Burma/Myanmar: What Everyone Needs to Know (14 page)

In an unrelated act, in December 1987, the United Nations declared that Burma was a “least developed nation,” a designation that allowed them to receive highly subsidized loans. Although the country did not meet the objective criteria for such a designation because its literacy rate was too high, it had lobbied to attain that dubious status. When it did so, it never announced it to its people, who only learned of it when a few read the annual Report to the Hluttaw (parliament) on the budget on April 1, 1988. Many Burmese felt disgraced by the fall from the expectation a generation earlier that Burma would be the richest nation in Southeast Asia.

As this sad process unfolded internally, China had embarked on its expansion of private sector production and exports. At the same time, the Burma Communist Party, controlling a large segment of the China border, was collapsing through internal factionalism. The result was the pouring in of low-priced consumer products of higher quality and lower prices than Burma could produce, for the demand for commodities had grown. The overland trade was finally legalized in mid-1988, but by then Burmese industry had effectively been destroyed. All of these factors contributed to the failed people’s revolution of spring 1988.

Economic and political frustration had built up over time. Rice prices had risen following the September 1987 demonetization, and widespread dissatisfaction was evident. Following the coup of 1962, a large number of University of Rangoon students had been killed by the military. In 1974, demonstrations over economic conditions as well as over the military’s slighted burial of U Thant, Burma’s greatest public figure who had been secretary general of the United Nations (had he been
in Burma at the time of the coup he would have been arrested because he had been U Nu’s secretary), were considered both a national insult to a hero and a surrogate demonstration against BSPP rule. This prompted extensive demonstrations in Rangoon that resulted in many (unknown number of) deaths.

The spark in 1988, however, was apolitical. Students from the Rangoon Institute of Technology got into an argument in a tea shop on March 12; eventually the riot police (
lon htein
) intervened, and some students were killed. This led to more student demonstrations, some of the public joined in, and more were killed. Universities were closed; on March 18 the police took some demonstrators away in a police van, and forty-one died of suffocation, reminiscent of the “Black Hole of Calcutta” during the eighteenth century. Ne Win was out of the country at the time and was deeply disturbed to learn of this on his return.

The government was breaking down, and on July 23 at an emergency meeting of the BSPP, Ne Win suggested that the constitution be changed to allow a multiparty political system. He had even raised the question a year earlier to no effect. This the BSPP rejected. Ne Win, his motives variously interpreted as disgust or attempting to avoid blame, resigned from the chairmanship of the BSPP, taking with him the head of state, General San Yu, his acolyte. He was replaced on July 26 by General Sein Lwin, popularly known as the “butcher of Rangoon,” because he had ordered the violence against the students. He lasted only twenty-three days as president.

A popular uprising occurred that was widespread not only in Rangoon and Mandalay but nationwide. It reached its apex on August 8, 1988 (8-8-88 was supposed to be astrologically auspicious for the opposition), and was brutally suppressed. Sein Lwin was forced out, and replaced on August 19 by Dr. Maung Maung, the only civilian trusted by Ne Win (and his biographer). He advocated a new election, but the trust in the present government had been eliminated, and people wanted a neutral interim government. U Nu, who still considered
himself the last legitimate prime minister, tried ineffectively on August 9 to form a parallel government, the League of Democracy and Peace.

Purportedly, on August 23, at a secret meeting of the military leadership at Ne Win’s home, the decision was made to deal with the situation. First, the students were to be neutralized, and their leadership executed if necessary. Then people were encouraged to run riot, criminals were to be released, and “chaos” created, so that the people would welcome a return to military rule and a coup would be justified. Violence spread, shops and factories were looted, and some who were considered government spies were summarily killed by the populace.

On September 12, a U.S. fleet of five ships, including the aircraft carrier
Coral Sea
, appeared off the coast, whether within or outside Burma’s territorial waters is disputed. Although the rationale for their presence was said to be the evacuation of U.S. personnel, the Burmese feared an invasion. China mobilized its troops on the Burma border, and a rumor circulated that if the United States took action, China would occupy the Shan State. (The fear of the U.S. Navy was also apparent in 2007 after the Saffron Revolution, following Cyclone Nargis in 2008, and perhaps in the movement of the capital to Naypyidaw as well.)

The revolution almost succeeded when some elements of the military joined in the demonstrations, and the takeover of the Ministry of Defense was only thwarted by a speech by Brigadier (Ret.) Aung Gyi on September 12, urging calm.

The military believed that chaos had erupted, and on September 18, 1988, the armed forces launched their third coup, this time not to replace the BSPP with a civilian administration but to shore up military control. Retribution against the demonstrators was quick and brutal. In the course of the demonstrations, the coup, and its aftermath, thousands died; early opposition estimates were as high as 10,000, the government claimed only 440. Now, although figures are still unknown, the numbers usually quoted are about 3,000.

The military has continuously justified its actions against civilians by the fear of what they consider chaos—the disintegration of public order. Their fights against the insurgents in the 1950s and 1960s, the coups of 1958 and 1962, as well as that of 1988 are all justified in these terms. Some say that in 1988 the military created the chaos so that they might be praised for ending it. Other observers might conclude that it was not chaos they feared but the attrition or destruction of the military’s role in society.

Although the failed people’s revolution was prompted by internal economic problems and dissatisfaction with the government, the context of the times in East Asia perhaps puts it in comparative perspective. In 1986, President Ferdinand Marcos was forced to flee the Philippines because of the “people power” revolution. In 1987, the authoritarian government of South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan was forced to liberalize after massive public demonstrations, ending autocratic, military-oriented rule that had been in place since 1961. Burma was next in 1988, followed by the failed public uprising in Beijing at Tiananmen Square in 1989. None of these events were caused by any of the others, but together they indicated that times were changing in East Asia and that governments were forced to be more responsive to popular concerns even when the authorities could not be dislodged.

