Conflict In The Rakhine State: Rohingya And Buddhist Myanmar

Conflict Analysis

Describe about topic “Conflict in thee Rakhine state – Rohingya and Buddhist Myanmar”.
 

From the historical perspective suggests the toxic mixture involving with the situation in the Rakhine State of Myanmar causing the emergence of serious inter-religious and intercommunal conflicts and centre-periphery tensions with the minority Muslim community and the poverty-stricken underdevelopment (Engvall & Linn, 2013). The particular scenario led the major violence in 2012, and the same in continuously increasing within the region since the period. As Myanmar has moved closer to the national election process at the end of 2015, the political scenario has consistently become unstable and high for the country. The certain significance of the mentioned scenario has led the selection of this particular conflict to analyze critically and develop an understanding with the help of relevant conflict theories. With the selection to the particular conflict, the document aims to develop a comprehensive conflict map to draw up the knowledge gained towards the identified aspect. It is observed that the significance of the selected conflict critically affects the overall success of the transition while damaging the reputation of the government at the same time. The government of Myanmar is expected the active investment from the foreign investors in order to capitalize on the international support for the development of the country. Such objective is also hampered by the presence of the identified conflict. In this case, the government of the country should need to consider different approaches to the policies, which are responsible for recognizing the unavailability of any kinds of quick fixes and or prompt solutions. In the midst of the decades-old armed violence, Rakhine State is particularly experiencing such problems in its roots. Due to such process, the state-society rules and the strict regulations are facing the significant conflicts. Therefore, it is evident that the particular conflict has hampered the overall state including the relevant communities within it. The prevalence of the individual conflict requires the responsible authorities to develop the long-term yet sustainable responses alongside the involvement of different types of interventions critically covering the humanitarian and protection in the interim basis.

By the help of the early understanding, it is clear that the whole country would be suffering due to the failure of the authoritative bodies to deal with the particular situations. Hence, the following portion of the paper will be developed by critically analyzing the significant areas of the conflict to gain in-depth insight related to the cause and effect. It also develops with investigating ways to improve the scenario experienced by the individual communities. Therefore, a conflict map will be utilized for articulating above information regarding the chosen conflict.  

Conflict Parties

In the case of Myanmar, the country aims to redefine the infrastructure and the social system by developing a more open society for promoting the peaceful environment for its minorities and embracing the diversity at the same time. Therefore, it leads to the introduction of narrow and discriminating nationalism, which caused the outbreak of major challenges and constraints to the future of the country (Ware, 2015). In order to promote the improvement to the identified conflict, the government of the country requires developing the political solutions regarding the decades-old armed conflicts as well as the establishment of a federal nation. However, the achievement of such objective is highly difficult for the country given the disputes between the major and minor communities within the country.

Primary Parties are those who goals are incompatible and involving directly with the emerging conflict.

Considering the scenario of Rakhine State, Buddhists are the largest group in the particular region with the significant minority can be observed in the Muslim values and beliefs in the Rohingya. However, the specific designation involved in the community is duly ignored by both the government and Rakhine (Roos, 2013). From the international perspective, the Rakhine community is tended to be perceived as violent extremists providing no importance to the diversity of opinions existing in the modern day cultures. Considering the analysis made in this particular context, it can be determined that the Rakhine themselves are the long-beleaguered community from the overall perspective. Furthermore, the particular community is the lack of the definite sense of their original perspective and concerns. Such fact leads to the scenario to become counterproductive, as it drives to the development of a restricted attitude involving the Rakhine (Kipgen, 2013). It suggests that the Rakhine should need to understand the complex realities associated with them to ensure the development of the sustainable ways supporting the forwardness of the overall society.

The individual grievances include the lack of political controls over their sets of activities or beliefs, longstanding discrimination by the state, human right abuses, marginalization regarding the economic perspectives, and the necessary restrictions regarding the cultural expression and languages (Holliday, Aung & Joelene, 2015). These identified grievances cause the formation of decade-old Rakhine anger emerging continuously to morph the individual conflict. In the process of transition efforts made by the new government to the country, the majority of Rakhine are growingly felt that one of the demographics within the overall community is considered as the most obvious and immediate threat. The same is experiencing by them in the process rebuilding their community and addressing their ethical identity (Kingsbury & Laoutides, 2015). This particular feeling leads them to emerge one of the significant feelings in their minds that their ethnic group might soon become minor in their state. It cannot be confirmed whether the identified fear is valid or not from the perspective of the society. Nevertheless, it can be said that the certain doubt was firmly involved in the Rakhine communities.

Secondary parties refer to the group or community providing support to the primary parties from the context of financial, logistic, or military aspects meant to affect the development of the conflict.

