This post presents page 3 of 4 of a review by U Nyein Way of Guardian Sein Win's book Split Story. The review was originally published here. The book was originally published in 1959 and re-published in 1989. The book is available online here, but I have had trouble with the font used in this copy. A photo of guardian U Sein Win is available here.
Vocabulary
သက်ဝင် ။ belief, accept, subscribe to, include.
သက်ရောက် ။ to mean, imply, affect
သံသယ ။ doubt, suspicion
သက်တမ်း ။ life span, length of time something exists
အုတ်မြစ် ။ foundation
မျက်မှောက် ။ the present
စွန်းထင်း ။ to be stained, be smeared, be tainted, be blemished
အပြန်အလှန် ။ reciprocally, mutually
စောင် ။ to watch each other in a hostile manner as a prelude to a fight
လွှဲပြောင်း ။ to transfer
ဂယက်ရိုက် ။ to have repercussions
ဝင်စွက် ။ to interfere, meddle
ထောက်ပြ ။ to point out, indicate (who is wrong and who is right)
ဖွင့်ချ ။ to expose, reveal, disclose
ဝေဝါး ။ hazy, misty
အားတက် ။ be heartened; be encouraged; be invigorated
စင်စင် ။ entirely free from (darkness, impurity, etc)
နိုင်နင်း ။ win, conquer, prevail, domineer, overpower, overcome
သွားလေသူ ။ the dear departed
ပထစ ။ ba-hta-sa
ကတိမ်းကပါး ။ quickly (?)
မက ။ not only
တိုက်ဆိုင် ။ coincide
ဆင်ခြေ ။ an excuse
အမာခံ ။ solid, basic or underlying part of a structure
Translation
It is doubtful that this composition implies that General Ne Win who was the head of the military at that time was really someone who subscribed to democracy. The reason is that according to the experiences of the 26 year duration of the BSPP government everyone knows that General Ne Win was the one who laid the foundation for dictatorship and tarnished the contemporary history of Myanmar.
There is still a final interesting item of this book. [The interesting item] is that at the time that national power was transferred to General Ne Win, Prime Minister U Nu and the head of defence General Ne Win were mutually wary each other.
* * * * *
The time following the death of the "8-8-88" uprising when the people hotly felt the death of the great uprising, Guardian U Sein Win's Split Story book came out and had major repercussions in the political environment. It is especially true that the people who were angry about soldier politics and had spilled blood to demand a return to civilian politics in which soldiers who were the country's servants had no right to interfere in politics, were not happy about the book, which pointed out the weaknesses of civilian politics and revealed that civilian politics was not good.
It is possible that at that time these books blurred the hope of the people who were waiting to see which political side within the two systems of civilian politics and soldier politics those working for the media would decide to stand with. From one side, if we look back, it can be said that these kinds of books were books that encouraged and pleased solider politicians. Therefore, this book had repercussions at that time.
Actually, this book was first published in English in March 1959 (General Ne Win and the Caretaker Government). Daily articles in the Guardian Newspaper from January and February of that year were collected and published. [This book] is a book published during the rule of the General Ne Win military government to whom power was transferred as a result of the first government, which was a civilian government, not being able to prevail over the country. It was published in English. It is a book which critically reveals the weaknesses of the civilian government which transferred ruling power to the military government. To say the least, it can be said that the book pleased the military government at that time because it wrote about the weaknesses of civilian government.
After that, when the military government took over again in 1988 this was a book that had repercussions so that at that time Guardian U Sein Win had to be asked what and how for re-publishing in Myanmar language this "Split Story" book that reveals the weaknesses of civilian government.
During the 40 year period from independence until 1988 the dearly departed government was not just the Ba-Hta-Sa civilian government. There was the BSPP government as well. I am of the opinion that there were two governments after independence that quickly disappeared. Why is it that among the two governments that disappeared in this way, although the split of the one party dictatorship government that U Ne Win led is not written about, close to thirty years ago the book of the weakness of the Ba-Hta-Sa civilian government was published not once but twice?
Especially, why [was a book about] the weaknesses of civilian government coincidentally published when [the country] fell under the rule of General Ne Win's 1958 caretaker government and the 1988 military government, which were two military governments? Because of these questions Guardian U Sein Win's Split Story book had repercussions.
There is one excuse that I think is possible to give. During the rule of the 1988 military government there was no right to write about that Ba-Hta-Sa civilian government and about the one party dictatorship government that under-girded the military that ruled the country and so it is possible to say that this is an excuse. Therefore because both governments were bad, since there was only the right to write about one of them, people who read the book [will think] that the remaining one is a good government.
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