Myanmar’s military coup and the elevation of the minority agenda?

The military overthrow of Myanmar’s elected government in February 2021 has again thrown into upheaval the troublesome relationship between civilian politicians and armed forces that has plagued the country since its first military coup in 1962. t has also brought back into view the relationship between Myanmar’s Bamar majority and the country’s ethnic minorities, a fractious issue that has long been subject to band-aid and patchwork solutions that skirt around the deeper causes of minority disaffection. Myanmar’s minority groups have long-standing grievances against the repression and brutality of the Bamar-dominated military and feel marginalized. Their attitude to the Bamar-dominated National League for Democracy (NLD) government of 2016-2021, led by Aung San Suu Kyi until her ouster and arrest, was one of despair at the continuing death and destruction brought by civil conflict, dismay at the silence of political leaders on the plight of civilians displaced by war, and anger at the quasi-authoritarian policies by the civilian administration. These dynamics have helped determine allegiances in the ongoing protests against military rule, pressed the ousted government into changing its policies to better reflect minority aspirations, and will likely transform Myanmar’s political landscape in a manner that would have been inconceivable before the coup.