HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The first fourteen years of post-independence Burma were marred by several
communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
and
ethnic An ethnic group or an ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include common sets of traditions, ancestry, language, history, ...
insurgencies. Prominent insurgent groups during this period include the
Communist Party of Burma The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is a clandestine communist party in Myanmar (Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country. Founded in 1939, the CPB initially fought ag ...
(CPB, "white flags") led by Thakin Than Tun, the Communist Party (Burma) ("red flags") led by Thakin Soe, the People's Volunteer Organisation (''Yèbaw Hpyu'') led by Bo La Yaung (a member of the
Thirty Comrades The Thirty Comrades ( my, ရဲဘော်သုံးကျိပ်) constituted the embryo of the modern Burmese army called the Burma Independence Army (BIA) which was formed to fight for independence from Britain. This was accomplished ...
), the Revolutionary Burma Army (RBA) led by communist officers Bo Zeya, Bo Yan Aung and Bo Yè Htut (all three of them members of the Thirty Comrades), and the
Karen National Union The Karen National Union ( my, ကရင် အမျိုးသား အစည်းအရုံး; abbreviated KNU) is a political organisation with an armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA), that claims to represent the K ...
(KNU).


History

Remote areas of northern Burma were for many years controlled by an army of Kuomintang (KMT) forces after the Communist victory in China in 1949. Burma accepted foreign assistance in rebuilding the country in these early years, but continued American support for the Chinese Nationalist military presence in Burma finally resulted in the country rejecting most foreign aid, refusing to join the Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) and supporting the
Bandung Conference The first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference ( id, Konferensi Asia–Afrika)—also known as the Bandung Conference—was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on 18–2 ...
of 1955. Burma generally strove to be impartial in world affairs and was one of the first countries in the world to recognise Israel and China. By 1958, the country was largely beginning to recover economically, but was beginning to fall apart politically due to a split in the
Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL), ; abbreviated , ''hpa hsa pa la'' was the dominant political alliance in Burma from 1945 to 1958. It consisted of political parties and mass and class organizations. The league evolved out of t ...
(AFPFL) into two factions, one led by Thakins Nu and Tin, the other by
Ba Swe Ba Swe ( my, ဘဆွေ, ; 17 October 1915 – 6 December 1987) was the second Prime Minister of Burma. He was a leading Burmese politician during the decade after the country gained its independence from Britain in 1948. He held the position ...
and
Kyaw Nyein Kyaw Nyein ( my, ကျော်ငြိမ်း; ; 19 January 1913 – 29 June 1986), called honorifically U Kyaw Nyein ( my, ဦးကျော်ငြိမ်း;), was a Burmese lawyer and anti-colonial revolutionary, a leader in Burma’ ...
. This was despite the unexpected success of
U Nu Nu ( my, ဦးနု; ; 25 May 1907 – 14 February 1995), commonly known as U Nu also known by the honorific name Thakin Nu, was a leading Burmese statesman and nationalist politician. He was the first Prime Minister of Burma under the pro ...
's "Arms for Democracy" offer taken up by U Seinda in
Arakan Arakan ( or ) is a historic coastal region in Southeast Asia. Its borders faced the Bay of Bengal to its west, the Indian subcontinent to its north and Burma proper to its east. The Arakan Mountains isolated the region and made it access ...
, the Pa'O, some
Mon Mon, MON or Mon. may refer to: Places * Mon State, a subdivision of Myanmar * Mon, India, a town in Nagaland * Mon district, Nagaland * Mon, Raebareli, a village in Uttar Pradesh, India * Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Canton of Grisons * An ...
and Shan groups, but more significantly by the PVO surrendering their arms. The situation became very unstable in
parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. ...
, with U Nu surviving a
no-confidence vote A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...
