Analysing recent events in Burma

Bertil Lintner. Outrage. Burma's Struggle for Democracy. London and Bangkok: White Lotus, 1990. 208 pp. £12.50 (paper).

Bertil Lintner. Land of Jade. A Journey through Insurgent Burma. Edinburgh: Kiscadale Publishers and Bangkok: White Lotus, 1990. xvii +315 pp. £12.50 (paper).

Bertil Lintner. The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB). Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1990. xii + 111 pp. $US10.00 (paper).

Bertil Lintner. Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma's Unfinished Renaissance. Clayton: Monash University, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Working Paper 64, 1990. 28 pp. $A6.00.

Josef Silverstein (ed.). Independent Burma at Forty Years: Six Assessments. Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1989. 112 pp. $US 10.00 (paper).

U Maung Maung. Burmese Nationalist Movements 1940–1948. Edinburgh: Kiscadale Publications, 1990. xvii + 395 pp. £36.00 (cloth), £15.50 (paper).

Andrew Selth. Death of a Hero: the U Thant Disturbances in Burma, December 1974. Nathan: Griffith University, Centre for the Study of Australia‐Asia Relations, Australia‐Asia Paper 49, 1989. 32 pp. $A4.00.

Maya Than and Joseph L.H. Tan (eds.). Myanmar Dilemmas and Options. The Challenge of Economic Transition in the 1990s. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1990. 300 pp. $S49.50 (cloth), $S39.50 (paper).     

沉湎佛光——缅甸惊艳之旅

<正>蒲甘:多少烟云佛塔中蒲甘是缅甸最早统一的王朝——蒲甘王朝的京都,意为"胜利者的都城"。虔诚的国王以小乘佛教为国教,在富饶的依洛瓦底江边,不断地建造佛塔及寺庙。蒲甘王朝的建塔规模之宏伟,堪称缅甸建塔历史上的顶峰,建塔艺术几乎集缅甸建筑艺术之大成,使蒲甘城成为当时缅     

缅甸殖民地时期的地主土地所有制

本文认为,在缅甸历史上,以土地私有权为基础的、以租佃关系为特征的地主土地所有制是在英国殖民统治时期形成的,这种土地所有制的形成和发展,不仅对当时缅甸农村的社会经济产生了很大的负面影响,也是导致领导缅甸走上独立发展道路的民族主义者们,在独立以后不久即在缅甸推行土地改革和后来选择"缅甸式社会主义"道路的一个重要因素。     

有关缅甸华侨华人族群的几个问题

缅甸华侨华人是一个重要的族群。然而 ,长期以来却受到了忽视 ,成为华侨华人问题研究的一个薄弱环节。本文从缅甸华侨华人的人数、籍贯构成、经济状况的发展演变和文化等几方面 ,勾勒了缅甸华侨华人社会的大致轮廊 ,并分析了二战后缅甸华侨华人社会的三个不同发展阶段。     

A Visit to Burma

ABSTRACT

Closure of small schools has been a contentious policy issue, addressed most recently in the Schools Consultation (Scotland) Act 2010. Local authorities are currently delivering public service under great financial pressure and, given the high per capita costs of running small schools, have often sought to close them. One of the arguments for retaining small schools is the purported contribution that they make in maintaining rural community vibrancy. However, the evidence base for retaining small schools as ‘the heart of the rural community’ is largely untested, and such evidence as there is suggests that school closures have a modest effect on community vibrancy. School catchment studies show a long-term pattern of adjustment to demographic changes but this process may be curtailed by government policy in Scotland. A solid employment base and affordable housing are deemed by many to be more important factors in rural socio-economic wellbeing than the presence or absence of a primary school.     

周恩来与缅甸华侨

新中国成立后,华侨问题是中国与东南亚国家关系中的一个突出问题。周恩来曾九次访问缅甸,在解决缅甸华侨问题的过程中发挥了至关重要的作用。周恩来解决缅甸华侨问题的思想,从国籍选择到解决华侨在政治、经济、文化、语言、婚姻等方面问题,均围绕华侨如何在当地长期生存和发展这一核心。历史证明,这些思想是科学的、正确的,具有务实性和前瞻性。     

A Shooting Incident at Insein Prison,Burma, in 1947

On 9 February 1947, a detachment of armed police was called into the Insein Central Gaol in the northern suburbs of Rangoon to quell a serious disturbance. The police fired into the rioting prison wards, killing four inmates—a further prisoner died of heart failure—and wounding three others. The inspector-general of prisons, Burma, the superintendent of the Insein Gaol, and the district superintendent of police were subsequently suspended from duty. This paper examines the background to the Insein Gaol shootings, the incident itself, the government-ordered enquiry into the shootings, the government's response to the enquiry's report, and the final fate of the three senior prison and police officials. The paper sets the Insein prison shootings, in all their aspects, in the context of the fierce struggle between the Burmese nationalists and a weakening British administration in the final months of colonial rule.     

