Journal of Current

Southeast Asian Affairs

Bnte, Marco, and Jrn Dosch (2015),

Myanmar: Political Reforms and the Recalibration of External Relations, in:
Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs , 34, 2, 319.
URN: http://nbn-resolving.org/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:gbv:18-4-8710
ISSN: 1868-4882 (online), ISSN: 1868-1034 (print)
The online version of this article can be found at:
<www.CurrentSoutheastAsianAffairs.org>

Published by
GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Institute of Asian Studies and
Hamburg University Press.
The Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs is an Open Access publication.
It may be read, copied and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
To subscribe to the print edition: <[email protected]>
For an e-mail alert please register at: <www.CurrentSoutheastAsianAffairs.org>
The Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs is part of the GIGA Journal Family, which
also includes Africa Spectrum, Journal of Current Chinese Affairs and Journal of Politics
in Latin America: <www.giga-journal-family.org>.

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 2/2015: 319

Myanmar: Political Reforms and

the Recalibration of External Relations
Marco Bnte and Jrn Dosch

Introduction
Myanmar has seen an unprecedented political opening in recent years,
which has clearly transformed the long-term repressive military regime.
Since President U Thein Sein took office in March 2011, he has initiated
a political liberalisation that has reduced repression and created avenues
for participation in the institutions designed by the military the decade
before. These reforms have opened new political space for both civil
society and the political opposition. As a consequence, the international
community has praised U Thein Sein widely for his reformist policies.
Foreign Policy named him Thinker of the Year in 2012, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon praised his vision, leadership and courage to
put Myanmar on the path to change. Despite these glorifications, however, Myanmars political opening is highly contested. Some see Myanmars reforms as a survival strategy of the quasi-military government
to overcome the danger of factionalism and to increase regime durability
by creating power-sharing institutions (McDonald 2013; Croissant and
Kamerling 2013). Others see the current opening as the beginning of a
protracted transition to unfold in the years to come (Bnte forthcoming). Some authors have also posited that it was the militarys desire to
establish domestic and international legitimacy that triggered Myanmars
elites to change (Pederson 2012).
Robert Taylor contends that it was the countrys dire economic situation that stimulated change (Taylor 2012). In this article, it is argued
that the countrys liberalisation is a deliberate strategy of the military,
whose aim is to achieve economic renewal and a recalibration of foreign
relations. This special issue is specifically devoted to examining the
changing foreign policy of the liberalizing regime, the external aspects of
Myanmars reform process, and the relevant reception and implications
of this foreign policy shift. The idea for this issue emerged from a conference on Myanmars international relations at the Department of Political and Administrative Sciences at the University of Rostock in November 2014, where earlier versions of most of the following articles were
presented. The conference was funded by the universitys Faculty of
Economic and Social Sciences, whose support is gratefully acknowledged.

Marco Bnte and Jrn Dosch

This opening chapter provides some background to the domestic

reform agenda, along with its drivers and motivations. From 1988 to
2011, the military built up institutions that guaranteed the militarys dominant position in the political arena. The second phase, since 2011, has
seen a guided relaxation of the militarys coercive controls and the liberalisation of political spaces for the opposition and civil society. In order
to contextualise Myanmars external relations, this article will first describe the militarys strategy and then outline the key changes that have
been implemented in the countrys foreign policy.

The Generals Grand Strategy: The Background

to the Burmese Spring
The military reverted to civilian rule in 2011 only after it managed to
create a new political order that locked in the militarys political role.
Having consolidated its position internally and severely weakened the
opposition movement, the top military leadership embarked on a transition to a disciplined democracy, entrenching the militarys political
prerogatives (Bnte 2014). The political changes from 2003 to 2011 fell
short of a genuine democratic transition, since they did not entail any
form of political liberalisation and because the political space was extremely narrow and repression was at its tightest during the years of
implementation (Praeger Nyein 2009). The most important steps in this
process of formal institution-building were the writing of a new constitution (19931996; 20042007), the referendum about the new constitution (2008) and the creation of a regime-sponsored party and the (heavily
scripted) elections in November 2010. To ensure that all these steps of
formal institution-building would proceed smoothly and as it saw fit, the
junta dominated the whole process, selected the members of the National Convention and rigged the referendum and elections in 2010. Senior
General Than Shwe first had to overcome the dangers of factionalism
within the military junta, the State Peace and Development Council
(SPDC), and then ensure the unity of the armed forces (see Bnte 2014).

