With significant assistance from Professor John Ingleson and Dr Ian Black (then both at the University of New South Wales) I published the first edition of A Short History of South East Asia in the late 1990s. The current 6th edition was published in 2017 by Wiley and, if you are interested, is available for purchase on all the major ebook sites.
The catalyst for writing the book was a 1980 speech by the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore to the People's Action Party (the political party he founded) and in which he said "to understand the present and anticipate the future, one must know enough of the past, enough to have a sense of the history of a people". In my opinion these few words are profound and apply to every country in the world, including Myanmar.
I propose to read the Myanmar chapter from the book over a few podcasts and hope by the end we will know enough of Myanmar's history to "understand the present and anticipate the future"?
This reading covers the period from the early 2000s to the publication of the 6th edition of the book in 2017.
My conclusion as to why Myanmar is where it is today is a combination of a number of factors:
Those listening to my podcast may well have other reasons as to why Myanmar is where it is today. However, looking forward, the most important question to answer is how we get from where the country is today to a bright, prosperous and peaceful future for the country and its diverse ethnicities.
Please feel free to contact me with suggested interviewees at church.peter@gmail.com.
Thank you for listening .
Peter Church
With significant assistance from Professor John Ingleson and Dr Ian Black (then both at the University of New South Wales) I published the first edition of A Short History of South East Asia in the late 1990s. The current 6th edition was published in 2017 by Wiley and, if you are interested, is available for purchase on all the major ebook sites.
The catalyst for writing the book was a 1980 speech by the late Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore to the People's Action Party (the political party he founded) and in which he said "to understand the present and anticipate the future, one must know enough of the past, enough to have a sense of the history of a people". In my opinion these few words are profound and apply to every country in the world, including Myanmar.
I propose to read the Myanmar chapter from the book over a few podcasts and hope by the end we will know enough of Myanmar's history to "understand the present and anticipate the future"?
This reading covers the period from the early 2000s to the publication of the 6th edition of the book in 2017.
My conclusion as to why Myanmar is where it is today is a combination of a number of factors:
Those listening to my podcast may well have other reasons as to why Myanmar is where it is today. However, looking forward, the most important question to answer is how we get from where the country is today to a bright, prosperous and peaceful future for the country and its diverse ethnicities.
Please feel free to contact me with suggested interviewees at church.peter@gmail.com.
Thank you for listening .
Peter Church