Presentation: “Identities and the Politics of Ethnicity in Post-Coup Myanmar”

Identity and ethnicity have long been central to Myanmar’s protracted political crisis and are key factors in the quest to build an inclusive federal democratic system. To better understand how identity and ethnicity affect social and political preferences, systematic data is needed that can shed light on the citizenry’s perceptions of political systems and institutions, policy preferences and political attitudes as well as how they see themselves in relation to those with whom they share the same socio-political spaces. Such information is especially vital for present-day Myanmar as it stands at a crossroads, striving towards an inclusive, sustainable peace and a federal democratic union.

On 1 February 2021, the Myanmar military staged a coup d’etat against the country’s democratically elected government. Since then, democratic actors, alongside ordinary citizens, have begun to reimagine the future of Myanmar considering a new constitutional framework which is at the heart of political dialogue among democratic stakeholders. This ongoing discourse revolves around the design of institutional structures that would not only facilitate the inclusion of various groups in Myanmar society, but also help establish pathways towards national reconciliation after decades of civil war. While many political stakeholders, including ethnic minority leaders, have made their voices clear, we know less about how ordinary citizens understand and interpret different political institutions. In particular, a better understanding is needed of how ethnic minorities think about their identities and what that implies for democratic citizenship and constitutional design.

International IDEA Myanmar’s new report “Identities and the Politics of Ethnicity in Post-Coup Myanmar” collects and analyses opinion data, paying particular attention to minority populations in Myanmar; explores how ordinary citizens understand their social identities; investigates inter-group relations; and illuminates how ethnicity and other social identities influence ordinary citizenry’s political and social preferences, including preferences for regime type, political system, support for ethnocentric institutions and pro-minority policies as well as trust in political actors. 

On 31 October 2024, International IDEA Myanmar will present the report and its findings in collaboration with one of the co-authors Isabel Chew in a public webinar. Simultaneous interpretation from English to Burmese will be provided. 

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