Political Liberalisation under U Thein Sein

In his inaugural address in March 2011, President U Thein Sein announced far-reaching political, administrative and economic reforms.
This unexpected liberalisation was not a product of a schism within the
military, caused by external pressures or a defeat in war rather, it

Myanmar: Political Reforms

emerged from the militarys position of strength: Having entrenched

military prerogatives and secured the old guards exit from power, the
second guard could safely embark on a liberalisation of the political
system from the top down. During his first months in office, U Thein
Sein convinced the opposition and members of the international community of his commitment to reform. Although initiated from a position
of strength, the plans encountered resistance from conservative bureaucrats and hardliners in the military, as they felt their vested interests and
their positions were endangered (Hlaing 2012; Pedersen 2011). During
his first three years in office, U Thein Sein initiated political (first year),
socio-economic (second year) and administrative (third year) reforms.
Whereas the political reforms ensured a liberalisation of the political
system, the socio-economic and administrative reforms of the second
and third years aimed primarily to improve governance, fight corruption
and reform the economy.
What led to these reforms? President U Thein Sein himself attributed the need for reforms to his experience visiting the Irrawaddy Delta
after a devastating cyclone, Nargis, hit the area in May 2008. Seeing that
people in the Irrawaddy Delta were not expecting state authorities to
help them led to an understanding that things could not go on the way
they were (Financial Times 2012). His personal experience might explain
his own reformist agenda, but other daunting challenges set further incentives for reform: First, Myanmars economic reliance on China and
the militarys (nationalist) fear of Chinas growing influence made economic and social reforms imperative and triggered decisions to seek a reengagement with the West. Second, although the impact of sanctions has
been contested for years, it became clear that Myanmar needed to end
the isolation to create new opportunities for its business sector (made up
of cronies of the military) and the general population at large. Since a
political liberalisation was a precondition for dialogue with the West,
political and economic reforms needed to be initiated (Bnte and Portela
2013). However, since the junta leader was pressured by a younger generation of army officers and could only safely retire after he managed his
succession, he transferred power only after the process of formal institution-building was finalised. After four-and-a-half years in office, the
country has seen much progress in the fields of national reconciliation,
liberalisation of political freedoms and press censorship. However, the
liberalisation is also very uneven and has had the unintended consequence of contributing to religious and ethnic violence.

Marco Bnte and Jrn Dosch

Reconciliation with the NLD and the Release of

Political Prisoners
Building some kind of truce and a genuine reconciliation with the National League for Democracy (NLD) was a precondition for a recalibration of external relations. Consequently, since coming into office, the
Thein Sein government has attempted to improve its relationship with
the main opposition party. Knowing that he could only rebuild the country with the help of opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, U Thein
Sein approached her and invited her to Naypyidaw on 17 August 2011.
Her consent to the presidents reform path was key to making Western
states lift their economic sanctions. In a scene heavy with symbolism, the
two were photographed at Thein Seins residence with the president
seated under a portrait of her father, independence hero General Aung
San (New Light of Myanmar 2011). A day later, she stated that she believed
that the president wants real change (ICG 2011: 3). In November 2011,
the Thein Sein government amended the political-party registration law
and the election law, which allowed the opposition leader to run in future elections. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi gave up her confrontational approach towards the regime and steered the opposition towards reconciliation. The NLD decided to register the party with the Election Commission and run in the April 2012 by-elections.
In early January 2012, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi described the president as an honest man [], a man capable of taking risks if he thinks
they are worth taking (BBC 2012) an indication that she knew how
difficult implementing reforms would be, given the resistance of hardline elements within the military. The by-elections of 1 April 2012, which
were held to fill 46 vacant parliamentary seats, were generally seen as an
important credibility test of the will to reform on the part of Thein Seins
new government. The NLD enjoyed a landslide victory in the April byelections, winning 43 of 44 seats they contested. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
herself, managed to get elected to Parliament in a rural township outside
of Yangon. Most internal and external observers characterised the byelections as relatively free and fair (Election Monitoring Network 2012).
Although the by-elections were a major step in the countrys transition,
their significance is limited, since only a finite number of seats were open
and the outcome could not significantly alter the balance of power within Parliament, which is still dominated by the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Nevertheless, the NLD transformed itself
from an anti-system opposition party into one that is transition-seeking (Bnte forthcoming) and is now working within the political system

