You inhabit a constricted, greying house over in the forest area of Kachin State, Burma. You’re anticipating your 2 teenagers’ return after school. You can recall the passive demonstration yesterday, trying to discontinue mineral drilling in Kachin State against minority consent. You didn’t go, but you gestured goodbye to your family as they went, whilst you read in the living room. Funny how the slightest of things will turn your life around, a doorbell, a man who’s existence evaded you, hysterically trying to clarify his witnessing of soldiers as they dragged your daughter into a vacant housing lot and why the junta detained your son on his way home. Funny how, because you live in Kachin State, there’s nothing you can do about it.
Often, I think that subjection of a minority goes undetected, judiciously concealed by the culpable party and veiled within the terror of the victims. Relentless religious, physical and psychological persecution of the Chin people and other minorities downgrades the Burmese society from a societal, economic and environmental aspect. In Burma, the Chins, inhabiting Kachin State are one of the minorities. They are an accumulation of Christian civilians in a nation of predominantly Buddhist inhabitants. Burma, reigned by ferocious junta, has been unwavering within the years to convert the Chin inhabitants to Buddhism, and if inept to do so, to manipulate their resources to the furthest of their faculty. This, indubitably, has been met with furious resistance from the Chins, but their protest has been an asphyxiated cry for help. I think that the pandemonium of a struggle for freedom in a nation that imprisons its subgroups within its regime means havoc from all aspects in the nation, with tens of thousands of Chins deserting the country as illegal immigrants, hundreds of reports of minority assaults and the descent of Burma into a state that is isolated and stagnant.
Socially, the Chin’s have next-to-no place in Burmese society, as they are considered a pestilence and granted secondary rights, which in turn means that they persist as an undermined, vulnerable people. The government’s discrimination towards the Christian faith has ranged from appalling to sadistic. What with the incidence of the burning of religious relics, churches and the homes of Chin minorities, as seen by the order, in 2000, for the burning 16,000 Chin, Karen and other ethnic bibles.
"Soldiers arrived unexpectedly in 15-year-old Sai Noom Mong's village in eastern Myanmar with a brutal message: Leave your homes, they told hundreds of startled residents, or we'll burn them to the ground."” (Pitman, AP)
There is also the societal burden of the physical torment of Chin individuals and the gradual establishing of minorities as a lesser kind. I consider that a cycle of terror has emanated from this, so even those of varying convictions, particularly other Buddhist citizens: cannot speak out. This is predominantly due to the fate that awaits a contradiction towards the Burmese government, as projected to the world in 2007 during the Burmese Monk Massacre. When Chins or others come to dispute this improper treatment of minorities, as in 2007, the zones are merely gassed by the police, leaving behind little-cared-for trace, but a myriad of shoes and a few feeble bodies: the remnants of a lost battle.
Physical persecution, specifically rape, is a deterrent employed by the junta, when trying to convert families or individual females and has created an adverse social atmosphere in Burma. Due to the menace of rape, minority families dread for their relatives, and are psychosomatically strained into religious conversion, just to circumvent the dreadful possibility of sexual brutalization.
"At least 12 rape cases have been documented during the Myanmar army’s offensive in northern Shan State since March, including a 12-year-old girl who was reportedly raped in front of her mother " (Daily Times)
With the junta, the horrors are perpetual, with the next anxiety of the Kachin State dealing with further physical persecution. This time: related and non-related to religion. The chin protesters or so-called “Rebels” are frequently detained by various Burmese police forces, simply for challenging the treatment they’ve received. Behind closed doors they are subjected to horrendous tortures, as Dr. Graham Thom, from Amnesty-International reports:
“One man raised his shirt to reveal horrible scars where he had been beaten with hot iron bars. He described how they pushed a fish hook through his ear, dragging him along the ground.” (G.Thom)
The actions of the militia have pushed so many ethical precincts over time that they’ve become a callous preeminence, making Burma a nation commanded by oppressors. Often, when a man or woman has wronged the junta, the following physical retribution will, for the sake of reprisal or amusement, also be pertained to the offender’s associated family, with penances such as beatings and burnings, not to mention rape. This is nauseating, how can one even attempt to verbalize the agony that is fettered to these sadistic actions?
And then, taking a gestalt perspective on the social consequence of minority persecution, there’s the whole dictatorial ideology and the values and perceptions that shadow the oppression of the Chins and other minorities in Myanmar. Looking at the psychology of the human being, it can be ascertained that a populace can take example of its leaders. What with how the Myanmar government validates the valuing of a religion over another, permitting the subjection of a people and events berating their beliefs: what kind of ideals is Burma instigating for itself?
“For many years, the civilian population has been oppressed. If they [Myanmar’s military] suspect that the people are giving information to the KIO (Chin-Army), well, sometimes they disappear." (Daily Times)
Burma is 176th on the corruption index, indicating a high-rate in immorality, from political to economic. The persecution of Chins and other minorities has commenced a tendency in the nation, one endorsing ultimate control by those with power. The inconsiderate behavior or the Burmese government has cost them their people, their trust, their environment and their economy.
Myanmar’s economy has been dwindling by the years, affected by preposterously low GDP, dreadful demographic statistics and a hazardously low migration rate.
