History

Introduction   

While we have been traveling, we have seen and heard about many current events relating to the countries we are visiting. Most significantly, the Rohingya crisis, where Muslim migrants from the Rakhine State of Myanmar were abandoned at sea. During our time in Asia, the catastrophic earthquake in Nepal and the “Bali Nine” case, relating to executions of foreigners in Indonesia, also made headlines. And during our travels in Europe, the Greek debt crisis, the Turkish elections, and the Pope’s encyclical on the environment have all been major stories in the news.

Since you have been reading about our adventures on this blog, we would like to take this time to give you some background information about these current events, in the context of the history of the countries we have visited.

-Isaiah

Myanmar/Burma

I would like to clear up any confusion you may have over the name of Burma/Myanmar. In Burmese, the country is called Myanmar. However, the British colonists, who struggled with the Burmese language, called it Burma. When the country gained independence in 1948, it kept Burma as its official English name. It was only after a change in leadership in the military in 1989, that the name was altered to Myanmar. The military, which hated colonialism, also changed other place names, like Rangoon to Yangon. The people and the language are still referred to as Burmese.

Opponents of the military government, as well as many countries and NGOs, insist on calling the country Burma. They argue that the military has no right to change the name of the country, and that calling it Myanmar gives the military government legitimacy. Others counter that Burma only refers to one ethnic group, not the entire country, and that people who live there call it Myanmar. In my opinion, we should focus on the government’s actual human rights abuses, not on the name of the country. Hopefully, this post will educate people about how the government has abused the country and convince them to oppose it. That should mitigate any legitimacy calling the country Myanmar might give to the government.

 

Understanding Burma’s History

To do this this, it might be helpful to delve into the history of Burma. In the 19th century, the British East India Company conquered Myanmar after a series of wars. For many years it was ruled as part of India, but during War World II the Japanese attacked it. After the war was over, Britain relinquished control of many of its colonies, including Burma. Aung San, a war hero, helped craft the new state. But, alas, he was assassinated nine months after the country was formed. For 14 years the fledgling country was a democracy. But, in 1962, after a series of shaky political events, control of the government was handed to the military, which began its oppressive regime.

For many years, the military ruled the country with a not-quite communist style of government, and closed it off from the rest of the world. This did nothing to help Burma, already a developing country. Mynamar ended up being one of the most repressive countries in the world, barring North Korea. The country managed to steer clear of Cold War tensions; however, Western countries heaped on sanctions. While these efforts were partly hurt by the fact that Asian countries didn’t do the same, they helped in the end. Meanwhile, over the years, violent protests sporadically appeared, only to be crushed by the military. The biggest one was the 8888 uprising, in August and September 1988, where massive protests for democracy forced the country’s leader, Ne Win, to resign. However, his appointed successor, Sein Lwin, nicknamed “the butcher of Rangoon,” was even worse. Even larger protests occurred, some with as many as 10,000 people attending. While the protests were started by students, ordinary citizens and monks joined in. In response, the military opened fire on protesters, while the demonstrators fought back with anything they could find. Finally, Sein Lwin resigned too, and in his wake Dr. Maung Maung, who had been Ne Win’s biographer, became president. The country seemed close to democracy, when, in September, the military seized power, imposed martial law, and massacred protesters. In the end, 10,000 people died, including both demonstrators and soldiers.

Aung San Suu Kyi (the daughter of Aung San), who was living abroad, was visiting the country during the protests. Outraged, she decided to work for democracy in Burma. She traveled among the populace, gaining widespread support. Everyone loved her. Everyone, that is, except for the military. Suu Kyi was given the choice of either leaving the country or not leaving her house. She chose the latter. In the meantime she became both the face and the voice of the democracy movement, and in 1990 she won the Nobel Peace Prize. When the military allowed voting in 1990, her party won a landslide victory. Unfortunately, it was a trick. The military ignored the results of the election.

Since then the military built the city of Naypyidaw, and made it the country’s capital. In 2010 the military, enticed by foreign capital, released Suu Kyi, restored democracy, and opened up the country. Elections officially ended military rule and gave an overwhelming majority to Suu Kyi’s Democracy Party. However, the military still maintains control over most of the government; and reforms, while improving the situation, move at a snail’s pace. Suu Kyi is making a bid to become president, but faces a major obstacle in the form of the constitution. The country also faces severe challenges with the environment, inequality, human rights, and ethnic conflicts, all of which are some of the worst in the world. While the military could decide to regain power again, the country could also slowly move toward more freedom and democracy.

Human Rights Violations and Ethnic Conflict

This is a summary of the longest civil war in the world, the horrific and rampant human rights violations committed by the military, and the Rohingya refugee crisis.

