HISTORYPOST-1990 MYANMAR3031962
Following the coup
by Ne Win, a peaceful
student protest at
Rangoon University
is suppressed by the
military, with over 100
students killed and the
Student Union building
dynamited.
1964
All opposition
political parties are
banned, commerce
and industry are
nationalised and
Ne Win begins the
process of isolating
Myanmar from the
rest of the world.1978
General San Yu
succeeds New Win as
Burma’s president but
Ne Win remains the
ultimate ruler, even
after his resignation
from the Burmese
Socialist Programme
Party in 1988.1988
Civilian unrest grows
as living standards
continue to fall.
On 8 August, huge
nonviolent marches
end with the military
killing over 3000
protestors; the military
promise to hold
democratic elections.Council (Slorc). Slorc’s leader, General Saw Maung, commander in chief of
the military, promised to hold a multiparty election within three months.
Although 235 parties contested the election (which was delayed until
May 1990), the clear front runner from the start was the National League
for Democracy (NLD). The NLD was led by several former generals, along
with Aung San Suu Kyi (daughter of hero, Aung San), who had made such
a public impression at rallies during the 1988 protests. For more about
Aung San Suu Kyi’s role in the democracy movement, see p 352.
In the run up to the election, Slorc tried to appease the masses with
construction programmes, adding a coat of paint to many buildings in Yan-
gon and abandoning socialism in favour of a capitalist economy. In 1989, it
changed the name of the country to Myanmar, then placed Aung San Suu
Kyi under house arrest and detained many other prodemocracy leaders.
Convinced it had eff ectively dealt with the opposition, the government
went ahead with the country’s fi rst election in 30 years. The voter turn-
out – 72.59% – was the highest in Myanmar’s history. The result was a
resounding victory for the NLD, which took 392 of the 485 contested
seats (or about 60% of the vote), with the military-backed National Unity
Party gaining just 10 seats with just over 25% of the vote.
Post-1 990 Myanmar
NLD Under Attack
Slorc barred the elected members of parliament from assuming power,
decreeing that a state-approved constitution had to be passed by national
referendum fi rst. In October 1990 the military raided NLD offi ces and ar-
rested key leaders. A handful of elected members managed to escape the
country – and set up the National Coalition Government of the Union of
Burma (www.ncgub.net) with Sein Win, nephew of Aung San, as its leader.
Some commentators wondered if the election was a ruse to get mem-
bers of the opposition out in the open, where they could be more easily
crushed. Either way, in 1995 Slorc deemed it safe enough to release Aung
San Suu Kyi; at the same time many other high-level dissidents, includ-
ing the NLD’s Tin U and Kyi Maung, were also released from prison.
For several months Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed to address crowds of
supporters from her residence. In May and September 1996, a congress of
NLD members was held in a bold political gambit to show that the party
was still an active force. The military junta responded by detaining hun-
dreds who attended the congress; the street leading to Suu Kyi’s residence
was also blockaded, prohibiting her from making speeches at her residence.
In 1998 Suu Kyi attempted to leave Yangon to meet with supporters,
but was blocked by the military and forcibly returned to the city. A second
attempt to drive to Mandalay in September 2000 again saw the Lady (as
The 1988
demonstrations
were sparked by
a students’ fight
at the Rangoon
Institute of Tech-
nology (that’s
right, RIOT) that
ended with police
intervening and
some students
being killed.RIOT