Ethnic Conflict between Myanmar Military Government and Kachin: Consequence of Burmanization Policy and Chinese Expansion
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Abstract
The purpose of this article is to study the uninterrupted ethnic conflict between Myanmar military government and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Kachin State. Since mid-2011, the KIA has been severely assaulted and increasingly violated by the end of 2012, when Laiza, the main base of KIA, was bombarded by the military junta. There were thus many refugees evacuating from the battlefield. Even though the Myanmar President, Thein Sein, has tried so many times to negotiate with the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) since March 2013, the long-lasting ethnic conflict remains explicitly unsolvable due to the fact that the army has not declared a truce yet, so does the KIA. The main research questions in this article are as follows: How come the ethnic conflict in Kachin State was re-ignited and what are the main factors that influence the maintenance of this conflict? There are three approaches used as tools to answer the research question: (1) cultural politics and (2) institutional and structural politics are both the main points of “internal factor”, while (3) politics of natural resources development project and foreign investment, which is influenced by the Chinese expansion on behalf of hegemonic rivalry in Southeast Asia, is the main point of “external factor” of this issue. These three approaches lead to the understanding that the concept of the dominant culture of nation-state, concretely in “Burmanization Policy”, has been embodied and evolved into the unfair political institution and centralized political structure of Myanmar. The implementation of this policy conforms to the China’s expansionist policy in this region, by investing in natural resources and energy development projects, especially the oil and gas pipelines in Kyaukpyu. Due to the “Burmanization Policy” and the role of Chinese hegemonic expansion, the ethnic conflict in Kachin State was re-ignited and unstoppably remained.
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