DANCING OR STRICKEN Alagappa's observation that transitional PEACOCK? THAN SHWE, states are not necessarily in linear evolution to Western models of SUU KYI AND THE democratic governance, for this expected POLITICS OF trajectory 'has not been borne out in INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE practice' whilst 'politics in developing countries has its own dynamics.' 2 IN MYANMAR Alagappa's views resonate also in the writings of Robert Taylor who notes the Helen James1 complexity and problematic task of grafting multi-party democratic systems onto societies like Myanmar with weak Abstract traditions of civil society, low levels of economic development and patron­ In a country where signs, symbols and clientalist politico-social structures. 3 The astrology have played key roles in its following paper focuses on some of the political and cultural evolution, the key political and socio-economic issues at peacock as the emblem of an independent the heart of achieving evolutionary state has had a chequered history in institutionai change in Myanmar (Burma). Myanmar (Burma). Frequently juxtaposed to the Sheldrake, emblem of the Southern Introduction Mon kingdom centred on Pegu until incorporation into the larger Burmese empire in the mid-18th century, the country In his two well-known books on the failing peacock could not withstand the advances fortunes of the monarchical state of Burma, of the rampant British lion during the 19th the former Rector of Rangoon (Yangon) century. It is now a protected bird University, Professor Dr. Htin Aung, accorded sanctuary, and placed on a presented an incisive analysis of the fate of pedestal with reverence ·almost equal to the indigenous institutions of this small that of the sacred 'White Elephant' found Southeast Asian country during the height recently in the jungles of Arakan. Such of the colonial era: the failure to uphold indigenous institutions are playing a the central role of the Buddhist Sangha, critical role as the transitional state of the destruction of the monarchy, and the Myanmar seeks to transform its political subordination of Burmese culture as the and socio-economic fabric after 26 years traditional state identity to that of British of socialist policies ( 1962-1988). In India. His volume, Lord Randolph analyzing the politics of institutional Churchill and the Dancing Peacock: the change in contemporary Myanmar, we are British Conquest of Burma, 1885, tells the forced to take account of Muthiah story of the political machinations of the Secretary of State for India at the time of 1 Ph.D.,Visiting Fellow, Centre oflntemational Studies. and Clare Hall, Cambridge University. 2 Muthiah Alagappa. 1995. Political Legitimacy She is also a Visiting Fellow with the Asia in Southeast Asia: the Moral Question. Stanford: Pacific School of Economics and Government Standford University Press, p.5 . and the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the Australian National University. 3 Robert H Taylor. 1987. The S tate in Burma. Her field of research in Thai!Myanrnar Studies. Honolulu: University ofHawaii Press. Downloaded from Brill.com10/05/2021 08:09:04AM via free access MANUSYA: Journal ofHumanities 7.2, 2004 the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885, major decisions -private as well as public which resulted in the remainder of Upper - the royal history of the peacock Burma, with its capital at Mandalay, being sanctifies its association. 6 As emblem of annexed in 1 886 as a province of British the Konbaung dynasty, the last indigenous India. U Htin Aung's other volume, The Burmese empire, which in 1757 overcame Stricken Peacock: Anglo-Burmese the Sheldrake, emblem of the Southern Relations 1752-1948, analyses, from the Mon kingdom based on Pegu, the peacock Burmese perspective, the changing pattern is associated with power and political of British interactions with the Konbaung legitimacy. It is evocative of those Dynasty, resulting in the gradual indigenous institutions which the state of dissection of Burma in the three wars Myanmar appears to be seeking to recover fought with Britain during the nineteenth­ from its monarchical past. century (1824-1826; 1852; 1855), up to the re-gaining of Burma's independence The symbolism of the peacock takes on on 4 January 1948.4 In both volumes U additional significance in the context of a Htin Aung uses the peacock as the symbol recent local tale. The story goes like this: of the indigenous monarchical state of two beautiful peacocks used to live in one independent Burma. 