2760565.pdf

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Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia

Review Author(s): Robert B. Maule Review by: Robert B. Maule Source: Pacific Affairs, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Winter, 1988-1989), pp. 707-708Published by: Pacific Affairs, University of British ColumbiaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2760565Accessed: 18-10-2015 21:07 UTC

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Book Reviews

This study will appeal to leftists and others who believe that the state is more important than the individual and who desire to see state socialism as the vehicle for unity and modernization in Burma and other third world states. But for others who do not share this bias, it will disappoint.

Rutgers University, U.S.A. JOSEF SILVERSTEIN

THE SHAN OF BURMA: Memoirs of a Shan Exile. By Chao Tzang Yawnghwe (alias Eugene Thaike). Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (Local History and Memoirs). 1987. xii, 276 pp. (Photos.) S$27.00/ US$15.00, paper. ISBN 9971-988-62-3.

IT has been forty years since the British transferred power to Burma, but the anniversary of that event hardly provides cause for celebration. One reason for this attitude is that the country has been plagued by a civil war ever since its inception as an independent nation. What is at the root of the conflict? This highly personal account states that for Burma's minorities, Burman arrogance and mistrust of Burman political intentions are central to the continuance of the civil war. Indeed, the centralization and Burmani- zation policies adopted by Ne Win after the military coup in 1962 served to exacerbate minority fears of Burman domination. Consequently, the Karens, who began their struggle for greater autonomy in 1948, have been joined by Shan, Mon and Kachin armies.

Although most people are aware of the resistance movements which operate against the Cambodian and South African governments, few people are cognizant of the grievances and aspirations of the groups that oppose Ne Win's rule in Burma. The book under review seeks to bridge that gap by presenting the Shan case. The author's credentials to carry out this task are impressive. First and foremost is the experience and insight he acquired while serving as an officer in the Shan State Army from 1963 to 1976. Second, family background links him to the traditional rulers of the important Shan centres located at Yawnghwe and Hsenwi. Moreover, his father, Chao Shwe Thaike, was the first President of the Union of Burma. Therefore social position and observation facilitated the acquisition of the knowledge necessary to act as a guide for the Shan story, and to compile a sketch of over two hundred personalities who have been significant in Shan politics.

Shan-Burman enmity is not a new phenomenon. The author demon- strates that it existed in the pre-colonial past wherein "the Shan did not succeed in overthrowing what they saw as a foreign overlord" and the Burmans "were never able to really control the Shan" (p. 67). Nevertheless, Shan-Burman relations were on a much more solid and amicable footing than at present. Under Burman suzerainty traditional Shan rulers con- tinued to govern internally with only periodic interference from the Bur- man court. Hence, the Shan avoided the fate of the Muang (northern Thais) and the Mon who had their sovereigns eliminated by agents of the Burman Empire in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries respectively.

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Pacific Affairs

Harmony between the Shans and Burmans reached a highwater mark in the negotiations which led to the signing of the Panglong Agreement in 1947. The agreement guaranteed the minorities certain rights and privi- leges in return for their joining an independent Burma. However, the heavy-handed activity of the military in the Shan State during the late 1950s weakened the basis for cooperation (pp. 114-18). The partnership eroded completely after Ne Win established a military dictatorship in 1962. Furthermore, the worst fears of the minorities were realized by the promul- gation of the 1974 Constitution which struck directly at non-Burman groups. The minority response has been to resist "attempts to subjugate them or destroy their ethnic identity" (p. 60).

Success leading to a favourable political solution for Burma's minorities has been hampered by internal bickering and by the association of some rebel groups with the international narcotics trade. The author believes the opium problem resulted from the economic collapse expe- rienced under the Burmese Way to Socialism. He notes that it is the Chinese syndicates centred in Bangkok and Hong Kong who reap massive profits from opium production, not the Shan cultivator, or the armies that tax or transport the crop (pp. 54-7). The upshot is that the Ne Win government can appeal for international financial aid to obtain a military solution to the minority rebellion under the cover of an anti-drug crusade (pp. 58-9, 265, 267).

