of Asia". Most of its land is densely forested and contains the best teak in the world, with Burma the largest global exporter of that timber. Its precious stones - rubies, sapphires - are world-renowned, as are its gold and silver.

Most famously of all, Burma has something the Chinese would die for: jade. Richard III might once have offered his Kingdom for a horse, but for the Chinese Emperors, the fairer such trade would have been for jade - especially Burmese Jade, which is called jadeite and is considered the 'real jade', with its vivid green colour. In Chinese mythology the Jade Emperor is known as 'The Emperor of Emperors'.

But Burma's treasures don't stop there. Oil and especially gas were discovered in commercial quantities in the Bay of Bengal in the early 90’s, and with the current heavy demand for energy resources from its two giant neighbours, China and India, there has recently been renewed interest in the export potential of these commodities.

The history and fate of Burma, just like that of Indonesia, has always been - and will continue to be - all about the struggle over who controls its wealth and natural resources.

What’s in a name?

In the modern era even something as basic as Burma's official name has been in a constant state of confusion, only adding further to the nation's mystique.

The dominate ethnic group in Burma is the Burmans. (Even this label is based on a British mispronunciation of the correct term for the dominant group, 'Bamar'). Under British rule Burma was called 'United Burma' and was made a province of the British Indian Raj. During the Japanese occupation in World War Two Burma was known as the 'Republic of Burma'. After independence in 1947, it was called the 'Union of Burma' until 1974, when it became the 'Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma'. In 1988, the Military regime changed it back to the 'Union of Burma'.

Then in 1989, the same regime decided to change it to the 'Union of Myanmar', or 'Myanmar' for short. This name is still surrounded by controversy, with 'Union of Myanmar' recognized by the United Nations but several countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada still using 'Burma'. (Australia's DFAT website also refers to 'Burma'.) Myanmar is a derivative of the Burmese short-form name of 'Pyidaungzu Myanma Naingngandaw', which literally translates as "country of Myanmar", while in ancient Chinese texts Burma was referred to as "'Myan-Tien".

The dissident Aung San Suu Kyi has stated that the military rulers had no right to unilaterally change the name of the country without the approval of its people. She prefers the name that her father fought for: the 'Union of Burma'; the ASEAN countries now officially refer to Burma as Myanmar.

I will use "Burma" henceforth for simplicity's sake.

A complex ethnic composition

Twenty-one major ethnic groups and over 100 languages have been identified in Burma. Lack of reliable census data has made it impossible to give precisely the population composition. The consensus is that the population of Burma is between 50 and 55 million. The dominant group is the Burman, with 65% of the population. They are the 'Javanese of Burma'. Next largest is the 10% of the population who are Shan; then 7% Karen, 4% each for the Mon and Rakhine tribes, 3% Chinese ethnicity and 2% Indian, with the rest belonging to the smaller tribes.

The dominant Burman group came from Yunnan (China) around 800AD and settled in the fertile basin between the Irrawaddy and Salween rivers that flow from Mandalay to Rangoon (now Yangon) into the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The other groups settled in the north, eastern and southern highlands. The Mon live in the north between China and India; the Shan in the eastern territory of Thailand, Laos and the Yunnan province of China - the famous Golden Triangle.

The Karen dominate the southern territory alongside Thailand and the Rakhine who have common borders with India and Bangladesh on the western side.

Centuries of Ethnic Conflicts and Enslavement

Before the British conquered Burma in 1885 the different groups in Burma had been in conflict for centuries, with power struggles resulting in subjugation and enslavement still being felt today. The Burman, Mon, Karen and Shan states each had their period of supremacy, however it was the Burman, like the Javanese in Indonesian, who were by far dominant. Like the Javanese, they still feel they are naturally superior to the other minority groups today and behave as such politically, socially and culturally. In particular the conflicts between the Burman and the Karen have been long, bitter and ongoing to the present day.

The first Burman Kingdom lasted from 1057 to 1287AD and was established by King Anawrata. It was known as the centuries of the 1000 pagodas; many of the great Burmese pagodas were built during this period, including the Ananda pagoda - the most famous temple on the Pagan Plain. The 12th century was the Golden Age, when it was known as "the city of 4 million pagodas". In 1287 Kublai Khan led a Mongul invasion which brought the First Burmese Empire to an undignified end. After the brief Mongolian occupation, Burma was broken up into the various tribal states between 1300 and 1555.

