Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia

Review
Author(s): Robert B. Maule
Review by: Robert B. Maule
Source: Pacific Affairs, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Winter, 1988-1989), pp. 707-708
Published by: Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2760565
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Book Reviews
This study will appeal to leftistsand others who believe that the state is
more important than the individual and who desire to see state socialism as
the vehicle for unity and modernization in Burma and other third world
states. But for others who do not share this bias, it will disappoint.

RutgersUniversity,U.S.A.
THE SHAN OF BURMA:

JOSEF SILVERSTEIN

Memoirs of a Shan Exile. By Chao Tzang

Yawnghwe (alias Eugene Thaike). Singapore: Institute of Southeast

Asian Studies (Local History and Memoirs). 1987. xii, 276 pp.
(Photos.) S$27.00/ US$15.00, paper. ISBN 9971-988-62-3.

IT has been fortyyears since the British transferredpower to Burma,

but the anniversary of that event hardly provides cause forcelebration. One
reason for this attitude is that the country has been plagued by a civil war
ever since its inception as an independent nation. What is at the root of the
conflict? This highly personal account states that for Burma's minorities,
Burman arrogance and mistrustof Burman political intentions are central
to the continuance of the civil war. Indeed, the centralization and Burmanization policies adopted by Ne Win afterthe military coup in 1962 served to
exacerbate minority fears of Burman domination. Consequently, the
Karens, who began their struggle forgreater autonomy in 1948, have been
joined by Shan, Mon and Kachin armies.
Although most people are aware of the resistance movements which
operate against the Cambodian and South African governments, few people are cognizant of the grievances and aspirations of the groups that
oppose Ne Win's rule in Burma. The book under review seeks to bridge that
gap by presenting the Shan case. The author's credentials to carryout this
task are impressive. First and foremost is the experience and insight he
acquired while serving as an officerin the Shan State Army from 1963 to
1976. Second, family background links him to the traditional rulers of the
important Shan centres located at Yawnghwe and Hsenwi. Moreover, his
father,Chao Shwe Thaike, was the firstPresident of the Union of Burma.
Therefore social position and observation facilitated the acquisition of the
knowledge necessary to act as a guide for the Shan story,and to compile a
sketchof over two hundred personalities who have been significant in Shan
politics.
Shan-Burman enmity is not a new phenomenon. The author demonstrates that it existed in the pre-colonial past wherein "the Shan did not
succeed in overthrowing what they saw as a foreign overlord" and the
Burmans "were never able to really control the Shan" (p. 67). Nevertheless,
Shan-Burman relations were on a much more solid and amicable footing
than at present. Under Burman suzerainty traditional Shan rulers continued to govern internally with only periodic interferencefrom the Burman court. Hence, the Shan avoided the fate of the Muang (northern
Thais) and the Mon who had their sovereigns eliminated by agents of the
Burman Empire in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries respectively.

707

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Pacific Affairs
Harmony between the Shans and Burmans reached a highwater mark in
the negotiations which led to the signing of the Panglong Agreement in
1947. The agreement guaranteed the minorities certain rights and privileges in return for their joining an independent Burma. However, the
heavy-handed activity of the military in the Shan State during the late
1950s weakened the basis for cooperation (pp. 114-18). The partnership
eroded completely afterNe Win established a military dictatorship in 1962.
Furthermore, the worst fearsof the minorities were realized by the promulgation of the 1974 Constitution which struck directly at non-Burman
groups. The minority response has been to resist "attempts to subjugate
them or destroy their ethnic identity" (p. 60).
Success leading to a favourable political solution for Burma's minorities has been hampered by internal bickering and by the association of
some rebel groups with the international narcotics trade. The author
believes the opium problem resulted from the economic collapse experienced under the Burmese Way to Socialism. He notes that it is the Chinese
syndicates centred in Bangkok and Hong Kong who reap massive profits
from opium production, not the Shan cultivator, or the armies that tax or
transport the crop (pp. 54-7). The upshot is that the Ne Win government
can appeal for international financial aid to obtain a military solution to
the minority rebellion under the cover of an anti-drug crusade (pp. 58-9,
265, 267).
The author is clearly a man who does not subscribe to the Burmanization policies of the central government. His comment that the British
colonial period was a peaceful "Golden Age" underlines this point (p. 77).
Nonetheless, the book is much more than an anti-Ne Win diatribe. It is a
constructive statement by a Shan who sincerely desires an end to Burma's
currenteconomic, political and social malaise through a national, not just
a Shan or a Burman, solution. To accomplish the goal of recreating
harmony between the many ethnic groups of Burma, it seems essential for
Burmans to accept the fact that the minorities have developed national
feelings of theirown which require more local autonomy than is currently
granted.

Universityof Toronto,Canada
THE

VIETNAMESE

NOVEL

ROBERT

IN FRENCH:

B. MAULE

A LiteraryResponse to Colon-

ialism. By Jack A. Yeager. Hanover (New Hampshire) and London:

University Press of New England. 1987. xiv, 237 pp. US$27.50,
cloth. ISBN 0-87451-382-0.

PEOPLE
interested in Vietnam who have not mastered the Vietnamese language sufficientlyto be able to conduct scholarly research on the
place from primary sources frequently write books relying on French.
Sometimes the results are satisfactory but often they are not. The work
under review, however, cannot simply be dismissed by language experts;
afterall, the author has chosen to look at a marginal area of Vietnamese life
which was actually carried on in French.

708

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