Against the backdrop of democratic movements, globalization, and mounting external pressures, after 2010 the military junta had no alternative but to change the political landscape of Myanmar. The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory in the general election in 2015, taking 77% of the contested seats and formed a new democratic government in 2016. Myanmar is now characterized as a country in transition from an authoritarian regime to a more democratic political regime following more than five decades of military rule. People in Myanmar, who were suppressed by the military junta, have longed for this opening of a new era and welcomed it with high expectation and hope.
There have been a number of far-reaching economic and political reforms made in the hope of sparking the rebirth of the nation. However, the progress has been slow especially in the social sector, which has taken a backseat to the progress in the economic sector. The military has retained significant influence over the government, making it difficult for the new regime to produce meaningful results. The 2008 constitution guarantees 25% of seats in national and regional parliaments to the military and ensures that military keeps control of three key ministriesâdefense, border affairs, and home affairs, which enables the army to operate completely independently of the NLD-led government on major national issues. In addition, various regional and national tensions threaten the already fragile transition.
In late 2016, in the Rakhine State, the long-simmering tension boiled over into armed conflict between Muslim militant and the military. An estimated 700,000 Rohingya have reportedly fled to neighboring Bangladesh to escape ethnic and religious persecution by the Burmese security forces in the name of a âclearance operationsâ of the insurgent groups. The Myanmar military has been accused by UN agencies of committing genocide in the form of ethnic cleansing, although the government repeatedly rejected the accusations and even imposed the imprisonment of Myanmar journalists who reported atrocities in Rakhine for breaching the Official Secrets Act (Human Rights Council, 2018). Seventy years of Myanmarâs armed conflicts between the Burmese Army and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), including the renewed conflicts in Kachin and northern Shan State, which have intensified since 2016, have produced thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons. In spite of the fact that a total of 10 out of 21 EAOs signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) as a result of the ongoing peace initiatives, the new opportunities have led, ironically, to the emergence of multiple new social and intercommunal divisions between signatories and non-signatories, as well as among non-signatories (Thawnghmung & Robinson, 2017). Media freedom has been improved although it is still limited, and self-censorship is commonly practiced, which aggravates an already bad situation. Ethnicity as well as religion remains the key issues for peaceful transition, since these divisions reinforce and perpetuate inequality, discrimination, and human insecurity.
Therefore, on the one hand, there have been many positive changes due to the new opportunities with more foreign aids, investment, and development projects, but on the other hand, the most vulnerable people, especially women and children in the conflict-affected ethnic areas, still face considerable challenges, which the government has so far failed to address.
Under the military dictatorship, womenâs rights were brutally violated, and violations of womenâs rights continue to the present day in many parts of Myanmar. Rape and the other forms of sexual violence against women have been officially condoned as a âstrategic weapon of warâ to terrorize and subjugate ethnic minorities. Even though women do not belong to ethnic groups, the political space for women is severely limited owing to prolonged military suppression as well as traditional social and cultural norms. Although the participation rate of women in national parliament increased to 10.2% at the 2015 election, Myanmar ranked 160 out of 193 countries in the world in respect of gender equality (IPU, 2018).
Many children in rural and ethnic areas also do not have fundamental and basic human rights. The infant and child mortality rates are the second highest among ASEAN member states after Lao, due mainly to poverty and inadequate provision of healthcare services. Children in poor households tend to drop out of school and are obliged to find work to support their family and often engage in abusive child labor. Many children have been kidnapped and forced to work as child soldiers, particularly in conflict-affected regions. These children are victims of conflicts and poverty and struggle to survive without basic education or health service. Under such situations, the minority ethnic groups have accumulated grievances arising from the denial of their human rights, which has left them with little choice other than to engage in armed actions against their oppressors.
Myanmar is now standing at a critical juncture. The citizens of the state need to be united to move forward with national reconciliation and democratization in order to achieve enduring peace, stability as well as economic development. However, the country seems to be trapped into a precarious position and divided into a number of socially and self-identified groups in terms of ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, races, and social classes due to the new opportunities and challenges faced differently by each group. The social divisions have been deliberately created by people joining hands together so as not to stage a counterattack to the authority. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to address the issues of inequality, which perpetuates social divisions, based on a long-term perspective. Conflict resolution is vital to reduce the number of present sufferers. However, the current approach alone may not bring about a long-term solution since the grievances are deeply ingrained especially in the mind of ethnic people. Therefore, how can we reduce inequality, which is the fundamental cause of conflicts? How can we promote social cohesion to work with Myanmarâs divided society? How can we create an inclusive future for the next generation?
The main task of this book will be to find possible answers to these questions and discuss the root causes of problems as well as to analyze their impacts. This is surely demanding and challenging, as there is no straightforward and single answer to the questions, given the precarious situation of the country. However, especially since Myanmarâs society is multiethnic with the complex intercommunal division created by the colonial history and the current political climate, this book focuses on children and women whose rights have been most severely violated as well as civil society organizations (CSOs) especially womenâs organizations (WOs) as the possible agency of social transformation. Many WOs have been actively working for the well-being of their communities and trying to bridge the huge gap left by the government, especially in the socio-environmental sphere. They also form a coalition across the ethnic boundaries for womenâs rights, realization of national reconciliation, and peace. Although women are not homogeneous, and we cannot deny that not all women are peace-oriented, women tend to work for resolving differences and uniting people. From that perspective, field and conceptual base case studies were explored to discuss the issues on (1) monastic education and CSOs, (2) protection of womenâs rights for community development (CD), (3) childrenâs rights and CSOs, (4) plurilingualism, equality, and social cohesion, and (5) social transformation through multilingual education to bridge the divides.
