Book name- THE GOLDEN LAND ABLAZE: COUPS, INSURGENTS AND THE STATE IN MYANMAR
Author- Bertil Lintner
Published by- Westland
Price- Rs 599
Bertil Lintner’s book is, above all, extremely timely. The world has been left at a loss trying to understand the anarchy in Myanmar ever since the military coup by General Min Aung Hlaing on February 1, 2021. This book provides vital clues to who is fighting whom and for what in Myanmar’s complex ethnic mosaic, where one ethnic group is not necessarily a natural ally of another.
The conflict equation is certainly not linear. It is not just the junta against those supporting the ousted elected government. What Lintner demonstrates are multilayered fault lines acquiring prominence as the grip of the Central government weakens. The book argues that the present turmoil should not surprise us; for the conditions for it were embedded in Myanmar’s postcolonial history.
Lintner points out the cyclic nature of these periodic explosions of public discontent against military rule, starting from the country’s first coup in 1962 to the 1988 military crackdown on the pro-democracy movement. He confesses that despite reversals in the country’s peripheries, the military will probably hold out, driving the country’s unresolved conflicts back into latency.
The book is in six chapters. “The Coup” describes the structure of Myanmar’s political institutions and their fragility in the backdrop of the deep divisions among its many ethnic groups and between these ethnic groups as a whole and the majority Bamar in the central Irrawaddy Valley, the cradle of the pre-colonial Burmese civilisational State.
“The Military” profiles the birth of Myanmar’s modern army and how it carries a legacy of the country’s anticolonial resistance movement. It continues to iconise three famous warrior kings of the erstwhile Burmese kingdom: Anawrahta, Bayinnaung and Alaungpaya, all known for their imperial ambitions and brutal subjugation of conquered populations. Lintner attributes Myanmar’s political troubles to the military’s lust for power.
“The Ethnic Jigsaw” shows how deep the ethnic divisions within the country are, and how these divisions extend even within each state, none of which is mono-ethnic. The chapter also sketches the failed reconciliation efforts of the past.
“The China Factor” profiles China’s deep strategic and economic interests in Myanmar. It begins from the Cold War era when the Mao Zedong-led communist revolution took over China and several army divisions of the nationalist Kuomintang retreated into Myanmar and set up base in its northern hills without Myanmar’s consent. Lintner also highlights another interesting feature. China was “exporting” communism and had armed the Communist Party of Burma, the first armed resistance against independent Burma’s government. The CPB found its recruits mostly amongst ethnic communities with a history of grudge against the Burmese State. When the CPB ultimately faded, the communist ideology evaporated with it, leaving its members to assume new avatars as ethnic armies.
“The Politician” is interesting for its concise biography of Aung San Suu Kyi while “Myanmar Today — and Tomorrow” speculates on the tragedy of Myanmar and its uncertain road ahead.