Ethnic Issues and the Peace Process Alan Smith, July 20131 1. The Politics of Ethnicity It has long been clear that sooner or later, currently mutually hostile, or mutually suspicious, sections of Myanmar’s elite will have to come up with a new...
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Ethnic Issues and the Peace Process Alan Smith, July 20131 1. The Politics of Ethnicity It has long been clear that sooner or later, currently mutually hostile, or mutually suspicious, sections of Myanmar’s elite will have to come up with a new constitutional structure. The current (post 2010 elections) political context leads many in that direction, whether it is political mainstream proposed amendments to the 2008 constitution or something more sweeping as some ethnic people envisage emerging from or as part of the peace process. For the political mainstream, constitutionalism is seen as an important element of the political reform process, part of transition to the rule of law and a democratic government and politics. For Myanmar’s ethnic elite, more than that is required if the new Myanmar is to be one that they can identify with. However, because of the multiplicity and diversity of Myanmar’s ethnic groups and their different histories in relation to successive Burmese centers of
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