POLI7012 Chap.7 Myanmar: State Building, Ethnicity and Democratic Opening
Myanmar: State Building, Ethnicity and Democratic Opening
Where this chapter sits in the course
Myanmar is the course's clearest case of a state whose army made itself the core of government. Three readings approach it from different directions. Mary Callahan's Making Enemies traces how periods of war, from the colonial conquest to the early 1960s, shaped the Burmese state.
Matthew Walton's article on the wages of Burman-ness asks who benefits from that state along ethnic lines. Min Zin and Brian Joseph's 2012 essay in the Journal of Democracy assesses the reforms launched under President Thein Sein after the 2010 elections.
Read together, they explain how an opening at the centre can coexist with war at the edges.
Callahan: coercion as an inherited habit of rule
Callahan argues that the colonial state reached most people through armed force and treated them as threats to commerce rather than as citizens.
The Japanese occupation scattered weapons and authority, and after independence in 1948 leaders at first bargained with local strongmen to survive a civil war. The arrival of Kuomintang forces from 1951 reversed that path: the army was rebuilt as a centralised standing force, and by the late 1950s officers were running businesses through the Defence Services Institute, staffing ministries and drafting national ideology.
The coups of 1958 and 1962 grew from struggles between the army and politicians and inside the officer corps, not from culture or one man's charisma.
Walton: the majority that does not see itself
Walton adapts the concept of Whiteness to describe Burman-ness. Burmans form a majority of roughly 60 to 70 percent, and their culture, language and history have been treated as the content of national identity.
The advantages are concrete: no pressure to assimilate, loyalty that is presumed rather than proven, schooling in one's own language, and far less exposure to military violence. Because Burmans also suffered under military rule, many do not recognise these advantages, and Walton finds the same blind spot in parts of the democratic opposition.
He presents the point as structural rather than as an accusation against individuals.
Min Zin and Joseph: why the generals opened, and how far
The authors offer five reasons for the shift: a roadmap dating from 2003, dependence on China, fear of unrest after the crackdown of 2007, the wish to re-engage Western governments, and a poor development record.
They show how the 2008 constitution protected the military while spreading power among former generals so that no single figure could dominate. The National League for Democracy chose to embed itself in the system and pursue gradual change.
The authors warn that ethnic conflict and the unsettled question of what kind of nation Burma is could still derail reform.
Using the readings in your own work
For the group presentation and the term paper, the useful move is to keep three levels apart: the institution (the army and the constitution), the social hierarchy (Burman privilege), and the political moment (the reforms of 2011 and 2012).
Weak arguments collapse one level into another. Strong ones show how a change at one level is limited by the other two, and they state the date of each reading, since all three were written before the events that followed.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Callahan's claim that the tatmadaw is a war-fighting organisation first
- 02
Colonial pacification and a population treated as threats to commerce
- 03
How the Kuomintang crisis ended accommodation after 1951
- 04
The 1958 and 1962 coups as outcomes of struggles inside the state
- 05
Burman-ness as an unmarked norm, read through the lens of Whiteness
- 06
Conditional membership, language policy and unequal repression
- 07
The 2011 opening: five drivers and the military's constitutional guarantees
Worked example · free
Explaining the durability of military rule in Burma
- 1State the claim: the army's power grew out of how wars were fought around independence, not out of national culture.
- 2Identify the comparative variable: accommodation strategies in Malaya and the Philippines against a mainly military approach in Burma.
- 2Explain the timing: Kuomintang operations from 1951 derailed accommodation and produced a centralised standing army.
- 2Assess the alternative: Ne Win's charisma could not secure obedience across the Union without the prior decade of institution building.
Key terms
- Tatmadaw
- The Burmese term for the armed forces. Callahan treats it as an organisation of war fighters whose methods of governing grew out of counterinsurgency.
- Burman-ness
- The privileged identity of Myanmar's majority group as Walton describes it. Like Whiteness, it is dominant, treated as normal and largely invisible to those who hold it.
- Burmanisation
- The spread of Burman culture, language and Buddhism as the national standard. Walton notes the regime framed it as development work for border peoples.
- Bogyoke Government
- The army-led caretaker administration of 1958 to 1960 under General Ne Win. Callahan shows it seconded officers into ministries and pushed national registration.
- Seven-Step Roadmap
- The regime's plan, dating from 2003, for a new constitution, a referendum and elections. Min Zin and Joseph treat its final step as the setting for the reforms after 2011.
Myanmar: State Building, Ethnicity and Democratic Opening FAQ
Why does Walton write non-Burman instead of ethnic minority?
He follows non-Burman writers who worry that the word minority places their communities on the periphery. Some prefer the phrase ethnic nationality, which implies less subordination, although the minority label has let groups draw on United Nations protections framed around minority rights. The choice of term is part of his argument about unmarked norms.
What did Callahan find about national registration under army rule?
Registration became an army priority during the caretaker government. In its first eight years the registration department had recorded 4.1 million of roughly 18 million residents, but in the first three months of army administration it recorded 1.3 million. Officers valued identity cards as a way to watch the movements of suspects.
Why did Min Zin and Joseph want Burma to change its electoral system?
They feared plurality voting would hand the National League for Democracy a landslide large enough to provoke a backlash from hard-liners, and would squeeze the smaller ethnic parties allied with it. A mixed system combining proportional and majoritarian seats, they suggested, could give the old guard a stake while giving minority parties fairer representation.
Assessment move
Build a three-row grid for this week: one row per reading, with columns for the institution it studies, the group it says benefits, and the year its evidence stops. Fill each row on the day you read it, then write one paragraph linking two rows, for example how Callahan's army explains Walton's geography of violence. Before seminar discussion, check that no claim you plan to make reaches past a reading's own date.
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