HISTORY
POST-COLONIAL BURMA
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1947
Having gained
independence from
Britain and rallied
ethnic groups to a 10-
year deal where they
could secede from
Burma by 1958, Aung
San and six colleagues
are assassinated by
rivals.1948
On 4 January the
country gains
independence as the
Union of Burma with
U Nu as the prime
minister; immediately
it is destabilised by
various ethnic and
political confl icts.1958
A split in the
AFPFL causes
parliamentary chaos;
U Nu barely survives
a no-confi dence
vote and invites
General Ne Win to
form a ‘caretaker
government’ which
lasts until 1960.elections to held in December 1960 and the charismatic U Nu regained
power with a much-improved majority, partly through a policy of mak-
ing Buddhism the state religion. This, and politically destabilising moves
by various ethnic minorities to leave the Union of Burma, led Ne Win to
order an army coup and abolish the parliament in March 1962.
U Nu, along with his main ministers, was thrown into prison, where
he remained until he was forced into exile in 1966. Meanwhile, Ne Win
established a 17-member Revolutionary Council and announced that the
country would ‘march towards socialism in our own Burmese way’, con-
fi scating most private property and handing it over to military-run state
corporations.
Nationalisation resulted in everyday commodities becoming available
only on the black market, and vast numbers of people being thrown out
of work. Ne Win also banned international aid organisations, foreign lan-
guage publications and local, privately owned newspapers and political
parties. The net result was that by 1967, a country that had been the largest
exporter of rice in the world prior to WWII, was now unable to feed itself.Riots & Street Protests
Opposition to Ne Win’s government eventually bubbled over into a strike
by oil workers and others in May 1974 and, later that same year, riots
over what was seen as the inappropriate burial of former UN secretary-
general, U Thant in Yangon. Responding with gunfi re and arrests, the
government regained control and doggedly continued to run the coun-
try – further impoverishing the people with successive demonetisations.
In late 1981 Ne Win retired as president of the republic, retaining his
position as chair of the Burmese Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), the
country’s only legal political party under the 1974 constitution. But his
successor, San Yu, and the government remained very much under the
infl uence of Ne Win’s political will.
Even though the Burmese standard of living was on a continual down-
ward spiral, it wouldn’t be until 1988 that the people again took to the
streets en masse, insisting that Ne Win had to go. Even the surprise re-
tirement by Ne Win as BSPP chairperson in July 1988, and his advocating
of a multiparty political process, was insuffi cient to halt the agitation of
the people. Public protests reached a climax on the auspicious date of
8 August 1988 (8-8-88), after which the government steadily moved to
crush all opposition, killing an estimated 3000 and imprisoning more.
Tens of thousands, mainly students, fl ed the country.Slorc Holds an Election
In September 1988, a military coup (widely thought to have had the bless-
ing of Ne Win) saw the formation of the State Law & Order RestorationPatricia El-
liott’s The White
Umbrella (www.
whiteumbrella.
com) is the
fascinating true
story of Shan
royal Sao Hearn
Hkam, wife of
Burma’s presi-
dent and founder
of the Shan State
Army.SAO HEARN HKAM
FRANK CARTER/LONELY PLANET IMAGES ©» Independence Monument