Burma

Due to an isolation sought by its government and enforced by external powers, Burma did not share the economic growth enjoyed by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in the 1980s and 1990s. Though possessing significant natural resources, Burma’s limited exposure to foreign trade, along with domestic economic policy, caused it to become one of the world’s most impoverished countries as well as a leader in wealth inequality. On 2 March 1962, the military led by General Ne Win took control of Burma through a coup d'état, and the government has been under direct or indirect control by the military ever since. From 1962 to 1974, Burma was ruled by a revolutionary council that nationalized or brought under government control almost all aspects of society (commerce, media, industry) under the Burmese Way to Socialism, which combined Soviet-style nationalization and central planning. This centralization remained in place well into the 2000s. Until 1988, the country was ruled as a one-party system, with the General and other military officers resigning and ruling through the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP).

In 1988, unrest over economic mismanagement and political oppression led to widespread prodemocracy demonstrations throughout the country known as the 8888 Uprising. Security forces killed thousands of demonstrators, and General Saw Maung staged a coup d'état and formed the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). The coup was a bloody one, and the repression of protest even more so—thousands of people were estimated by outside sources to have been killed, and thousands more fled to minority border areas to join armed resistance groups. The crackdown had the additional effect of isolating Burma even further—economic aid from many western governments and Japan was eliminated, India sealed its border and loudly condemned the coup, and Burma was cut off economically and politically from most of the rest of the world to an even greater degree than before.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who had returned to Burma to care for her ailing mother, swiftly became a leader of the democratization movement, but less than a year later was placed under a house arrest that would last for 15 of the next 21 years. In May 1990, the government held free elections for the first time in almost 30 years; the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won 392 out of a total 492 seats. SLORC, however, refused to cede power and continued to rule in various forms until March 2011.

Although Burma did not experience the integration caused by economic and infrastructure improvement, the state pursued a particularly aggressive policy of pacification of minority groups throughout the period of military rule, which resulted in regular conflicts over ethnic and subnational autonomy. Many ethnic minorities, including the Shan, Kachin, and Wa, had never been well integrated into majority society, but the military offensives in hill and border regions triggered a stream of emigration by minorities out of Burma that continues to the present.