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SOJOURN Vol. 19, No. 1 (2004), pp. 123-50ISSN 0217-9520 Book Reviews living Silence: Burma under Military Rule. By Christina Fink. London and NewYork: Zed Books; Bangkok: White Lotus; and Dhaka: University Press, 2001. 16 illus., xv, 286 pp. In the field of area studies, Burma/Myanmar studies occupies a small niche carved out by a pioneering generation ofscholars whose "watch" dated back to the 1950s when the fledgeling state was regarded by many observers as a promising example ofeconomic growth and democratic rule. A small group ofsecond-generation Myanmar watchers emerged in the 1970s though very few book-length works were published during Myanmar's twenty-six-year socialist era. The collapse of the oneparty socialist regime in September 1988 in a whirlwind ofprotest and demonstrations followed by a military coup led to a renewed interest in Myanmar and spawned a new generation of Myanmar specialists and an upsurge of writings on the country; many of them partisan and strongly opinionated.1 Christina Fink represents this generation who brought a fresh, oftentimes contentious, perspective to the field long dominated by the orthodoxy ofthe greying old "Burma hands".2 The majority of the books and articles on Myanmar published in the last dozen years, after the military regime refused to honour the results of the 1990 general election were highly critical ofthe regime and its policies . Fink's book is no exception. The fact that the author's sympathies lie with the loosely structured movement for liberal democracy in "Burma" is further attested by die glowing comments, displayed on the back cover, from three leading proponents ofthe movement: Aung San Suu Kyi (icon of the movement), Josef Silverstein (representing academia), andJohn Pilger (representing theWestern media). Nonetheless , this study is not just another piece of regime-bashing polemic. It 124Book Reviews is a well-documented study of a subset of a polity struggling to come to terms with a military regime that conflates regime security with national security, harbours deep suspicion against pluralism and holds in contempt what it perceives as "party politics". In the Introduction, the author claims that the book "offers an overview ofBurma's recent history, and considers how people in governmentcontrolled areas . . . have felt compelled to live their lives in ways that help perpetuate military rule" as well as on "how, at times, they have resisted" (p. 5). In general, the author, a Berkeley-trained anthropologist , manages to fulfil her promise by skilfullyweaving the stories ofher interviewees into a narrative that vividly illustrates the "living silence" ofthose individuals, families, and even communities living in the umbra and penumbra of the overwhelmingly powerful regime.3 On the other hand, the regime's policies and tactics to deter, pre-empt, and neutralize dissent as well as to exercise societal control and maintain order are also elaborated. In the same context, different survival and coping strategies contingent upon the circumstances facing the subjects are also well delineated. In highlighting those aspects that are usually submerged in most writings on Myanmar politics, the book stands out among the literature on contemporary Myanmar. However, the author's pondering on "how Burma's political conflicts might be resolved in the future" (ibid., italics are mine) in the concluding section comes out as an audacious attempt to tackle highly complex and controversial issues in a short essay that could not hope to do justice to the problem at hand. The first two chapters on historical legacies and the socialist era (1962-68) covered well-trodden territory. Here, the author attempts to portray Myanmars political backdrop in the unfolding drama revolving around what she identifies as "two key political issues today", that is, "the restoration of democracy and the resolution of political rights ofethnic nationalities" (p. 14). The two chapters set the scene for others that follow and ptovide continuity regarding the significance ofthe military's role in the politics ofMyanmar. The third chapter covers the tumultuous period from signs of rising discontent (early 1988), through the truncated popular upheaval (August-September 1988), to the aftermath ofthe May 1990 election, Book Reviews1 25 which saw a failed attempt by militant monks to boycott the military. The author presents this chapter called "Breaking the Silence...

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