peter church

General Ne Win (1910 -2002) was a Burmese politician and military commander who served as Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974, and also as President of Burma from 1962 to 1981.  He was the country's military dictator during the Socialist period from 1962 to 1988.

I wonder how many of those listening to this podcast know that the name "Ne Win" was a nom de guerre used by Ne Win during WW2 to protect his identity.  His birth name was Shu Maung.

In this episode I have only dealt with his early life up to the start of WW2 in Burma.  I will shortly re-publish two interviews with my friend, U Kenneth Ba Thaung  who sadly passed away last year at the age of 91.  Kenneth had a close involvement with General Ne Win and provides some fascinating insights into Ne Win's personality.

I am again indebted to the leading Asian scholar, Professor Robert Taylor for giving me permission to read some extracts from his biography on the life of General Ne Win entitled General Ne Win: A political biography  published in 2015 by the Institute of South East Asian Studies and which can be purchased as an ebook or as a soft cover book - https://bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/publication/2076

Please feel free to contact me with suggested interviewees at church.peter@gmail.com.

Thank you for listening .

Peter Church

With significant assistance from Professor John Ingleson and Dr Ian Black (then both at the University of New South Wales) I published the first edition of A Short History of South East Asia in the late 1990s.   The current 6th edition was published in 2017 by Wiley and, if you are interested, is available for purchase on all the major ebook sites.

The catalyst for writing the book was a 1980 speech by the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore to the People's Action Party (the political party he founded) and in which he said "to understand the present and anticipate the future, one must know enough of the past, enough to have a sense of the history of a people".  In my opinion these few words are profound and apply to every country in the world, including Myanmar.

I propose to read the Myanmar chapter from the book over a few podcasts and hope by the end we will know enough of Myanmar's history to "understand the present and anticipate the future"?

This reading covers the period from the 1970s to the early 2000s.

Please feel free to contact me with suggested interviewees at church.peter@gmail.com.

Thank you for listening .

Peter Church

With significant assistance from Professor John Ingleson and Dr Ian Black (then both at the University of New South Wales) I published the first edition of A Short History of South East Asia in the late 1990s.   The current 6th edition was published in 2017 by Wiley and, if you are interested, is available for purchase on all the major ebook sites.

The catalyst for writing the book was a 1980 speech by the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore to the People's Action Party (the political party he founded) and in which he said "to understand the present and anticipate the future, one must know enough of the past, enough to have a sense of the history of a people".  In my opinion these few words are profound and apply to every country in the world, including Myanmar.

I propose to read the Myanmar chapter from the book over a few podcasts and hope by the end we will know enough of Myanmar's history to "understand the present and anticipate the future"?

This reading covers the period of Japanese occupation during WW2 and the early years of independence to the late 1960s.

Please feel free to contact me with suggested interviewees at church.peter@gmail.com.

Thank you for listening .

Peter Church

With significant assistance from Professor John Ingleson and Dr Ian Black (then both at the University of New South Wales) I published the first edition of A Short History of South East Asia in the late 1990s.   The current 6th edition was published in 2017 by Wiley and, if you are interested, is available for purchase on all the major ebook sites.

The catalyst for writing the book was a 1980 speech by the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore to the People's Action Party (the political party he founded) and in which he said "to understand the present and anticipate the future, one must know enough of the past, enough to have a sense of the history of a people".  In my opinion these few words are profound and apply to every country in the world, including Myanmar.

I propose to read the Myanmar chapter from the book over a few podcasts and hope by the end we will know enough of Myanmar's history to "understand the present and anticipate the future"?

This reading covers the period of English colonisation up to WW2.

Please feel free to contact me with suggested interviewees at church.peter@gmail.com.

Thank you for listening .

Peter Church

With significant assistance from Professor John Ingleson and Dr Ian Black (then both at the University of New South Wales) I published the first edition of A Short History of South East Asia in the late 1990s.   The current 6th edition was published in 2017 by Wiley and, if you are interested, is available for purchase on all the major ebook sites.

The catalyst for writing the book was a 1980 speech by the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore to the People's Action Party (the political party he founded) and in which he said "to understand the present and anticipate the future, one must know enough of the past, enough to have a sense of the history of a people".  In my opinion these few words are profound and apply to every country in the world, including Myanmar.

I propose to read the Myanmar chapter from the book over a few podcasts and hope by the end we will know enough of Myanmar's history to "understand the present and anticipate the future"?

This reading covers the period from the area's early history up to English colonisation.

Please feel free to contact me with suggested interviewees at church.peter@gmail.com.

Thank you for listening .

Peter Church