Burma's dictator Ne Win ruled for 26 years and died without a state funeral
Ne Win began as a failed biology student, became one of the Thirty Comrades who fought for Burmese independence, and seized power in a 1962 coup. For a quarter-century he steered the country into isolation and stagnation. When he died under house arrest in 2002, there was no state funeral, eulogy or monument.
Born Shu Maung in a village near Paungdale, some 200 miles north of Rangoon, he studied biology at Rangoon University from 1929 hoping to become a doctor, but was expelled in 1931 after failing an exam. Drawn into the nationalist We Burmans Association alongside Aung San and U Nu, he was one of thirty young men picked in 1941 for Japanese military training. During that training he adopted a war name, Bo Ne Win, which translates as Commander Radiant Sun. In 1945 the Burma National Army switched sides against Japan, and he quickly built ties with the British.
After independence in January 1948 the country was wracked by army mutinies and ethnic uprisings. Ne Win became armed forces chief in 1949 and rebuilt the military along socialist party lines. Asked by U Nu to serve as caretaker prime minister in 1958, he returned power after elections in 1960. Two years later he took it back by force, declaring parliamentary democracy unsuitable for Burma, suspending the constitution and dissolving the legislature. When students rioted in July 1962, troops fired on them and blew up the student union building; universities stayed closed until 1964.
His ideology, the Burmese Way to Socialism, mixed nationalism, Marxism and Buddhism, though he cared little for doctrine. From 1964 his Burma Socialist Programme Party was the only legal party. Health care became free, a literacy drive began in 1965 and land rents were abolished, but Burmanization policies imposed Burmese language and culture on minorities, and the economy stagnated. Abroad he kept Burma strictly neutral, joining the Non-Aligned Movement. His rule was also noted for superstition.
He stepped down as president in 1981 yet remained the real power as party chairman until the 8888 Uprising forced him out in July 1988. Even his birth date is uncertain: 24 May 1911 is widely cited, but a family obituary giving his age as 93 suggests 1910.
Source: Ne Win
