The State and the City: 1988 and the Transformation of Rangoon

Abstract

modern Southeast and East Asia, cities are most often initial point of impact between forces of state and society. Rangoon (Yangon) , capital of Union of Burma (Myanmar) and its largest city, is a place with many coexisting and conflicting identities. As such, it offers a subject of study with rich opportunities for understanding interaction between military regime and Burmese society in period since State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) junta seized power in September 1988. Although in terms of design modern city (especially Central Business District and townships lying between it and Inya Lake) was creation of British colonial rule, it was not simply a colonial metropolis, like Jakarta (Batavia), Manila or Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). Rather, Shwe Dagon Pagoda, where relics of Historical Buddha and three earlier Buddhas are said to be interred, gives city status as a ritual and devotional centre, a place with cosmological as well as political, administrative and economic significance. Rangoon was also site of independence movements during British colonial period that vested it with a tradition of revolutionary nationalism, a durable legacy that post-1988 military regime has found difficult to neutralize. The massive popular demonstrations of 1988, which caused collapse of Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) regime of General Ne Win, came exactly half a century after demonstrations of 1938-39 against British, led by students, nationalist Thakin Party, and politicized workers (the so-called 1300 Revolution, since that was Burmese Era year in which movement took place). During both periods, Shwe Dagon functioned not only as a Buddhist holy site, but also as a public space for political activism. University students established strike centres around Shwe Dagon during colonial period. Aung San Suu Kyi, independence leader Aung San's daughter, made an important speech on west slope of pagoda hill on 26 August 1988, in which she described upheavals of that year as the second struggle for national independence.1