In the case of the Muslim community within the country, especially the Rohingya, they are progressively marginalized from both the social and political aspects of life. The particular fact can be evidenced by the situations where the wide range of people belonging to the Rohingya community is denied to provide the full citizenship within the country. Suh factor provides the significant consequences to the social lifestyles and wellbeing of the mentioned group. By analyzing the current scenario, the efforts made by the authority to implement the proper administration in a mean to disenfranchise the group is considered as an interesting process to the overall system (Holliday, 2013). The particular factor is perceived by the Rohingya as their last remaining opportunity for connecting with the politics and the means of providing influences. Without the involvement of individual approach, it would be hard for the particular group to avoid the conclusion related to the failure of the politics, as well as eliminating the prompt civil disobedience or the organized violence.

With the help of the information developed in the area, it can be determined that the current initiatives taken by the government are based on the pilot process. The particular method is responsible for conducting verification of the citizenship of the undocumented Muslims and supporting the development of action plan to manage the issues effectively from the perspectives of the development, security, and political aspects. By considering these identified facts, it can be acknowledged that the conflict majorly prioritizes two major elements causing the emergence of problems (McCarthy, 2016). These two factors are known as the refusal of both government and Rakhine community to accept the term “Rohingya”, and the similar rejection related to the acceptance of the term “Bengali”. In the case of verification, as mentioned above, the overall process is conducting without developing any resolution to the identified issue. On the other hand, the action plan endeavors the permission related to moving ahead to the new settlement provided to those individuals only, who are granted the ownership previously. In the case of the non-citizens or the individuals who are unwilling to cooperate with the verification process are remained in the camps until proper solutions can be found. In this case, it is worth to mention that the process is highly time-consuming, as there is no guarantee when the right resolution will come into the action (Thawnghmung, 2016). In addition, the increasing problems can be observed in the case of providing ordinary citizenship to the number of Muslim individuals. It is noted that the average citizenship is more insecure, while not providing the rights of full citizenship to the concerned individuals. 

Considering the pre-colonial period, it can be ascertained that the Rakhine State or formerly known as Arakan State is separated from the rest of the Myanmar by the formidable mountain range referred to as the Rakhine Yoma. Due to such geographical position, the particular region was detached from the major center of political and economic controls of Myanmar. Moreover, the historical development of the area was also pursued independently until the region was conquered and controlled by the Burmese King Bodawpaya in 1785 (Simpson, 2014). Therefore, it can be observed from the historical background that the long frontier between the Muslim and the Buddhist Asia, the heavy political influences can be observed to be dominating the overall population from the perspective of their popular consciousness.

Continuum of Relationships:

The colonial and post-colonial period involving the particular region suggested short living off the Burmese conquest in Rakhine State. Considering the scenario of 1825, it can be observed that the Burmese were defeated by the hands of British India, as the entire state was annexed to the particular territory. The latter scenario suggests that shifting of the kingdom from Rakhine to Sittwe by the BritishEmpire (Gee, 2013). On the other hand, Rakhine was incorporated into a new province, which was governed by the British India from 1886 (Kipgen, 2013). After such annexation, the significant migration of the Muslims from Bengal to the particular area can be determined. In this case, it is worth to mention that the region was already comprised of the Muslim population of the Bengali region by the incident of the earlier migration. Similarly, the arbitrary boundary between Bengal and Rakhine state suggests the considerable number of Buddhist Rakhine on the Bengal side as well as the Muslim communities in the Rakhine side, primarily observed in the northern part.

Past Relationship between Parties:

In this case, the involvement of the British colonial policies can be found focusing more on the cultivation of rice, which required a significant number of labors (Walton, 2016). The requirement of such labor force was mostly satisfied by the immigrants from Bengal, many of whom were from the Muslim community group. Here, the large number of Muslim population came to the country on a seasonal basis, where much of them settled in Rakhine State permanently.

The underlying incident suggesting the incorporation of Burma into the British India had further driven the migration to the region from the sub-continent through traveling to Burma from different provinces of the same country. Therefore, the religious and ethnic mix of the country became complicated and mixed causing different kinds of socio-economic problems (Engvall & Linn, 2013). This identified scenario led to the involvement of a considerable number of resentment from the Buddhist community located in Rakhine State. The particular evidence can be observed from the incident of Second World War, where identified tension emerged to form the significant amount of violence. Apart from that, penetration of Japan into Rakhine in 1942 had caused the area to become the frontline until the end of the war.

Multiple Levels:

Myanmar is among the most popular sites of the world representing serious conflicts between Muslim and Buddhist communities. Especially in the Rakhine state almost 146000 people were displaced from their home society due to the riots in June 2012. The amount of violence is so much that induces international organizations to dedicate an early warning to issue an alarm against the mass violence (Dehua, 2014). This causes three Nobel laureates said persecution and violence of Muslims community in Myanmar as “nothing less than genocide” (Gee, 2013).

