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Fear and Silence in Burma and Indonesia: Comparing Two National Tragedies and Two Individual Outcomes of Trauma

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Interdisciplinary Handbook of Trauma and Culture

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Abstract

There is a growing literature indicating that individuals often respond to traumatic experience with resilience; yet it is not clear what specific factors facilitate recovery. In particular, it has been challenging to identify the larger historical, structural, political, and cultural factors that predict individual outcomes. This chapter examines two historic national tragedies in Southeast Asia: one in Burma, and the other in Indonesia. We conduct a comparative case analysis of two individuals—one Indonesian, and one Burmese—who underwent significant traumas that were part of historically situated political atrocities. We identify several key factors that contribute to resilient and positive individual outcome, including social embeddedness and support; a sense of coherence; a sense of meaning and purpose; a high sense of agency; continued communication with the larger community (a lack of silence); an ability to self-regulate through goal-setting; and cultural explanatory models that support a productive engagement with fear. The two case studies illuminate how the social and political landscape, following traumatic events, can be shaped to allow victims of trauma to thrive, rather than recede into silence.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In 1989, Burma was renamed the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. There has not been uniform adoption of the name Myanmar. Because the change in name was an arbitrary decision on the part of the military junta, many prodemocracy activists within the country, as well as other nation-states, have not officially adopted the new name. Others have argued that the name Myanmar is more inclusive, because Burma references only the dominant ethnicity (the Bamar or Burman).

  2. 2.

    In 1989, Rangoon was renamed Yangon.

  3. 3.

    Due to the scope of this chapter, we will not be able to explore potential genetic predispositions, developmental life course issues, or other psychobiological factors that would predispose either of these subjects to developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

  4. 4.

    It is perhaps not coincidental that the two documentary films that have explored the 1965 tragedy from the perspective of the victims have “silence” in their titles (“40 Years of Silence” Lemelson 2008; “The Look of Silence” Oppenheimer 2014).

  5. 5.

    Interviews conducted with former 1988 activists, Yangon, May 2014.

  6. 6.

    Interviews conducted with former Yangon University students, Sydney, February 2014.

  7. 7.

    General Ne Win, Burma’s dictator from 1962 to 1988, had officially stepped down as president and chairman of the Burmese Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) after public outcry over the Red Bridge incident and Sein Lwin had been appointed both party chair and president in July of 1988.

  8. 8.

    Interviews conducted with former political prisoners and their families, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Yangon, Mandalay, June 2014 to April 2015.

  9. 9.

    Interviews conducted with former political prisoners and their families, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Yangon, Mandalay, June 2014 to April 2015.

  10. 10.

    Please note that there are narratives of 1988 and life in Burmese prisons whereby survivors report symptoms that fit the clinical model of PTSD [please see Lemere and West (2011)].

  11. 11.

    Interviews conducted with former political prisoners , San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Yangon, Mandalay, June 2014 to April 2015.

  12. 12.

    Interviews conducted with former political prisoners, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Yangon, Mandalay, June 2014 to April 2015.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Annie Tucker and Constance Cummings for comments on earlier drafts of this chapter. They also thank democracy activists in Burma and survivors of political atrocities in both Burma and Indonesia, who shared their narratives.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

    Robert Lemelson Ph.D.

  2. Institute of Personality and Social Research (IPSR), University of California, Berkeley, USA

    Seinenu M. Thein-Lemelson Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Robert Lemelson Ph.D.
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  2. Seinenu M. Thein-Lemelson Ph.D.
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seinenu M. Thein-Lemelson Ph.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot , Israel

    Yochai Ataria

  2. The Interdisciplinary Center Herzelia, Herzelia, Israel

    David Gurevitz

  3. Department of the History of Israel, Ben Gurion University, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Haviva Pedaya

  4. Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Medical, New York, New York, USA

    Yuval Neria

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Lemelson, R., Thein-Lemelson, S.M. (2016). Fear and Silence in Burma and Indonesia: Comparing Two National Tragedies and Two Individual Outcomes of Trauma. In: Ataria, Y., Gurevitz, D., Pedaya, H., Neria, Y. (eds) Interdisciplinary Handbook of Trauma and Culture. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29404-9_24

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