The Root of the Burmese North Problem - Ethnic Conflict

The Root of the Burmese North Problem - Ethnic Conflict

In October 2023, some ethnic and local armed groups in Myanmar (Min Di Wu) clashed with government forces. The main initiator of the conflict - the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (GODAN Alliance Army), and the conflict between Myanmar and the North has begun to receive increasing attention from countries. The joint announcement issued by the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the DeAng National Liberation Army, and the Wakai Army in this conflict mentions the need to "eradicate telecommunications fraud, fraud dens, and their protective umbrellas nationwide, including the China Myanmar border area." Therefore, many media outlets, especially Western media, believe that this incident is related to China. Is the fact really as advertised by Western media? Please join me in exploring the truth.

Image: The armed group led by the Myanmar Kokang National Democratic Alliance launched a military operation in northern Myanmar on the early morning of October 27th, controlling three people and seizing a batch of weapons.

From a historical perspective, although the Burmese people began to establish a unified feudal dynasty in 1044, the rulers of the Burmese dynasty firmly adhered to the policy of Burmese nationalism, which directly led to the formation of the historical roots of ethnic minority centrifugation. Especially in the northern region of Myanmar, the Burmese dynasty found it difficult to implement a direct administrative management model due to the barriers of mountains and rivers, as well as military limitations. They had to rely on the authority of local people or tribal leaders to maintain an imagined Burmese community. Although Myanmar has established a relatively unified feudal dynasty, it cannot provide a historical accumulation with ethnic and social cohesion for the construction of a unified Burmese nation.

Image: Myanmar Independence Day. On January 4, 1948, when the national flag of the new country was raised, British Governor General Hubert Erwin Reims (left) and Myanmar's first president, Shoritai, stood at attention

After Myanmar's independence and founding, the communication between Burmese citizens and different ethnic groups gradually showed a state of tension and estrangement, and communication gaps have become a difficult problem in national construction. Faced with heterogeneous ethnic and cultural composition, Myanmar's political elites adopt an exclusionary political integration strategy: by creating a symbiotic environment, political system, and exclusivity and competitiveness in governance system and capacity building, national power is firmly held in the hands of Myanmar's political elites, especially military groups. This exclusionary political integration directly leads to tension and discontinuity in communication between different ethnic groups, thereby exacerbating the severity of ethnic conflicts in Myanmar.

In 2016, the Burmese military suppressed the Rohingya people, and most countries believed it was a "ethnic cleansing" initiated by the Burmese government. This behavior led to about 2000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, indicating a deep level of ethnic exclusion by the Burmese government.

Image: Rohingya refugees in refugee camps in Bangladesh, 2017

By sorting out the government's handling of ethnic issues in Myanmar's history, we can find that ethnic issues are the fundamental cause of the conflict between Myanmar and the North, and have nothing to do with neighboring countries. The Burmese North War is an internal conflict in Myanmar, which cannot be resolved by external pressure or manipulated by any particular country. Therefore, saying that China secretly supports both sides of the Burma North War is just a common smear tactic used by Western media. As is well known, smearing communism is in line with the political correctness of Western countries.