External dimensions of the Myanmar situation

Abstract

FOR more than two decades, most of the world paid little attention to Myanmar. However, since the political upheavals of 1988, western governments, politicians and newspapers have been advocating seemingly simple remedies for Myanmar's myriad political, economic and social problems. Not surprisingly, these proffered solutions fit with the political principles of the current advocacy that multi-party democracy and market oriented economics are not only the best way to govern the societies of the West, but are also the best way to develop the 'second' and 'third' worlds. The speed with which these principles have been endorsed in many parts of the globe in recent years is not proof of their validity as the actual causes of the political and economic transformation of many other Asian polities in the past two decades. Nonetheless, experience in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union indicates clearly that an attempt to develop a closed economy dominated by a monopolistic party-state is less satisfactory than more responsive political systems with economic policies conceding the value of market realities. The political rulers of Myanmar were also beginning to recognise the utility of more open government and market forces as early as August 1987. They had taken only faltering and contradictory steps towards the implementation of reform before economic collapse and the political storm of mid-1988 engulfed them. Now that a degree of normality has returned and elections have taken place indicating clearly a popular demand for a return to democratic or party government, it is important that foreign governments consider Professor Taylor is Head of the Department of Political Science, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, England.