Abstract
Farrelly provides an in-depth assessment of identity-based conflict dynamics within Myanmar’s gradual shift to a more democratic system of government. Civil conflicts, that long raged in the country’s ethnically distinct corners, encourage the fortification of political discourses about identity, unity, and non-disintegration. With its difficult history of bloodshed and trauma, social cohesion is a goal worth pursuing. Myanmar’s transition to an increasingly open, inclusive, prosperous, and peaceful society requires new capacity to be built at every level of government, and across the broad range of ethnic and religious identities. Farrelly argues that working cooperatively and effectively with different identity-based factions in Myanmar is a profound test of the concepts of peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
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Notes
- 1.
Until 1989 the country’s official name was Burma. The State Law and Order Restoration Council opted to change the English-language name to Myanmar during a wide-ranging effort to reclaim what they deemed to be the nation’s pride. Other nomenclature was changed during this time, including the English-language spellings of many places including Yangon (formerly Rangoon) and the Ayeyarwady River (previously spelled as Irrawaddy River).
- 2.
- 3.
Udai Bhanu Singh, “Do the Changes in Myanmar Signify a Real Transition? A Response to the Debate,” Strategic Analysis 37, no. 1 (2013): 115–18.
- 4.
Ban Ki-moon, “Secretary-General’s Remarks at Meeting of Partnership Group on Myanmar” (New York: United Nations, April 25, 2014).
- 5.
There are still relatively little robust economic data on Myanmar. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank, both of which maintain large databases of current and historical data have scant materials for Myanmar. The current estimates for Myanmar’s GDP per capita hover around $1,300, although this still appears to be only an approximation, partly because there is uncertainty about the country’s precise population.
- 6.
World Bank, Power to People: World Bank Group to Invest US $2 Billion in Myanmar to Support Reforms, Reduce Poverty, Increase Energy and Health Access (Washington, DC: World Bank, January 26, 2014).
- 7.
OECD, OECD Investment Policy Reviews: Myanmar 2014 (Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2014).
- 8.
Reuters, “Obama Extends Some Sanctions against Myanmar Despite Reforms,” Reuters, May 15, 2014.
- 9.
Tim McLaughlin, “A Cola War Brews in Myanmar,” The Myanmar Times, September 24, 2012.
- 10.
David Scott Mathieson, “It’s Time for Burma’s President to Act,” Foreign Policy, May 7, 2013. Available from: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/05/07/it_s_time_for_burma_s_president_to_act
- 11.
Private conversations with senior members of the current Myanmar government who previously held important positions in the Myanmar army often put this toll in stark terms. In 2013, one senior political figure told me that roughly 30% of the officers commissioned from his Defense Services Academy class were killed in battle fighting the Communist Party of Burma, the Kachin Independence Army and the Karen National Union in the 1970s and 1980s. He indicated that it is difficult to confirm these numbers but that for the enlisted ranks the mortality percentage would often have been higher.
- 12.
Oliver Holmes, “Myanmar Agrees Limited Ceasefire Without Most Powerful Rebel Armies,” The Guardian, October 15, 2015.
- 13.
Renaud Egreteau, “Assessing Recent Ethnic Peace Talks in Myanmar,” Asian Ethnicity 13, no. 3 (2014): 311–313. See also, Burma News International, Deciphering Myanmar’s Peace Process: A Reference Guide (Chiang Mai: Burma News International, 2014).
- 14.
ICG, The Dark Side of Transition: Violence Against Muslims in Myanmar (Brussels: International Crisis Group. Asia Report 251, October 1, 2013).
- 15.
Thomas Fuller and Wai Moe, “Buddhist-Muslim Mayhem Hits Myanmar’s No. 2 City,” The New York Times, July 3, 2014.
- 16.
Kumar Ramakrishna, “Non-Violent Extremism: The Case of Wirathu in Myanmar,” RSIS Commentaries (Singapore: Nanyang Technological University, 2013).
- 17.
