Believe it or not, before the Second World War, Burma was the largest exporter of rice in the world. The country claimed independence from Britain in 1948, and, 40 years later, was announced by the United Nation as the the Least Developed Country. True, Rome was not built in one day, but, under appropriate hands, it could collapse in a shocking speed.
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Oh, no. My interest in the British Burma is not quite related to its amazing capability in making an affluent country (Anglo-Saxon people almost always did well in this aspect), but to how they treat various groups of people there.
You know what, nearly 70% of the Burma population are Bamar (緬族), while over 130 ethnic groups constitute the remaining 30%. Notably, there are Shan (傣族) and Kayin (克倫族).
The catch is, most of the Bamar are farmers living in the central affluent part of the country, while Shan and Kayin (and most of the other tribes) tend to settle in peripheral mountainous areas. Rather than asking for democracy or consensus in any national policy, British administrator used a deliberately discriminating - and highly successful - strategy to run the country: Shan and Kayin people had had a free hand to run their own place (with a very low tax rate), while Bamar paid a higher tax but enjoyed a reliable (i.e. actively managed by the British people) legal and financial infra-structure - so that wealth could accumulate, or, in a less agreeable term, people were breed to become economic animals and forget about politics.
It all sounds familiar, eh ?
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