Union of Myanmar

The National Flag of Myanmar

The first flag in use for the whole of the Burmese region was the flag of the Konbaung Dynasty, who controlled an empire from current-day Burma, to Vietnam. They uses a red 3 point flag, with a black cross in the centre, and introduced in 1752.

This Empire, however, was soon pressed back, coming into conflict with the French, from Vietnam, and the British, from India. Trying to maintain its independence, the Dynasty tried to balance between the two. However, after 3 major battles, and 3 defeats. Towards the end of the Dynasty, in the 1880's, infighting broke out, and in 1885, the Royal family was forced to abdicate, and the British annexed Burma, and added it to their Indian territories.

The new Burmese flag whilst part of the British Empire took the standard blue ensign, and placed a Burmese coat of arms in the fly. This was a roundel, on which was a Burmese Peacock.

British rule lasted in Burma until independence in 1948, however, Burma came under Japanese rule for a short time during WWII, from 1943, to 1945. The Japanese army helped set up a new pro-Japanese government in a new State of Burma. Though this only lasted until 1945, when the British where able to push the Japanese out. They State of Burma adopted a new tricolour flag, of yellow, green, and red. They decided to keep the Peacock logo, and placed it in the centre of the flag.

During the war, the Burmese resistance fighting the Japanese adopted a red flag with a white star upon it. At independence in 1948, the red flag was kept, but the white star was now placed on a blue field and moved to the upper hoist of the flag. Also, 5 smaller stars where placed around it. The red of the flag stands for the courage of the people, the blue for peace, and the white for purity. The 5 stars represented the unity of the people in Burma (the central star).

In 1962, the Burmese Military overthrew the civilian government and established a Military Junta. The military leaders soon quit to take up civilian posts, and set about creating the new Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma. This new one-party state concentrated power in the hands of the government, protests where brutally suppressed, the economy became centrally-planned, and Burma slowly slipped deeper down into poverty. 

In 1974, a new flag was adopted. Keeping the red, and blue, the symbol in the blue field was altered. Instead of the 6 stars, a new logo was placed. This consisted of a cogwheel with a bushel of rice superimposed on it. Surrounding the wheel is 14 stars, representing the 14 districts of Burma.

In 1988, unrest at the governments handling of the country blew up, leading to another Military coup, with the creation of the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). One of this councils moves was to re-name the country from the Union of Burma, to the Union of Myanmar. But given that Military leaderships are rarely recognised internationally, this name change has only seen patchy recognition. For example, Japan refers to the nation as Myanmar, but Britain still refers to it as Burma. 

In 1990, the SLORC organised the first multi-party elections since the 60's, and the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won handsomely. However, the SLORC refused to recognise the results, and refused to step down. Maintaining military rule. 

In 2008, finally, after 10 years, a referendum was held on a new constitution. A constitution that would see a movement from military to civilian rule. However, the constitution keeps many protections for the military, preventing reprisals, and still gives the military enormous power.  part of the debate over the new constitution was the creation of a new flag. In 2006, the first idea was to bring back the yellow, green and red colours from the State of Burma Flag.

The first one assembled the colours green, yellow, and red. A small white star was placed on the hoist side of the green stripe. The green represented the lush nature of the lands, the yellow represented solidarity, and the red for valour. The star represents the Union of Myanmar.

However, the new flag that will be introduced when the constitution goes live upon elections in 2010 sees the stripes arranged yellow, green, and red. With a much larger white star in the centre. 

The constitution has widely been criticised as largely worthless, and gives the military the power to maintain control, the elections decried a sham. We wait to see if all political parties will be included, and will there actually be elections?

*Update*

With the referendum for Myanmar's new constitution being passed by 94%, the new flag was introduced with the start of Myanmar's new democratically elected government. (Though 25% of seats where reserved for the military, and the rest pretty much went to ex-military supporters in the "election.")