Myanmar’s Peace Process

The Importance of Federal Reforms and an Inclusive National Dialogue

SWP Comment 2013/C 29, 04.09.2013, 8 Pages

Research Areas

Ethnic conflicts and anti-Muslim unrest present the biggest obstacles to the process of democratisation and economic development in Myanmar launched by the Thein Sein government in 2011. An analysis of current political developments in the country shows that Germany and the EU currently have two main options for supporting the reconciliation process between the government and the country's ethnic and religious minorities: to provide assistance for the introduction of federal structures on the one hand and to encourage a national political dialogue on the other. Both approaches should go hand in hand since the ethnic and religious conflicts are so complex that the introduction of a federal system alone will not be sufficient to sustain lasting peace in Myanmar. Rather, federal constitutional reforms must be embedded in an open National Dialogue designed to bring all the political, ethnic and religious conflict parties to the negotiating table. Thereby, Germany and the EU should also be willing to exert diplomatic pressure on the government in the event that, instead of conducting an inclusive dialogue, it tries to put on a kind of show aimed at consolidating the dominance of the Burman majority and the still largely authoritarian system.