Burma (Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum)

Democratic Republic of Burma
ဗမာ ဒီမိုကရက်တစ် သမ္မတနိုင်ငံ
Timeline: Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum
OTL equivalent: Burma

Flag Emblem Location of Burma
Anthem	"Kaba Ma Kyei"
Capital (and largest city)	Rangoon
Language	Burmese
Religion	Theravada Buddhism; Irreligion; Mahayana Buddhism; Christianity; Islam
Ethnic Group	Mranma; Shan; Karen; Rakhine; Chinese; Indian
Demonym	Burmese
Government	Federal state; People's democracy; Council republic
Legislature	National Assembly of Burma
Head of State	Htin Kyaw
Premier	Zaw Myint Maung
Population	60,000,000
Independence	from United Kingdom
declared	January 14, 1946
recognized	March 1, 1950
Currency	Kyat (K) (BMK)
Time Zone	MST (UTC+06:30)
Calling Code	+95
Internet TLD	.ba

Burma (Burmese: ဗမာပြည် Bama-pye), officially the Democratic Republic of Burma (Burmese: ဗမာ ဒီမိုကရက်တစ် သမ္မတနိုင်ငံ Bama Demokaraattait Thammada Nainngan), is a sovereign state in Southeast Asia bordered by China and Tibet to the north; by Thailand to the south; by India to the west; by Pakistan to the southwest; and by Laos to the east. One third of Burma's total perimeter of 1930 km (1200 mi) forms an uninterrupted coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. Burma's population of over 60 million makes it the world's 24th most populous country and, at 676,578 sq km (261,227 sq mi), it is the world's 40th largest country and the second largest in Southeast Asia.

Politics and government

The current constitution of Burma, which replaced the original 1946 Constitution in 1979, is modeled after the Constitution of the Soviet Union. It enshrined the role of Communist Party of Burma in all organs of government, politics and society as the "vanguard party of the national revolution". The political system is decentralized, and state and regional leaders have a significant amount of autonomy. Although the state remains officially committed to socialism as its defining creed, its economic policies have grown increasingly capitalist

The National Assembly of Burma (နိုင်ငံတော်၏လွှတ်တော် Nainngandawe Hluttaw) is bicameral and made up of two houses: the upper house Assembly of Nationalities (လူမျိုးစုလွှတ်တော် Lumyozu Hluttaw) and the lower house Assembly of Representatives (ကိုယ်စားလှယ်လွှတ်တော်း Koyzale Hluttaw). The National Assembly is indirectly elected by the local State and Regional Assemblies every four years. Only political organizations affiliated with or endorsed by the Communist Party are permitted to contest elections in Burma. The Presidium (အလုပ်အမှုဆောင်အဖွဲ့ Alotammuzaungahpwe) of the National Assembly exercises the legislative powers when the National Assembly in recess.

The members of Presidium act as collective heads of state of the Democratic Republic of Burma. It has powers to ratify or annul treaties with other countries, to appoint or recall the ambassadors to foreign nations and receive letters of credentials or recall of foreign diplomatic representatives. The Chairman of Presidium, commonly referred as the State Chief (ဥက္ကဋ္ Ukkath), is primus inter pares among other members of the Presidium and thus makes the post as de facto head of state of the country. The 1979 Constitution previously established the office of President (သမ္မတ Thammad) and the only person ever occupied it was Thakin Than Tun. When Tun died in 1988, the office was abolished and Tun was declared as the "Eternal President".

The Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Burma is the head of central government of the Democratic Republic of Burma that presiding over a council of ministers and also as the nominal commander-in-chief of Pyetat (ဗမာပြည်သူ့တပ်မတော် Bamar Pyishu Tapmadaw, "People's Army of Burma"). It is referred as the Premier of the Government (အစိုးရအဖွဲ့သဘာပတိ Asoyaahpwe Sabapadi), or simply the Premier (သဘာပတိ Sabapadi). The Chairman and other members of the Council of Ministers are elected by the National Assembly of the Democratic Republic of Burma for a four-year term. 