There is great dispute in Myanmar about whether a distinctive group called Rohingya even exists. Among those who are skeptical of such claims there is a consistent effort to delegitimize this particular ethnic category. In the 2014 census, for instance, government enumerators were instructed to reject any claim to Rohingya identity. See, for example, Tim McLaughlin, “Enumeration of Rohingya a ‘complete failure,’ Census Observers Say,” The Myanmar Times, August 19, 2014. By the same token the UN has well-established principles for self-identification and in that context the label Rohingya appears a reasonable reflection of certain individual and group preferences. In April 2014, Tomás Ojea Quintana, the UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, stated that “[s]elf-identification should constitute a pillar of the collection of ethnically disaggregated data. It is related to respect for the rights of individuals to assert their own identity” (UN, “UN Expert Alarmed at Worsening Human Rights Situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State,” United Nations News Centre. April 7, 2014). The contention about this issue is fundamental to the persecution faced by the Rohingya in Myanmar, but also in Bangladesh where a large population of former Myanmar residents, perhaps as many as 500,000 people, are excluded from Bangladeshi citizenship based on their foreign origins.
- 18.
Patrick Jory, “On Myanmar’s Plural Society,” New Mandala, April 2, 2013. Available from: asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2013/04/02/on-myanmars-plural-society/.
- 19.
Melissa Crouch, “Constitutional Amendment Key to 2015 Myanmar Elections,” New Mandala, August 8, 2013. Available from: asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2013/08/08/constitutional-amendment-key-to-2015-myanmar-elections/.
- 20.
Dylan Ming Hui Loh, “Myanmar’s ASEAN Chairmanship: Challenges and Opportunities,” RSIS Commentaries (Singapore: Nanyang Technological University, 2014).
- 21.
Unfortunately there is still little in the way of reliable survey data on political topics in Myanmar. As such, some of these observations are based on my own anecdotal impressions. These are grounded, in particular, in the period that I spent in Myanmar from January to June 2014 where I conducted research in Naypyitaw and Yangon, and also travelled to other parts of the country including Kachin, Kayin and Rakhine States, and Bago and Ayeyarwady Regions.
- 22.
Rachel Wagley, “A Separate Peace,” New Mandala, October 23, 2015. Available from: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2015/10/23/a-separate-peace/; Trevor Wilson, “Is Myanmar’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement Good Enough?” East Asia Forum, October 21, 2015. Available from: http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2015/10/21/is-myanmars-nationwide-ceasefire-agreement-good-enough/; Wa Lone, “Ceasefire Draft Could be Finalised in September, Government and Ethnic Groups Say,” The Myanmar Times, August 19, 2014. Available from: http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/11420-ceasefire-draft-could-be-finalised-in-september-government-and-ethnic-groups-say.html.
- 23.
See SWAN, License to Rape: The Burmese Military Regime’s Use of Sexual Violence in the Ongoing War in Shan State (Chiang Mai: Shan Human Rights Foundation and Shan Women’s Action Network, 2002), and also Fink (2008).
- 24.
Phyu Phyu Sann and Akila Radhakrishnan, “License to Rape: How Burma’s Military Employs Systematic Sexualized Violence,” Women under siege, March 15, 2012. Available from: http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/license-to-rape-how-burmas-military-employs-systematic-sexualized-violence.
- 25.
Yen Snaing and Lawi Weng, “Unicef Highlights Plight of Burma’s IDPs, Vulnerable Children,” The Irrawaddy, April 2, 2014.
- 26.
Rosalie Metro, “Looks Good on Paper: Education Reform in Burma,” New Mandala, February 25, 2014. Available from: asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2014/02/25/looks-good-on-paper-education-reform-in-burma/
- 27.
Although there are ethnic minority media organizations, some of which have resources sufficient to publish and present materials in multiple languages. The Kachin News Group, as one example, produces regular content in Burmese, English and Jinghpaw. For a full account of ethnic minority contributions to the media see Brooten (2008, 111–113).
- 28.
- 29.
Mika Toyota, “Contested Chinese Identities Among Ethnic Minorities in the China, Burma and Thai Borderlands,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 26, no. 2 (2003), 301–320.
- 30.
In 2014 I attended the major celebrations for Shan State Day and Chin State Day held in Naypyitaw. On both occasions senior members of the Myanmar government attended, including the speaker of the Union Assembly, Shwe Mann, and NLD leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. These festive occasions are an opportunity for the celebration of ethnic minority food, dance and music in the heart of Myanmar’s new capital.
