The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century

by Thant Myint-U

But by the 1980s, the socialist experiment was not working. In the 1950s and 1960s, Burma’s economy had been more or less on a par with Thailand’s and not far behind South Korea’s. Rangoon was no less modern than Singapore and ahead of Bangkok. By the 1980s, Burma had fallen far behind.