Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- About the Author
- Preface
- Acronyms
- PART I THE SETTING
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Enduring Ideas and Lingering Notions
- PART II DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT (1948–62)
- PART III DIRECT MILITARY RULE (1962–74)
- PART IV ONE-PARTY SOCIALIST STATE (1974–88)
- PART V MILITARY IN CHARGE
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Enduring Ideas and Lingering Notions
from PART I - THE SETTING
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2015
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- About the Author
- Preface
- Acronyms
- PART I THE SETTING
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Enduring Ideas and Lingering Notions
- PART II DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT (1948–62)
- PART III DIRECT MILITARY RULE (1962–74)
- PART IV ONE-PARTY SOCIALIST STATE (1974–88)
- PART V MILITARY IN CHARGE
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
State-led industrialization in Myanmar was largely influenced by ideas and notions closely associated with socialism and economic nationalism that were embraced and interpreted by the nationalist political leadership that governed Myanmar after independence. Those manifestations of “reactive nationalism” (against Britain, the colonial power) endured for many decades after independence in conjunction with the continued domination of the political landscape by the “1945 generation” of political and military leaders, whose leadership credentials were legitimated by their role in the anti-fascist “revolution” of 1945 (see next chapter). Foremost among them was the student activist turned politician and military hero Bogyoke (literally Major-General but in the pantheon of Myanmar political leadership figuratively symbolizing illustrious military leadership) Aung San, whose political legacy was invoked and reinterpreted by successive governments of Myanmar.
SOCIALISM AND THE LEGACY OF BOGYOKE AUNG SAN
Socialism is an elusive concept which defies exact definition. It is usually characterized by distinctive institutional arrangements and class relations. It has been argued that “as long as public ownership and planning are predominant the economy is socialist”. Though ill-defined, the socialist theme:
has had a pervasive influence over … Burmese economic, social, and political thought and action. Occasionally tempered with pragmatism, it has waxed and waned under pressures from the political left and from contact with reality. It owed more to the revitalization of the Burmese tradition in the context of rising Burmese nationalism and to a negative response to the Burmese colonial experience than to positive foreign influences.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- State Dominance in MyanmarThe Political Economy of Industrialization, pp. 30 - 46Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak InstitutePrint publication year: 2006