The 1960 Election in Burma

Abstract

THE i960 ELECTION to Burma's Chamber of Deputies, in which the U Nuled Clean faction of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League won a spectacular victory, answered a number of questions which supporters of democracy had pondered since the caretaker administration of General Ne Win was established in October i958. It also raised certain other questions, the answers to which may not be clear for some time to come. Contrary to expectations expressed in some quarters, Burma's Army leaders, who had assumed power from the civilian politicians amid growing confusion and disorder, set a precedent for Middle Eastern and South Asian politics by voluntarily holding free general elections. The military leadership, moreover, while definitely indicating a preference for one of the competing groups of politicians, refrained from dictating the choice of its successor government. The badly defeated Stable faction of the AFPFL, for its part, showed a genuine sense of responsibility by peacefully accepting its setback at the hands of U Nu and his political associates. These developments must be regarded as promising and heartening, although at the same time it should be recognized that the departure of the soldiers from office probably will mean less effective government in the sense of getting things done and doing them efficiently. One answer supplied by the election posed, in its turn, an array of additional questions concerning democracy's future in Burma. Expectations of the establishment of an effective two-party system, with its accompanying check on the majority, were not fulfilled. The size of the Clean faction's triumph, in which U Nu's party gained more than two-thirds of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies (lower house) in the February 6 voting, clearly means a return, structurally, to the one-party monopoly of power that characterized the more than ten years of AFPFL dominance which began in I947. It remains to be seen whether the government formed in April (with U Nu once again Premier) by the Union Party (as the Clean AFPFL has since been renamed) will be able to better the record of the pre-split League in terms of responsible, honest, and effective rule. Personal antagonisms seem to have been the most important factor precipitating the split,' which took place when U Nu (then Premier and President