Burma's Zealot Wungyis

Maoists or St. Simonists

Bibliographic Data

ID8083309
AuthorsJohn Badgley (corresponding author), John H Badgley
Year1965
Volume5
Issue1
Pages55-62
Publication date1965-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAsian Survey (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0004-4687 • E-ISSN: 1533-838X
PublisherUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/as.1965.5.1.01p0044y
OpenAlexW4243656736
LanguageEN
Citations received12

Two years ago in this annual Survey Burma's new military government was described as a nexus of socialism and two political traditions. Both the monarchial and colonial traditions of rule seemed to be pushing the leftist advisers (wungyis) of General Ne Win towards a unique form of national socialism. With the perspective of nearly three years of Revolutionary Council government, however, one can now see clearly that the colonial governmental tradition has been nearly obliterated. The men of commerce, the civil service, the law schools and Sandhurst were the source of support and means of rule for the British colonialists, as well as the AFPFL. Such men govern India and Pakistan today. But in Burma we are witnessing the recreation of a new Burman dynasty. The king may not long survive-many dynastic fathers were removed by their own sonsbut the warrior counter-elite he is creating will not soon be destroyed. The sanction for a new Burmese monarch was once his appeal to the occult power of astrologers, Brahman prophets, and the Law as set forth in the dhammathats. Today the sanction for the Revolutionary Council in Burma, as in many of the new states, is Science. St. Simons' technocrats could not have been more devoted to the ideal. This is a regime that asks of its educated youth dedication to their specialized field of knowledge, unless it is a non-Marxist social science, and expects them to serve their country with that knowledge in accordance with principles of society as revealed by Gautama Buddha and Karl Marx. If these revelations seem a non sequitur to the reader, think of the problem facing the ordinary Burmese citizen. Evidence for the zealousness of a commitment to radical scientific change is overwhelming. Ne Win has stated at least twice in public addresses this past year that We are not at war with people (or 'ludu' as he said in an address to peasant leaders), but against the system.' Firstly he is against the system of foreign economic influence. An estimated 300,000 Indians fled Burma in 1963-64; as petty traders and private manufacturers they had been nationalized. The anti-Indian pressure became unbearable in May when a demonetization scheme decreed all bills of more than 10 kyat ($2.00) denomination illegal unless turned into the government banks. The fact that many Burmans would suffer from the scheme was foreseen by

Political science · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

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