Army Socialism

Ever since General Ne Win tossed bumbling Premier U Nu out of office last March, the only thing that has kept him from rushing headlong into a program of industrial nationalization and farm collectivization has been the influence of tough, handsome Brigadier Aung Gyi. Last week the brakes were off. After a long feud with leftist members in the 17-man Revolutionary Council, Aung Gyi "most respectfully" asked Strongman Ne Win "to relieve me of the various duties to which I have been assigned."

As Army Vice Chief of Staff, Minister of Trade and Industry, and Chairman of the Burma Oil Co., Aung Gyi was Ne Win's No. 2 man and heir apparent. The son of a well-to-do Chinese textile merchant and a Burmese woman, he proved himself a canny diplomat both in the 1960 negotiations that fixed Burma's borders with Red China and in last month's talks with Japan that produced $170 million in additional World War II reparations and loans. Despite his insistence that "I have no training in economics," he built a modest army PX-type operation into the giant Burma Economic Development Corp., running 34 firms ranging from banking to fisheries and turning handsome profits that in some years ran as high as $2,500,000. Though he insisted that he had been a socialist for 20 years and intended to remain one for 20 more, in fact, he was a tough-minded pragmatist who openly advocated cooperation with private industry.

Inevitably, Aung Gyi's gradualism annoyed Ne Win, a soldier who is no Communist but has vowed to socialize Burma as quickly as possible. Aung Gyi earned the enmity of Brigadier Tin Pe, a Marxist theorist and a key member of the Revolutionary Council. For months, Tin Pe pressed for a faster switchover to state control; Aung Gyi's departure means that Tin Pe has finally won out.

Stripped of power, Aung Gyi, 43, flew off to voluntary exile in an isolated Burmese village near the borders of China and India. At least four high-ranking officers who shared his views were arrested or forced into retirement. With the opposition out of the way, Ne Win declared that the government would immediately take over the import and export business, the rice trade and some private industries. Burma's economy, said he, would now come under "total state control."

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