Myanmar: Political Reforms

to bring political change. The NLDs announcement that it would put

candidates forward for the 2015 elections emphasizes this change.
To demonstrate his reformist credentials, U Thein Sein had already
released a number of political prisoners by mid-January 2012 among
them, some of the most vocal government critics seemingly without
any conditions attached to their release: student leaders Min Ko Naing
and Ko Ko Gyi; the leader of the 2007 monks demonstrations, Ashin
Gambira; and comedian Zarnagar. A number of those released were able
to join the political process. For instance, members of the 88 Generation
Students Group decided to form the 88 Generation Peace and Open
Society, an NGO, which helped monitor the by-elections (Election Monitoring Network 2012) and mobilised against ethnic intolerance, openly
condemning Buddhist attacks on minority Muslims (see below). Since his
appointment, President U Thein Sein has granted amnesty to selected
prisoners on 13 separate occasions, the latest occurring in January 2014.
On 6 February 2013, the president announced plans to form a committee to scrutinize the remaining political prisoners serving their terms in
prisons throughout the country so as to grant them liberty (quoted in
Martin 2013: 6). The 16-member committee was chaired by Union Minister Soe Thein and included representatives from opposition groups
with a history of supporting the release of political prisoners, such as the
88 Generation Students Group, the AAPP(B) (Assistance Association
for Political Prisoners [Burma]) and the NLD. The committee has met
several times, but significant differences emerged regarding the definition
of political prisoner and, by extension, regarding the estimates of the
number of political prisoners in Burma; even a year later, the committee
reportedly continued to disagree about both (Martin 2013).
Moreover, critics claim that the government continues to arrest and
detain activists, often for violating new laws governing the right to
peaceful assembly and protest (authors interview with a local NGO
activist, Yangon, 4 April 2013). According to data from the AAPP(B),
there are currently 169 political prisoners in Myanmar, most being held
for violating article 18 of the peaceful assembly law. The liberalisation
thus entailed a significant opening without fully establishing freedom to
mobilise for either opposition or ethnic groups (discussed below).

Relaxing Press Censorship

A very significant move of the opening has been the relaxation of internet and media controls, resulting in a level of press freedom not seen
since 1962. In 2011 internet controls and censorship were relaxed and

Marco Bnte and Jrn Dosch

certain restrictions on international and independent news websites were

lifted. In August 2012 the government proclaimed both an end to prepublication censorship and the dissolution of the Press Scrutiny and
Registration Division. As a consequence, Reporters without Borders
ranked Myanmar 145th of 179 countries in 2014. Previously, the country
was ranked 151st (2013), 169th (2012) and 174th (2011). We have witnessed a considerable liberalisation of the press. However, parallel to this,
conservative bureaucrats within the Ministry of Information have exhibited a continuous resistance to this opening. There are also older laws
and guidelines in place that call for prison sentences for those who disseminate information perceived to pose a threat to national security,
domestic tranquillity or racial harmony; report about corruption or ethnic politics; or portray the government negatively (Reporters without
Borders 2012: 38). The government has also used its powers to suspend
press freedom in recent years, whenever it felt the press violated this
responsibility. For instance, in July 2012 the magazines The Voice and
Envoy were suspended for reporting on a possible cabinet change. In
February 2014 the government arrested five journalists and banned the
privately owned Unity Journal for disclosing state secrets it had published a story on the construction of a chemical weapons factory in central Myanmar. The reporters were sentenced to ten years in jail based on
the 1923 State Secrets Act the sentence was subsequently reduced to
seven years. All this indicates that progress still needs to be made before
a free press that can act as a fourth estate can be established.
Moreover, press liberalisation proved to be a double-edged sword
for Myanmars transition. On the one hand, it enabled a freer discussion
about political reforms. On the other hand, however, it allowed for a
Buddhist-nationalist discourse and the agitation of an ultra-nationalist
movement that preached intolerance and violence against the countrys
Muslim community. Xenophobic, nationalistic anti-Muslim sentiments
were spread on the internet and social media platforms.

