Sourcing critique

In Burma today, there are whisperings of the need for critical analysis of the country's accelerating neo-liberal turn. The sites of this questioning are varied: a dusty side-street in Mandalay; a closet in a high-rise Yangon condo; a cramped apartment overlooking Burma's oldest cathedral; long-locked chests in the remote monasteries of the Chindwin Valley. In a country emerging from 50 years of authoritarian socialism, how do we confect a critique of global capital without dredging up painful reminders of dark decades past? The vocabularies of the internationalist left(s) are wont to repel, even in this nation where 'socialism' was an extraordinarily thin veil for the pulsing threat of military repression. Where, then, to locate the materials for a different way forward?

Nurturing and reclaiming the written word in contemporary political life seems more relevant than ever before in Burma. Edward Said's rejection of the binary choice between one oppressive system and another – be it imperialism versus fascism, or neoliberalism versus authoritarian socialism in the Burmese context – is particularly fitting. To source critical analysis of this false juxtaposition in a Burmese vernacular – and perhaps even build a different way forward – one must pluralise the binary. The country's vibrant intellectual history, which exists largely outside of official State discourse and government archives, provides abundant materials for such a movement. That many of these materials are held in small, private archives means it is vital to support their promotion and protection.