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MYANMAR IN ASEAN 59 3 Political and Economic Development of Myanmar: An Overview 3.1 MYANMAR: A BRIEF HISTORY Before we explore and analyse the accession of Myanmar into ASEAN, it is necessary to understand the political and economic development of the country from a historical perspective. A brief overview of Myanmar’s development history is presented below. The history of Myanmar can be described as one long series of internecine warfare, with development and peace between the wars. There have been independent kingdoms atArakan (Rakhine), Pegu (Bago), Tavoy (Dawei), Prome (Pyay), Toungoo and Ava (Innwa). The stronger and dominant kingdom varied from time to time. Only under King Anawrahta of Bagan (1044–77), was Myanmar united for the first time. Hence it can be said that Myanmar’s nation building began around the 11th century with the establishment of Bamar (formerly known as Burman) hegemony over other indigenous “nations” (Tin Maung Maung Than 2001). According to Aung Thwin (1998), “Considered Burma’s most glorious achievement in civilization, it lasted for more than four centuries between the mid-ninth and fourteenth and was a primary force in the history of mainland Southeast Asia during this period (p. 1).” The second unification occurred in 1539 under the Toungoo King Tabinshwehti, and the third and last dynasty was founded by King Alaungpaya which lasted from 1755 to 1855 when the British occupied the whole country. This dynasty was known as the Konbaung Dynasty and its last king, Thibaw, was deported to India after the British conquest. The economic policy of the Burmese kings was akin to mercantilism. As a result of the First and the Second Anglo-Burmese Wars, the British annexed Lower Burma in 1852 while Upper Burma was still ruled by Burmese kings. The last two Burmese kings were King Mindon (1852–78) and King 03 Myanmar Ch 3 16/12/04, 3:37 PM 59 60 POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF MYANMAR: AN OVERVIEW Thibaw (1878–85). In 1886, the British again annexed Upper Burma after the third war between the two countries. Britain’s reasons for the war included countering the growing influence of France in Burma, the massacres at the royal court over the accession to the throne, the dispute between the king and the Bombay Burma Trading Company and the resulting fine, and to exploit the country’s rich natural resources. Thus, the whole of Burma was conquered and colonized by the British from 1886 to 1948, apart for a short period during the Japanese Occupation during the Second World War. During the colonial period, “(l)aissez-faire and competitive enterprise, two adjuncts of Anglo-Saxon liberalism, were the basic principles of commercial and economic policy of British rule in Burma” (Mali 1962, p. 13). In other words, Burma/Myanmar was economically developed by the British with their basic principles of colonial commercial and economic policy — laissez-faire and competitive enterprise — soon after they annexed the country. The economic policy was for development and, to a certain extent, the principles of “free trade” as practiced in England were applied and economic forces were given full play. On the other hand, even though the market economy was working, there existed monopolies such as the Steel Brothers Company which handled threequarters of the total European rice trade. As a result, most economic benefits flowed out of the country. The political and economic institutions of the country, especially in Lower Burma, were transformed as the area was rapidly drawn into a capitalistic, commercially oriented global economy. Consequently, feudal lands became private property and the commercialization of the country’s agriculture and globalization started to work. Thus the country’s conquest by the British marked the end of the feudal system in the country.1 The worst period for the country towards the end of the colonial period was the Japanese Occupation during the Second World War, which resulted in extensive damages and losses. The whole economy was seriously affected due to British and Japanese scorched-earth policies. Furthermore, cultivators abandoned almost half of the land due to the war. During the earlier colonial period, when the traditional (barter) system was transformed into a market (money) economy, cultivators in the Myanmar Delta were most probably prosperous. Towards the end of the colonial period and before the Japanese Occupation, the standard of living in towns in the Delta might have been rising as the cost of living (at least in Yangon) was declining. The cost of living index in Yangon showed...

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