The September 18, 1988, military transfer of power, in a sense a “coup by consent,” that produced the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) was designed to continue military control by alternative means. As war, according to Carl von Clausewitz, is nothing but the continuation of state policy by other means, this coup may be considered governance by other methods. The previous military government that had become civilianized through the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) had economically failed. Politically it was disintegrating; it had to be resuscitated in some manner. Otherwise, military control would have ended, and the “chaos” (in the
tatmadaw
’s view) would fragment the Union of Burma. To the
tatmadaw
, chaos was descending on the society, and the military considered itself the only savior of the integrity of the state. To many civilians, however, this was the Rangoon spring, when censorship and control were effectively absent as government control broke down. This was part of a pattern of popular protests that profoundly affected East Asia—People Power in the Philippines in 1986, mass demonstrations leading to political liberalization in South Korea in 1987, Burma in 1988, and Tiananmen Square in China in 1989. The popular uprising in Burma was thus part of a wave, one that effectively crested in Seoul and crashed in Rangoon.

Each time the military has taken over control in Burma/Myanmar, it has done so through the formation of a small coterie of military officers, even though one general may have been in command. So in 1958, the Caretaker Government was run by a small group of officers (in that period, there was only one general—Ne Win—a few brigadiers, and a considerable body of colonels). Following the 1962 coup, a military Revolutionary Council ran the state, and the BSPP, led by Ne Win, was formed. Even though it was a very small group at the beginning, it gradually expanded into a mass party almost a decade later. Then, in 1988, the military formed the SLORC of nineteen officers.

General Ne Win, ensconced in his mansion on Inya Lake in Rangoon, had retired from the BSPP in July 1988, but the coup could not have occurred and the new leader could not have assumed power without his blessing. General Saw Maung, a former sergeant in Ne Win’s Fourth Burma Rifles, was the chair of the SLORC. Although the name SLORC indicated the intent of the military to rectify the chaos they saw as engulfing the state in the summer of 1988, to the outside world the name seemed to be the designation of an evil group from a poor TV spy drama. (A literal translation of the phrase from the original language might be “The Council to Build a Calm and Peaceful Nation.”)

There were five key members—the chairman, Saw Maung; deputy chairman, Than Shwe; secretary-1, Khin Nyunt, Maung Aye, and later secretary-2, Tin Oo). The others were mainly regional military commanders. Power lay with the SLORC, and not with the cabinet. Most ministers were also military officers. The cabinet was the face to the external world and the administrative office charged with enforcing the junta’s policies. Individual cabinet members could have influence insofar as they had the ear of the top junta members, but they were clearly subordinate to the junta.

In 1992, General Saw Maung was eased from his position as SLORC chair, reportedly for erratic behavior. He considered himself as the reincarnation of one of the great Burmese kings, Kyanzittha of the Pagan Dynasty. He is said to have dressed himself in royal regalia and performed various rituals associated with royalty. Ne Win eventually gave the informal authorization for his removal, and he was replaced by (Senior) General Than Shwe, who remains in command in 2009.

In 1997, when order (if not law) had been restored, the SLORC morphed itself into the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), indicating by its new designation a change in function. (The name change may have been suggested by a U.S. public relations firm hired by the Burmese.) The junta was revised, and only the four core generals from the SLORC (Than Shwe, Maung Aye, Khin Nyunt, and Tin Oo, who was killed in a helicopter crash in 2001) were retained. The remaining members were also from the regional commanders, who were occasionally rotated.

The older members of the military who were in the entourage of General Ne Win have been rapidly aging and fading away. Senior General Saw Maung, SLORC chair (1988–1992) and a sergeant in Ne Win’s Fourth Burma Rifles, has died. Senior General Than Shwe was born in 1933, Deputy Senior General Maung Aye in 1937. General Thuru Shwe Man is the youngest of the highest echelon (b. 1947). Although a few of the older officers are around and retired, a younger group has begun to come into power.

There are three avenues for advancement in the military. The most prestigious is through the Defense Services Academy, which is a four-year college-level course. This course had an annual intake of about 250. Total enrollment was about 1,500,
but that has been increased through an intake of about 1,000. A total of 19,749 were trained since 1955, of whom 17,367 were army. Another avenue is through the Defense Services Officer Training School, which promotes from within the ranks, but most cadets now have college degrees. (In all, 16,251 have been commissioned.) A third route is an apprentice officer program (
teza
), which enrolls cadets after high school. To date, 4,958 men have been commissioned. Personal loyalties, and thus factions, are partly dependent on which school one attended.

The military has developed a number of other specialized schools. The Defense Services Academy of Medicine was founded in 1993 (1,525 commissioned), an Institute of Technology in 1994 (2,558 commissioned), and an Institute of Nursing in 2000 (1,034 commissioned). Applicants to all institutions have exceeded the number of places available. At a higher-ranking level, there is a Command and General Staff College, as well as a National Defense University for colonels and brigadiers. In 1998, it began awarding master’s degrees. As of this writing, 350 completed the one-year program, with 292 degrees awarded.

Of the division commanders from 1988 to 2007, 107 graduated from the Defense Services Academy, 45 from the Officers Training School, and 12 from the
teza
program. Overseas training has been less extensive than in the civilian period, but between 1990 and 1999, 942 officers were sent abroad for training, of whom 615 went to China, 53 to India, and 34 to Pakistan. Singapore is reported to have trained some as well, as has Russia. (There were 1,500 trainees, including those in nuclear physics, aviation, and other military skills.) In the civilian period, trainees were sent to the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia.