a bloodless coup and abolished the constitution,
convinced that only authoritarian socialism could
save his country. He ruled Burma for the next
twenty-six years, introducing a communist-style
one-party (Burma Socialist Programme Party)
authoritarian regime. Keen to find a Burmese way
to socialism opposed to both communist insur-
gency and U Nu’s liberalism, Ne Win claimed to
be following a middle way in the true Buddhist
fashion. The military junta under his leadership
isolated Burma, forcing it to turn its back on
Western traditions. Industry and banking were
nationalised, but the economy performed disas-
trously. In an attempt to get it moving Ne Win
secured large development funds from abroad and
the Burmese overseas debt soared from $231
million in 1973 to $3.8 billion in 1988. The stan-
dard of living, however, remained one of the
lowest in Asia. The rice grown is hardly sufficient
to feed its own population of 48 million.
The patient people of Burma, who had suf-
fered for twenty-five years from the Burmese road
to socialism, began to give vent to their frustra-
tion in largely student-led riots in Rangoon in
September 1987. The 77-year-old General Ne
Win decided to move to the sidelines and
resigned in the summer of 1988 amid signs of
military disaffection. Reforms were promised. For
a brief period with a civilian as its leader, detainees
released and free elections promised, it looked as
if Burma would move out of its self-imposed iso-
lation and darkness. But just a month later, in
September 1988, the military took over and
General Saw Maung emerged at the head of a
junta. The ‘restoration of law and order’ marked
the beginnings of a repression against students
and dissidents, brutal even by Burmese standards.
As many as 3,000 pro-democracy demonstrators
are believed to have been massacred.
In 1989 the name of Burma was changed to
Myanmar, a transliteration of the English ‘Burma’
into Burmese. Surprisingly the new military
leaders promised that new political parties could
register and that there would be free elections in
May 1990. But they then, in the summer, placed
under house arrest the most likely leaders of any
opposition, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the
daughter of Aung San (who played a crucial role
at the birth of Burmese independence) and wife
of an English lecturer at Oxford. Suu Kyi had
returned to her native land to lead a new party,
the National League for Democracy. It was her
criticisms of Ne Win and her call for justice and
democracy that led to her arrest. But to the
chagrin of the junta, which had fielded its own
front party, the National Unity Party, the
National League for Democracy gained a clear
and outright victory at the 1990 election,
winning a huge majority in the Assembly. The
military junta had no intention of bowing to this
verdict. In 1992 Aung San Suu Kyi remained
under house arrest. The military declared that
they would release her only if she left the country,
which she has refused to do. For her courage and
her adherence to her principles she was awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. There were no
signs in 2005 that the junta planned to hand
power over to a democratic majority. Instead, its
oppressive rule continued, and campaigners
against ethnic minorities, students and rebellious
tribes on the north-west and north-east borders
of Myanmar were fiercely pursued. A new cam-
paign against Muslim groups in the south-west
led to a flood of refugees escaping to Bangladesh.
But, despite its appalling human rights records,
Myanmar was not shunned by the international
community, which valued its resources and its
market. Oil companies were prospecting and con-
cluding joint production agreements, and the
country was being opened increasingly to foreign
investment. Trade with Thailand grew with par-
ticular rapidity. Aung San Suu Kyi’s rearrest after
a period of ‘dialogue’ finally led the US to try
to lead an international trade embargo. If the
Burmese people were free, Aung Suu Kyi would
lead a return to representative rule and an end to
the military dictatorship. It was the general’s feel-
ings of insecurity after Aung Suu Kyi’s obviously
popular public reception that decided them to
ensure her disappearance from public view. From
time to time the Junta tried to negotiate releas-
ing Aung San Suu Kyi but never gave up power.
Indonesia is the largest country in south-east Asia,
with more inhabitants than Britain and united
Germany combined. Yet the only one of its 3,600
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