Overview of a Journey of Myanmar Culture Preservation and Promotion: The Emergence of Political Changes and the Cultural Policy

 

By Dr Nanda Hmun

Permanent Secretary (Retired)

 

MYANMAR has a long cultural history and remained a high historical continuity and integrity of the nation-state with a vigorous tradition. Human beings were found on this Myanmar soil millions of years ago. Moreover, its high cultural standard with its long withstanding high cultural aspects stand out from the prehistoric periods of the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age cultures to Proto Historic Period when the Pyu culture flourished, followed by successive periods like the Bagan Period till to the present.

 

The abundance of cultural properties like ancient cities, old palace sites, ancient cultural edifices and historical structures, terracotta rings, stone inscriptions, palm-leave manuscripts, and parabeiks which can be found in all parts of Myanmar are the proven pieces of evidence of Myanmar’s rich cultural heritage. In fact, the Myanmar cultural components: literature, performing arts, ten kinds of arts and crafts, architecture, and devotion to Theravada Buddhism have been perpetuated and flourished for more than thousands of years. Such kind of cultural characteristics has been preserved by generations starting from the early Pyu to the nationalities in the way of a single stem bearing hundreds of fruits.

 

The emergence of the Pyu from the Prehistoric period, 2,500 years ago, was listed as one of the high civilization peoples in Southeast Asia and according to the archaeological evidence, the Pyu civilization flourished in Central Myanmar and Upper Myanmar. From the emergence of those Pyu city-states like Tagaung, Beikthano, Halin, Sri Ksetra, and Mai Mao, they paved the synergy for the successive historical eras in Myanmar namely: Bagan Period, Pinya Period, Inwa Period, Taungoo Period, Nyaungyan Period and Konbaung Period.

 

Most scholars viewed culture together with civilization but Myanmar does not. The majority of Myanmar’s population believes in Buddhism, which is predominantly Theravada tradition. According to Buddhist teaching, moral ethics heavily reflect the living styles and culture of Myanmar people from generation to generation. Culture can make a society unique; it can be mentioned as an invisible link that ties a community together and also affects the development of one’s attitude towards life. Culture has been designated as the lifeblood of a vibrant society, a scale for civilization, expressed in many ways; telling our stories, celebrating the festivals, remembering the past, entertaining ourselves, and imagining the future.

 

The arts and culture were then deployed primarily by the state as an ideological tool to reinforce the discourses of nationalism and racial harmony among the main (8)ethnic groups: Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Chin, Myanmar, Mon, Rakhine and Shan. To this purpose, it was commonplace for schools and public institutions to use the arts as an opportunity for inter-ethnic interaction and symbolic displays of nationality through the showcasing of traditional ethnic dances alongside each other. The distribution of state funds for arts groups was dispensed as the State budget granted by the Ministry of Culture, without any long-term view to nurture the relationship between arts practitioners and the state and to showcase more at their respective States and Divisions.

 

The successive governments in Myanmar adopted attitudes towards cultural and educational policies by stressing the cultural identity and the use of the national language. According to these attitudes, the purpose of cultural policy is to mobilize the people to take a more active part in all cultural fields with the perspective of safeguarding tradition and customs. Thus, cultural activities like other social and economic activities have been affected by the “spirit of the masses.” The assignment of “Thabin Wun” (means Minister in charge of Performing Arts, especially for the Royal Courts) can be judged that Myanmar people are always aware of culture and tradition and its sustainability. The “cultural dimension” has been determined as one of the most important factors in the overall development plan. In this way, the successive Governments face the following tasks (common for those who are in the cultural arena):

 

• to preserve and revitalize cultural heritage by integrating vernacular cultures - folk tales and folk songs, handicrafts and art, museums and archaeological sites - into everyday life;

• to draw upon innovation and eradicate inappropriate traditions;

• to train competent staff in the field of culture and education;

• to encourage the area of cultural services (e.g., participation in the art);

• to stimulate creativity

 

In general, those principles and methods of cultural policy, the evaluation of cultural needs, administrative structures and management, planning and financing, the organization of resources, legislation, budgeting, public and private institutions, cultural content in education, cultural autonomy and decentralization, the training of personnel, institutional infrastructures for meeting specific cultural needs, the safeguarding of the cultural heritage, institutions for the dissemination of the arts, international cultural co-operation and other related subjects have been considered to be put in the policy. For this reason, Myanmar established the Ministry of Union Culture (later changed to the Ministry of Culture) in 1954.

 

The current discourse about culture (expressions, industries, media, collaborations), insists that a culture policy is needed to be in line with the existing government national policy. Since Myanmar is a nation with various nationalities and requires a Culture and National Heritage Policy that recognizes this diversity. It has huge cultural resources and talents, which should be incorporated into the national agenda. Since culture provides the ideological and philosophical foundation for national development, which is central to all development programmes, the Culture Policy of Myanmar has to recognize culture as a repository of ‘knowledge’ which is manifested in all aspects of life as a guide to the evolution of morals, attitudes, beliefs and values in society.

