A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

The Mon were the first people known to have lived in the area and their influence extended into what is now Thailand. The Mon were pushed back when the Burmans, who now comprise two-thirds of the total population, began arriving from the Tibetan Plateau to the north around the 9th century.   King Anawratha took the throne of bagan in 1044and, with ikts conquest of the kingdom of Thaton in 1057, inaugurated what many consider to be the golden age of Myanmar's history. The spoils he brought back took Bagan to fabled heights; he also made Theravada Buddhism the state religion and sponsored the establishment of the Burmese alphabet. Today, Myanmar is 90% Buddhist, although beliefs in nats, or animal spirits, still persists.   Despite Anawratha's efforts, Myanmar entered a period of decline in the 13th century, helped on its way by the vats amounts of money and effort squandered on making Bagan an incredible monument to human vanity. Kublai Khan hastened the decline by ransacking Bagan in 1287, at that time said to contain 13,000 pagodas. in the following centuries, the pattern of Burmese history was basically one of conflict with kingdoms in neighboring Siam and a series of petty tribal wars.   The coming of Europeans to the est had little influence on the Burmese, who were too busy fighting to be ineterested in trade. Unfortunately for the Burmese, their squabbles eventually encroached on the Raj in neighboring Bengal and the British moved in to keep their borders quiet. In three moves (1824, 1852 and 1883) the British took over all of Myanmar. They built railroads, made Myanmar the world's greatest rice exporter and developed large teak markets. Less comendably, they brought in large numbers of chinese and Indians who exploited the less commercially minded Bumrese.   As in other South-East Asian countries, WWII was at first seen as a chance of liberation, an idea which the Japanese, as in Indonesia, soon dispelled. THe wartime group of Thirty comrades was able to form a government after the war, with Aung San as their leader. In 1947 he was assassinated with most of his cabinet. Independence came in 1948 but the uniiting of Myanmar proved difficult an dongoing confrontation with breakaway tribes and Communist rebels takes place to this day.   U Nu led the country during the early years of independence, attempting to establish a Buddhist socilaism whose objective was 'Social Nibbana'. In 1962 General Ne Win left a left-wing army takeover. After throwing out U Nu's government and imprisoning U Nu for four years, Ne Win set the country on the 'Burmese Way to Socialism'. The path was was all downhill. He nationalised everything in sight, including retail shops, and quickly crippled the country economically. The Burmese saw their naturally well-endowed economy stumble as exports of everything plummeted.   Myanmar's crumbling economy reached a virtual standstill, when in 1987 and 1988, after a long period of suffering, the Burmese people had had enough of their incompetent, arrogant government. They packed the streets in huge demonstrations, insisting that Ne win had to go. He finally did go in July 1988 but in the following months massive confrontations between pro-democracy demonstrators and the military contributed to an estimates 3000 deaths over a six week period.   Ne Win's National Unity Party (formely the Burmese socialist Programme Party) was far from ready to give up control and the public protests continues as two wholly unacceptable Ne Win stooges followed him. The third Ne Win successor came to power after a military coup in September 1988 which, it is generally believed, was organised by Ne win.   The new State Law & Order Restoration Council (SLORC) established martial law under the leadership of General Slaw Maung, commander-in-chief of ther armed forces, and promised to hold democratic National Assembly elections in May 1989. The opposition quickly formed a colaition party and called it the National League for Democracy (NLD) and in the following months it campaigned tirelessly.   The long-suppressed Burmese population rallied around the charismatic NLD spokesperson, Aung San Suu Kyi, the 51-year-old daughter of national hero Aug San. Nervous, the SLORC tried to appease the masses with new roads and paint jobs in Yangon, and then attempted to interfere in the electoral process by shifting villages from one part of the country to another. Just prior to the election the government placed Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.   In spite of all preventive measures, the National Unity Party lost the May National Assembly elections to the NLD, who captured around 85% of the vote. However, the military refused to allow the opposition to assume their parlementary seats and arrested most of the part leadership. Most were later released.   Aung San Suu Kyi was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1991 and finally released from house arrest in July 1995, although she hasn't been allowed to travel in Myanmar outside Yangon. She has continually refused offers of freedom in exchange for exile from the country.   At first there was cautious optimism regarding her chances of developing a prodemocratic dialogue with the military but very little progress has actually occured. The standoff continues.   All signs indicate that the current government will never hand over the reins of power peacefully. Wether or not the majority of Myanmar's citizens can mount an effective opposition to their military rulers remains to be seen. Inside observers say there is talk among top-ranking officials that the government hopes to move towards an Indonesian-style system, in which the military is guaranteed some sort of poilitical participation.