only with the support of the opposition National United Front (NUF), believed to have "crypto-communists" amongst them. Army hardliners now saw the 'threat' of the CPB coming to an agreement with U Nu through the NUF, and in the end U Nu "invited" Army Chief of Staff General
Ne Win Ne Win ( my, နေဝင်း ; 10 July 1910, or 14 or 24 May 1911 – 5 December 2002) was a Burmese politician and military commander who served as Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974, and also President of Burma ...
to take over the country. Over 400 "communist sympathisers" were arrested, of which 153 were deported to the
Coco Islands The Coco Islands ( my, ကိုကိုးကျွန်း) are a small group of islands in the northeastern Bay of Bengal. They are part of the Yangon Region of Myanmar. The islands are located south of the city of Yangon. Coco Island ...
in the
Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated fro ...
. Among them was the NUF leader Aung Than, older brother of
Aung San Aung San (, ; 13 February 191519 July 1947) was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his goa ...
. The ''Botataung'', ''
Kyemon ''Kyemon'' ( my, ကြေးမုံ; also known as Kyaymon) (''The Mirror'') is a state-owned Burmese language daily newspaper based in Yangon, Myanmar. Along with ''Myanmar Alin'', Kyemon is one of two Burmese language national newspapers in t ...
'' and ''Rangoon Daily'' were also closed down. Ne Win's
caretaker government A caretaker government is a temporary ''ad hoc'' government that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed. Depending on specific practice, it usually consists of either randomly se ...
successfully stabilised the situation and paved the way for new general elections in 1960 that returned U Nu's Union Party with a large majority. The situation did not remain stable for long, when the Shan Federal Movement, started by Nyaung Shwe Sawbwa
Sao Shwe Thaik Sao Shwe Thaik ( shn, ၸဝ်ႈၶမ်းသိူၵ်ႈ, ''Tsaw³ Kham⁴soek³''; my, စဝ်ရွှေသိုက်, ; 16 October 1895 – 21 November 1962) was a Burmese politician who served as the first president of the Un ...
(the first President of independent Burma 1948–1952) and aspiring to a "loose"
federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...
, was seen as a
separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...
movement insisting on the government honouring the right to secession in ten years provided for by the 1947 Constitution. Ne Win had already succeeded in stripping the Shan Sawbwas of their feudal powers in exchange for comfortable pensions for life in 1959. He staged a coup d'état on 2 March 1962, arrested U Nu, Sao Shwe Thaik and several others, and declared a
socialist state A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The term ''communist state'' is ofte ...
run by the
Union Revolutionary Council The Union Revolutionary Council ( my, နိုင်ငံတော်တော်လှန်ရေးကောင်စီ), officially the Revolutionary Council of the Union of Burma ( my, ပြည်ထောင်စုမြန်မာန ...
(URC), which consisted of senior military officers. Sao Shwe Thaik's son, Sao Mye Thaik, was shot dead in what was generally described as a "bloodless" coup. Thibaw Sawbwa
Sao Kya Seng Sao Kya Seng or Sao Kya Hseng ( my, စဝ်ကြာဆိုင်; shn, ၸဝ်ႈၵျႃႇသႅင်; 1924 – disappeared 3 March 1962) was a politician, a mining engineer, an agriculturalist and the last Saopha of Hsipaw State ...
also disappeared mysteriously after being stopped at a checkpoint near
Taunggyi Taunggyi ( ; Shan: ; Pa'O: ) is the capital and largest city of Shan State, Myanmar (Burma) and lies on the Thazi- Kyaingtong road at an elevation of , just north of Shwenyaung and Inle Lake within the Myelat region. Taunggyi is the fifth ...
. The URC later founded the
Burma Socialist Programme Party The Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), ; abbreviated , was Burma's ruling party from 1962 to 1988 and sole legal party from 1964 to 1988. Party chairman Ne Win overthrew the country's democratically elected government in a coup d'éta ...
(BSPP) on 4 July 1962 to nominally separate the powers of the military from the government and to lead a
one-party state A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...
.


Notes


References


Citations


Sources

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Post-independence Burma, 1948-1962 History of Myanmar (1948–present) . . . States and territories established in 1948 States and territories disestablished in 1962 1948 establishments in Asia 1962 disestablishments in Asia History of Myanmar by period 20th century in Myanmar