Burma is the second largest country in Southeast Asia with an area of 676,500 square kilometers. It is located to the east of India and Bangladesh, to the southwest of the People's Republic of China and to the west of Laos and Thailand. The coastline extends from Bangladesh to Thailand along the Bay of Bengal. The country has a population of nearly 50 million. Burma was once the richest country in Asia and is now considered one of the poorest.
Burma was colonized by Britain from the early nineteenth century and was accorded a limited form of self-government in the late 1930s, when it was separated from the administration of India against a background of nationalist challenge. It was occupied by the Japanese during the Worl War II with the support of Burmese nationalists, who in 1943 were accorded a nominal independence.
Burma attained full independence in January 4, 1948 after the British Labour Party administration revised its gradualist timetable in light of the demonstrable support enjoyed by the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), the militant nationalist movement led by Aung San.
Burma began independence as a parliamentary democracy in inauspicious circumstances. Nationalist leader Aung San came to an agreement in January 1947 with the British government for the transfer of sovereignty a year later. However, on July 19, 1947, he was assassinated, along with six members of his cabinet, in a plot mounted by a political rival. Independence went ahead on January 4, 1948 with U Nu as prime minister.
After independence, Burma was subject to violent internal upheaval as the government in Rangoon was confronted with two Communist and a number of ethnic-minority insurgencies, challenging both the identity and the constitutional arrangements of the new state. Because of his roots in the nationalist movement, against both the British and Japanese, General Ne Win displayed a sense of political entitlement which came to affect the future of the country. Violent challenge to the state and its integrity was succeeded by ferocious factional fighting within the ruling political party.
It was to repair this situation that in July 1958, the prime minister, U Nu, invited General Ne Win to form a caretaker government and to prepare the country for fresh elections. Power was returned to civilian government in March 1960. With the electoral success of his faction of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, U Nu resumed office as Prime Minister. On March 2, 1962, however, Ne Win mounted a coup in response to concessions by the government to the insurgent ethnic minorities and set up a Revolutionary Council to run the country.
Under military rule, the country became committed to an ersatz ideology called the Burmese Way to Socialism, which was a potted version of Marxist and Buddhist formulae. In July 1962, the Revolutionary Council established the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) with the mission to realize the Burmese Way to Socialism. All other parties were abolished, while the BSPP served as the political arm of the army. In 1974, a new constitution was promulgated, the BSPP was opened up to a mass membership and the name of the state was changed to the Socialist Republic Union of Burma, with Ne Win in the office of president. He stepped down in November 1981 but remained in control as chairman of the BSPP.
Burma erupted in political turmoil when the government adopted desperate measures to cope with a deteriorating economy. Demonetization of larger currency notes in circulation in September 1987 provoked student unrest which exploded in demonstrations and violence in March 1988. This challenge was matched by ruthless military repression, which came to a head in August and September.
In the interim, Ne Win resigned as chairman of the BSPP in July but failed to stem the popular uprising, under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of national hero Aung San, who had returned to Burma coincidentally to nurse her ailing mother.
On September 18, 1988 the army chief of staff, General Saw Maung, assumed power on behalf of the military in an incumbency coup marking the culmination of an awesome bloodletting. They named themselves the State Law and Restoration Council (SLORC). On November 15, 1997 they changed to new name, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).
Political parties were allowed to register during 1989. Although more than two hundred emerged, only a handful of any significance were formed, above all, the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi. She was placed under house arrest in July 1989 for six years. Nonetheless, the National League for Democracy won an overwhelming electoral victory at the polls in May 1990 over the National Unity Party, which was the political reincarnation of the BSPP. But SPDC refused to hand over of state power. In September 2000 Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested again, and then briefly released in 2002.
Reference: CIA Factbook
