Burma: The Curse of Independence (review)

Burma is a country that evokes distinct and conflicting images. Even its name is not something upon which all agree. In 1989, the ruling military junta, then known by the nefarious-sounding acronym SLORC, changed the country's name to the Union of Myanmar, a move still not recognized by the United States. When one thinks of "Burma," one might imagine a scene ripped from George Orwell's Burmese Days in which Englishmen and even Indians sip afternoon tea on the veranda in the hot, dusty land of 1930s colonial Burma. In this image, the majority ethnic Burmans (as opposed to the term "Burmese" which applies to all citizens of Burma) are strangers in their own land. A contemporary image of "Myanmar," on the other hand, is likely that of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi attempting to bring democracy to that same dusty land. The notable difference in today's image is that protagonists and antagonists alike are all ethnic Burmans.

In Burma: The Curse of Independence, Shelby Tucker connects these two conflicting images through the lens of the country's troubled ethnic relations, asserting that Burma's current problems reflect its longstanding failure to address its minority problem. Ethnic relations are an often-overlooked aspect of Burmese society—minorities comprise a quarter of the population but maintain a relatively autonomous existence on more than half of the country's land. A trial lawyer by training, Tucker became interested in Burma while trekking through the northern part of the country without the government's permission in 1989. Eventually, he became sympathetic to Communist Party of Burma guerillas and peoples of the ethnic Kachin hill country. These adventures were the subject of his colorful book Among Insurgents: Walking through Burma, published in 2000. ¹ Though not a Burma specialist, Tucker draws upon an impressive array of first-hand accounts (such as biographies and memoirs) in Burma: The Curse of Independence and considers the views of most known academic experts on Burma.

Unfortunately, little is known about Burma because its military leaders, now known as the State Peace and Development Council, tightly control information. Much of what we do know has passed through multiple layers of censorship and propaganda. Given this lack of reliable information, the repressive nature of the regime, and the negative feelings this provokes, there are few even-handed accounts of Burma's history and future prospects. Tucker's work is no exception. His positive encounters with the country's minorities clearly color his understanding of the complex dynamic of ethnic relations in Burma and ultimately cloud his objectivity.

A much-forgotten fact about Burma is that in the early half of the twentieth century, it was widely considered the Asian country with the most promising economic prospects after Japan. In 1940, it was the world's largest rice exporter and possessed rich reserves of teak, minerals, and oil. History, of course, has proven this antiquated prediction wrong—Burma's per capita GDP of $300 is now one of Asia's lowest. ² There are various explanations for this failure to develop, but most blame the military regime, which has controlled the country since 1962. In short, the military snuffed out civil society and the initiative necessary for private enterprise—the backbones of sustained economic growth—allowing corruption and nepotism to impoverish the country. Tucker's explanation for Burma's failures goes back even further: to Burma's independence from Britain in 1948 and the events that led up to it (hence the book's title, The Curse of Independence).

Tucker argues that the British could have prevented Burma's slide into the anarchy of the so-called democratic period and then into autocracy if it had honored the allegiance of the ethnic minorities, reigned in the excesses of the Burman-led independence movement, and brokered a peace agreement between ethnic groups at the time of independence. Tucker's interpretation is notable, for...