| By MIN ZIN | DECEMBER, 2001 - VOLUME 9 NO.9 |
The excitement surrounding the discovery of a white elephant has served to illustrate the continuing importance of pre-modern notions of power in Burmese society. Culture is not an immediate obstacle to the political transition that Burma urgently needs to undergo. However, Burmese culture—or, more particularly, notions of power rooted in Burmese culture—may provide a distorted map that could very well prolong the country’s journey towards its goal of achieving a modern, democratic state. Burmese tend to paint a rosy picture of their culture, even as they acknowledge that in terms of political evolution, their country has lagged far behind much of the rest of the world. The Burmese people (and the Burmese military, at least ostensibly) seek to establish democratic rule, but they fail to critically examine aspects of their culture that may be incompatible with this goal. One such aspect would be the Burmese concept of hpoun, which originally meant the cumulative result of past meritorious deeds, but later came to be synonymous with power. Many observers, including both foreign scholars and members of the opposition, tend to regard power as a centralized force that wields total control over Burmese society. While this is true within the political arena, it does not take into account the nature of power as it is distributed through the whole of society. Hpoun is not confined to the realm of politics, but is actually woven into the very fiber of society like capillaries connecting veins and arteries—that is, the powerless and the powerful. Burmese, particularly members of the elite, like to believe that they live in a land governed by the Buddhist virtues of dana (generosity), karuna (compassion) and mudita (sympathetic joy). This idyllic view of Burmese society has induced a dangerous complacency with regard to the underlying significance of many common social practices. In particular, the exercise of power within the Burmese cultural context is deeply affected by the notion that the possessors of power acquired it through past acts of merit, implying that they are deserving of their status. This underlying assumption serves as the basis of all unequal relationships—between, for instance, men and women, haves and have-nots, rulers and the ruled, and dominant ethnic groups and marginalized minorities. The discourse of hpoun is so deeply embedded in Burmese culture that few even think to question it. Since hpoun is theoretically a "prize" earned through past good deeds, it is self-legitimating: Simply by virtue of possessing power, one has demonstrated that one has acquired considerable merit in past lives. Thus the question of moral legitimacy does not arise. As long as one remains in the ascendancy (whether socially, politically, or economically), one is presumed to possess merit. The concept of hpoun permeates Burmese society, and its influence may be empirically observed at all levels, from the basic family unit to the state. The use of the expression ein oo nat ("guardian spirit of the home") to refer to the husband signifies his preeminent role in the home, as does the familiar saying, "The son is the master; the husband is god." The superior status of male family members is often justified in terms of their hpoun; no further explanation is considered necessary. In the political realm, this reliance upon the notion of hpoun is even more pronounced. No matter how morally unfit a ruler may appear to be, as long as he is able to cling to power, he can claim that his hpoun is still flourishing. Thus Ne Win, the former dictator who remains a potent force behind the current military regime, has been dubbed "the king who never dies"—an epithet that aptly describes his image in the eyes of most Burmese, who have been conditioned to perceive him as the possessor of unconquerable hpoun. Interestingly, hpoun in its secular sense is frequently associated with the term let yone (literally, "the upper arm"), which signifies military prowess, or more generally, might. This indicates that the relationship between hpoun and brute force is mutually constitutive, particularly in the political arena. In the past, when Burmese kings extended their let yone in all possible directions, the expansions were seen as a manifestation of the superior hpoun of the dominant race. The idea of an undefeatable "King of the Universe" (Cakravartin) was later introduced to give such conquests a cosmological dimension, and this was used to condition subject peoples to acquiesce to their subordinate status. Since attempts to put Burma’s political evolution on a more progressive course have been effectively nipped in the bud by successive authoritarian regimes, the hpoun discourse has retained its hegemonic influence. Hierarchical attitudes and patron-client relationships among and within various groups and sub-groups persist largely because they are underpinned by the inegalitarianism implicit in the notion of hpoun. Unequal relations, and the repression and exploitation that derive from them, are accepted