The second Burman Kingdom was resurrected between 1555 and 1720, established by King Bayinnaung. Its high point was the conquest of Thailand in 1564. As the second Burman Empire slowly crumbled, the Mons tribe enjoyed a brief period of supremacy with the help of the French, between 1720 and 1755. In 1758, King Alaungapaya rallied the Burmans and defeated the Mons, establishing his capital at Yangon.
This third Burman Kingdom came to control most of what is current Burma, with the Shan state as a tributary state, and also conquered Assam and Manipur in India, extending Burma to the borders of India and bringing it face-to-face with the might of the British Empire. It also successfully repelled the Qing Dynasty expansion to the south at the time the Qing was achieving success in its expansion to the West, incorporating Tibet into China.

The British Colonial Period – 1885 to 1948

The British waged three wars against the dominant Burman Kingdom between 1816-1885. British imperial expansionists had long eyed the richess of Burma, while trade barriers put up by the Burman Kingdom, perceived insults dished out by the Burmese Royalty to the British and the emerging opium trade wars with China were all additional causal factors. The Burmese were no match for British modern weaponry, finally conceding defeat in 1885. The British took control of the whole of Burma and consigned a once-proud and ancient monarchy that had lasted over a thousand years to the dustbin of history.

The British did not invent the "divide and rule" tactic nor start the local ethnic conflicts in Burma, but like the Dutch in Indonesia, they exploited both to perfection, and colonial rule slowly institutionalised conflict, with the lasting consequences that distrust, tension, disunity and discord among the Burmese’s ethnic groups are still being felt today. Among other things:

• The Monarchy was abolished, and the linkage of government and religion was lost. The monastic orders and its schools, which had given Burma a higher rate of male literacy than England at that time, declined as English became the language of social advancement.
• The British made Burma a province of India, thus signalling its intention to bury the national soul: Burma was no longer to be a country with its own distinct culture, history and identity. It was now called "Further India", though separated from India until 1937.
• Burma was divided into different administrative regions. Burma proper (or lowland), where Burman were in a majority, came under direct rule and was called 'Ministerial Burma'. The hill areas where the other minorities were given semi-autonomy under British supervision, or as protectorates, were called the 'Frontier Areas'. The Burman majority was virtually the only group directly ruled by the British, and were treated as third-class citizens in their own land, after the British and the Indians/Chinese. The Frontier Areas were more left to be governed (and go backwards) by their own local rulers. Thus political divisions were permanently etched in the Burmese landscape.
• A number of the minority groups such as the Karen and Chin were gradually converted to Christianity, and favoured by the British. The Karen particularly were treated well, and this has continued to infuriate the majority Burman group. For example, the Karen were loyal to the British during the Japanese invasion and the four years of occupation that followed; as a result, they were promised full autonomy by the British in the post-war, independent Burma. (The promise was not fulfilled and is considered as a great betrayal by the Karen).
• The British military in Burma was segregated, with the officers being British and the rest being Indians and minorities. The military was disproportionately dominant over the civilian authorities, and while this was probably 'necessary' (thanks to the "divide and rule" nature of colonialism often requiring the use of 'governence by force'), as in Indonesia its legacy is the lingering culture of militarism in Burma today.
• The civil servants were mainly Indians that the British imported from India next door. It was estimated by the 1930s that half of the population in Rangoon were Indians. The Indians were despised by the Burmese for doing the 'dirty work' for the British, and a large number were forced to leave for India in the late fifties and early sixties.
• The wealth was in the hands of several British firms and the Indian and Chinese middleman traders and money lenders. Most Burmese did not participate in the great economic prosperity of British rule.

When the British retreated from Burma to India as the Japanese advanced during World War Two, they instituted a scorched earth policy, destroying everything of value including the infrastructure they had built up over decades. Subsequent wartime carpet bombing by allied forces destroyed much of Burma’s remaining infrastructure.

