Charney, Michael W.

English

SOAS Research Online

130 REVIEWSASHLEY SOUTH:Mon nationalism and civil war in Burma: The Golden Sheldrake.xxii, 419 pp. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. xxii, 419 pp. £55.This is one of the few serious English-language studies of the Mon in the inde-pendence period. While colonial era scholars found the Mon highly interesting(and the numerous articles on them in the Journal of the Burma ResearchSociety is one major indication of this), the Mon were almost forgotten bypost-independence scholars. South, a former postgraduate student at theSchool of Oriental and African Studies, spent over six years on the Thai-Burmese border from about 1990 and spent a significant amount of time inrebel-controlled zones along that border. Thus he brings to his study substan-tial personal experience and insights that continually enliven his discussion.The book consists of twenty chapters structured in six parts, the first partproviding ethnographic information on the Mon, the second part coveringMon history in the precolonial and colonial periods, and the remainder thepost-independence period.The Mon continue to face, as South explains, a long-term process ofBurmanization, seen in a more politicized context as Myanmafication by some,in which they and their culture are being absorbed by the main ‘national’ethnic group (the Burmans) and denied an individual identity. Citing the workof Victor Lieberman, Michael Aung-Thwin, Robert Taylor, Michael Graversand Gustaaf Houtman, South discusses the problematics of understandingethnic identity in Burma, both in the past and today. However much the Monbegan to self-define themselves in the colonial and postcolonial periods, thedifferent political forces that have emerged among them indicate that ethnicidentity has not meant political unity. Much of the remainder of the bookexamines the interplay of different political groups which, for Burma, necessar-ily means a narrative embodying a flurry of seemingly endless acronyms. Atthe centre of all of this is Mon resistance to the military government, refugeeissues peculiar to the Mons, humanitarian issues that the Mon share with otherBurmese, and the question of how to resolve the current human rights impassein Burma. South asks questions about possible conflicts between differentagendas bent on dealing with these issues and suggests that a new generationmay be able to bring together the pursuit of ethnic rights and democracy(pp. 340–41).South presents much hard data which should be useful for other research-ers in the field. His discussion is clear and although he tends to let a linearnarrative of events guide his discussion, he does raise significant points aboutthe Mon situation. Of course, the major concern since 1962 has been the stand-off between Mon political groups and the military regime, which, for its part,sees the Mon as an absorbed and not as a separate people (with their owninterests not necessarily shared by the state). Another challenge has been howto participate in contemporary Burmese politics in the context of Aung SanSuu Kyi and the National League for Democracy without sacrificing theirpeculiar ethnic interests or identity.There are, as with any study, both oversights and problems. One oversightinvolves the author’s discussion of ethnonyms and exonyms. While he placesthe terms Mon, Talaing and Peguan into context, South does not discuss‘Abbassi’ (there are several spellings for this). It is debatable whether we131REVIEWScan view this apparently precolonial term as an ethnonym or an exonym, forthe sources are amibiguous. Some discussion of the term should have beenattempted, however, because it was used to differentiate some Mon fromothers and may question the existence of a sense of unified group identity. Wemight speak, for example, not of the Mon as a group, but of a number ofdifferent, competing Mon ethnic identities. Another important drawback ofthe book is that South appears to make scant use of indigenous languagematerials, though he does explain that he has consulted several (see bibliogra-phy, p. 404). But ‘lowland’ Burmese texts should have been used, certainly inthe case of the initial two sections of the book, not to mention the relevance ofBurmese-language documents for the post-independence period. Furthermore,his discussions of some sub-topics such as Arakanese history and the Rohingyawould have benefited from a more thorough survey of the secondary literature,many key analyses having been missed. These problems aside, South has madeuse of substantial amounts of previously unused material, not only publishedin hard-copy, but also on the Internet.This book is a valuable addition to the secondary literature on Burmesepolitics, especially since it focuses on the Mon. It is accessible to students andyet provides enough solid research to warrant serious attention from estab-lished scholars. South’s book is thus highly recommended for both researchersand as a text in postgraduate courses.MICHAEL W. CHARNEYHUUB DE JONGE and NICO KAPTEIN (ed.):Transcending borders: Arabs, politics, trade and Islam in SoutheastAsia.viii, 246 pp. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2002. €27.50.This volume results from a conference held at Leiden University in December1997. Proceedings of conferences can often lack coherence, but this has beenavoided through the inclusion of a helpful overview chapter at the beginningand a selection of revised conference papers that cross-fertilize in multipleways.In the introductory chapter, the editors point out that much previousscholarly attention has been devoted to specific minorities in South-East Asia:Chinese, Indians and Europeans especially. Comparatively little, however, hasbeen given to Arab minorities. This is long overdue, argue the editors, giventheir ‘great influence on economic, political, social, and religious developmentsin the region for centuries’. (p. 1). Engseng Ho begins the substantial paperswith a challenge: ‘The study of Arabs—or dimensions of “Arabness”—in mari-time Southeast Asia is beset by a number of conceptual problems’ (p. 11).Colonial history has created a scholarly dependence on boundaries in bothtime and space which do not necessarily reflect South-East Asian realitiesin earlier periods. Ho addresses this challenge by focusing on four eighteenth-century Arab immigrants to South-East Asia who achieved particular promi-nence in different regions: Trengganu, the Bugis area, Minangkabau, andAceh. He demonstrates the mobility of the Arab immigrants across the South-East Asian region, making the most of political boundaries which wererelatively undefined at the time.Three papers address a range of issues pertaining to the British colonies inMalaya and Singapore. Mohammad Redzuan Othman focuses on British

Review of Ashley South, 'Mon nationalism and civil war in Burma: The Golden Sheldrake'

MICHAEL W. CHARNEY

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ASHLEY SOUTH:
                    Mon nationalism and civil war in Burma: The Golden Sheldrake

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Review of Ashley South, 'Mon nationalism and civil war in Burma: The Golden Sheldrake'

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