Colonial Rule and Post-independence Nation Building in Myanmar and Malaysia

• In Event: Institutions, Identity, and Intergroup Conflict in Myanmar

Abstract

How does colonial rule impact post-colonial leaders’ policies towards foreign nationals? Despite the fact that colonial rule restructured and exploited colonies’ societies and economies, little research examines how colonial rule shaped independence leaders’ decisions about incorporating foreign nationals that immigrated to the territory during colonial rule. National leaders make policy choices about foreign immigrants’ rights - citizenship, investment, and land ownership, among others - at the critical juncture of independence that have long-term consequences. Despite having the same colonial ruler and large foreign immigrant populations during colonial rule, independence leaders in Malaysia and Burma chose different policies towards the rights of foreign nationals post-independence. I argue that different British colonial policies toward native traditional institutions during colonial rule shaped how exclusionary independence leaders’ policies were towards foreign nationals in the post-colonial period. I use a comparative historical analysis of the two countries’ colonial and early post-colonial periods to demonstrate my argument.

Author

• Megan Ryan, University of Michigan