Abstract
Like most young and aspiring nations, Myanmar has been struggling with poor agricultural yields, minimal manufacturing capacity, rapid population growth, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and internal unrest. She has also had to contend with conflicts between the Burmans, who have largely controlled the government, and various ethnic minorities, who have had little say in it. Food shortages have occurred regularly in a country which, early in this century, controlled 40 percent of the world’s rice exports. Economic development which appeared so imminent at independence on January 4, 1948, has failed utterly, and the nation has been unable to reconcile peacefully internal political and social rivalries. The duly elected civilian government was headed by Prime Minister U Nu who led with a gentle hand from 1948–1958 and from 1960–1962. In the latter year, the government was overthrown by the army, led by General Ne Win who ruled with an iron fist. Today the army remains in power despite the overwhelming victory of the National League for Democracy at the elections of May 1990.
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Notes
Martin J. Smith, Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity (London: Zed Books, 1991).
Moshe Yegar, The Muslims of Buma: A Study of a Minority Group (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1972).
Richard Ulack and Gyula Pauer, Atlas of Southeast Asia (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1989).
Much of the material on climate, including the tables, derived from: Robert E. Huke. Rainfall in Burma. (Hanover, New Hampshire: Geography Publications at Dartmouth, Number 2,1965).
Far reaching changes in the economic geography of the Delta region are detailed in: Michael Adas, The Burma Delta: Economic Development and Social Change on an Asian Rice Frontier, 1852–1941. (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1974).
See also: Siok-Hwa Cheng, The Rice Industry of Burma 1852–1940 (Kuala Lumpur: University of Mayala Press, 1968).
An excellent study emphasizing agrarian relations in the colonial and the post-colonial periods is: Willem van Schendel, Three Deltas: Accumulation and Poverty in Rural Burma, Bengal and South India (London: Sage Publications, 1991).
U Khin Win, A Century of Rice Improvement in Burma (Manila, Philippines: International Rice Research Institute, 1991).
Much greater detail is documented in: Khin Win and Kyi Win, Myanmar’s Experience in Rice Improvement, 1830–1985 (Manila, Philippines: IRRI Research Paper Series, Number 141, IRRI, 1990).
Robert E. Huke and Eleanor H. Huke, Rice: Then and Now (Manila, Philippines: International Rice Research Institute, 1990).
Much statistical data on land tenure, employment in rice cultivation and rice area by type of culture is shown by maps and tables in: Robert E. Huke and Eleanor H. Huke, Human Geography of Rice in Southeast Asia (Manila, Philippines: International Rice Research Institute, maps and tables, 1990).
Burma, Insight Guides (Singapore: APA Publications, 1988).
Andre Boucaud and Louis Boucaud, Burma’s Golden Triangle: On the Trail of the Opium Warlords (Hong Kong: Asia 2000 Ltd., 1988).
Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Country Profile 1992–93 (London: The Economist Intelligence Unit, 1992).
Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Country Report No 11993 (London: The Economist Intelligence Unit, 1993).
Charles A. Fisher, South-East Asia: A Social, Economic and Political Geography (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1967).
Donald W. Fryer, Emerging Southeast Asia: A Study in Growth and Stagnation. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970).
The transition from colonial administration to today’s military dictatorship was more difficult for Burma than for most countries. Four contrasting views are offered by: Bertil Lintner, Outrage: Burma’s Struggle for Democracy (London: White Lotus, 1990);
by: U Maung Maung, Burmese Nationalist Movements, 1940–1948 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990);
by: Josef Silverstein. Burma: Military Rule and the Politics of Stagnation (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977);
and by David I. Steinberg, Burma: A Socialist Nation of Southeast Asia (Boulder: Westview Press, 1982).
Sources Consulted and Suggested Readings
Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear and Other Writings (New York: Penguin Books, 1992).
AndreBoucaud and Louis Boucaud, Burma’s Golden Triangle: On the Trail of the Opium Warlords (Hong Kong: Asia 2000 Ltd., 1988).
Burma, Insight Guides (Singapore: APA Publications, 1988).
Siok-Hwa Cheng, The Rice Industry of Burma 1852–1940 (Kuala Lumpur: University of Mayala Press, 1968).
Charles A. Fisher, South-East Asia: A Social, Economic and Political Geography (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1967).
Robert E. Huke and Eleanor H. Huke, Human Geography of Rice in Southeast Asia (Manila, Philippines: International Rice Research Institute, maps and tables, 1990).
Huke and Huke, Rice: Then and Now (Manila, Philippines: International Rice Research Institute, 1990).
Bertil Lintner, Outrage: Burma’s Struggle for Democracy (London: White Lotus, 1990).
U Maung Maung, Burmese Nationalist Movements, 1940–1948 (Honolulu: University of HawaiiP ress, 1990).
Mi Mi Khaing, The World of Burmese Women (London: Zed Books, 1984).
Willem van Schendel, Three Deltas: Accumulation and Poverty in Rural Burma, Bengal and South India (London: Sage Publications, 1991).
Martin J. Smith, Burma: Insurgency and the Politics of Ethnicity (London: Zed Books, 1991).
Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Country Profile 1992–93 (London: The Economist Intelligence Unit, 1992).
Thailand, Myanmar (Burma), Country Report No 11993 (London: The Economist Intelligence Unit, 1993).
Richard Ulack and Gyula Pauer, Atlas of Southeast Asia (New York: MacMillan Publishing Co., 1989).
Steven Warshaw, Southeast Asia Emerges: A Concise History of Southeast Asia From its Origins to the Present (Berkeley: Diablo Press, 1990).
U Khin Win, A Century of Rice Improvement in Burma (Manila, Philippines: International Rice Research Institute, 1991).
Moshe Yegar, The Muslims of Bumai: A Study of a Minority Group (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1972), February 8, 1994
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© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers
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Huke, R.E. (1996). Myanmar: Promise Unfulfilled. In: Dutt, A.K. (eds) Southeast Asia: A Ten Nation Region. The GeoJournal Library, vol 34. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1748-4_9
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