A Half-Stocked Marketplace of Ideas

Unfortunately, Sai Kham Mong’s contribution o­n the Shan, much welcomed after decades of obfuscation, speaks more to the Wa and Kokang post-ceasefire arrangements and does little justice (or balance) to the complex ethnic and conflict-ridden impasse of Shan State.

The two editors fail to bring this eclectic mix into focus and grammatical and other mistakes are frequent. For example, is Aung San Suu Kyi a “convicted democratic?” (I wouldn’t be surprised if Burma had such a statute.) And Suu Kyi received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, not 1995.

Indeed, the collection loses most of its flavor in the final chapter. Khin Zaw Win’s mercurial, anti-sanctions soap-boxing employs questionable economics, culturally deterministic nationalism (veering toward xenophobia) and pundit amateurism masquerading as authority. Such rants employ the sort of strident arguments o­ne slurs at the end of a long and well-fueled dinner but regrets the next morning. Perhaps for that reason alone his chapter, and a few others, make this half-stocked book marginally, if not comfortably, digestible. 

David Scott Mathieson is theBurma consultant for Human Rights Watch based in New York