Cherchez la Femme

Winning a revolution is very much like waking up with a bad hangover. All of the glorious intoxication is gone, and the feeling of superhuman power is replaced by the dull ache of responsibility. Many Asian lands--Burma, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Korea, Ceylon--are by now some ten years into the grey morning-after of independence, and political leaders who had once been dashing conspirators and heroic guerrilla captains have become aging politicians, surrounded by corruption, inefficiency and rivalry. All but the most obtuse are ready to admit that throwing out the imperialists was the easiest part of their job, and concede that they have just about run out of ideas for combatting Asia's measureless poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, disease and administrative chaos.

Quixotic Philosopher. Most of these countries (as did the U.S. after its own Revolutionary War) started freedom with a single, nationalistic political movement to which all patriots belonged as a matter of course. In Burma this party still bears the outdated name of the Anti-Fascist Peoples Freedom League and, under the quixotic leadership of pious, philosophic U Nu, has been just barely effective in holding off a long succession of revolts by two varieties of Communists, and such racial minorities as the Karens and the Shans. Last week this one frail, unifying force split asunder.

In Burma, perhaps even more than in France, cherchez la femme has an ominous meaning. To the political rivalries of the onetime comrades in arms were added the bickering and ambitions of their wives. U Nu's wife refused for months to speak to the wife of U Kyaw Nyein, Minister for National Economy. Kyaw Nyein's wife would have nothing to do with the wife of Thakin Kyaw Dun, Minister for Agriculture. Premier U Nu tried hard to take a Nehrunian position above the fray but was inevitably drawn into what he himself describes as the party's "family quarrels." He was also angry about the '"outrageous" lawlessness in the countryside, and last month called in the Army--not the police, which he said was too much under the politicians--to crack down. The Army made mass arrests of more than 300 Burmese, many of them AFPFL politicians, but U Nu insisted the arrests had no political significance.

That was the end of any pretense at any political unity among the aging "anti-Fascists." After a tense meeting of the AFPFL, the rivals last week agreed to a "divorce by mutual consent." In a radio address to the nation, Premier U Nu said: "I did my best to bring about unity within the AFPFL. But if this is impossible and the split occurs, I must go with one side. I can't remain neutral."

Marxist Buddhist. U Nu has also declared that "Marxism and Buddhism are incompatible," but to Burma's surprise the side he chose to join was that of Marxist Thakin Kyaw Dun and his strongly left-wing socialist followers. U Kyaw Nyein emerged as the rival leader, backed by U Ba Swe, Minister of Defense, and Thakin Tha Kin, ex-Home Minister who had been fired by U Nu. Both sides agreed to an equal division of the party's real estate and money, and prepared for a showdown in the August session of Parliament, with the losing side agreeing to form the "opposition" party.

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