I think this piece of the analysis is a bit harsh (though true, in many cases) and mistakenly paints all international efforts to support the people of Myanmar with the same brush (understandable, but we don't all do the same things).
But the questions are important.
Part of the answer is that there are no "solutions" to ethnic conflict. Conflicts (tensions in relationships and between groups) will be perpetual. What matters is how they are dealt with. Sometimes competition leads people under pressure to choose violence; while others might choose dialogue. Some of that is a question of capacity; some of it is a question of inclination; and some of it is a question of leadership (for example, there are always those who choose to exploit differences, fears, or frustrations for their own political gain) -- but all influenced by specific circumstances. It's also a question of design -- of well (or poorly) designed mechanisms for balancing or managing differences among stakeholders, while remembering that ethnicity is only one facet of those differences.
Democratic pluralism is advanced citizenship. And democracy is a never-ending series of negotiations (and conflict management efforts).
And lessons from other experiences elsewhere -- if respectful, relevant, and facilitated well -- can be a worthwhile contribution.
"There are no easy ways of solving Myanmar’s decades-long ethnic conflicts, and it is not only the leadership of the supposedly unified resistance, called the National Unity Government, that has been unable, or unwilling, to provide workable alternatives to the present order. The foreign peacemakers, who descended on Myanmar in droves during the period of relative openness from 2011 to 2021, held seminars and workshops on catchy topics such as “peacemaking,” “dialogue patterns,” “good governance,” and “reconciliation,” which had little or no relevance to the bitter realities on the ground in the conflict areas. Millions of dollars were wasted on fatuous exercises, suggesting inapplicable solutions modelled on entirely different kinds of peace processes elsewhere in the world. In the end, those efforts raised false hopes, caused confusion, and have only served to aggravate already existing problems and conflicts."
#Myanmar #conflict #governance #democracy
https://lnkd.in/ghFZhdKA
