Ne Win, U
(b. 1911), dictator of Myanmar. U Ne Win ruled Myanmar (Burma) from 1962, when he took power in a military coup, until his resignation as chairman of the single ruling party, the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), in July 1988. He is best known for his abolition and suppression of democratic institutions and for undermining the principle of an independent judiciary, culminating in his consolidation of the legislature, executive, and judiciary in 1972.
Known from youth as Shu Maung, he attended University College in Rangoon (now Yangon) from 1929 to 1931, hoping to study medicine. However, uninspired by university life, he failed his exams and did not finish his degree. Supporting the Ba Sein-Tun Oke Thahkin, a right-wing political faction, he ended up opposing more radical university students such as U Nu and Aung San. Among the Thirty Comrades sent to Japan for military training, Shu Maung took the nom de guerre Bo Ne Win on 26 December 1941 at the founding of the Burma Independence Army before it marched into Burma.
At national independence Ne Win served as second commander in chief of the army. He was briefly deputyprime minister and minister of defense and home affairs (1949–1950). When ethnic insurgency became severe, Ne Win was promoted to chief of the army, and, in 1958, he was asked to serve as prime minister in the caretaker government. He stood down after the 1960 elections returned U Nu to power.
General Ne Win U at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C., in September 1966. (BETTMANN/CORBIS)On 2 March 1962, Ne Win carried out a coup d'état: he imprisoned U Nu and established the Revolutionary Council, whose original members (excepting one civilian) were drawn from the armed forces. He advocated the "Burmese Way to Socialism," which brought Burma into isolation, supervised by the BSPP, which Ne Win founded in 1962. Forgoing democratic elections and relying on army support, he occupied the most important positions of government and state between 1962 and 1988—chairman of the Revolutionary Council (until 1974) and subsequently president (until 1981, when he relinquished the office to San Yu), chairman of the BSPP (from 1962), and chairman of the BSPP Executive Committee. By his complete control and use of the army, he was able to maintain his control until 1988. Still, his government was plagued by administrative inefficiency.
The gradual decline in the Burmese economy eventually caused Ne Win to devalue the kyat in November 1985 and again in September 1987, which wiped out the savings of the poor. This resulted in major protests and the reassertion of demands for democratic reforms. At an Extraordinary Party Congress in July 1988, Ne Win announced his resignation and called for multiparty elections. Though the May 1990 elections resulted in a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy, power was not transferred, and army personnel with close personal ties to Ne Win continued to hold power in the State Law and Order Restoration Council and subsequent State Peace and Development Council regimes.
Further Reading
Badgley, John Herbert, and Jon A. Wiant. (1974) "The Ne Win-BSPP Style of Bama-Lo." In The Future of Burma in Perspective, edited by Josef Silverstein. Athens: Ohio University Press.
Everton, John. (1964) "The Ne Win Regime in Burma." Asia 2: 1–17.
Maung Maung, Gyi. (1974) "The Crucial Third Dialectic of Burma's Neutralism under U Ne Win." In The Future of Burma in Perspective, edited by Josef Silverstein. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press.
Maung Maung, U. (1969) Burma and General Ne Win. London: Asia Publishing House.
Silverstein, Josef. (1966) "Burma: Ne Win's Revolution Reconsidered." Asian Survey 6, 2: 95–104.
Yawnghwe, Chao Tzang. (1990) "Ne Win's Tatmadaw Dictatorship." M.A. thesis, University of British Columbia.
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