Contesting Buddhist Narratives Democratization Nationalism And Communal Violence In Myanmar

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Contesting Buddhist Narratives

Matthew J. Walton,Susan Hayward
Contesting Buddhist Narratives Book PDF

Author : Matthew J. Walton,Susan Hayward
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 80 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2014-10-24
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0866382526

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Contesting Buddhist Narratives by Matthew J. Walton,Susan Hayward Pdf

Myanmar's transition to democracy has been marred by violence between Buddhists and Muslims. While the violence originally broke out between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, it subsequently emerged throughout the country, impacting Buddhists and Muslims of many ethnic backgrounds. This article offers background on these so-called "communal conflicts" and the rise and evolution of Buddhist nationalist groups led by monks that have spearheaded anti-Muslim campaigns. The authors describe how current monastic political mobilization can be understood as an extension of past monastic activism, and is rooted in traditional understandings of the monastic community's responsibility to defend the religion, respond to community needs, and guide political decision-makers. The authors propose a counter-argument rooted in Theravada Buddhism to address the underlying anxieties motivating Buddhist nationalists while directing them toward peaceful actions promoting coexistence. Additionally, given that these conflicts derive from wider political, economic, and social dilemmas, the authors offer a prescription of complementary policy initiatives.

Interpreting Communal Violence in Myanmar

Nick Cheesman
Interpreting Communal Violence in Myanmar Book PDF

Author : Nick Cheesman
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 295 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2018-12-07
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781351380249

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Interpreting Communal Violence in Myanmar by Nick Cheesman Pdf

Myanmar’s recovery from half a century of military rule has been fraught. As in other religiously, culturally and linguistically heterogeneous countries where a dictatorship has loosened a tight grip, people there have wanted for democratic institutions to express and manage conflict. Under these circumstances, mundane and seemingly apolitical events sometimes unfold into moments of intense violence. Interpreting Communal Violence in Myanmar addresses one such violent chapter in Myanmar’s recent past: the communal violence that shook the country between 2012 and 2014. The violence, most of it involving Buddhists attacking Muslims, ranged from localised, fleeting, inter-group melees, to large scale, apparently well-organised, state-supported killing and destruction of property of a targeted community, running over a number of days. The book’s seven chapters comprise a response to the violence by a group of Myanmar and Southeast Asia experts. Their contributions trace the histories and contemporary features of the violence, and the legal and political arrangements that made it possible. Their interpretations, while specific to Myanmar, also contribute to broader debate about the characteristics, causes and consequences of communal violence generally. The chapters were originally published as a special issue in the Journal of Contemporary Asia.

Liberalism and Democracy in Myanmar

Roman David,Ian Holliday
Liberalism and Democracy in Myanmar Book PDF

Author : Roman David,Ian Holliday
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 251 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2019-01-15
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780198809609

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Liberalism and Democracy in Myanmar by Roman David,Ian Holliday Pdf

Historic Myanmar elections in 2015 and the installation of an NLD government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in 2016 contrast with ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in 2017. One critical question that now confronts the 50 million people of this Southeast Asian nation is whether the push for greater democracy is strong enough to prevail over a powerful military machine and undercurrents of intolerance. What are the prospects for liberal democracy in Myanmar? This bookaddresses this question by examining historical conditions, constitutionalism, democracy, major political actors, ethnic conflict, and transitional justice. It presents a rich array of evidence focusedon 88 in-depth interviews and three waves of surveys and experiments conducted in 2014-18. The analysis culminates in the concept of limited liberalism, which reflects a blend of liberal and illiberal attitudes. The book concludes that a weakening of liberal commitments among politicians and citizens alike, allied with spreading limited liberal attitudes, casts doubt on the prospects for liberal democracy in Myanmar.

