7 - Associational Life in Myanmar: Past and Present

Summary

Traditionally, Myanmar was considered a country with lively and vibrant associational life. Most existing studies of politics and society in colonial and parliamentary Myanmar are filled with the history of social and religious organizations and their role in the socio-political developments of the country. However, since the military-led Revolutionary Council issued the 1964 National Security Act, scholars and journalists alike have stopped taking associational life in Myanmar seriously. While viewing the associations created by the Burma Socialist Programme Party government and the SLORC/SPDC as instruments used by the government to control society, most journalists and scholars discounted the importance of social and religious associations in Myanmar politics and society. As a result, there was no in-depth study of associational life in general during the socialist period. Recently, however, there have been some studies of social movement organizations that emerged during the Four-Eights Democratic Movement and some political and social welfare organizations that emerged during the late 1990s. These studies, however, place more emphasis on illustrating the extent of civil society space in the country rather than the general state of associational life.

As Robert Putnam and many others have argued, it is not just civil society organizations but all forms of associations that impact on socio-political and economic developments of a country. Some associations can “instil their members habit of cooperation, solidarity, and public spiritedness”. In addition, associations can serve as a starting place for people to engage in social, political and economic collective actions. This is not to suggest that all associations are good for society. An association can be used for the interest of an individual person, of a small group of people or of a large community. There are many illiberal and authoritarian associations that served mainly the interest of some authoritarian or exploitative individuals or groups. It is also worth noting that associations, once created, can be exploited not just by their creators but by others as well.