History

British Burma (1824–1943)

Burma was colonized by the British following three Anglo-Burmese Wars (1824–1885). Burma was declared a province of India in November 1885 with its capital at Rangoon. British rule brought social, economic, cultural and administrative changes. Traditional Burmese society was drastically altered by the demise of the monarchy and the separation of religion and state. The economic nature of society also changed dramatically. After the opening of the Suez Canal, the demand for Burmese rice grew and vast tracts of land were opened up for cultivation.

While the Burmese economy grew, all the power and wealth remained in the hands of the British and migrants from India. General resentment of the Burmese both toward the British and the Indian migrants resulted to the emergence of Burmese nationalist movement by early 20th century. Buddhist monks became the vanguards of the independence movement. In 1930, young Burmese intellectuals formed the Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association). Its members used the Burmese word Thakin ("master") as their honorific title, proclaiming that the Bamars were the true masters of the country.

In 1937, Burma was separated from British India and became a British colony of its own. A nationalist, Ba Maw, became the first Chief of Minister of Burma between 1937 and 1940. In 1939, Ba Maw formed the Freedom Bloc along with U Aung San, Thakin Than Tun and Thakin Soe from the Communist Party of Burma as well as U Kyaw Nyein and Thakin Nu from the People's Revolutionary Party. After voicing his opposition to the British war participation, Ba Maw resigned and was arrested along with other Freedom Bloc leaders for sedition in 1940. However, Aung San, who attended the Indian National Congress Assembly in India, escaped and fled to China.

World War II (1943–45)

Flag of the State of Burma (1943-45)

In China, Aung San asked for assistance from the Kuomintang government. With the help of Blue Shirts Society, the Kuomintang's secret intelligence paramilitary branch, Aung San founded the Burma Independence Army (BIA) in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 26, 1941. On May 7, 1942, the Chinese army invaded Burma from Yunnan to secure the supply line from the Indian Ocean. The Chinese, helped by the Thai forces from southwest and the BIA led by Aung San, were able to drive the British out of Burma and temporarily retreat to Bengal, British India (now East Pakistan) in January 1943.

Ba Maw was named the Premier as well as the interim head of state (အဓိပတိ Adipadi) of quasi-independent Burma, with Aung San as the Deputy Premier and the Minister of Defense by February 1943. However, the nationalists soon disillusioned with China's capability in defending Burma. Both Ba Maw and Aung San secretly negotiated with Thakin Than Tun and Thakin Soe of the Communist Party of Burma in forming an underground resistance against the Chinese. As the plan was uncovered, Aung San was arrested by the Chinese, while Ba Maw was spared to continue running the government. Aung San died in prison on December 11, 1944.

With Aung San's arrest and death, the Independence Army became lacking in leadership and was partially out of Ba Maw's government control. Thakin Than Tun and the Communists then reorganized some deserted BIA personnel into a guerrilla force and renamed it the Burma Liberation Front (ဗမာပ လွတ်မြောက်ရေးတပ်ပေါင်းစု Bama Lutmyaukye Tatpaunggzu, or known as "Balata"). There were informal contacts between the Balata and the Allies in 1944 and 1945. By July 1945, the Chinese were routed from most of Burma.

War of Independence (1945–50)

Thakin Than Tun (1911–1988), the first and only President of the Democratic Republic of Burma (1946–1988)

As the British troops started to re-enter Burma and drove the Chinese northward, on May 25, 1945, the Balata rose up in a country-wide rebellion, which dubbed as the "May Revolution". On August 30, 1945, the Balata-led provisional government was declared in Mandalay. Thakin Than Tun became its head of government. During this period, power struggle soon ensued within the Balata between the Communists and the Socialists. The resentment against the CPB's leading nature brought Ba Swe and U Kyaw Nyein to break away from the Balata and founded the Socialist Party of Burma (SPB) in May 1946.

By 1946, the CPB became the active driving force of the Balata. However, the CPB itself was divided between the hardliners, led by Thakin Soe, and the moderates, led by Thein Pe Myint. Soe advocated armed struggle against the British, while Thein Pe sought a more diplomatic approach. When the British offered the dominion status to Burma and invited Than Tun to lead the Executive Council, the Balata refused and sought instead for complete independence. Ba Maw and the SPB, on other hand, accepted the invitation immediately, which condemned by the CPB as "treasonous".