 

Overview of Political Changes and the National Policy Before Independence

Throughout the political changes, nationalism plays a key role and those cultural preservations and the implementing policy have been reflected in its nationalism and those embedded ideologies are implied too.

 

From 1824 to 1920: It is the Period of anti-colonialism and struggles against the British. The country is under the British for more than a decade and nationalism and its movements had been spread the cultural policy for that period will be the influence of the British and their culture and language.

 

From 1920 – 1930: It is the Period of demanding Home Rule under British administration and self-administered rule that had been highly demanded by the Myanmar-educated youths and active politicians.

 

From 1930-1942: 1930 is one of the remarkable milestones in Myanmar politics as it was the era of Do Bamar Asi Ayon which was largely joined by active and patriotic university students and participated in political movements. The slogan: “Thahkin myo hey Do Ba mar “ became the national slogan in which Thakin: Myanmar word refers to the “ Head or Superior”. The Thakin leaders were men who had spent a lifetime in politics, having first entered politics as students and youths in the pre-war anti-colonial struggle, then resisting first the British and later the Japanese during World War II and in the post-war and post-independence period, assuming positions of responsibility in the AFPFL (Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League) and in the organizations affiliated to it. The “Thakin myo hey Do Ba mar” Policy of the 1930s solely drove force for nationalism.

 

In 1942, which is the period of forming the Burma Defence Army (BDA), the Burma Independence Army (BIA) to fight against British Colonialism was joined by youths from all walks of life who were patriotic and active. The political will to get independence became the national policy and Getting Independence is the first priority; Independence is the second priority and the third also Independence.

 

This period (from 1945-1948) was followed by the forming of BPF (Burma Patriotic Force) which fought against the Japanese and highlighted the nationalistic policy driven by “Independence is the first; Democracy is the second and Socialism is the third” respectively.

 

After Independence

From 1948 to 1958, after getting Independence on 4 January 1948, multi-coloured insurgencies spread to the entire country and the split of AFPL factions and its consequences made the chaos and to restore peace and stability. The collapse of national solidarity had made the defections on ideological and racial grounds. This can be termed the “Union Government Era”. In the resolutions proposed and adopted in the Preparatory Convention of the AFPFL, it was clearly stated that there shall be a guarantee of racial and cultural rights.

 

From 1958 to 1960, due to those political events and instability, the solution is the establishment of a Caretaker Government devoted to the supervision of general elections. The national policy then focuses on peace and tranquillity as the first, democracy as the second and socialist economy as the third. This Caretaker Government was led by General Ne Win.

 

After the assumption of State power by the Tatmadaw in 1962, formed the Revolutionary Council. Under the Revolutionary Council Government, peace and tranquillity, and the welfare of the public were supervised and taken responsibility by the Security and Administrative Committees concerned at different levels. The formation of the state’s ideology under General Ne Win’s regime was “the Burmese Way to Socialism”. There are two main documents ideologically announced which were the benchmarks: the Burmese Way to Socialism and the Burmese Socialist Programme Party’s official ideology. It has been mentioned as “at any rate, it is domestic trouble that seemed to be the main threat and the conviction of the Revolution ary Council is apparently that both the Parliament system and those who worked it in this country have failed”. 1974 Constitution was announced under the Union of the Socialist Republic of Myanmar and the People Council Government Era which lasted till 1988. From 1962 to 1988, the reformation of the State under the name of “Burmese Way to Socialism” is the state policy till the upheaval took place in 1988.

 

To jeopardize the state peace and stability of the Union and Independence, the State Law and Order Restoration Council was formed and took the responsibility of executive and administrative responsibilities. To take the challenges: non-disintegration of the union; non-disintegration of the national races and consolidation of national sovereignty have been laid down as national legacy and national causes. Indeed it is the main backbone of the sovereignty and sustaining the peace and tranquillity of the state. Those Three National Causes announced have been the major political commitments of SLORC and SPDC and the national cultural policy is also reflected by those ideologies as the Objectives followed by the national motto.

 

Four Social Objectives vs Political Objectives

Since 1988 is the new chapter of the political landscape in Myanmar, it called for the emergence of a peaceful, modern and developed nation in which administrators are turned out to take responsibility for the security of the state, prevalence of law and order and socioeconomic development. People-oriented development has been demanded and the political thoughts and ideology of “change” has been appreciated and negotiations play a very important role. Along with the collapse of the General Ne Win regime in 1988, anti-government demonstrations led to the resignation of U Ne Win from the Chairman of BSPP. (TO BE CONTINUED)