Beyond the Death of God

Simone Raudino,Patricia Sohn
Beyond the Death of God Book PDF

Author : Simone Raudino,Patricia Sohn
Publisher : University of Michigan Press
Page : 661 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2022-05-26
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780472902682

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Beyond the Death of God by Simone Raudino,Patricia Sohn Pdf

This volume offers a nuanced picture with specific instances of religion and politics in Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu contexts, broadly presenting the phenomenon of religion and politics via country and thematic case studies. Qualitative, quantitative, material, philosophical, and theological analyses draw upon social theory to show how (and why) religion matters deeply in each time and place. The authors and contributors demonstrate that religion is a significant force that drives societies and polities around the world, and that a radical change in the Western understanding of value-driven global politics is needed. Beyond the Death of God offers new, local voices to Western audiences—through essays that suggest the need for an appreciation of Divinity as a quintessence holding a significant place in the hearts, minds, social orders, and political organization of polities around the world.

Conflict in Myanmar

Nick Cheesman
Conflict in Myanmar Book PDF

Author : Nick Cheesman
Publisher : Flipside Digital Content Company Inc.
Page : 572 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2017-03-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9789814762144

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Conflict in Myanmar by Nick Cheesman Pdf

As Myanmar's military adjusts to life with its former opponents holding elected office, Conflict in Myanmar showcases innovative research by a rising generation of scholars, analysts and practitioners about the past five years of political transformation. Each of its seventeen chapters, from participants in the 2015 Myanmar Update conference held at the Australian National University, builds on theoretically informed, evidence-based research to grapple with significant questions about ongoing violence and political contention. The authors offer a variety of fresh views on the most intractable and controversial aspects of Myanmar's long-running civil wars, fractious politics and religious tensions. This latest volume in the Myanmar Update Series from the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific continues and deepens a tradition of intense, critical engagement with political, economic and social questions that matter to both the inhabitants and neighbours of one of Southeast Asia's most complicated and fascinating countries.

Interreligious Conflict and the Politics of Interfaith Dialogue in Myanmar

Nyi Nyi Kyaw
Interreligious Conflict and the Politics of Interfaith Dialogue in Myanmar Book PDF

Author : Nyi Nyi Kyaw
Publisher : ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Page : 30 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2019-06-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9789814843874

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Interreligious Conflict and the Politics of Interfaith Dialogue in Myanmar by Nyi Nyi Kyaw Pdf

Amidst successive episodes of interreligious violence in Myanmar between 2012 and 2014, interfaith dialogue emerged as a crucial conflict resolution and prevention mechanism. The 2011–16 Union Solidarity and Development Party administration often indirectly promoted the use of interfaith dialogue to defuse interreligious tensions and conflicts, though its political will was questionable. Various governmental, intergovernmental, and non-governmental actors have engaged in interfaith dialogue, peace, and harmony initiatives in the past seven years. The present National League for Democracy administration has more actively sought to engage in intrafaith promotion of Buddhism and in interfaith peace and harmony initiatives. Intergovernmental, international and local interfaith actors also work in the interfaith dialogue field, but their impact is relatively weak because the government remains the most important actor in Myanmar in transition. Although the National League for Democracy has largely eliminated Buddhist nationalist groups such as Ma Ba Tha, Buddhist identity politics remains influential after the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army’s attacks in Rakhine State in 2016 and 2017 and the consequent refugee crisis. Although extreme anti-Muslim Buddhist identity politics may not see a resurgence in the approach to the 2020 general elections, it may come back in more nuanced forms. Interfaith dialogue and other training and activities for interreligious peace and harmony will thus remain relevant to the political scene.

Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim Crisis

John Clifford Holt
Myanmar s Buddhist Muslim Crisis Book PDF

Author : John Clifford Holt
Publisher : University of Hawaii Press
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 50,6 Mb
Release : 2019-09-30
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780824881795

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Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim Crisis by John Clifford Holt Pdf

