Napas Thein is a master’s student at the Munk School of Public Policy and chair of the Myanmar Culture Club at the University of Toronto. Matthew J. Walton is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto and co-founder of the Myanmar blog Tea Circle.
Myanmar, a nation of 53 million in Southeast Asia, is in the middle of a revolutionary struggle between a crowdfunded grassroots democracy and a ruthless military dictatorship. The former is winning, and Canada must pay more attention.
Three years ago, on Feb. 1, 2021, the Myanmar military carried out its latest coup, deposing a democratically elected government, detaining politicians and plunging the country into crisis. What its leaders did not expect was the massive popular response, with citizens throughout the country protesting, boycotting and resisting. The military reacted violently, killing more than 6,000 civilians over the past three years.
In response, grassroots People’s Defence Forces (PDFs) emerged and joined an armed resistance with long-standing ethnic revolutionary organizations (EROs) and underground cells. The bulk of these efforts have been almost entirely materially supported by global diaspora networks concerned about the security and democracy of their homeland, and by communities in Myanmar. In a new development Wednesday, some members of the resistance forces laid out strict terms for entering into negotiations with the military junta.
The civil war has produced a dire humanitarian crisis. The UNHCR reports that there are more than 1.35 million refugees and 2.3 million internally displaced people. This is on top of already existing tragedies, including the 2017 Rohingya genocide that resulted in the mass expulsion of around 750,000 people to Bangladesh, where most still live in restrictive camps.
Elected politicians who managed to escape arrest, along with civil society leaders, formed a National Unity Government, or NUG, which presents itself as the country’s legitimate government. Despite widespread internal popular support, the NUG struggles for external recognition from the UN and most countries, including Canada. This is in sharp contrast to the weaponry and diplomatic support the military regime receives from China and Russia.
But the NUG is only one of many actors in this landscape. EROs not only have armed wings, but also robust governance institutions, with decades more experience than the NUG. Fortunately, Myanmar’s revolutionary forces have created innovative and homegrown measures to address co-ordination and inclusion issues. For instance, the National Unity Consultative Council and the regional Sagaing Forum were formed to co-ordinate political and military activities across armed and non-armed actors to ensure that local communities have a voice in the resistance.
If Canada is serious about encouraging democracy worldwide, it should recognize and support these efforts as the indigenous democracy-promotion initiatives that they are. Canada must also be creative in delivering non-lethal support directly to the resistance, for things like community-developed early warning systems that help protect vulnerable populations from the military’s indiscriminate bombing. To deliver humanitarian aid, international organizations like the UNHCR must work through the military, which is delaying and blocking this aid, just as it did during previous natural disasters. Canadian policy-makers should learn from these previous crises and expand support from the bottom up, leveraging the robust transnational networks of the Burmese-Canadian diaspora community to help people directly, effectively and innovatively.
Already established funding, such as the $288-million Canada committed in 2022, needs to be transparently presented and more accountable to the communities it is supposed to be helping. Rohingya advocates remain frustrated, as they see little impact from the purported $117.5-million allocated for displacement support. Future funding must prioritize collaboration with grassroots and diaspora networks – rather than lumbering international-aid bureaucracies – to ensure that the funds reach those most in need.
Canada is already demonstrating that it is well-positioned to provide effective support in the field of education for Myanmar scholars here and in the region. We recently participated in a promising initiative organized by the University of British Columbia and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to bring together more than two dozen aspiring Myanmar academics who contribute to the democracy movement in various ways. More scholarships, internships and training programs – such as those provided by the Parliamentary Centre in Ottawa – will foster future generations of democratic leaders in Myanmar.
At the University of Toronto, in addition to hosting Tea Circle, a leading academic blog on Myanmar, we are launching the Myanmar Political and Community Knowledge (MyPACK) Hub with support from the IDRC, which aims to amplify the experiences and insights of diverse Myanmar communities by strengthening connections to policy-makers. Our fellows will work with decision-makers, the diaspora and other stakeholders in Canada and Myanmar to draw on community knowledge and academic expertise to continue supporting democratic and inclusive practices.
The people of Myanmar have sustained a remarkable revolution for three years against a cruel regime. Canada must act decisively – and creatively – to support their struggle for democracy.