Geographic and Economic Context:

These state made by the prestigious personnel of Myanmar in the context of the conflict is not just a mere intransigence. Rather it is in the face of the external criticism, as it depicts a conception of violator and victim that is opposed dramatically to the one that made visible in the international disclosure context (Ma & Kusakabe, 2015).

Political Context:

In the domestic context of the Myanmar, this type of conception is extremely closer to the norm. It is observed due to the involvement of other state utilizing the same type of rhetoric. Since the context of the conflict illustrates that fear is not just the one particular side of   communities of the Muslims but for the Buddhists as    well. On the other hand, there is a conception that global Muslim power is very great. Therefore, the violence might affect Buddhists community comparatively harder.

Culture:

The current culture of the Rakhine State must need to be seen in the broader context of the failure of Myanmar in developing the nation. Despite the significant presence of economic factors, this particular part of the country remained isolated as one of the poorest country. It affects the cultural aspects of the country, as the grievances run deep in the Rakhine State causing strongly held the sense of separate identity. It is highly caused by the fact that Rakhine State was never integrated into the Myanmar state. 

Structure Conflict:

Conflict orientation includes identifying the objectives and issues of the conflict parties. The present situation of the Rakhine state must have to be seen in the broader context regarding the Myanmar failure at developing the nation (Welsh, 2013). Since the country has insufficient economic potentials, Myanmar could not be able to produce all its state at the same level.

Value Conflict:

The Rakhine state remains astonishingly a high number of poverty rate of almost 78%, which has considered as the one of the principal issues for developing the conflict and mass violation in the state (Farrelly, 2014). The number that highlighted the poverty line actually reflects the exclusion and neglect that the state is facing from the time of post-colonial period.

Relationship Conflicts:

Traditionally, the Burman dominates the Rakhine state. Therefore, when the state is facing more and more diversity due to the introduction of the Muslim community, it considered it as a threat. It plays a huge part in the kind of mass violence that happen in the Rakhine state (Taylor, 2016). In addition, successive regimes bounded ethnic, cultural, political, and social expression.

Data Conflict:

The data conflict mainly arose from the legacy of poverty and exclusion, as the factors were the fundamental reasons for the rise of intercommunal violence erupted in the Rakhine State in 2012. The data conflict has also emerged significantly by the incident suggesting the rape and murder of the Buddhist woman.

Interest Conflict:

The differences in the ethnic, cultural context also played a huge part in the development of the conflict in the society of the Rakhine community. Based on the certain understanding, it can be assumed that the overall situation in the Rakhine State cannot be solely dictated the humanitarian emergency. Rather, the interest from the politics and government can be observed affecting the whole state and the communities living there. In this case, there was the necessity to adopt the humanitarian response. However, such interventions comprise of only one component for addressing the situation, where no easy solution can be found. Therefore, the scenario certainly leads to the conflict, as the sufficient resolution requires an extended period for establishing in a sustainable manner.

Behavior Styles:

The relationship between the Muslim and Buddhist community has the prime role in developing the dynamics of the conflict. At the initial stage of the conflict, Rakhine has felt that their community is under threat due to the development of the Muslim empires. Especially in the west region of the Myanmar, Muslim community has able to develop a brief period of domination, which feels long oppressed by the Barmans (Rubenstein, 2015).

Conflict Events:

The community was furious with the Muslim community, which increased even further when the Muslim community voted against the Rakhine parties in the year of 2010. Since the Rakhine party promised to provide an atmosphere where every individual regardless of the cast and religion will get the even amount of opportunities from the society. Based on the investigation to the particular conflict, it can be determined that the grievances of Rakhine can be observed to be similar to the other ethnic minority groups of Myanmar (Kwan & Yu, 2014).

Action-reaction Processes:

This dislike or rude behavior from the community of the Burman-led to the tension within the Muslim communities. Therefore, a situation arises that is completely not unprecedented. However, the situation was developing on the backdrop the community diversity context. This influences the conflict to take the form of mass violation. However, politics also made this case even more critical. Since, the country is seeing greater democracy and liberalization that primarily focuses on the addressing the issue of ethnic minority concerns (Zyck, Fan & Price, 2014). Therefore, the major part of the Myanmar political power is reconfigured to create peace among the diversity of the religion, which actually ceasefire in this angry Rakhine context.

Conclusion

The situation that Rakhine state represents remains volatile. As the country has able to develop a significant amount of recent development, which includes the introduction of the new chief minister, it influences the state to implement the action plan much more efficiently. The conflict also highlighted the need of potential security environment for developing a better social culture. Therefore, the conflict induces many possible changes in the society to maintain an ethical environment between the Muslim and Buddhist community. However, these changes can also be highly problematic. As the changes can potentially increase the tension between the Buddhist and Muslim community, which can create huge amount of negative impact on the political process. Hence, there is no easy solution to the complex challenges to the Rakhine state, and the government will have to go through the long and hard process to overcome this conflict issue in the Rakhine state. 

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