Myanmar/Burma: Inside Challenges, Outside Interests

A Note on the Name of the Country

xiii A Note on the Name of the Country The British bestowed the name Burma on the territory they began to take control of in the 1820s and made into a province of India in 1886. Burma became a separate colony in 1937. Upon independence in 1948, the Burmese accepted the name Union of Burma. In 1989 the military regime formally changed the name to the Union of Myanmar. Myanmar had been the written name of the core kingdom and the province and the colony in the local language. The military authorities preferred Myanmar because it had a more ambiguous ethnic connotation, that is, one less closely linked to the Burman ethnic majority. In this book, both Burma and Myanmar are used depending on the context, the former generally referring to pre-1988 events and the latter used in connection with more recent events. Following its normal procedures, the United Nations has accepted the new name. All of Myanmar’s ASEAN partners, all of its other Asian neighbors, and most other countries in the world use Myanmar in official statements and documents. The United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, and a handful of other Western democracies continue to use Burma in official statements and documents to underscore their recognition of the National League for Democracy’s victory in the 1990 elections. When the 2008 constitution goes into effect on the opening day of the first session of the national assembly, elected in November 2010, the name of the country will be changed to the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. 00-0505-5 fm.indd 13 9/21/10 4:43 PM 00-0505-5 fm.indd 14 9/21/10 4:43 PM ...