The Rise of Burmese Modern Nationalism

Again as in Indonesia, Burmese nationalism was from the start defined and driven by a fight for independence from its colonial master. The Burmese struggle started at the turn of the century in 1906, with the establishment of The Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA) by law students newly returned from London. The catalyst was the exclusion of Burma from reforms that were introduced to India.

The agitation continued and culminated in 1936, when the All Burma Students' Union (ABSU) was formed by Aung San (Suu Kyi’s father) and Ba Hein at the University of Rangoon. Aung San was born on 13 February 1915 into a well-to-do family that had a history of supporting the resistance movement since the British annexation of Burma in 1886. At the same time, The Communist Party of Burma (CPB) was formed.

In 1937 Burma was formally separated from British India and granted its own constitution, an elected legislature that enabled four different governments to serve before the Japanese occupation. Even so the nationalists were not satisfied, as they viewed these governments as no more than puppet versions still under the control of the colonial ruler.

The Japanese Period 1941-1945

The Japanese invaded the Southeast Asian countries under the banner of "Asia for the Asians". Many Nationalist leaders in countries like Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Burma and the Malay Peninsula listened and considered their plan as the lesser of the two evils. The Japanese promised them independence, and military and civilian assistance in the nation-building process. Indonesia's future first president Sukarno went to Tokyo and the embryonic TNI was trained by the Japanese.

Prior to the Japanese invasion of Burma in January 1942, Aung San was a wanted man by the British authorities for his independence-related activities. In 1940, he and his comrades travelled to Amoy, China to solicit support from the Chinese Communist Party. As the Japanese were in control of China at that time, they were arrested by the Japanese and brought to Tokyo on the order of Japan’s chief spy in Burma, Colonel Suzuki Keiji. Japan’s strategic interest was to shut down the renowned Burma Road to China. The Burma Road was a critical route used to supply China, as the eastern seaboard was controlled by Japan.

Colonel Suzuki convinced Aung San to collaborate with Japan with the promise of independence, military training for him and his comrades and the formation of a Burmese Army. In March 1941 Aung San secretly returned to Burma and selected 31 members of the All-Burma Student Democratic Union. They were thereafter known as the "Thirty One Comrades" and taken to the Hainan Island, China for military training. Ne Win, who later staged a coup in 1962, was one of them.

On 9 December, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbour. On 26 December, the Burmese Independence Army (BIA) was created in Bangkok with Col. Suzuki as its commander-in-chief and Aung San as his deputy. In January 1942, the army crossed the border into Burma along with the Japanese 15th Army, marking the beginning of a three-and-a-half-year brutal occupation of Burma.

The Japanese period in Burma produced many heroes and heroic actions. As the Burma Road was closed down by the Japanese, Chennault’s famous "Flying Tigers" kept the supplies going to China; the Allied Special Forces led by Major General Orde Wingate (known as the Chindits) operated deep behind enemy lines in North Burma, as did the Americans known as 'Merrill's Marauders' under Brigadier General Frank Merrill; and of course there were the tragic-heroics of the Thailand-Burma Railway, building which many Australian POWs were forced to endure great hardship and suffer death.*

(*A personal note: The Thailand-Burma railway was built using about 61,000 POWs and 250,000 forced labourers from many countries, including Indonesia. During the war, my sister’s father-in-law "disappeared" without a trace in broad daylight. He was in his early thirties and never seen again. We believe he was, like many others, kidnapped by the Japanese army and sent to work on the Thailand-Burma railway.)

Unfortunately, very soon Aung San and his colleagues were to learn that their Japanese 'liberation sponsors' were wolves in sheep's clothing. By 1943 Aung San, as the leader of the Burmese army, together with underground civilian groups, formed a broad anti-Japanese coalition called the Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (AFPFL). Belatedly, they worked with the Allied Forces to fight against, rather than acquiescing to, the Japanese.

The Death of a Hero: 1945-1948

After the defeat of Japan the British marched straight back into Burma, producing their own "White Paper" outlining its priorities and timetable for Burma's future. It was rejected outright by the Burmese nationalist leaders.