Allowing Room for Civil Society

Freedoms of movement and association have also been liberalised,
which has allowed civil society more space to become active. As part of
this democratic reform agenda, President U Thein Sein signed the new
Law on Freedom of Assembly in December 2011. The law, which is still
very much contested today, allows for peaceful demonstrations under
very tight conditions: Organisers have to ask the authorities for permission five days in advance. The law also imposed a penalty of one years

Myanmar: Political Reforms

imprisonment for protests staged without permission. This law has

broadened the freedom of movement so greatly over the past year that
the country has seen a number of protests for instance, demonstrations
by hundreds of residents of Yangon and Mandalay against energy shortages in May 2012 (The New York Times 2012). Following the suspension
of two newspapers in July, nearly 100 journalists in Yangon and approximately 60 in Mandalay protested, most wearing black t-shirts reading
Stop killing the press. In September and October 2012 lawyers
demonstrated against the privatisation of state property (The Irrawaddy
2012). However, several applications to rally by ethnic groups and the
opposition have been rejected, such as the NLDs attempt to commemorate Martyrs Day in 2012 and the student unions wish to honour the
50th anniversary of the student protests at Yangon University.
Whereas civil societys space has grown and many protests have
been tolerated, a number of activists have also been charged for demonstrating without permission. In November 2012 the authorities violently
cracked down on a protest by villagers and monks against the expansion
of a copper mine in Letpadaung, near Monywa. More than 70 protesters
were injured when riot police stepped in to quell the demonstrations
against the project, which was a collaboration between a Chinese company and the military conglomerate Myanmar Economic Holdings. The
crackdown led to a public outcry and a rare apology by state authorities
(Myanmar Times 2012). However, a number of civil society activists have
been jailed since 2012 for organizing protests at the copper mine. The
episode illustrates two developments: First, civil society activists and
NGOs today have far more room to mobilise and make their voices
heard than they did previously. Second, some politicians and authorities
with vested interests still use the law to stifle public protests.
The government also promulgated a new law on labour organisation
that allows for the formation of unions and grants the right to strike. The
International Labor Organization (ILO) provided assistance in drafting
the law. As with public demonstrations, workers in the public sector
must provide notice to strike 14 days in advance, and workers in the
private sector must provide notice three days in advance. A number of
unions were formed. After by-laws for the labour legislation were enacted in March 2012, more than 350 worker organisations were formed by
the end of that year, and another 260 were assembled by mid-August
2013, according to figures from the Ministry of Labour, Employment
and Social Security. As a consequence, strikes at factories have increased
tremendously, especially at industrial sites near Yangon. All in all, civil
society is able to thrive far more freely than ever before. The room to

10

Marco Bnte and Jrn Dosch

manoeuvre has grown remarkably in the last two years. New political
freedoms enrich this picture. In all areas, however, reforms are fragile
and contested, and there is still resistance on the part of some authorities
to giving room to activists and civil society groups.

Attempted National Reconciliation: The New

Peace Initiative
Since coming into office, President U Thein Sein has also attempted to
bring an end to the 60-year-long civil war between the central government and certain ethnic groups. Relations between the government and
the ethnic groups had been deteriorating even more drastically since
2009, as the military government attempted to force ethnic-minority
armies to convert into Border Guard Forces under the control of the
Burmese army. Ceasefires with the Kachin collapsed, enhancing the
latent distrust held by ethnic-minority leaders, who felt once more that
the Burmese government was neither interested in genuine peace nor
willing to satisfy their main demands of ending human rights abuses,
ensuring equitable resource-sharing and strengthening regional autonomy. In his inaugural address, U Thein Sein declared he would make
peace a priority and promised to hold talks without prior conditions. In
the next two years, he managed to sign peace agreements with most of
the ethnic armed groups (17). In January 2012 a ceasefire agreement with
the Karen National Union (KNU) was signed the first in 50 years of
civil conflict. These ceasefires were supposed to lead to a national ceasefire between the central government and all ethnic groups (Holliday
2012). After 15 rounds of negotiations, the government and the rebel
representatives managed to sign a draft of the Nationwide Ceasefire
Agreement (NCA) on 31 March 2015. The NCA needed to be signed by
all armed ethnic group leaders as well. At their meeting in June 2015 they
agreed on the existing text, but demanded various additions to the document. The governments reaction to the new developments was lukewarm, revealing of its general opposition to amending the draft.
Moreover, the peace process has been overshadowed by constant
fighting, especially in the northeastern part of the country; the Burmese
military continues to fight the Kachin and the Kokang rebels. Decades
of fighting have created a climate of distrust. The ethnic groups continue
to harbour great reservations about the government; the latter is demanding that the former abandon their armed struggles, recognise the
Constitution, give up fighting and integrate themselves into the national

Myanmar: Political Reforms

11

army. The ethnic groups have not found a common voice, with most,
but not all, of them demanding a rewriting or serious revision of the
Constitution along with the establishment of a truly federal state with a
federally structured army. Lasting peace is a protracted issue, since on
both sides economic interests are involved and major grievances need to
be recognised.

