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  • Identity Politics, Myanmar's Bête Noire, Continues to Constrain the Nation's Future
  • Bruce Matthews (bio)

With Myanmar's 'Rohingya' Conflict, Anthony Ware and Costas Laoutides have crafted a valuable study of the long-standing Rohingya emergency in Myanmar. The book provides both a helpful historical review and a fresh perspective on this conflict, including the recent events that have seriously compromised the international reputation of the country.

Scarcely two years ago, then U.S. president Barack Obama lifted the economic sanctions imposed on the long-time military state after it finally ceded some control (but not all) to the government of Aung San Suu Kyi elected in 2015. Just as Myanmar seemed to have turned a corner on decades of suffocating military rule, however, renewed attempts by indigenous Muslims (the Rohingya, derived from "Rohang" or "Arakan") to gain some political autonomy in the west of Myanmar's Rakhine State have led to disaster. A recent manifestation was the Rohingya military-style assault on border security forces on August 25, 2017, aided by possibly minor but worrisome connections to international jihadists. It was particularly unfortunate that these attacks came only hours after the submission of the final report by the Kofi Annan–led Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, which the authors aver was the best set of recommendations to date even despite certain gaps (p. 208). The violence led to the subsequent excessive response by the army (the Tatmadaw) involving horrific, documented human rights abuses and the forced expulsion of 700,000 Rohingya (two-thirds of the community) from Myanmar into neighboring Bangladesh.

The authors come to grips with the general theme of the Rohingya crisis and its historical grievances in three parts. One way of reviewing their approach to this complex topic is to provide a brief outline of the book's structure, and then to isolate several crucial issues identified for further discussion. The book does not claim to have all the answers, nor to apportion blame, but aims to explain the conflict, correct misconceptions, examine the historical narrative, and help conceptualize a way forward. The first part, entitled "Context," is initially designated as "Personal Journeys into this Conflict." Its two chapters reflect the comprehensive fieldwork [End Page 188] undertaken by the two authors, who visited Myanmar and the state of Rahkine several times over five years, and explore the complexities and misconceptions encountered in analyzing the 2017 Rohingya uprising. These chapters provide a geographic, demographic, and historical basis on which an analysis should be formed. They argue that Myanmar's 2017 experience of sectarian violence and what amounts to subsequent "ethnic cleansing" needs to be seen as an extension of other Rohingya attacks on security forces dating back to 2012. These have involved the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) and show evidence of likely foreign Islamist jihadist involvement. But, importantly, the authors stress that the Rakhine State is also the homeland of a historic and substantial Arakan (Rakhine) Burmese Buddhist society that is ethnically and culturally separate from the Rohingya. This society has roots in western Myanmar associated with the once-famous Mrauk-U kingdom (1430–1784 CE) and its own significant chronicles (the Razawin), which lend support for an independent identity. The Rakhine Buddhists affirm that their political independence was harshly terminated by invading Burmese forces in 1784. Importantly, therefore, this community, with its independent Arakan Army (AA), is still involved in its own insurrection campaign against rule from Naypyidaw, Myanmar's capital. It is significant that the Rakhine State (its name changed from Arakan in 1990) has a solid overall Buddhist majority, who in turn are not at war with the Rohingya.

The book's second part, entitled "Historical Narratives, Representation and Collective Memory," continues an examination of the "competing nationalist narratives," and how they are used to exacerbate the conflict from the three entirely separate perspectives of the Rohingya, the Rakhine Buddhists, and the Burmese. The third part, comprising two final chapters, focuses on conflict analysis theory. Most important is the key demographic issue of a Muslim community with high birthrates, stemming from, among other things, a lack of education, healthcare, and economic security. These factors are seen as a long-term major...

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