The author is clearly a man who does not subscribe to the Burmaniza- tion policies of the central government. His comment that the British colonial period was a peaceful "Golden Age" underlines this point (p. 77). Nonetheless, the book is much more than an anti-Ne Win diatribe. It is a constructive statement by a Shan who sincerely desires an end to Burma's current economic, political and social malaise through a national, not just a Shan or a Burman, solution. To accomplish the goal of recreating harmony between the many ethnic groups of Burma, it seems essential for Burmans to accept the fact that the minorities have developed national feelings of their own which require more local autonomy than is currently granted.

University of Toronto, Canada ROBERT B. MAULE

THE VIETNAMESE NOVEL IN FRENCH: A Literary Response to Colon- ialism. By Jack A. Yeager. Hanover (New Hampshire) and London: University Press of New England. 1987. xiv, 237 pp. US$27.50, cloth. ISBN 0-87451-382-0.

PEOPLE interested in Vietnam who have not mastered the Viet- namese language sufficiently to be able to conduct scholarly research on the place from primary sources frequently write books relying on French. Sometimes the results are satisfactory but often they are not. The work under review, however, cannot simply be dismissed by language experts; after all, the author has chosen to look at a marginal area of Vietnamese life which was actually carried on in French.

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Article Contentsp. 707p. 708

Issue Table of ContentsPacific Affairs, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Winter, 1988-1989) pp. 576-734Volume Information [pp. ]Front Matter [pp. ]Prime Ministerial Leadership in Japan: Recent Changes in Personal Style and Administrative Organization [pp. 583-602]The Tamil Militants--Before the Accord and After[pp. 603-619]Sinhala Cultural and Buddhist Patriotic Organizations in Contemporary Sri Lanka [pp. 620-632]A Dialogue of the Deaf: Attitudes and Issues in New Caledonian Politics [pp. 633-652]Book ReviewsReview: untitled [pp. 653-654]Review: untitled [pp. 654-655]Review: untitled [pp. 656-657]Review: untitled [pp. 657-659]Review: untitled [pp. 659-661]Review: untitled [pp. 661-662]Review: untitled [pp. 663-664]Review: untitled [pp. 664-665]Review: untitled [pp. 665-666]Review: untitled [pp. 667-668]Review: untitled [pp. 668-670]Review: untitled [pp. 670-671]Review: untitled [pp. 671-673]Review: untitled [pp. 673-674]Review: untitled [pp. 675-676]Review: untitled [pp. 676-677]Review: untitled [pp. 677-678]Review: untitled [pp. 678-679]Review: untitled [pp. 679-681]Review: untitled [pp. 681-682]Review: untitled [pp. 682-683]Review: untitled [pp. 684-685]Review: untitled [pp. 685-687]Review: untitled [pp. 687-688]Review: untitled [pp. 688-689]Review: untitled [pp. 689-691]Review: untitled [pp. 691-693]Review: untitled [pp. 693-694]Review: untitled [pp. 694-695]Review: untitled [pp. 695-696]Review: untitled [pp. 696-698]Review: untitled [pp. 698-699]Review: untitled [pp. 699-700]Review: untitled [pp. 701-702]Review: untitled [pp. 702-703]Review: untitled [pp. 704]Review: untitled [pp. 704-705]Review: untitled [pp. 706-707]Review: untitled [pp. 707-708]Review: untitled [pp. 708-710]Review: untitled [pp. 710-712]Review: untitled [pp. 712-713]Review: untitled [pp. 714-716]Review: untitled [pp. 716-717]Review: untitled [pp. 718-719]Review: untitled [pp. 719-720]Review: untitled [pp. 720-722]Briefly Noted [pp. 723-724]

Back Matter [pp. ]

2760565.pdf

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