Why Ne Win’s Burmanization Policies Are Still Important Sixty Years Later: The Burmese Burden

This chapter describes the thesis of the book regarding the long-term impact of Ne Win’s Burmanization policies, which began after the 1962 coup. The policies emerged when the Burmese army sought to create a country unified around what they saw as a unified race, which they defined as the Burmese people. The multi-ethnic “indigenous” population was to be assimilated into this goal, while foreigners were to be excluded. The policies for this were developed in the 1950s in the Directorate of Psychological Warfare, which developed historical narratives fixing the role of the Burmese army as the sole institution capable of protecting national sovereignty against many foreign enemies. As for ethnic highlanders, they were to be assimilated into the more civilized Burmese identity using military discipline. These programs established a habitus of “Burmanization” which became an authoritarian dictatorship that has never achieved legitimacy via elections, but rules with fear.