- 31.
Pyae Thet Phyo, “State-Run Ethnic News, Culture Channel Begins Test Broadcasts,” The Myanmar Times, September 15, 2013.
- 32.
For recent coverage of the economics and politics of this mining see: Global Witness, Jade: Myanmar’s “Big State Secret”, October 23, 2015. Available from: https://www.globalwitness.org/documents/18096/Jade_full_report_online_lo_res.pdf.
- 33.
The mountainous road between Hpa-an and Myawaddy in Kayin state is a good example of the priority that armed groups, including government forces, put on controlling and taxing traffic through their territories. Along that road there are around five different groups, some of whom do not wear readily identifiable uniforms, which levy taxes on passing motorists.
- 34.
Desmond Ball, “Security Developments in the Thailand-Burma Borderlands” (Sydney: Australian Mekong Resource Centre, 2003).
- 35.
Nicholas Farrelly, “More on the Rebellion Resistance Force,” New Mandala, September 27, 2007. Available from: asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2007/09/27/more-on-the-rebellion-resistance-force
- 36.
Kyaw Phone Kyaw, “Civil Society Slams ‘disgraceful’ Interfaith Marriage Law Plan,” The Myanmar Times, May 12, 2014; Win Naung Toe, “Myanmar’s Parliament Approves Controversial Interfaith Marriage Law,” Radio Free Asia, July 7, 2015. Available from: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/parliament-approves-controversial-interfaith-marriage-law-07072015152051.html.
- 37.
Si Thu Lwin, “Meiktila IDPs Brace for Rainy Season,” The Myanmar Times, May 6, 2014.
- 38.
The percentages of people professing Myanmar’s different religions are widely disputed. There are ongoing efforts to challenge the claim that the Muslim population is more than 4%, but based on general impressions gleaned over many years it must be. And in that case the proportion of the population who are Buddhists is lower than the 90% that the government usually claims. It is unclear whether the 2014 census will ever provide relevant guidance on this question as the key data has yet to be released.
- 39.
Eliane Coates, “Inter-Religious Violence in Myanmar: A Security Threat to Southeast Asia,” RSIS Commentaries (Singapore: Nanyang Technological University, 2013).
- 40.
Previously there were senior figures in the armed forces drawn from ethnic backgrounds. Some of the most famous are General Smith Dun, who was commander-in-chief of the Burma Army in 1948 and 1949, and Lazum Kam Hpang, an ethnic Kachin who was Northern Commander based in Myitkyina but was assassinated by the Kachin Independence Army in 1985.
- 41.
There are still no major studies of this “returnee” population, although it is clear that over the next decade they will become influential actors in Myanmar society and politics.
- 42.
- 43.
It is important to recognize that other countries in Southeast Asia have similarly expansive visions of their historical claims. Some Thais have presented the boldest of those visions by claiming, in discursive terms at least, vast territories beyond their prevailing national borders.
- 44.
Lun Min Mang, “U Ye Htut Resurfaces from Study Leave in US,” The Myanmar Times, July 16, 2014.
- 45.
Kyaw Zwa Moe, “Burma’s Ex-Dictator and His Invisible Line,” The Irrawaddy, May 22, 2013.
- 46.
James Giggacher, “Watch the Enemies from Your Own Side,” New Mandala, August 14, 2015. Available from: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2015/08/14/watch-the-enemies-from-your-own-side/.
- 47.
At the same time it is still too early to judge whether such efforts will be maintained for the long-term. Proposals for a more robust national framework guarding against racial vilification are one example of the next possible steps in this process. For details on a potential racial discrimination law see Willis (2014).
- 48.
Mizzima, “Myanmar Govt Defends Decision to Bar Rohingya from Poll,” Mizzima News, September 26, 2015.
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Farrelly, N. (2017). Myanmar: Religion, Identity, and Conflict in a Democratic Transition. In: Cox, F., Sisk, T. (eds) Peacebuilding in Deeply Divided Societies . Rethinking Political Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50715-6_6
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