Myanmar’s Buddhist-Muslim Crisis is a probing search into the reasons and rationalizations behind the violence occurring in Myanmar, especially the oppressive military campaigns waged against Rohingya Muslims by the army in 2016 and 2017. Over more than three years John Holt traveled around Myanmar engaging in sustained conversations with prominent and articulate participants and observers. What emerges from his peregrinations is a series of compelling portraits revealing both deep insights and entrenched misunderstandings. To understand the conflict, Holt must first accurately capture the viewpoints of his different conversation partners, who include Buddhists and Muslims, men and women, monks and laypeople, activists and scholars. Conversations range widely over issues such as the rise of Buddhist nationalism; the sometimes enigmatic and unexpected positions taken by Aung San Suu Kyii; use of the controversial term “Rohingya”; the impact of state-sponsored propaganda on the Burmese public; resistance to narratives emanating from international media, the United Nations, and the international diplomatic community; the frustrations of local political leaders who have felt left out of the policy-making process in the Rakhine State; and the constructive hopes and efforts still being made by forward-looking activists in Yangon. Three main perspectives emerge from the voices he listens to, those of Arakanese Buddhists who are native to Rakhine (once called Arakan), where much of the conflict has taken place; Burmese Buddhists (or Bamars), who make up the vast majority of Myanmar’s population; and the Rohingya Muslims, whose tragic story has been widely disseminated by the international media. What surfaces in conversation after conversation among all three groups is a narrative of siege: all see themselves as the aggrieved party, and all recount a history of being under siege. John Holt gives voice to these different perspectives as an engaged and concerned participant, offering both a critical and empathetic account of Myanmar’s tragic predicament. Readers follow the hopes and dismay of this seasoned scholar of Theravada Buddhism as he seeks his own understanding of the variously impassioned forces in play in this still unfolding drama.

NGOs Mediating Peace

Julia Palmiano Federer
NGOs Mediating Peace Book PDF

Author : Julia Palmiano Federer
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2023-12-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9783031421747

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NGOs Mediating Peace by Julia Palmiano Federer Pdf

This book explores the role of nongovernmental mediators in promoting “inclusive peace” to negotiating parties in Myanmar’s Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) negotiations from 2011-2015. The influx of NGO mediators directly engaging with the negotiating parties and promoting the inclusivity norm coupled with the salience of discourse around “all-inclusiveness” at the end of the NCA process forms a puzzle around the agency that NGO mediators wield in influencing political outcomes, despite their lack of political and material leverage.The author argues that NGO mediators can effectively promote norms, using mediation processes as a site of norm diffusion. Bespoke international conflict resolution NGOs have become key mediation actors, within the last three decades through creating the niche world of “private diplomacy” and acting as "norm entrepreneurs" at the same time. As informal third parties, these NGO mediators directly engage with politically sensitive actors or convene unofficial peace talks. As NGOs, they are part of an epistemic community of mediation practice, professionalizing the field and producing knowledge on what peace mediation is and what it ought to be. This dual identity as both NGOs and mediators nicely sets them up with a unique agency to promote and diffuse norms. These norms often reflect the liberal peacebuilding paradigm promoted from the Global North, such as inclusion, gender equality and transitional justice, with the view that these norms are not ends in themselves but as necessary ingredients for effective mediation.The book further questions whether NGOs should promote norms in the first place. The outcome of the NCA process presents a critical and cautionary tale of promoting a presumed universal norm into a given locale and expecting a certain outcome without understanding how an external norm interacts with existing normative frameworks. The book illustrates that while NGO mediators do possess the “normative agency” to effectively promote norms to negotiating parties, my empirical research analyses how their promotion of the “inclusivity” norm to the negotiating parties in Myanmar’s NCA paradoxically resulted in exclusionary outcomes: only half of the armed groups in the ethnic armed groups’ negotiating bloc signed, and civil society was effectively crowded out from meaningful participation despite lofty rhetoric. This is an open access book.

Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy Outlook

David Arase
Free and Open Indo Pacific Strategy Outlook Book PDF

Author : David Arase
Publisher : ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Page : 27 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2019-09-20
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9789814881135

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Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy Outlook by David Arase Pdf

The United States launched a new Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) strategy in late 2017 after reluctantly concluding that its patient effort to engage and socialize China to the rules-based order since 1972 had failed. China’s behaviour since 2009 convinced the United States that China is a revisionist power seeking to impose an authoritarian model of governance in Asia which, if successful, would end the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific as well as endanger US security and vital trade interests. The new US FOIP strategy initiative seeks to engage like-minded nations in economic, security (both traditional and non-traditional), and political governance partnerships to construct a collaborative and scalable network of relations that will be able to respond flexibly to meet a wide range of stakeholder needs and regional contingencies across the Indo-Pacific region. The United States occupies a peak organizing role in this network and works with a hierarchy of partners distributed throughout the vast Indo-Pacific to meet the economic, security, and governance capacity needs of network members at any level. The rules-based order is the “operating system” of this network approach, and so the network itself sustains the rules-based order for its members as a collective good. FOIP is more like a club that generates rules-based order benefits for its members and as such has little in common with Cold War bloc politics and containment strategy. Bearing in mind that FOIP is only in its start-up phase and is likely to gather momentum going forward; that the elements of this network strategy are already in place; and that the United States and its main FOIP partners together have considerable material, organizational, and soft power resources, one may say that its prospects for long-term sustainability and success are not bad.

Politics of Religious Freedom

Winnifred Fallers Sullivan,Elizabeth Shakman Hurd,Saba Mahmood,Peter G. Danchin
Politics of Religious Freedom Book PDF

Author : Winnifred Fallers Sullivan,Elizabeth Shakman Hurd,Saba Mahmood,Peter G. Danchin
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 361 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2015-07-22
Category : Law
ISBN : 9780226248509

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Politics of Religious Freedom by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan,Elizabeth Shakman Hurd,Saba Mahmood,Peter G. Danchin Pdf

Religious freedom has achieved broad consensus as a condition for peace. Faced with reports of a rise in religious violence and a host of other social ills, public, and private actors have responded with laws and policies designed to promote freedom of religion. But what precisely is being promoted? What are the assumptions underlying this response? The contributions to this volume unsettle the assumption that religious freedom is a singular achievement and that the problem lies in its incomplete accomplishment. Delineating the different conceptions of religious freedom predominant in the world today, as well as their histories and political contexts, the contributions make clear that the reasons for violence and discrimination are more complex than is widely acknowledged. The promotion of a single legal and cultural tool meant to address conflict across a wide variety of cultures can have the perverse effect of exacerbating the problems that plague the communities often cited as falling short. -- from back cover.

Secularism, Religion, and Democracy in Southeast Asia

Vidhu Verma
Secularism Religion and Democracy in Southeast Asia Book PDF

Author : Vidhu Verma
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 263 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2019-08-24
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780199098767

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Secularism, Religion, and Democracy in Southeast Asia by Vidhu Verma Pdf

Until the 1990s, secularism was understood largely as exclusion of religion from the public domain. However, in the last two decades, the world has witnessed the return of religion as a medium and subject of national, regional, and global politics. With such a shift, the previously unquestioned Western values of modernity and secularism find themselves at loggerheads with the increasing assertion of religious identity, which results in difference-based conflicts. This antagonism also gives rise to a vibrant, religiously pluralistic civil society and speaks of a post-secular turn in modern Southeast Asian democracies. Secularism, Religion, and Democracy in Southeast Asia tries to understand the rise of religion in modern democracies and how everyday economic, social, and political conditions aid this post-secular phenomenon in Southeast Asia. Setting itself apart from most studies of religion in Southeast Asia through its regional focus, this volume explores the ideas, practices, state responses, and anxieties related to the religious–secular divide in this geopolitical region.