Negotiations between the British and the Balata proved a failure by late 1946; Soe's faction prevailed and led the front to adopt more radical line. On November 19, 1946, the Democratic Republic of Burma was declared in Mandalay; Thakin Than Tun became its first President and Premier. Armed conflicts soon broke out between the Balata and the British. Due to the Balata's anti-feudalism and anti-ethnic nationalism, the ethnic minorities such as the Shans, the Kachins and the Karens sided with the British and formed their own militias.

Under the guidance of Thakin Than Tun and supervision of DRB Defense Minister Bo Let Ya and Chief of Staff Bo Kyaw Zaw, the Burmese People's Army (Pyetat) was organized. Unlike the wartime BIA, the Pyetat was a highly-disciplined and efficient military force. Through southwestern China, which occupied by the Soviet Army until 1948, the Pyetat was supplied of firearms and artilleries by the Soviet Union. Soviet assistance proved critical for the Pyetat to defend its position in northern Burma, which then known as "Liberated Burma", in contrast with "British Burma". Later it became the main factor for the British to let Japan expanding its influence over China.

After the Soviets retreated from western China in 1949, the supply line for the Pyetat from the Soviet Union was cut off. The fighting became stalemated by August 1949. The British tried to escape themselves from the conflict and invited the DRB for another negotiation in September 1949. Attlee government arranged for a three-way meeting between the DRB, the British government and non-Bamar minorities between October 28 and December 13, 1949. Subsequently, the British recognized the DRB's sovereignty on December 29, 1949 and, in return, the DRB would accommodated the ethnic minorities in genuine autonomy.

Parliamentary Democracy era (1950–62)

In accordance with the London Agreement, the representatives of DRB and the ethnic minorities met in Myitkyina on January 18, 1950, which known as the Myitkyina Conference and laid a foundation of federal arrangement to the ethnic minorities. In 1950, the CPB dissolved itself and most of its members joined the Marxism Research Club. Leading CPB members were instead active individually through the newly-founded People’s Democratic Front (ပြည်​သူ့ဒီမိုက​ရေစီတပ်ပေါင်းစု Pyeshu Demokaresi Tatpaunggzu, “Pyedeta”). The left-wing members of Socialist Party of Burma also joined the Pyedeta as individual members.

In 1951, the Constitution of 1946 was replaced by a new constitution which established Burma as a federal republic with parliamentary democracy. Thakin Than Tun was re-elected as President in 1951, 1956 and 1961 by the Union Parliament, consisted of Senate and House of Representatives. Nevertheless, between 1950 to 1962, the Pyedeta dominated the political scene of Burma and won all parliamentary elections. Political oppositions to the Pyedeta were surpressed and several opposition figures like Thakin Nu and Ba Shwe were arrested in the ground of seditious acts against the state.

Parliamentary democracy, however, resulted to social instability and political corruption. Both the government and opposition parties disliked and sought to abolish it. Than Tun personally spoke out against the parliamentary system. The military elements affiliated with the opposition SPB also severely hated it, although several SPB leaders supported parliamentarianism such as Thakin Nu. Burma also experienced major rebellions from the Shans in 1953, the Karens in 1955 and the Rakhines in 1956. Short-lived stability was achieved under the government of Win Maung (1956-1959).

Following the transfer of sovereignty, the Pyetat and the British Burma Army were merged, resulting to the friction between left-wing and right-wing elements of the Burma Armed Forces. The right-wing element of the Army was led by anti-communist General Ne Win who's associated with the Socialists. They opposed the political influence of the Pyedeta in the military and became more pro-West by the end of 1950s. In 1959, the SPB was banned by President Than Tun in charge of supporting “counter-revolutionary” activities. The ban prompted the pro-SPB army element to plan a coup against the Pyedeta government.

