Burma was under British colonial rule for more than one hundred years and achieved its independence on 4th January 1948. From 1948 to 1962, Burma practiced a democratic parliamentary system under the premiership of U Nu.  However, on 2nd March 1962, the Burmese army staged a military coup, overthrowing the democratically elected government and imposing oppressive military rule. The coup instigators, namely the Revolutionary Council led by General Ne Win, abolished the constitution and suspended all democratic rights of the people. All the legislative, executive and judicial powers were vested in General Ne Win.  The military used guns to control the country according to their wishes, keeping a tight lid on the political activity of those who love democracy in the country.

In 1974, the military regime transformed itself into a ruling political party called the Burmese Socialist Programme Party (BSPP) and until 1988 Burma was under the BSPP, a one party-dominated political system with the ideology, "The Burmese Way to Socialism". During these 14 years of socialist rule, Burma became one of the poorest countries in the world. Therefore, in 1987, Burma was listed as a Least Developed Country (LDC) by the United Nations.

Due to the deterioration of Burma’s economic situation and oppressive one political party rule, on August 8, 1988, which is known as 8-8-88, the people (workers, monks, peasants, teachers, government servants and the youth) of Burma led by the university students at Rangoon rose up as one to call upon the military rulers to abolish the ill-reputed one party system, demanding democracy and human rights in the country. The military responded with bullets against the peaceful demonstrators and killed more than 3,000 demonstrators throughout the country.

After the 8888 incidents, General Saw Maung took over the country on 18th September 1988 and renamed the ruling regime the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Therefore, in 1989 under SLORC, “Burma” was renamed as “Myanmar” to divert international attention and criticism.

A multi-party general election was held in May 1990, in which the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory. However, the military ignored the election result and did not hand over the people’s mandate to the winning party, instead imposing authoritarian rule and violently cracking down on the people’s pro-democracy movement.

The regime again renamed its government as the “State Peace and Development Council" (SPDC) in 1997.  Under the SPDC, the social, economic and human rights situation deteriorated further, which eventually led the people of Burma to come out onto the streets, as witnessed by the world in September 2007. But as usual, the military regime responded by violently cracking down on the peaceful protestors.