as "natural". Moreover, the oppressed are encouraged not to seek justice, but rather to replace corrupt rulers with a superior hpoun agency, while retaining the overall hierarchical power structure. Clearly, the hpoun discourse is not something that Burmese society can easily do away with. Nor is it likely that most Burmese would even consider its elimination a desirable goal. The foremost blessing one can receive when paying homage to monks and elders is, "May you have great hpoun." For Burmese, indeed, the quest for hpoun is the paramount goal of life, one that lasts until the day one dies. In a society that has retained many pre-modern characteristics such as Burma, symbols, rituals and ceremonies related to hpoun serve as an essential means of reinforcing the hegemonic ideology of the ruling clique. This has been especially conspicuous under the current regime, which has made extensive use of hpoun symbols in its efforts to acquire legitimacy in the eyes of ordinary Burmese (while using the language of realpolitik in its bid to win acceptance in the international community). Evidence of this curiously anachronistic mindset (in a regime that professes to be working to establish a "modern, developed nation") came recently in the form of an eight-year-old white male elephant discovered in the forests of western Burma’s Arakan State. In what to the outside world must have looked like a quaint reenactment of an outdated custom, several magnificent ceremonies were held to give the country’s two top-ranking generals, Sr-Gen Than Shwe and Gen Maung Aye, a chance to sprinkle consecrated water on this auspicious beast. For the discovery of a white elephant, in the ancient lore of Theravada Buddhism, is regarded as nothing less than a cosmic endorsement of the reigning king—or in this instance, generals. The significance of the white elephant is derived from Buddhist nativity tales, according to which the mother of Siddhartha Gotama had a dream of a white elephant entering her womb on the eve of the birth of the Buddha-to-be. This was taken as a sign of the child’s purity, wisdom and auspiciousness. Later, ancient texts and traditional scriptures would describe the white elephant as one of the seven jewels of King Cakravartin. In Burmese history, the white elephant has often played an important role as an embodiment of the ruling monarch’s hpoun. Kings hunted eagerly for these sacred animals, and occasionally presented them to one another as marks of diplomacy. Sometimes they fought over them. According to Burmese and Thai chronicles, the Burmese king Bayinnaung took four white elephants back to the court of Hanthawaddy after he subjugated Ayutthaya in the 16th century, following a dispute with the King of Ayutthaya over the latter’s refusal to send two white elephants requested by the former. Bayinnaung was seen not as an expansionist, but as one of the greatest kings described in the indigenous literature and the chronicles of the region. Later rulers sought to attain his illustrious reputation as Hsinbyushin ("Lord of the White Elephant"). The current regime has invoked this tradition by naming its recent find "Yaza Gaha Thiri Pissaya Gaza Yaza", meaning "Royal Elephant That Bestows Grace Upon the Nation" in the ancient Pali language. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that the regime is merely exploiting tradition to manipulate the superstitious public; in all probability, the generals sincerely believe that the elephant is a divine blessing and a sign that their rule is one ordained by the cosmic law of kamma. On this level, at least, their perception of reality is not wholly different from that of ordinary Burmese. This unity in faith plays a significant role in maintaining the social and political status quo in Burma. It should be noted, however, that hpoun is inherently unstable, and must be constantly reinforced and remade. Moreover, the hpoun discourse can also become a site of ideological contention. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the Burmese democracy movement, has directly challenged the more fatalistic interpretation of the doctrine of kamma that supports the hpoun discourse by emphasizing the importance of present kamma (that is, wholesome or unwholesome acts that bear like results) to encourage Burmese people to take a more active role in changing their destiny. However, such attempts to counter the hegemonic discourse of hpoun have been effectively sidelined by more conventional interpretations that enjoin a passive acceptance of one’s "fate". Interestingly, the figure of the white elephant offers the most compelling evidence of a counter-discourse to the principle of hpoun as it is propagated to perpetuate the supremacy of ascendant groups. The Burmese expression, "hsinpyudaw hmipi kyan masote ba ne" ("don’t use a white elephant to take sugar cane") admonishes against using symbols of merit to pursue selfish goals. Thus, in the language of popular common sense, the belief of rulers that they can exploit auspicious symbols for their own purposes is neatly refuted.