5 U Htin Aung's of the foreign embassies in Yangon. evocation of the peacock imagery - Named Than Shwe and Suu Kyi, the two dancing or stricken - thus powerfully peacocks were inseparable; where one suggests Burma's efforts to sustain its went, the other followed as surely as day autonomous existence as an independent follows night. Then one day the peacock, state, and its agony as that independence Than Shwe, went belly-up, feet in the air, was extinguished. and died. Th~ peacock, Suu Kyi, was inconsolable. She- mourned, wandered The peacock has long been associated with away, and was never seen again. royalty and state power, not just in Burma­ Myanmar, but also in other countries such In Myanmar, where astrology has as India and Iran. In contemporary determined some key political and Myanmar, the peacock is again a protected economic decisions, the story of two bird which none may keep without a peacocks has overtones of political 7 licence. In a country where signs, symbols allegory. Long time Myanmar observers, and astrology imbue the very fabric of everyday existence and determine many 6 Burmese people traditionally do not take 4 In this paper, the word Burma designates the family names; when a child is born he/she state before 1988; Myanmar refers to the state receives a name in accordance with the day of after 1988, when the country's name was the week on which birth occurred and in officially changed by the government of the day accordance with the astrologer's advice. A and registered with the United Nations. Burmese colleague told me that he changed his name when advised by the astrologer that his 5 Hiin Aung. 1990. Lord Randolph Churchill name would bring him into conflict with his and the Dancing Peacock: British Conquest of father in later life. The new name also given by Bumia. 1885. Daryaganj. India: Manohar, 1990: the astrologer. Htin Aung. 1965. The Stricken Peacock: Anglo­ Burmese Relations 1752-1948. The Hague: 7 For example, during the time of the late dictator, Nijhoff. General Ne Win, a series of the demonetizations, 2 Downloaded from Brill.com10/05/2021 08:09:04AM via free access Dancing or Stricken Peacock? watching the ebb and flow of the political the country's leaders will need to chart, reconciliation process brokered by UN astutely, an extraordinarily complex path Special Envoy, Tun Razali Ismail, have in order to restore the political and socio­ often pondered the apparently symbiotic economic fortunes of the state. relationship b etween the Chairman o f the State Peace and Development Committee Dramatic Personae (SPDC), Senior General Than Shwe, and his bete noire, opposition leader, Daw Senior General Than Shwe, Chairman of Aung San Suu Kyi, General-Secretary of the SPDC and Commander-in-Chief of the the National League for Democracy Defence Services, has been both Head of (NLD), the amalgam of disparate political Government and Head of State since 1992. groups which won over 60 per cent of the Following the elevation of the former votes in the May 1990 elections, but which Secretary-!, General Khin Nyunt, to the the military government in Myanmar has position of Prime Minister on 25 August never permitted to govern. 2003, Senior General Than Shwe relinquished the role of Head of Looking at the political fortunes of Government to General Khin Nyunt as Myanmar since the 30 May 2003 incident, Prime Minister. Senior General Than one might ask: Will the country survive - Shwe is reputed not to favour the glare of as a dancing peacock trying to retain its public life and to have been wishing to autonomy -or will it become the stricken retire for some time. He is also known to bird of history? The fate of the peacoc~ is have an intense aversion towards Daw integral to the strategic decisions being Aung San Suu Kyi, whose name is not to taken high level to try to ensure a be mentioned in his presence. prosperous future for the country. In this regard, another indigenous emblem enters In early October 2003, the Myanmar the picture, the two sacred white elephants Times, the English language newspaper in which in 2002 were found in the jungles of Yangon, whose editor is Australian, Ross Arakan. Considered an embryo Buddha, Dunkley, and whose overall control comes the sacred white elephants is considered to under that of the new Prime Minister, presage great good fortune and prosperity printed an article stating that General for the country. In past history, possession Than Shwe had retired (from being Head of the sacred white elephants was the belli of Government); that the Prime Minister for wars between Burma and its neighbour, would henceforth take responsibility for Siam, in the 16th- 18th centuries. As might economic management, while Vice-Senior be expected of such an emblem, white General Maung Aye would take elephants are specially housed, clothed responsibility for the armed forces. Vice and tendered, befitting the symbolism of 8 Senior General Maung Aye is currently their station. To realize this prosperity, Vice-Chairman of the SPDC and Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Defence which immediately impoverished the middle class, Services. The SPDC is the military junta was guided by his penchant for astrology and which has governed the country since numerology.