Under the leadership of Aung San all nationalities participated in the conference that demanded independence from the British. This was the Panglong Conference of February 1947, and unified the smaller ethnic tribes with the dominant Burmans for the first time. A constitution was drafted in 1947, via which Aung San promised non-Burmans equality and autonomy. Unfortunately, Aung San, the architect of modern Burma, along with six members of his fledgling cabinet, was assassinated in July 1947 by his political opponents. (U Saw, a former Prime Minister, was found guilty of the crime and executed). He was just thirty-two years old, his daughter Suu Kyi only two. Despite this tragedy, following approval of the constitution by the British parliament and the signing of a defence agreement, Burma became free on January 4, 1948, with U Nu as its first President.

After the death of Aung San the draft constitution was amended by the U Nu regime, betraying both the letter and spirit of the Panglong agreement. The amendments invalidated the recognition of the Arakan, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Mon, and Shan tribal nations, therefore sowing the seed for the never-ending civil wars since, especially for the Karen and the Shan.

The untimely assassination of Aung San was a national tragedy that haunts Burma to this day. It led to the total breakdown of what fledgling post-war trust existed among the nationalities of Burma. If Aung San had lived, would Burma be in the perilous state that it is in today?

The Chaotic Period under U Nu: 1948-1962

U Nu, who took Aung San's place as national leader after independence, was an able politician but unlike Aung San did not have the organization skills and charisma crucial to holding a young nation together. Again, drawing parallels with Indonesia, would the unity of the early Indonesian nation have survived without the leadership of Sukarno?

During the U Nu period, Burma was rife with internal instability: political division, social unrest, the expulsion of the Indian population, civil war and, in particular, a revolt by the Burmese Communist Party. During this period civilian governance grew weaker and weaker while the military grew stronger - in large part due to the increasing role played by Burma's export opium trade.

The Politics of Opium

The CIA Factbook states that "Burma is the world's largest producer of illicit opium, surpassing Afghanistan. It produced 865 metric tons in 2001". It has long been thus.

Opium originated in North Africa and was introduced to India in 330BC by Alexander the Great; the Arabs also introduced opium into China via the Silk Route. The opium growing districts in India were in the north-east, the states of Bahir and Bengal, with Burma just next door. Calcutta (Kolkatta) on the Bay of Bengal eventually became the opium capital of the World.

By 1793 The British East India Company had established a monopoly on the opium trade. All poppy growers in India were forbidden to sell opium to competitor trading companies. The biggest export market was China and the British subsequent foughtly two 'opium wars' with China to preserve its monopoly. In 1852 the British arrived in lower Burma, importing large quantities of opium from India and selling it through a government-controlled monopoly. The British also recognized the highland of Northern of Burma as boasting the perfect climate and soil conditions for opium, and when they formally acquired Burma in 1886, production and smuggling of opium from the Northern states exploded.

'The Golden Triangle' is the area where Burma, China, Thailand and Vietnam meet; and also where the hill-tribe minorities of all these countries have lived for centuries. The misleading 'triangle' part reportedly stems from the coinage in 1971 of the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Marshall Green, who, when describing the region's shape, took care not to include China because President Nixon was just about to visit China. In reality the correct term should be 'The Golden Rectangle'.

The production of opium from this area really took off after WW2. The key impetus was the defeat of Kuomingtang (KMT) on the mainland by the CCP, which was further boosted later by the Vietnam War. A large number of KMT troops fled to the GT area after the defeat, especially Northern Burma, next to Yunnan. They became the local warlords. They financed the cultivation, production and distribution of the opium by the local tribe people on a large scale, supported by the CIA in the early days.

CIA involvement in the global opium trade has always been political. In the early 50s, as part of the US anti-Communism strategy in Asia, the clandestine organisation forged an alliance with the hill tribes and warlords to harass China by gaining US access to the southern borders of the giant. As part of the relationship the US (and France) supplied drug warlords and their armies with ammunition, arms and air transport for the production and sale of opium. The result: an explosion in the availability and flow of heroin into the hands (and arms) of drug dealers and addicts in the United States and Europe.

