Identity, Ethnicity and Natural Resources in Myanmar

Abstract

The exploitation of natural resources in the South is often accompanied by increased social and environmental insecurity for marginalised populations. In Myanmar this insecurity is exacerbated by decades of civil conflict between the Myanmar government and the ethnic minorities who populate its resource-rich mountainous borderlands. National attempts at peacebuilding between the new government and the various ethnic minorities have been intimately intertwined with the division of natural resources, which has been a consistent instigator of conflict. Ethnic minorities argue for the ownership of local natural resources based on a localised Listian economic nationalist approach. Their case has traditionally been bolstered by the perceived illegitimacy of the previous military government that extracted their resources and the concomitant injustices visited upon their communities. This government signed natural resource exploitation contracts lasting three decades or more. After the recent political and economic reforms ethnic minorities are now arguing for these resources to be returned to them. The distribution of resources based on ethnicities can, however, create further injustices, particularly when ethnic minorities are not recognised as citizens or even as a genuine ethnicity, as has occurred for the Muslim Rohingya in predominantly Buddhist Rakhine State, a state rich in natural gas. This paper analyses the identity-related conflicts associated with the distribution and exploitation of natural resources in Myanmar and develops a three-tiered model of ethnic hierarchy and privilege.

Keywords: Myanmar; natural resource; ethnicity; identity