Unfinished Nation: Imagining a New Myanmar Beyond Religious Nationalism and Tribalism

David Thang Moe, Henry Hart Rice Postdoctoral Associate, Yale University

Myanmar is religiously and ethnically the second most diverse nation in Southeast Asia after Indonesia. Yet why does the nation fail to embrace its religious and ethnic diversity as strength for building a post-independence nation? Today, Myanmar exists in Southeast Asia as an “unfinished nation” marked by the post-colonial politics of Buddhist nationalism, monocultural politics of Burmanization, the longest civil war, majority-minority ethnic conflict, and minority conflict within minority states. Why did Buddhist nationalism rise? How does old Buddhist nationalism relate to the new 2021 coup? How does religion play a role in the ethnic identity imagination of nationalism and tribalism? Religion and ethnicity have been a dividing and exclusionary role in the Burmese politics, most tragically in the persecution of the Rohingya. Yet the urgent need of anti-coup and anti-Buddhist nationalism movement led by youth from “Generation Z” has brought together protesters from different religions and ethnicities. Civilians from the rural villages and urban cities have bridged their religious and ethnic divides to resist the coup and nationalism. How deep is their religious solidarity and ethnic reconciliation within a short period of time? Do the ethnic majorities and ethnic minorities share the same political vision of democracy? Is federalism the only solution to the complexities of multiple conflicts?

The speaker will share about his firsthand experience of Buddhist nationalism, his expertise in the theory of Buddhist nationalism, and his reflection on decentralized resistance to the coup. He will examine the historical and ideological development of how Buddhist nationalism arose in three different periods—as an anti-colonialism in the colonial period; as anti-ethnic minorities in the post-colonial period; and as anti-ethnic minorities (identity conflict) as well as anti-Bamar ethnic majorities, who resist the coup as adharma (ideology conflict) in the new coup period. Drawing from the anti-coup movement as the context, he will examine how the ethnic minorities and ethnic majorities might have a shared or separate vision. He will then offer some theoretical and practical ways for imagining an embracive vision of building a new Myanmar beyond religious nationalism and tribalism. To that end goal, he will also show how religious ethics might shape a moral vision of embracing multiculturalism as strength for building a new Myanmar where people would practice a mutual recognition of one’s ethnic identity and cultural otherness not only at the elite political levels, but also at their daily interactions with one another.