The Vietnam war caused a further surge in illegal heroin smuggled into the United States. The CIA even set up a specific 'charter' airline (Air America) partially to transport raw opium from Burma and Laos; from there, some of the opium would be transported to Marseille by Corsican gangsters, then on to the US. (This era has spawned at least two Hollywood movies: "Air America" starred Mel Gibson, while "The French Connection" won Gene Hackman a Best Actor Oscar).

By the 70s the US Administration realised that it had created a six-headed opium-fuelled monster, with its tentacles stretching across Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Southern China and reaching all to way to America itself. But it was already then and certainly is now too late to do much about it; opium and opium money has corrupted almost everyone of power and influence in the region, but in particular the military regime in Burma has been completely compromised - it's now financed wholly by the drug trade. The biggest warlord, Khun Sa, leader of the Shan United Army, was eventually (in 1990) charged and indicted in absentia in New York City for the importation of 3,500 pounds of heroin. He subsequently "surrendered" to the Burmese military regime in 1996, but reportedly still lives in the capital of Burma, even though the US is offering a $2m bounty for his arrest.

The Golden Triangle is also now reported to be the biggest amphetamines-producing area in the world.

In its latest listing, Transparency International has marked Burma as the most corrupt country in Asia, and fourth in the world behind Nigeria, Haiti and Bangladesh. Even Indonesia can claim it has a higher rating than Burma on the TPI index.

The Jade Curtain drawn: 1962-1988

In 1962 General Ne Win, one of the original '31 comrades' of Aung San, staged a coup claiming that the nation was about to break up under the chaotic regime of U Nu. He declared the Union Constitution abolished; in so doing the Burmans terminated the only legal bond between them and Burma's other ethnic nationalities.

Instead Ne Win created a Marxist military regime and a one-party socialist party-state called 'The Burma Socialist Program Party' (BSPP). A 'Revolutionary Council' was established, with Ne Win given full executive, legislative and judicial powers, and ruling by decree. Opposition political parties and independent newspapers were abolished. The civil rights of Chinese and Indian minorities were curtailed, and all private enterprises were nationalised as the regime introduced a state-controlled, centralised economic system.

Thus, for over a quarter century Burma remained locked away from the international community. During this period the countries of South-East Asia made great strides in economic development, while Burma drove itself backwards. The nation used to be one of the richest countries in Asia; the Ne Win regime pauperized the people of Burma with his economic experiments, turning Burma into one of the ten poorest in the world, with income per capita between a mere $200 to $300 a year. It was only on June 3, 1980 that the first TV station opened in the capital Rangoon.

The Hard SLORC; 1988 to the present

In March 1988, in response to ever-increasing economic hardships and ethnic conflicts, Burmese students revolted and were later joined by members of the public. By sheer coincidence, on 31 March the now London-based Suu Kyi, grown daughter of the assassinated Aung San, happened to receive news that her mother had suffered a severe stroke. She flew from London to Rangoon the next day. In the next few months, violence and mass demonstrations persisted, and by August more than 1000 demonstrators had died. It was after this massacre that Suu Kyi was inspired to make her first political speech, and then assume the mantle of her late father and the role of leader of the 'opposition'.

On 26 August she addressed a rally of 500,000 Burmese gathered in front of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon: "I could not, as my father's daughter, remain indifferent to all that was going on," she said. "This national crisis could, in fact, be called the second struggle for independence." It was on that day that Burma re-joined the international community at last - in spirit if not yet in fact.

In September 1988, a group of Generals staged a coup and deposed General Ne Win on the pretext that Burma was in chaos and needed to be rescued from total anarchy. They established a new ruling junta called the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), which promised - unsurprisingly - to "restore order", and to re-establish constitutional rule and democratic elections. The junta was composed of 21 senior military officers and led by Saw Maung, the military commander-in-chief, and declared Burma to be under martial law.

It also changed the country's name from Burma to Myanmar.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Daw in Burmese means "superior" and Aung San Suu Kyi translates as 'A Bright Collection of Strange Victories'. She was born on 19 June 1945 in Rangoon, and when her father was assassinated she was only two years old. Her mother, Ma Khin Kyi, was a senior nurse at Rangoon general hospital who went on to become a leading public figure and diplomat.

