Containing the Self-Interested Individual: Moral Scepticism of Political Parties in Myanmar

Abstract

In this article, I examine a persistent set of concerns regarding the political party system in Myanmar that I read as emerging in response to a Theravāda Buddhist-grounded conception of human nature as inherently self-centred, biased, and morally ignorant. Although these critiques come from political actors anchored in different ideologies and situated in different historical periods (including the early twentieth-century politician U Ba Khaing, contemporary military leaders, and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy), I argue that the resonance of their critiques with this understanding of human beings has imparted a consistent disciplining and delegitimising effect on opposition and minority parties. However, the same conception of human nature has led other Burmese political commentators (including the independence hero General Aung San and the nineteenth-century minister U Hpo Hlaing) to construct opposing arguments that present collective, participatory political action or engagement as the necessary response to human moral deficiencies. Putting these arguments in conversation helps to reveal the disciplining aspects of the critiques of parties and offer alternative justification – still in accordance with this conception of human nature – for a robust and inclusive party system.