The Reaction to Reform: Myanmars External

Relations
As a medium-sized and relatively underdeveloped country, Myanmars
foreign policy has always been more reactive than proactive (Ganesan
2005: 31). Since its independence, the country has followed a nonaligned foreign policy and there have been a number of intriguing continuities, such as the involvement of the military in foreign policy and their
attempt to manage border areas in times of civil war (Egreteau and Jagan
2013). Moreover, balancing its strategic partners has always been a characteristic of Myanmars foreign policy strategy. The countrys rulers have
tried to remain equidistant from each neighbour. For instance, when
Than Shwe made a state visit to New Delhi in 2004, other senior members visited China. At the same time, pre-2011 Myanmar had not been
fully autonomous in designing and managing its foreign relations, due to
sanctions imposed by the US, the EU and other mainly Western powers.
Until the late 1980s, Myanmar had been well integrated into the international system. However, this structural setting changed dramatically in
August 1998 when, in the wake of the violent crackdown on prodemocracy protesters, many foreign governments started to rethink their
approach, leading to staggered sanction regimes and Myanmars partial
international isolation in the 1990s and early 2000s. The Unites States
policy towards Myanmar was focused on the restoration of democracy
and support for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD (Haacke 2012). In
a similar vein, the EU made the normalisation of relations conditional
upon an improvement in the human rights situation and substantive
progress towards an inclusive democratization process (EU 2010). Myanmars post-2011 reform process has not only triggered the gradual
lifting of external sanctions but also provided the framework for tangible
adjustments of policy. David Cameron, UK prime minister, spearheaded
the re-engagement process when he became the first high-profile Western leader to visit Myanmar since the beginning of the reforms in April

12

Marco Bnte and Jrn Dosch

2012, only a week after the NLD won a number of seats in a series of
parliamentary by-elections.
The domestic reform process has also provided the backdrop
against which Myanmar has started to realign its relations with China.
During the period of international sanctions, Myanmar depended largely
on Beijings support, both politically and economically, for its security
and development. However, as Maung Aung Myoe argues in the first of
the following articles, for some years the SLORC/SPDC regime had
been increasingly uncomfortable with its great reliance on China. Beijing,
in turn, sees Myanmar as a geopolitical pivot, or more precisely, a pillar
of its string of pearls strategy in the Indo-Pacific region. Myanmar is
the only country bordering China with access to the Eastern Indian
Ocean, specifically the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. For many
observers within Myanmar, Chinas past support for the military regime
had been a main factor in preventing any meaningful political change or
democratisation and in strengthening the repressive nature of the regime.
While the Burmese government realising that the strategic asymmetry
between Myanmar and China is unlikely to disappear has refrained
from presenting or constructing China as a threat, there can be little
doubt that reducing Myanmars strategic and economic dependence on
Beijing ranks high on Thein Seins foreign policy agenda. The most visible and, for Beijing, shocking indication in this regard was the decision in September 2011 to suspend the construction of the controversial
Myitsone Dam, a hydroelectric project financed and led by a state-owned
Chinese company.
Myanmars government does not perceive its relations with China
and the US as a zero-sum game in which changes in one case inevitably
impact the other. In other words, Naypyidaws more sober perspective
on Beijing is not primarily the result of markedly improved political and
economic ties with Washington. At the same time, it is hard to ignore
that normalizing relations with the United States seems to be the highest
priority for Myanmar. Jrgen Haacke shows that the comprehensive
reforms ushered in from mid-2011 by President U Thein Sein formed an
important stepping stone, but Washingtons 2009 adoption of pragmatic
engagement as the outcome of the Burma policy review conducted by
the Obama administration played an equally important part in the process of bilateral rapprochement. On her groundbreaking visit to Myanmar in late 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the
United States would reciprocate under the formula of action-foraction. Ultimately, however, the substantive US policy shifts towards
Myanmar in 2012 proved possible only because Daw Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar: Political Reforms