Back when Burma first gained independence, an ethnic group called the Karen wanted their own state. Supported by other disgruntled left wing groups, they commenced a revolution. After the military took over, similar ethnic revolutions appeared in other parts of Burma, when those minority groups realized that they weren’t going to get representation. Along with the Karen, almost every other state has faced a rebellion at least once in its history, and violence in the Kachin State has been going on since 2011. The majority ethnic group, the Bamar, has traditionally been dominant over minority groups. Many minority groups feel that the Bamar are trying to control their culture—something they call “burmafication.” These disputes have gone on for most of Burma’s history, and continue to this day, albeit in the form of sporadic ethnic and religious conflicts. These ethnic groups don’t want their own countries—they just want representation in the government, and if the military won’t give them that, they’re prepared to fight. Meanwhile, many human rights violations have been committed, mainly by the government.

Violence is one of the reasons why an estimated 650,000 people are internally displaced in Burma, one of the highest amounts in the world. In part, the violence has been fueled by disputes over resource extraction and use: the military forcefully displaces people to gain access to natural resources, and relocates them land that is bad for farming. By doing this, the military is also rapidly depleting Burma’s forests. Other reasons for displacement include famine, poverty, and other human rights violations. There are an estimated 500,000 refugees from Burma in nearby countries. Fortunately, in many cases the government and the rebels have been able to make peace—particularly after the government opened up, it has been more inclined to negotiations. The government is currently working on a national ceasefire agreement with all of the armed ethnic groups.

The group that has figured most in recent news reports are the Rohingya. The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group, mainly located in the Rakhine State. The government of Burma doesn’t recognize ethnic groups from other countries, and doesn’t give citizenship to the Rohingya; it claims they are illegal Bengali migrants, even though they have lived there for generations. There is also a strong anti-Muslim sentiment in Burma, with a lot of Buddhist pressure on the government to discriminate against the Rohingya. Despite popular belief that Buddhists are peaceful, extremism exists. In reality, there are violent Buddhists, just as there are in any other religion.

In 2012, riots broke out in the Rakhine State, ultimately resulting in tens of thousands of Rohingya being displaced from their homes. Fighting escalated between the Rakhine Buddhists and the Muslim Rohingya. The violence was encouraged by local political and religious leaders. The army was ineffective at stopping the violence, and in some cases participated in it, on the side of the Buddhists. The riot became increasingly one-sided, especially when violence broke out again later in the year. The fighting left hundreds of houses burned and forced tens of thousands of Rohingya into refugee camps. It also caused many Rohingya to leave the country, which might have been the goal of some people, such as the government. This was one of the root causes of the subsequent crisis.

In 2015 there has been a refugee crisis in Myanmar and Southeast Asia.  While refugees come from all parts of Burma, the situation of the Rohingya is the most extreme. For decades Rohingya have fled to Malaysia. Smugglers regularly bring Rohingya to Malaysia through Thailand, sometimes with help from local Thai and Burmese officials. The smugglers themselves also abuse the Rohingya, and many have died along the way. After the discovery of mass graves, Thailand started cracking down on smuggling, but did nothing to help the Rohingya. In response, traffickers started using boats to smuggle people to Malaysia. The Rohingya want to go to Malaysia because it is Muslim, as well as Thailand because of its lax visa rules for entering the country. At the same time, more Rohingya fled because of fears of more violence related to upcoming elections.

In several cases, the smugglers abandoned the boats, leaving the Rohingya to fend for themselves. At first, the nearby countries of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia refused to take them in. Offers to take them in were made by the Philippines, and, for some ineffable reason, Gambia (a tiny country on Africa’s west coast). Many of the refugees died, but none of the boats sank. There was one incident where a boat started sinking off the coast of Indonesia; local fisherman ferried the passengers to shore and the ship went under unoccupied. After several weeks the Southeast Asian nations relented and agreed to grant them temporary asylum. While many of the refugees who were at sea were eventually taken in, their future and that of Rohingya who remain in Myanmar, is still uncertain.

 -Isaiah

Indonesia

I would like to start with Indonesia, since that is the first country we visited. Indonesia is the fourth-largest country in the world (by population) and the country with the largest Muslim population. It consists of over 17,000 islands, and harbors a tremendous diversity of cultures, not all of them happy about being part of Indonesia. To understand how they all found themselves part of this massive country, it is necessary to delve into Indonesia’s rich history.

Indonesia was first inhabited by Homo Erectus, and by Homo Floresiensis, a species that was about three feet tall. They came when Indonesia was dry land and connected to the rest of Asia. Homo Sapiens only arrived at the end of the Ice Age, using boats (or at least some sort of seafaring), millennia before anywhere else in the world. Later, people from Taiwan colonized ancient Indonesia, and the rest of the Pacific, all the way from Madagascar to Hawaii. However, they could not penetrate the island of Papua. Later, kingdoms sprung up, heavily influenced by the Indian empires of the time. Because of this, Hinduism and Buddhism became widespread throughout the archipelago. Later, Arab traders brought Islam to Indonesia. When Islam arrived, many Hindus fled to the island of Bali, which still practices its own unique branch of Hinduism today (a mix of Hindu religious practices and older animistic and ancestor worship traditions, with some Buddhist influence).

