The Golden Land Ablaze: Coups, Insurgents and the State in Myanmar

About the BookA WORLD-LEADING EXPERT ON MYANMAR ASSESSES THE ONGOING POPULAR UPRISING AGAINST THE MILITARY JUNTA THAT DEPOSED AUNG SAN SUU KYI.Myanmars generals didnt expect the nation to rise up against the coup they staged in February 2021. But after decades of stifling, direct military rule, the Burmese people had become used to another way of life during the relative openness of 201121. The army has been unable to suppress anti-coup protests as it did in 1962 and 1988; and, three years after sending tanks into Yangon, Naypyitaw and other cities, the army has yet to establish a functioning administration.For the first time since the 1970s, armed resistance is not confined to traditionally strife-torn frontier areas, where ethnic insurgents like the Karen National Union and Kachin Independence Army have been active for decadesit has spread to the majority-Burmese heartland, in the shape of the Peoples Defence Forces. But the anti-junta forces are poorly equipped to defeat the much more heavily armed Myanmar army, which itself is stretched too thin, on several fronts, to crush the resistance. And, despite foreign observers assurances, there is no unity, common command or synchronised strategy among the various ethnic-minority and ethnic-Burmese resistance groups.This is a war that neither side can win. Caught in the middle, and bound to suffer most, are civilians.About the AuthorBertil Lintner is an acclaimed journalist and expert on contemporary South-East Asia, especially Myanmar. Formerly the Far Eastern Economic Reviews Burma correspondent and the Asia correspondent for the Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, he is the author of, among others, Land of Jade: A Journey from India through Northern Burma to China, Great Game East: India, China and the Struggle for Asias Most Volatile Frontier and The Costliest Pearl: Chinas Struggle for Indias Ocean.