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A Study of Post-Colonial Statecraft in the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone in the Southern Shan State of Myanmar, 1988-2015

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A Study of Post-Colonial Statecraft in the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone in the Southern Shan State of Myanmar, 1988-2015 University of Bath PHD A study of post-colonial statecraft in the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone in the Southern Shan State of Myanmar, 1988-2015 Yue, Ricky Wai Kay Award date: 2018 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 07. Oct. 2021 A study of post-colonial statecraft in the Pa-O Self-Administered Zone in the Southern Shan State of Myanmar, 1988–2015 Ricky Wai Kay Yue A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Bath Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies April 2018 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis/portfolio rests with the author and copyright of any previously published materials included may rest with third parties. A copy of this thesis/portfolio has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it understands that they must not copy it or use material from it except as permitted by law or with the consent of the author or other copyright owners, as applicable. This thesis/portfolio may be made available for consultation within the University Library and may be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purposes of consultation with effect from Signed on behalf of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Table of Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................ vi List of Figures .......................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. viii Abstract ..................................................................................................................... x List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................ xi Chapter One: Nation-Building and the Question of Control ................................. 1 1.1 Burma and the Third World Security Predicament ...................................... 1 1.2 Ceasefire Agreement and the Nation-Building Process ............................... 3 1.3 Strategies of Regime Survival ...................................................................... 4 1.3.1 Reliance on China ..................................................................................... 5 1.3.2 Nationalism as everyday politics............................................................... 6 1.3.3 Ceasefire agreement as conflict management ........................................... 7 1.4 The Hidden Mechanism of Survival ............................................................ 9 1.5 The Paradox of Decentralisation While Maintaining Control ................... 11 1.5.1 Re-legitimation through decentralisation ................................................ 13 1.5.2 The dawn of emerging political complexes ............................................ 13 1.5.3 The re-legitimation process ..................................................................... 15 1.5.4 Warlord co-optation and ceasefire capitalism ......................................... 16 1.6 Research Question: How to Maintain Control After Decentralisation?..... 17 1.6.1 The meaning of control ........................................................................... 19 1.6.2 The rationale for choosing Pa-O SAZ as the focus of research .............. 21 1.6.3 The period 1988–2015 ............................................................................ 23 1.7 Theoretical Framework: State-in-Society and the Struggle for Control .... 25 1.8 Analytical Approach: A New Order under Critical Political Economy ..... 32 1.9 Research Design and Methodology ........................................................... 36 1.9.1 Grounded theory ...................................................................................... 38 1.9.2 Semi-structured interviews ...................................................................... 41 1.9.3 Analysis of variance and post-hoc testing ............................................... 42 1.9.4 Case study ............................................................................................... 42 1.9.5 Triangulation ........................................................................................... 43 1.10 Organisation of the Thesis ......................................................................... 44 i Chapter Two: The Nature of the State-Society Relations .................................... 47 2.1 Background to the Ethnic Struggle ............................................................ 49 2.1.1 A brief colonial history and the segregation of the Frontier Areas ......... 49 2.1.2 The basis of self-determination ............................................................... 52 2.1.3 The Panglong Conference, 1947 ............................................................. 54 2.1.4 Karen: the outstanding issue ................................................................... 57 2.1.5 The problems faced by the country leading up to the 8888 uprising ...... 58 2.2 Regime Survival: The Predicament of a Military Regime ......................... 62 2.2.1 Life expectancy of a military regime ...................................................... 63 2.2.2 First step of the survival strategy: accommodation of top leadership ..... 66 2.3 Warlord Accommodation as the Second Step of Survival Strategy: Warlord Politics ......................................................................................... 70 2.3.1 Definition of a warlord ............................................................................ 71 2.3.2 Warlords as enemies of the state ............................................................. 72 2.3.3 Warlords as state-builders ....................................................................... 73 2.3.4 The importance of territory: roving bandits versus stationary bandits.... 76 2.3.5 The Pa-O SAZ: the new frontier ............................................................. 78 2.3.6 Co-optation as elite accommodation ....................................................... 80 2.3.7 Warlord as the agent: the process of co-optation .................................... 82 2.4 Local Resistance: The Moral Economy and the Rational Peasant Debate 86 2.4.1 The basis of moral economy ................................................................... 87 2.4.2 The rational peasant: the political economy approach ............................ 89 2.4.3 Reconciling moral economy and the rational peasant ............................. 90 2.5 A Brief Summary of the Chapter ............................................................... 91 Chapter 3: The System: The Evolution of the Administrative Arrangement in Rural Shan State ............................................................................... 94 3.1 The Pre-Colonial Administrative Arrangement in Shan State Under Feudalism .................................................................................................. 95 3.2 Divide-and-Rule Under the British Occupation 1886–1948 .................... 100 3.3 Approaching the End of the Feudal System in the Post-Colonial Period to 1962 .......................................................................................... 105 3.4 The Return of the Village Tract System after the Military Coup in 1962 ..................................................................................................... 109 3.5 The Self-Administered Zone Given Statutory Status Under the 2008 Constitution ............................................................................................. 111 3.6 Development Since 2011: The Enactment of the Village Tract System ..................................................................................................... 113 ii 3.7 The Current Status at the Village Tract Level ......................................... 114 Chapter 4: The Players: The Political Actors in the Pa-O SAZ and Southern Shan State............................................................................................. 118 4.1 Locating the Pa-O .................................................................................... 119 4.2 The Origin of Pa-O’s Struggle for Self-Determination............................ 121 4.2.1 The Pa-O national movement: from solidarity to fragmentation, 1946–1988 ............................................................................................. 125 4.2.2 Development of local political actors since 1988 ................................. 129 4.3 Political Actors
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