Myanmar’s New Generation A study of elite young people in Yangon, 2010 to 2016 Jacqueline Menager A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University November 2017 © Copyright by Jacqueline Menager, 2017 All Rights Reserved Except where otherwise indicated, this thesis is my own original work. Jacqueline Menager 8 November 2017 Word count: 94,313. To the memory of Saw Fortune. I hope I have conveyed the hope you felt in this moment in Myanmar’s history, when you thought your country was almost ready to accept your scrappy, tattooed, and beautiful self. While you did not live to see a day when you felt at home in your country, you worked every day so that others might. Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my generous Myanmar friends. You all tolerated me watching you a little too closely and asking questions that were sometimes a little too prying. I will never be able to thank you fully for allowing me into your lives. Special mentions go to Chester, Wai Yan, Jason, Arkar, and April: you all make Yangon feel like home. The Australian National University has been my academic home for over a decade now, guiding me since my undergraduate degree. While at times it felt like I was completing this PhD in cold shadows thrown from ivory towers, I could always rely on the shelter of academic collegiality from some incredible academics in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs. I could not have completed this project without those academics or my scholarship from the Australian Government. Dr. Nicholas Farrelly, from our first trip along the Myanmar-Thailand border in 2008, you have enlivened my curiosity and encouraged me to pursue my interests. Coming along on whirlwind tours of Yangon’s nightclubs and Thingyan stages you have always gone well beyond your duties as chair, committed to understanding the world I was researching. Whatever the future holds, I will be forever indebted to you for your support and encouragement. Prof. Andrew Walker, you have supported and calmly guided me through more crises than I can count. I am eternally grateful that you generously continued to advise me and review my work from Malaysia. Dr. Nicholas Cheesman, the academic rigor and attention to detail you brought to my panel is without parallel. Thank you for helping me to refine my thinking and clarify my contribution to knowledge. Dr Chit Win, I was a terrible office partner but you were a wonderful PhD companion. Your ability to pursue research and learning with sincerity and playfulness is inspirational. David Mathieson, spirited discussions and your commitment to me finishing this “thing” place you in a special category of people, I am fortunate to call you a friend. Justine Chambers, Alice Dawkins, David Gilbert, Gerard McCarthy, and Kristina Simion, I have enjoyed years of your friendship and academic collegiality. Simon Speldewinde, you have read all my drafts, attended all my presentations, and been an enduringly wonderful friend. Supatra Basham, Jenny Goodman, and Katie Hodges, my Yangon family, you were the perfect friends in the field, reliable for both wine times and medical emergencies. Tasfia Khan, Chloe Mandryk, and Nick Rigby, my best of friends, you are excellent humans. To the Hazan family – Debbie, Georges, David, Daniel and Yves – you have been endlessly generous with me, many thanks. Michael Hazan, words cannot suffice, I cannot wait to embrace life after PhD with you. My incredible family – Mum, Dad, Nic, Andre, Sam, Archie, and Atticus – you are my world and here’s to celebrations out from behind a mound of papers and books! Finally, to you, the reader. If you are reading this, it means I made it… and that you have read at least three pages of my thesis. Sincerely, thank you. I have written this with many voices in mind, yours not least of all. I hope you enjoy the pages to come. While I am indebted to many, the usual caveat applies and any errors or omissions in this work are solely mine. Abstract With Myanmar’s 2010 general election the world’s longest reigning military regime undertook a managed diminution of overt authoritarian rule. As the population adjusted to a series of cascading social transformations, elite young people stepped up to catalyse a period of generational change. This thesis considers elite young people in Myanmar from 2010 to 2016, and provides analysis based on extensive fieldwork in the city of Yangon, Myanmar. This thesis disaggregates five social groups of elite young people in contemporary Myanmar, and orders them according to their proximity to established arrangements of the former military regime: the Yakuza gangsters, the cronies, the beloved young women, the cool underground rappers, and the creatives. Through a process of generational rejuvenation elite young people influenced Myanmar’s social and economic transformations, in what proved to be nuanced and contradictory ways. Theories of generations conceptualise generational change as an iterative process, involving the regeneration and rejuvenation of existing explanations and systems alongside the introduction of entirely new ones. In contrast, theories of elite formation explain how various elite qualities are inherited from one generation to the next, often bolstering the social status of the people with that quality. This thesis applies a combination of these approaches to the case study of Myanmar, contributing a vibrant understanding of the processes of generational change, highlighting the role of elite young people in the early days of a wide-ranging social transformation. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................... i Abstract ................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ................................................................................. v Map 1. Central Yangon .........................................................................................................vii Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 Myanmar youth studies ............................................................................................................... 5 Young people and generational change .................................................................................... 9 Changing landscapes ................................................................................................................. 14 Map 2. Central Yangon with new generation landmarks ............................................... 17 Methodology and positionality................................................................................................ 22 Thesis outline ............................................................................................................................. 28 Chapter 1 Historical and Conceptual Cornerstones ..........................33 The theory of generations ........................................................................................................ 34 Elite values and influence ........................................................................................................ 42 Myanmar political culture ........................................................................................................ 49 Military legacies ..................................................................................................................... 50 Social mistrust and scrunity ................................................................................................ 54 Gender, Buddhism, and nationalism ................................................................................. 56 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 60 Chapter 2 The Yakuza .........................................................................63 Postural violence ....................................................................................................................... 65 The nightscape of Yangon ....................................................................................................... 71 New threats and unpredictable violence................................................................................ 77 Disregarding law enforcement ................................................................................................ 82 Political aspirations ................................................................................................................... 88 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 90 Chapter 3 The Cronies ........................................................................93 From cronies to oligarchs ........................................................................................................ 95 Reputation management and shared transgression ............................................................ 100 The online production of elite distinction........................................................................... 108 Freedom for conspicuous consumption ............................................................................. 114 Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................