Coup d'etat and Burmese Civil War (1962–67)

In March 1962, Ne Win launched a coup against the government and announced the creation of National Unity Council with himself as its head. To counter the coup, the left-wing members of Pyedeta re-established the Communist Party of Burma. The new Politburo was announced, consisted of Bo Let Ya, Thakin Soe, Bo Kyaw Zaw, Thein Pe Myeint, Thakin Chit Maung, H.N. Goshal, Amar Nag, Bo Zeya and Thakin Lwin. General Bo Let Ya quickly mobilized forces loyal to the government and the Pyedeta to suppress the coup. On March 17, 1962, the Pyedeta founded the National Revolutionary Council with Bo Let Ya as its head.

The Burmese Civil War erupted by the middle of 1962, involving the Burmese government and Ne Win’s forces. The civil war served as a proxy war between the United States, which declared its support to the National Unity Council, and the Soviet Union, which recognized the National Revolutionary Council as a legitimate authority of DRB. A proposal to form a unity government led by Thakin Nu as prime minister was refused by both sides who wanted to annihilate the parliamentary democracy at all. 

By 1967, the NUC forces were defeated and Ne Win himself fled to the United Kingdom through India. Following the victory of left-wing forces, the CPB then declared “Socialism with Burmese characteristics” (ဗမာစတိုင် ဆိုရှယ်လစ်စံနစ် Bamar-zatine Soshallait-zannait, literally "Burmese-style Socialism") as the official ideology of DRB on March 15, 1967 which sought to transform Burma into a socialist state. The 1951 Constitution was suspended and the 1946 Constitution was restored. Parliamentary democracy was abolished and all political parties which supported the coup were banned.

Socialism with Burmese characteristics (1967–88)

The CPB’s consolidation of power involved mass executions of several political enemies and “enemies of the people." Local ethnic rulers were arrested and most of them were subjected to "political re-education." Land reforms were implemented which cost of many landowners' lives. Nationalization of foreign enterprises affected Burmese Indians and the Burmese Chinese, both of whom had been influential in the economic sector as entrepreneurs and industrialists. The army was also subjected to a massive purge; any military officer whose connected with the participants of 1962 coup was arrested.

While Thakin Than Tun remained President, the real power now vested on Thakin Soe, Bo Let Ya and H.N. Goshal. Following the death of moderate Pe Myint in 1978, Soe, whose became the Premier in 1977, exercised real powers over the country, although he was mostly active behind the scene and rarely seen in the public. Soe stayed on Marxist orthodoxy over the economic policies such as nationalization and collectivization. In 1979, a new constitution was introduced with a significantly powerless presidency.

Soe's Socialism with Burmese characteristics, however, was opposed by other Party leaders whose feared an economic deterioration. Early formulations of Socialism with Burmese characteristics proved disastrous by 1970s; poverty and isolationism severely hampered Burma. By 1980s, Thakin Soe gradually lost his influence over the policy-making of the CPB Politburo and his political ideology was partially sidelined. A reformist faction led by Bo Kyaw Zaw emerged by 1985 whose sought an economic reform for Burma.

New Road to Socialism (1988–94)

Bo Kyaw Zaw became the Premier of Burma on August 22, 1986. During his speech before the National Assembly of Burma on December 15, 1986, Kyaw Zaw openly denounced Socialism with Burmese characteristics as a "grave mistake" and "miscalculated economic policy". He instead formulated a plan for social and economic reforms which called "New Road to Socialism" (ဆိုရှယ်လစ်စံနစ်ဆီသို့နည်းလမ်းသစ် Soshallait-zannait seshoet Naeelam-sait ) based on economic pragmatism and relaxed social policies. Kyaw Zaw re-opened Burma to foreign trades and investments by 1988; the Burmese government soon invited Japan and China to invest on Burma in the early 1990s.

On March 24, 1988, Thakin Than Tun died after succumbed into a coma following several attacks of stroke; Bo Let Ya was named as his successor. With the death of Than Tun, the office of President of Burma was formally abolished. Thakin Than Tun himself is enshrined within the Constitution of Burma as the "Eternal President" (ထာဝရ သမ္မတ htarwar thanmad). Following the Soviet model, the duties and responsibilities as the head of state were collectively assumed by the Presidium of the National Assembly of Burma. As the Chairman of the Presidium, Aung Shwe became de facto head of state of Burma from 1988 to 1998.