Indeed, in 1960 Ma Khin Kyi was appointed Burma’s ambassador to India, allowing Suu Kyi to study politics at Delhi University, then enrol at Oxford University in 1964 to complete her BA in philosophy, politics and economics (St Hugh's College, Oxford). While at the university she met her future husband, Michael Aris; the couple married in 1972 and had two sons, while Suu Kyi worked for the United Nations and Kyoto University. In 1984 she published a book on her father and his struggle for Burmese independence. But in 1988, her idyllic professional and domestic life in the West was interrupted by both the illness of her mother and the trials of her nation.

Suu Kyi's mother died on 27 December. At the funeral held on 2 January 1989, Suu Kyi promised the people of Burma that she would follow the example of her mother and father, and selflessly serve the people of Burma without fear of the personal costs. It is a promise she has kept to this day. The opposition was formally organised into the National League for Democracy (NLD) on 24 September 1988, with Suu Kyi as secretary-general.

The Struggle of Suu Kyi Continues

Under martial law, the SLORC turned out to be even more hardline than the previous Ne Win military regime. (Suu Kyi has always said that Ne Win 'never went away' and was always in the background pulling strings.) SLORC banned all democratic activities - any gathering of more than four persons is considered a political meeting and banned. It stepped up its campaigns against the minorities, and captured and destroyed most of their bases. Suu Kyi continued to be the symbol of non-violent struggle for democracy, and successfully united diverse voices to the point where she was considered to be "endangering the State". On 20 July 1989 she was placed under house arrest and only allowed visits from members of her immediate family.

Bowing to internal and external pressure, a multi-party election was held for a People's Assembly (PA) to draft a new constitution. Suu Kyi’s NLD won 60% of the vote and 82% of the seats. SLORC refused to accept the results, however, reconvened the PA, jailed NDL elected members and kept Suu Kyi in total isolation by banning visits and other contacts with the outside world. But by then Suu Kyi had captured the attention of the international community and Burma was in the spotlight.

In 1991 Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She was actively encouraged to leave Burma by the SLORC to collect the award. She refused, knowing that if she had gone to collect the award she would not have been allowed to return. Her son accepted the award on her behalf.

In 1995, she was formally released from house arrest after the UN General Assembly condemned the military regime for its human rights violations. Her husband also visited her, on Christmas Day 1995 - the last time they met. In 1996, the EU introduced limited sanctions against the SLORC regime, banning visas for senior military officers and their families and suspending high-level government visits to Burma. Reluctantly, in 1997, America agreed to place economic sanctions on Burma in protest against the regime's human rights abuses. The US Government also stopped its foreign aid to Burma and blocked aid through international organisations.

In 1999, with her husband dying of cancer, the military regime refused to grant him a visa to visit his wife one last time, but said it would allow Suu Kyi to leave the country instead. Again she refused, fearing she would not be allowed back into the country. Her husband died on 27 March 1999.

In 2000, after several incidents with the regime, Suu Kyi was again placed under virtual house arrest, where she remains today.

Burma and ASEAN

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed in 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and then-South Vietnam to promote political and economic cooperation. The Bali Treaty, signed in 1976 by ASEAN heads of state in Bali and considered ASEAN's foundation document, formalized the principles of ASEAN, one of which is a non-interference policy with respect to each other's internal affairs. Some have dubbed it the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" policy. Brunei joined ASEAN 1984, followed by Vietnam in 1995; by then ASEAN countries had made great strides in their economic development. Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand were known as the ASEAN tigers, in particular Indonesia under the dictatorship of Suharto, the 'Smiling General'.

The SLORC regime was in absolute admiration of Indonesia. After all, both were military dictatorships with a similar post-colonial histories - how did Indonesia achieve its economic miracle, become the darling of the international investment community, and command respect in the international community (despite its record of human right abuses)? Burma, in comparison, equally rich in natural resources, had become an economic basket case and an international pariah on all fronts.

One SLORC mouthpiece dubbed the relationship between Indonesia and Burma as "two nations with a common identity", claiming that "No other country is closer to the regime than Indonesia". SLORC leader General Than Shwe travelled to meet Suharto in Jakarta in 1995, while General Ne Win travelled to Jakarta in 1997. SLORC had stated clearly that it wanted to copy Suharto’s New Order.