Chapter 2 brings into focus the current conditions of children, the state education system, and various civil society initiatives in the education sector. A comparative case study was conducted to provide insight into their activities. Civil society activities are crucial for helping the neglected segments of society. However, there are additional challenges in terms of the quality of the education, provision of the services, and school administration. This is due to a variety of factors including pressure from the post-1988 regimes. Therefore, volunteerism is essential for ensuring the future success of the development of alternative education, which depends in part on both internal and external support.
Chapter 3 highlights the importance of protecting and promoting womenâs rights for sustainable CD. Its focus is on the changing roles of Myanmarâs women and their civil society initiatives and examines how those womenâs efforts contribute to the development of their communities. A sustainable CD model adopted by an ethnic womenâs organization is discussed as a conceptual framework for examining the contributions and the roles of ethnic women-led organizations. It is revealed from a case study of the Karen Womenâs Organization that womenâs active participation and empowerment, strengthened by the protection and promotion of womenâs rights, result in respect for diversity, harmony, solidarity, and recognition from external actors. However, some challenges still remain, since the enabling mechanism needs to be improved and made widely available across all the limitations, borders, and restrictions that still exist as Myanmar transitions to making comprehensive CD possible and sustainable everywhere.
Chapter 4 discusses the importance of civil society initiatives to secure childrenâs rights. After highlighting the differences and challenges unique to Myanmarâs civil society, a comparative case study based on two representative community-based organizations in the education and health sectors is presented in relation to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to shed light on their roles, scope, and capacity for securing the rights of these marginalized children. Having explored the common areas of coverage, it is argued that such initiatives may promote the economic, social, and cultural rights of the children. Therefore, strengthening civil society and community-based organizations and promoting more internal and external support are crucial to securing the full childrenâs rights and a sustainable future.
Chapter 5 explores the possibilities of plurilingualism, which is a fundamental concept in the European-language education policies for promoting equality and social cohesion in Myanmarâs divided society. The current situation is examined in light of the countryâs history of ethnic and religious conflict, before the literature concerning peacebuilding and rectifying inequality and plurilingualism is reviewed to formulate a conceptual framework for social transformation that might bridge the various divides. Then, the possibility of plurilingual education is discussed, in the hope that such an attempt might lay a foundation for a pluralist democracy and sustainable peace, through the realization of a harmonized multiethnic Myanmar.
Chapter 6 explores the current situation of language policy and education in Myanmar. Its intention is to analyze the theoretical perspectives found within ethnic conflict, as well as examining the potential for mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) to bridge the divides and promote social cohesion. Although the government recently adopted a law that guarantees the use of minority languages as a means of instruction in basic education, the situation has been reported as being far from the expectation of ethnic minorities. Cases from the Karen State are described as creating further mistrust and fear in the mind of the rural villagers. Finally, a prospect of MTB-MLE is discussed with a set of recommendation for bridging Myanmarâs divided society to shed new light on the importance of language in advancing a genuine, and sustainable, peace process in Myanmar.
The goal in addressing the issues of inequality and social division through CSOâs and womenâs contribution on children and women as well as language education is not to suggest that these alone have all the answers to the questions. It is rather bringing to shed the light on CSOâs, especially womenâs activism as well as the importance of identity related to language, which have been rather neglected in the current process of democratization, national reconciliation, and peace. It also demonstrates the values of women and language-driven identity promotion, which have the potential for peace from a long-term perspective.
Women and the women-led organizations are proving themselves by engaging the activities ranging from household income generation to community harmony, socio-ecological resilience, environmental protection, sustainable development, and national peacebuilding, as active agents as well as the guardians of peaceful societal transformation. In addition, children will be the carriers of todayâs transformation to further consolidate the cycle of sustainable development and peace in the society of Myanmar in the longer term.
Therefore, the discussions throughout the book indicate a way to reduce inequalities through investment in human capital since it is the most hopeful and promising means of generating a positive and lasting social change benefitting many. Advocacy, education, training, as well as awareness promotion and protection of the rights of children, women and minorities are indispensable at any level in building community security and accelerating the process of development.
Only when guaranteeing multiple dimensions of equality in Myanmarâs society, willâcommunities across different socioeconomic strata, ethnic and historical background, politico-ideological settings, religious and cultural beliefs, and language identityâbe able to enjoy the fruitful benefits of democratization, leading to an installation of a âpeace cultureâ in the nation.
For accomplishing this much-needed goal, respecting âdiversityâ and practicing âmutual respectâ can be a twin pillar of âfoundation for peaceâ that could be promoted from community classrooms, where both children and adults can interact through multilingual education.
However, it is still premature to conclude its possibility and successful applicability, like some cases of the European countries, as a means for respecting diversity, promoting mutual understanding and social cohesion with the intent of sustainable peace. Nevertheless, it is worth exploring the possibility through action research at community level in different regions since the ongoing democratic transition of multiethnic and multilingual Myanmar opens a new window of opportunities for peace, security, development, and freedom for her citizens to fully enjoy life in the future.
References
- Human Rights Council. (2018). Report of the independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar. Human Rights Council, Thirteen-Nine Session, A/HRC/39/64.
- IPU. (2018). Women in national parliaments. Inter-Parliamentary Union. Retrieved December 31, 2018, from http://âarchive.âipu.âorg/âwmn-e/âclassif.âhtm.
- Thawnghmung, A. M., & Robinson, G. (2017). Myanmarâs new era: A break from the past, or too much of the same? Southeast Asian Affairs, 2017, 237â257.