在缅甸首战奏捷的华侨抗日志愿队

缅甸华侨抗日志愿队成立于1941年底．是一支受中英双方资助、参照“温格特突击队”模式编组的民间武装,任务为敌情侦察、缅奸缉捕、治安维持等。作曾任缅甸华侨抗日志愿队指挥官,本系作任职期间的回忆。     

缅甸战役蒋介石、史迪威的失败责任

本文讨论了1942年缅甸战场上中国方面两个主要指挥者蒋介石、史迪威的失败责任。史迪威在缅甸战役指导中,过多强调进攻,没有注意到战场的实际情况,造成中国军队分割使用,疲于奔命,处处为英军堵漏洞的恶果。其在战略指导及具体指挥上的错误使其应负主要责任。蒋介石虽对缅甸作战有一些正确设想,对史迪威的错误指导也作过一些抵制,但在战役中、后段,因惧怕开罪美国,放弃指导责任,迁就史迪威的错误指挥,也有一定责任。文章还对远征军的总兵力及伤亡情况作了具体考证。     

Ontological politics of hydrosocial territories in the Salween River basin,Myanmar/Burma

In this paper, we question an often-unchallenged assumption that we all talk about the same ‘thing’ when talking about water. Taking the Salween River in Myanmar as a case study, we draw on a growing body of hydrosocial literature to analyze the multiple ontologies of water. Conceptually, we take each ontology to be constituted of – and enacted within – a human-more-than-human assemblage, the spatiotemporal dimensions of which demarcate a ‘hydrosocial territory.’ We present three illustrations, namely: the role of the Union Government's National Water Resources Committee and how it manifests and is situated within an ontology of ‘modern Water’; a Karen indigenous initiative to establish a Salween Peace Park and an associated revealing of an ‘indigenous’ ontology; and plans for the construction of mainstream hydropower dams and electricity export to neighboring Thailand, where different water ontologies and their hydrosocial territories collide. We examine how multiple ontologies of water are contested through ‘ontological politics’, whereby human actors compete to further their own interests by naturalizing their ontology while marginalizing others. While not downplaying the role violent conflict plays, we argue that in the Salween basin ontological politics are an underappreciated terrain of contestation through which political authority and the power relations that underpin it are (re)produced, with implications for processes of state formation, territorialization and the ongoing peace negotiations.     

从缅甸战场看抗战时期的中英关系

一、抗战时期缅甸成为中英关系焦点的由来１９世纪８０年代以后,英帝国主义进入了大规模的海外扩张时期,无论在亚洲,还是在太平洋地区,特别是在非洲,它都在尽可能地攫取更多的领土和势力范围,以确保大英帝国的长盛不衰。正是在这样的背景下,１８８６年缅甸沦为大英帝国的海外殖民地。英国将缅甸划为英属印度的一个省,由英国驻印度总督委派一名专员进行统治。英国对缅甸的殖民统治使英国政府获得了丰厚的利益。首先,英国在缅甸大力推行稻谷单一作物制,使缅甸成为大英帝国的粮仓。据统计,１８５０年下缅甸稻谷种植面积仅４０．２万…     

Rule of Law Expedited: Land Title Reform and Justice in Burma (Myanmar)

Abstract

The development of rule of law is touted as one of the most important considerations in Burma (Myanmar) today, yet its meaning is highly contested after fifty years of military rule. This paper will examine how the rule of law in Burma’s transitional political environment has been influenced by the legacies of military rule and the government’s development policies since 2011. A series of laws introduced by the Thein Sein government under the rubric of rule of law and good governance had a significant impact upon small hold farmers across the country. While some laws specifically related to farmers and their land, others encouraged private investment in the land used by farmers. The combined effect of these laws was to formalise the pattern of land grabbing that had developed under the previous government and to encourage land speculation. Moreover, they show how an expedited procedural rule of law incited conflict and further injustice. Any progress towards substantive justice and a more democratic rule of law must keep pace with improvements in the country’s limited administrative and judicial capacities. Whether, and how far, Burma can develop and move beyond a thin or procedural rule of law will be tested as the country experiences life under the NLD government.     

论二战后英国对缅甸山区民族的分治政策

二战末期,英国重新占领缅甸,颁布对缅白皮书,其中规定山区由英国总督直接管辖,企图以山区民族来对抗缅甸本部,以达到长期统治缅甸的目的。由于缅甸反法西斯人民自由同盟采取积极的民族和解政策,并提出脱离英联邦而独立的主张,英国政府被迫调整对缅甸山区民族的政策,企图使缅甸留在英联邦内。与此同时,英国殖民政府暗中操纵民族分离主义,以制衡缅甸的民族独立运动,从而给独立后的缅甸留下诸多难以弥合的民族冲突和难以消除的民族分离主义祸根。