Understanding Reform in Myanmar

Marie Lall’s book seeks to uncover and explain the recent political and economic reforms implemented in post-military Myanmar, focussing on the key turning-points that ushered in the current transformation programme, particularly those affecting education, NGOs and social justice. She maps the main reform priorities, explaining how they are interconnected, and what has been achieved, which amount to the first tentative steps towards ‘democratisation’, albeit under the umbrella of President Thein Sein’s controlled and more inclusive governance. Beyond the building site that is now Yangon, burgeoning urban car ownership and ubiquitous mobile phone use, there remains a widening gap, sharpened by inflation, between rural and urban Myanmar, at social, economic and political levels. Peasants are losing their livelihoods to development schemes that are being created to bring in foreign investment, and social justice is largely absent from the country’s reform agenda. While the country has changed significantly, has the West been gulled into mistaking ‘discipline-flourishing democracy’ for true participatory democracy? Will the hopes of Aung San Suu Kyi coming to power in Yangon at the head of the National League for Democracy through an open and fair ballot ever be realised? These and other questions are scrutinised in this shrewd analysis of post-military Myanmar.