In the early 17th century, the Dutch founded the Dutch East India Company, and used it to conquer much of the Indonesia archipelago. They squeezed profit out of Indonesia, until, in 1942, Japan took hold of Indonesia as part of its Pacific empire. While the Japanese treated the Indonesians even worse than the Dutch had, they encouraged a vibrant nationalist movement. When the Dutch got their colonies back, they were faced with a full-fledged rebellion. A violent and bloody war raged on for more than four years. The Indonesians finally won their independence in 1949. The new republic took some time implementing a parliamentary democracy, and split into different factions, including the nationalists, the Islamists, and the communists. Eventually, the charismatic Sukarno, the nationalist leader of the country, decided to take a more authoritarian role, based on his five principles: belief in god, civilized humanity, unity, guided democracy, and social justice.

During this time, Indonesia took a leading role in the Non-Aligned Movement of the Cold War. Sukarno also set his sights on Papua, which was still controlled by the Dutch. Sukrano maintained a fragile political alliance between the communists and the military, until, in 1965, everything collapsed. A group of people kidnapped and killed most of the major generals. While it is unknown whether they were communists, people hired by the military, or just people acting on their own, a deputy general named Suharto took no time in blaming the communists. Spread by yellow journalism, a massive purge of communists followed, leaving a million people dead and Suharto in charge.  Suharto called his new government the “New Order.” It was extremely authoritarian and was backed by the United States and other western countries. On the surface Suharto presided over three decades of hyper economic growth, but in reality most of it was plagued with corruption. Revolutions in East Timor, the Aceh region, and Papua sprang up. Suharto tried to put them down violently, but some still continue to this day.

One of Suharto’s most infamous policies was transmigration. It involves moving people from overpopulated regions like Java to less densely populated parts of the archipelago. It was started by the Dutch, and continued by Sukarno, but intensified and expanded its reach under the “New Order.” It is supposed to reduce poverty, utilize natural resources, and balance population density. In practice, however, it has rapidly increased deforestation, ethnic violence, and the influence of Java on the other islands. It has been especially damaging to Papua. Although Suharto managed to suppress any opposition for most of his rule, protests after the devastating 1997 Asian financial crisis finally brought him down.

Suharto’s designated successor, B. J. Habibie, wasn’t that bad, achieving much in his one-year presidency.  He transitioned the country to democracy and gave East Timor independence. Indonesia is now a democracy, but it still faces many of the problems confronting Third World countries, including corruption left over from the Suharto era, separatist movements in Papua and Aceh, and a low standard of living caused by widespread poverty. Transmigration is still in effect, although severely weakened by budget cuts, and recently ended in Papua. Some of Indonesia’s policies have attracted controversy from other parts of the world, such as executing drug dealers who are citizen of other countries (the “Bali Nine” cases that made headline news in April).  At the same time much hope has been placed in the new president, Joko Widodo, who lacks connections with the old elite. However he struggles to escape the influence of his party, especially Megawati Sukarnoputri, the former president, who is the daughter of Sukarno. It remains to be seen if Widodo can realize Indonesia’s infinite potential.

Papua

Papua—also known as New Guinea or Irian Jaya—is one of the most amazing islands in the world. It is second only to Greenland in terms of size, and second to none in terms of diversity. It is inhabited by about one thousand tribes, each with a unique culture and language (statistically, the island houses 1,073 different languages, according to the 14th edition of the Ethnologue). In addition, it houses thousands of yet undiscovered species in its dense forests and beautiful coral reefs (statistically, somewhere between five and ten percent of all species on earth).

Agriculture was independently developed on the island, and ancient Papuans utilized many innovative practices, including using crop rotation long before Europeans did. The first peoples of Papua came 50,000 years ago when sea levels were significantly lower. Later, people from Taiwan came and inhabited the fringes of the island.  And, in the 16th century, Europeans contacted the island. It wasn’t until the 19th century that Europeans actually colonized it. The western half came under control of the Dutch East Indies Company, and the Eastern half was split between Germany and Britain. The colonizers sent in missionaries to convert the natives and suppress practices like cannibalism and headhunting, but much of the island remained, and, indeed, still is, unexplored. In fact, the Europeans thought much of the island was uninhabitable, until, in 1930, airplanes proved them wrong. During WWII, Japan attacked Papua, and native Papuans fought alongside Americans and Australian to secure an allied victory.

After the war, Papua was now split down the center between the Netherlands and Australia. In 1975, the Australian side gained independence, and is now called Papua New Guinea. Meanwhile, the Dutch relinquished Indonesia, except for Papua. Tensions rose between the two countries, so the UN assumed control of Papua, preparing to give it to Indonesia — with the consent of the natives, of course.  So, the military set up a system called the “Act of Free Choice.” Instead of a nationwide referendum, the military brought 1,000 illiterate elders into a room and intimidated them into unanimously making Papua part of Indonesia. In addition, the Indonesian army started bombing parts of the island to suppress any resistance (an estimated 100,000 people have died in the conflict over Papua, according to Amnesty International). In opposition, the Free Papua Movement was created to fight for self-determination. While bombings have ended, oppression and human rights violations continue to this day.

[Key sources include: Adrian Vickers, The History of Modern Indonesia (2005) and Wikipedia and Jared Diamond, Guns, Germs and Steel  (1997)]

-Isaiah