First, it had to learn how Suharto’s New Order had become so successful - how it managed to shape, bend and manipulate the Indonesian Constitution, the State’s Panca Sila (5 Principals) and the Military’s Dual Fungsi (Dual Functions) to achieve its total control of Indonesia. In particular, SLORC was attracted to the Indonesia Military’s Dual Fungsi, where the Military has a social and political role in addition to its security role. This allowed Suharto to set up total military control of every level of the civilian government, as well as legitimising military involvement in business.

At the same time, SLORC also applied to join ASEAN. To soften its image, SLORC changed its name to the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC). Burma, and Laos, were admitted into full membership in July 1997 as ASEAN celebrated its 30th anniversary. Unfortunately for SLORC the Suharto regime fell in 22 May 1998. SLORC’s idol and model was discredited, his achievements revealed as little more than a house of cards. Indonesia is still recovering from the experiment of New Order.

Where to from here?

What sets Burma apart from other countries has been its military regime’s refusal to ease its stranglehold on power or allow any wind of democracy to blow in. It is a country that refuses to change.

- ASEAN: The next milestone in the relationship between Burma and ASEAN falls in 2006 when Burma is due to assume the chairmanship of ASEAN. The US and EU have already issued warnings against allowing the junta to take over the leadership of ASEAN, saying it will damage the regional grouping's international image and standing. There is an indication that its ASEAN neighbours will use this as a tipping point to force some concessions from the regime. If that happens, it will be unprecedented, the first time ASEAN has overridden its "non interference" policy.

• The people of Burma: What can they do? Unfortunately history is repeating itself. The unity of the opposition is very much single-point sensitive. When her father was assassinated, everything fell apart. Without Suu Kyi, the same thing will likely happen. Suu Kyi is still under house arrest with limited access to the outside world. She is 60 years old this year and has been through harsh times and many hunger strikes. There has been great concern for her health as the regime is only allowing one doctor visit per week for her.
• The United Nations: As usual the UN is all talk and no action. I cannot seem to recall any memorable statements from Secretary General Kofi Annan about Burma or its future.
• The US: During her Senate confirmation hearing on 18 January the incoming US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named Burma as an "outpost of tyranny", along with Belarus, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Zimbabwe. But with its pre-occupation with terrorism, Iraq and North Korea, Burma appears low on the American "to do" list.
• The European Union: Recently the European Union strengthened its sanctions against the junta, extending travel bans to all officers ranked Brigadier-General or above and promising to bar loans from the World Bank and other financial institutions to Burmese state-owned businesses. Anything more than that is unlikely.

So the future is looking bleak for the people of Burma, because it is not in everyone’s back yard and not strategically important in global geopolitical terms. Not was Burma greatly affected by the recent tsunami, therefore escaping the international humanitarian spotlight. Ironically its best hope to facilitate some changes, however small, lies with its fellow ASEAN countries.

Burma: The land of final contradiction

Of all the countries on the Asian mainland, Burma is probably the most Buddhist. Its culture, customs, history and monarchies were heavily influenced by Buddhism, from the 11th century on. As is evident by the pagodas, temples, monas ties, shrines, rituals, images of Buddha, about 90% of its population embraces Buddhism. Buddhism is a religion that seeks enlightenment to transcend human sufferings and cruelties. The path to enlightenment is through self-sacrifice, sharing, denouncement of worldly possession, acceptance of one’s place in the world, inner peace, harmony and meditation.

Yet this is also a land where war, conquest, enslavement, forced labour, atrocity, genocide, greed, hatred and ignorance have occurred repeatedly across the centuries, and remain institutionalised to this day. Is this not a great contradiction?

Maybe not. Suffering and cruelty existed well before Buddhism, but perhaps, in some twisted way, in its Burmese version those human blights have found a perfect place to survive and prosper. Perhaps something larger is at work here. Maybe - quite unwittingly - the contradictory people who live behind the mysterious 'Jade Curtain' have kept their own suffering and cruelties coming for so long precisely in order to be atoned, in turn, by the teachings of Lord Buddha.

Last changed: Saturday October 18, 2014