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Myanmar/Burma: A Country Report Based on Data 1900‐2012
Authors : Aung A. Hliang, Julio Teehankee, Yi‐ting Wang, Valeriya Mechkova, Vlad Ciobanu, and Staffan I. Lindberg
V‐Dem Country Report Series, No. 4, November 2013.
Burma/Myanmar was a typical Southeast Asian feudal kingdom that lost sovereignty to the British following three wars in 1826, 1852 and in 1885. The V‐Dem coding period begins in 1900 in the middle of the colonial period. Up to 1919, the kingdom was an integral part of British India and ruled by its High Commissioner, supported by a Deputy High Commissioner for Burma/Myanmar. In 1920, the British Government modified the administration system to include indigenous Burmese as well. The Burmese opposition rejected the reform and called for home rule. In 1937, Burma became a new British Province with the Burma Act of 1935. According to the act, the Burmese could be members of the executive committee of the Governor, and the elected Legislative Council. This practice lasted until the Japanese conquered Burma/Myanmar in 1942 and established a military regime until the end of World War II in 1945.
The Burmese opposition renewed their calls for independence following the war. Their leader Aung San flew to London to hold the negotiations and in 1947 an election was held to a parliament charged with drafting the first constitution. On 4th January 1948, Myanmar became independent with a Westminster system. The Anti‐Fascist and People Freedom League (AFPFL) won the election of 1947. They ruled until 1958 when a spilt in their ranks created instability and Prime Minister U Nu called for transfer of political power to the army and emergency rule.
The caretaker government of General Ne Win alleviated the political pressure during its two‐years rule and held new elections in 1960. Power was transferred back to the old ruling party headed by U Nu. But the ethnic minorities and their representatives were not satisfied with the failure to fulfill the promise to build federal state. General Ne Win perceived the situation as a threat to state unity and conducted a military coup d’état. From 1962 to 1974, the country was governed by Revolutionary Council composed of mix of bureaucrats and generals. In 1974, General Ne Win drafted a new constitution that established the country as a socialist state. Most of the many large‐scale projects initiated during this period worked only on paper and lead to worsening of the socio‐economic conditions.
In 1988, the people began actively resisting the dictatorship of General Ne Win. Nationwide demonstrations were organized with the intention to force out the socialist regime. The democratic movement ended with yet another coup d’état. The military junta promised to hold free and fair elections soon. They kept their promise and clean elections were held on 27th May 1990. The National League for Democracy (NLD) headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of Aung San, won by a landslide gaining over 80 percent of the vote. The military regime refused to transfer power. Instead, they organized national convention and drafted a new constitution. The ruling junta declared that it would demand constitutional provisions for the military to maintain a perpetual dominant position over parliamentary politics, something which the NLD did not accept. NLD therefore boycotted of the national convention.
The military then orchestrated large‐scale detentions of political activists without fair trial or even any court proceedings at all between 1988 and 2010. They issued long prison sentences and Aung San Suu Kyi was put under house arrest. The ruling regime also cracked down on the media and upheld strict censorship. A peak in the violence was the 2003 De Pel Yin massacre during which there was an attempt on Aung San Suu Kyi’s and other leading party figures’ lives. The American Government froze the military’s financial assets abroad. Subsequently, the military regime announced a seven‐step strategy called “Roadmap to Democracy”.
In 2008, the military government rushed to force the people to approve the new plan despite the deadly cyclone devastation in the delta. The Roadmap… provided for elections in 2010. The NLD boycotted the elections accusing the military regime for rigging. In accordance to the 2008 constitution, the semi‐civilian government held by‐elections on 1st May 2012 for the vacant seats in parliament. The amended electoral law allowed Aung San Suu Kyi and her party to run for the elections and NLD won these seats by a landslide. The objective of this report is to elucidate the nuances of Burma/Myanmar’s political developments by a detailed inspection of the V‐Dem indicators, as well as portray the situation of the country’s political situation as of 2012.
The electoral contestation dimension starting in 1922 when the first elections were held in Burma. The aggregate measure first improved after World War II, declined under the military rule, and improved again since 1990. In addition, for the years when no elections were held, the scores of indicators are taken from the previous election years. For example, no election was held during 1937 and 1946, during 1961 and 1973, and during 1991 and 2009; scores during these three periods reflect the quality of elections held in 1936, 1960 and in 1990, respectively. The right to form political parties disappeared during the socialist regime from 1974 to 1988 and only started to improve again in the 1990s. But the overall index of democratic qualities in this dimension is still at a significantly lower level than during the 1940s and 1950s.
The diverse V‐Dem component indicators show some improvement of civil societies, civil liberties, media, deliberation and equality during late 1930s, from 1948 to 1962 and early 2010s when democratic practices prevailed to some extent while there are significant drops of those indicators in World War II (early 1940s), the socialist regime (1962‐1988) and the military governments (1988‐2010). The judicial sector is faring the worst. In most aspects as judged by our indicators little or nothing has changed significantly even in the past few years. A predictable and impartial environment of rule of law is necessary for a democratic development and this area needs further attention in Burma/Myanmar. The findings of this report are applicable to scholars of political science and practitioners who would like to have a close observation on specific time frame and regime type.