Asia’s Trouble Spots

A. S. Bhalla
Asia s Trouble Spots Book PDF

Author : A. S. Bhalla
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2019-08-06
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781786608376

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Asia’s Trouble Spots by A. S. Bhalla Pdf

The art of successful negotiations over protracted conflicts presupposes a political commitment to peace and a willingness to compromise, which are sorely lacking in the current disorderly world. Part of the blame for this lies in weak and ineffective national and global leadership. This book’s sharp focus on the role of leadership at different levels—national government, rebel and Western/regional government mediators—as well as that of the UN and non-governmental players in settling intra-state disputes, is a unique feature which sets it apart from others. Much of the existing literature does not adequately discuss the role of the above actors in developing countries. Asia’s Trouble Spots is a serious attempt to fill this gap. The seven country studies in Asia—Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and China—discuss, inter alia, how peace negotiations between national political and rebel leaders have unfolded. The role of state-sponsored cross-border terrorists and non-state spoilers such as Al-Qaeda and ISIS is addressed in the context of geopolitical rivalry among regional and global powers. A. S. Bhalla challenges the view that Western leaders can act as impartial mediators in intra-state and inter-state disputes. With few exceptions, their record has been dismal at best. Their failure in conflict resolution arises from a loss of moral authority and credibility, which follows the gradual erosion over the years of such liberal values as the rule of law and respect for democracy and human rights. Commercial and strategic self-interests have also tended to undermine peacebuilding efforts.

Contested Civil Society in Myanmar

Maaike Matelski
Contested Civil Society in Myanmar Book PDF

Author : Maaike Matelski
Publisher : Policy Press
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2023-11-23
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781529230543

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Contested Civil Society in Myanmar by Maaike Matelski Pdf

This book centres on various contestations in Myanmar society and illustrates the ways in which these are reflected in civil society. It provides an up-to-date overview of the main identities and contestations within Myanmar’s civil society and, by extension, within Myanmar society as a whole.

Community Welfare Organisations in Rural Myanmar

Michael P Griffiths
Community Welfare Organisations in Rural Myanmar Book PDF

Author : Michael P Griffiths
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 174 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2019-11-21
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781000767438

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Community Welfare Organisations in Rural Myanmar by Michael P Griffiths Pdf

This book provides an in-depth study of the moral economies emerging from within conditions of precarity in rural communities in contemporary Myanmar. James C. Scott’s seminal work on ‘The Moral Economy of the Peasant’ argued that peasant notions of subsistence and expectations of reciprocity formed the basis for subsequent rebellion as economic conditions changed and new market forces were introduced. Now, nearly a century on, Michael Griffiths argues that the conditions faced by rural communities in Myanmar remain precarious, but different forms of moral economy shape their responses. In the contemporary context, the moral economy of rural communities is characterized by the emergence of localized, self-organized community welfare associations which adopt a sophisticated iteration of self-help framed by the Buddhist concept of parahita (altruism). This book analyses the performative nature of these welfare organizations as a form of politics, asking how notions of citizenship expressed in these organizations promote more inclusive, or more exclusive practices towards non-Buddhist minorities. At a time when discourse on identity in Myanmar has been dominated by practices of othering and exclusion, this book provides an important analysis of what citizenship and reciprocity means in contemporary rural Myanmar. This book is a critical resource for researchers working on rural development and the social sciences in Southeast Asia.

Everyday Economic Survival in Myanmar

Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung
Everyday Economic Survival in Myanmar Book PDF

Author : Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung
Publisher : University of Wisconsin Press
Page : 309 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2019-01-22
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780299320607

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Everyday Economic Survival in Myanmar by Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung Pdf

Reforms in Myanmar (formerly Burma) have eased restrictions on citizens' political activities. Yet for most Burmese, Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung shows, eking out a living from day to day leaves little time for civic engagement. Citizens have coped with extreme hardship through great resourcefulness. But by making bad situations more tolerable in the short term, these coping strategies may hinder the emergence of the democratic values needed to sustain the country's transition to a more open political environment. Thawnghmung conducted in-depth interviews and surveys of 372 individuals from all walks of life and across geographical locations in Myanmar between 2008 and 2015. To frame her analysis, she provides context from countries with comparable political and economic situations. Her findings will be welcomed by political scientists and policy analysts, as well by journalists and humanitarian activists looking for substantive, reliable information about everyday life in a country that remains largely in the shadows.