Page 374 - The Rough Guide to Myanmar (Burma)

372 CONTEXTS History
GENERAL MADNESS
the despotic excesses of modern Myanmar’s two leading generals, Ne Win and than shwe,
have been widely reported. What is less well known is their quaint shared beliefs in antique
superstitions and old wives’ tales – some of which appear to have played a major role in
shaping huge national policy decisions and other affairs of state.
rumours abound concerning Ne Win’s penchant for numerology and yadaya (see p.388).
Warned by his astrologer of potential assassination attempts, the great dictator is said to have
stood in front of a mirror, stamping on a piece of meat, and then shot himself in the mirror in
order to deflect the anticipated bloodshed. in 1987 he was also responsible for disastrous
currency reforms during which new K45 and K90 notes (both divisible by nine, and said to be
numerologically auspicious) replaced former high-denomination notes, wiping out the
lifetime savings of many Burmese at a stroke – a decision which played a major role in the
8888 Uprising that erupted the following year.
Ne Win’s successor Than Shwe was no less superstitious. the grandiose new multi-billion
capital of Naypyitaw was established, it’s rumoured, largely at his astrologers’ say-so, while he is
also thought to have indulged a weakness for many other forms of almost cabalistic
superstition. on one occasion following the saffron revolution in 2007 – an incident
entertainingly related in Emma Larkin’s Everything is Broken (see p.393) – his wife Kyaing Kyaing is
reported to have walked a pig and a dog counterclockwise around the shwedagon Pagoda in a
yadaya ritual aimed either at breaking the power of Aung san suu Kyi and/or protecting than
shwe’s own family from cowardly people (with pig and dog symbolizing either Aung san suu
Kyi or the backsliding Burmese populace – or possibly both). Whatever its intentions, Kyaing
Kyaing’s attempt at Buddhist black magic had little influence on subsequent events – although
at least no animals appear to have been harmed in the making of this particular military fable.

Programme Party (BSPP), the nation’s one and only officially recognized political
organization. Further strikes and demonstrations took place in 1974, during which
a further hundred-odd students and workers were shot, while in 1978 the army drove
a quarter of a million Rohingya Muslims (see box, p.121) into Bangladesh.
Ne Win’s disastrous currency reforms (see box above) in 1987 caused further suffering
and provoked a further round of protests and riots, while new government policy
forcing farmers to sell produce below market values (following on from the UN’s
decision in late 1987 to downgrade Myanmar to “Least Developed Country” status)
led to further violent rural protests. Public letters written by Ne Win’s former second in
command General Brigadier Aung Gyi described Burma as “almost a joke” compared
to other Southeast Asian countries. Not surprisingly, he was arrested soon afterwards.

The 8888 Uprising
Popular discontent at military rule finally erupted during the 8888 Uprising (named
after the key events which occurred on August 8, 1988). The initial spark for the
uprising occurred in March 1988, when a student was shot dead by police following
a trivial after-dark altercation in Yangon. Protests rapidly spread across the city’s
universities and several more students were killed during a protest at Inya Lake. By
June, demonstrations had spread nationwide, with widescale unrest and numerous
deaths in cities across the country.

1941 1943 1947
Japanese forces invade Allied forces reconquer Myanmar, Aung San signs an agreement with
and capture Myanmar aided by Aung San and other British authorities guaranteeing Burmese
nationalist leaders disillusioned independence within a year, but is
with Japanese rule assassinated shortly afterwards

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