"Although there aren't many visitors to Myanmar (in 1996, there were about 185,000), tourism is the leading resource of foreign exchange." (Asiainfo.org)
With the blatant lack of security in Burma, fewer individuals seek to pursue their holidays there, thus causing a depression in Burma’s tourism industry and economy, gradually sinking it into the ground. Statistically, except for death-tolls, everything has taken a negative turn, in hand with the incessant maltreatment of Burmese minorities:
" Other areas, such as manufacturing, tourism and services, struggle in the face of inadequate infrastructure, unpredictable trade policies, neglected health and education systems, and endemic corruption. " (C.I.A)
Because minorities, primarily the Burmese Chins, are suffering countless atrocities, the net migration rate has gone into the negatives, at -0.31/1000 people. Due to worker unavailability, as minorities have no priority or opportunity, career-wise, given to them: there are very few people occupying the secondary and tertiary industries, thus driving the Burmese economic output in the ground. Trade policies are constantly altered, infrastructure is completely lacking, whilst the national educational system is far from optimal. Burma’s GDP is of 1,400$, ranked 202nd on the global scale, an indicator of a lowly, dysfunctional country. As the Chins, and other subgroups are frequently disregarded, turned down or not prioritized for tertiary and secondary employment and studies, these infrastructures are deficient of workers and demand serious corrections to keep up with the progressing world. Burma has 0.457 physicians per 1,000 people (C.I.A), a statistic that might as well be none. Major portions of Chins (and other minorities) lack suitable health care and education, limiting Burma’s workforce and trade capabilities, thus detrimental to the economic situation. Burmese ecosystems suffer with mineral mining, sans approbation from the inhabitants of Kachin State, which elevates CO2 and other toxin emissions, thus deteriorating the status of Burma’s natural resources. Minority persecution has also elevated corruption levels in general, translating into the general waste and mismanagement of capitals, driving Burma down economically and environmentally.
Above, some indicators to this problem are stated, starting with the disastrous physician density, trivial GDP, and reports of forced-fleeing (125,000). The shareholders in this issue are present from varying points, all differing in position and effect. The minorities are the abused stakeholders, Burmese dictators being the catalyst stakeholders; refugee-harboring nations are the losing stakeholders and Burma’s educational and medical systems are the contingent stakeholders. This is quite exceptional because none of the stakeholders fully benefit from the problem. As the intimidation persists, demonstrated by statistics/quotes in the 2nd 3rd and 4th paragraphs, Burmese minorities are losing their grip on all of their possessions and entitlements, which is adversely affecting the nation. Everything is essentially a system, with Burma’s junta at the top and minority groups and affected countries interrelated at the roots. In order to actually alter the minority situation and achieve the vision of peaceful cohabitation of Chins and other minorities in Burma, the nip in the bud would have to be directed towards the governing individuals, the catalyst stakeholders, as they are the base of the system and the only possible figures that would generate a domino effect.
Regarding a concrete resolution, we need UN-enforced peace-talks directly with Burmese officials, with enforced resolutions in respect to the UDHR, as well as a forced face-to-face regard with minority-group leaders. This would aid the resolution of this situation, as the leaders of the nation need to be exposed to the societies they distress. To resolve this problem, the Junta cannot have a say as to how to treat their people and needs to be cognizant of the results and consequences to the nation emanating from mistreatment of minorities. Once the system has been tackled and the solution emplaced, there are indicators that could gauge the progression/effectiveness of the methods, typically demographic statistics, such as net migration rate, minority reports on treatment, mortality rates, GDP and reported cases of forced fleeing.
Burma, though a nation taking steps to ameliorate its social situation, is endemic with inequality and partiality. I mature, and do so seeing a trapped nation shooting itself in the foot. The persecution of minorities, predominantly the Chins, has efficiently run the country into the ground from a social, economic and environmental perspective.
“Myanmar began freeing some political prisoners as part of a broader amnesty on Wednesday, but the initial numbers disappointed many people who had hoped for a more significant gesture of liberalization.” (New-York Times)
This problem is a system, the base being governmental stakeholders and ending at the minorities, and can only be fixed with stringent procedures. Personally, I think we need to force the acknowledgment of human rights and ensure the application of those towards all Burmese residents. The persecution of minorities has rendered the nation unbalanced, being a stimulus for rising inflation rates, decreasing physician density and elevating migration rates. This issue has beleaguered society for longer than I can recall, and attempts that have been made to help in the past years have eluded me. Sometimes I think that this is because every time assistance was given, it was for a stunted term. Countries keep a ceremonial, agreeable stance towards each other, and governments remain cordial to maintain relations. Here, this is a blunder. Throughout these years, the progress in Burma has been dawdling and action is compulsory: Burma needs a definitive crackdown on corruption. We need to recognize the pending collapse of a nation lead by fear and know that the only way Burma will prosper is if we start assisting minorities. And so we see that the treatment of subgroups determines Burma in all of its societal, economic and environmental aspects. I often question how minorities and not those in power could affect the whole nation, but then again: it takes two to tango. From the research and my vision into Burma’s anguish I’ve learned a single, essential lesson: to change the world I need to start with a single person.
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