7 - Rehearsing and Reviewing (April 1958 to February 1962)

Summary

Staff work, even of the most complex kind, can be learned by civilians, for only a quick and accurate mind and a retentive memory are needed. A commander can do with these attributes, but he must add a quality easy to recognise but hard to define — a strength of character, a determination with no obstinacy in it, something that inspires, but does not arouse febrile excitement. He needs wisdom rather than cleverness, thoughtfulness rather than mental dexterity.

John Masters, The Road Past Mandalay, p. 207.

Events once more moved Ne Win's life in a different direction a decade after Myanmar gained its independence. In 1958, he assumed the Prime Ministership, the pinnacle of political power which he had refused to grasp when it was first within his reach. How much he had a hand in engineering the events that led to his elevation remains in dispute, but the evidence, to the best it can be understood, is that he was at least a willing participant in the politics which led to what U Nu subsequently realized as his own irrational and petulant behaviour which allowed the army to oust him from power. As Ne Win was the head of the army, he might have taken measures to ensure a different result. In any event, he did not stop the process which led to his first assumption of the reins of government.

Burmese politics were changed irreparably when the ruling Anti- Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) split into two factions at the end of April to the beginning of May 1958. The split had consequences not only for the country's political parties and its army, but also for the Buddhist monkhood, which was also fractured by the rupture (Mendelson 1975, p. 244). By 9 June, the split was absolute, but, in retrospect, it seemed to be inevitable after, if not before, the 1956 elections. The Socialists, led by Kyaw Nyein and Ba Swe, left the government at Prime Minister Nu's insistence, and he and his faction, now a minority in the Pyithu Hluttaw, could only continue in office with the support of minor parties, particular the largely pro-Communist National United Front (NUF) (the ur-manuscript on this is Sein Win 1959).