13

agreed with the Thein Sein government and the Obama administration
that the time for a new approach had come. Haacke also elaborates on
the dynamic patterns of decision-making regarding US Myanmar policy
and finds that particularly during the first term of the Obama administration, the State Department became the key incubator of and vehicle for
change in relations with Myanmar, whereas congressional voices remained largely subdued. However, as Myanmars political reforms failed
to advance beyond the key concessions offered in 2012, Myanmar has
again become a point of controversy between the administration and
Congress. The question of military engagement has attracted particular
attention. Haacke concludes that existing congressional resistance to
more substantial military-to-military relations is likely to place a ceiling
on any further deepening of bilateral ties for the time being.
Such explicit or implicit limits to the depth and breadth of cooperation are not visible in the case of relations between the European Union
and Myanmar. The EU has evinced a comprehensive foreign policy
change, from a rigorous sanctions-driven approach to a sudden, almost
hyper-optimistic embrace of and support for the still fragile and ultimately risk-prone reform process. At the same time, Jrn Dosch and Jatswan
S. Sidhu demonstrate that, while guided by normative convictions and
concerns for human rights and democracy, the EUs approach and posture vis--vis Myanmar since 1988 has been more reactive than carefully
planned and strategised. Whereas in the period from 1988 until early
2011 the EUs Myanmar policy frequently fluctuated between a carrot
and a stick approach, depending on the circumstances, since 2011 the
emphasis has been exclusively on carrots. This signifies an important
shift in the application of normative power. The EU has generously
provided large amounts of aid intended mainly to assist Myanmar in its
transition. The European Commission alone has allocated 688 million
EUR to support the countrys reform process over the period 2014
2020, an amount supplemented by equally substantial contributions from
several member states, including but not limited to Germany, the UK,
France and Sweden. The EUs official documents reflect a strong optimism about the reform process that does not factor in the possibility of
an autocratic recession. While this optimism is shared by the European
Commission and most EU member states, the similar perceptions and
compatible normative foundations on which their policies are based have
so far not translated into well-coordinated and coherent foreign policy
strategies and development cooperation programmes.
However, no external actor has responded more enthusiastically to
Myanmars political transition than Japan, which has forgiven an unprec-

14

Marco Bnte and Jrn Dosch

edentedly high percentage of Myanmars debt and allocated new largescale official development assistance (ODA), including the first yen loans
to Myanmar in a quarter of a century. As Donald M. Seekins explains, in
collaboration with the new post-junta regime, Tokyo has sketched out
ambitious development projects for Myanmar that, if carried out, would
be a major factor in transforming not only the economy but also society
and inter-ethnic relations within Southeast Asias second-largest country.
Both the large size of Japans post-2011 ODA intervention in Myanmar
and its emphasis on ambitious infrastructure projects, especially special
economic zones (SEZs), draw attention to an important yet often ignored problem in the usual debates on development: Can modernizing
and transforming an undeveloped economy and society solve deep and
long-standing political conflicts, or is it likely that technology-driven economic development, by concentrating power more thoroughly in the
hands of recipient-country elites, will succeed only in making the political
system more authoritarian? Seekins takes a pessimistic view, arguing the
inflow of large amounts of ODA is likely to be destabilizing. Indeed, it is
likely to make deep-rooted social and ethnic conflicts inside Myanmar
even worse than they are now unless, prior to large-scale economic intervention, there is a political resolution to the most serious of these conflicts.
Whereas China, the US, the EU and Japan are trying to establish a
new basis for their respective bilateral relations with Myanmar, India and
Russia are encountering the challenges and opportunities implicit in
building tangible relations in the absence of strong historical foundations.
Pierre Gottschlich describes Indias approach towards Myanmar as a
new beginning in international diplomacy. From an Indian perspective,
as Gottschlich argues, a change in the relations between New Delhi and
Naypyidaw is not simply conceivable but absolutely necessary. For India,
the current situation presents a unique opportunity to rectify some foreign policy failures of the past and overhaul its attitude of obliviousness
and neglect towards Myanmar that has marred the relationship for decades in spite of a 1951 bilateral Treaty of Friendship, which, according
to Nehru, was supposed to last forever thereafter. After more than 65
years, New Delhi has still not made a palpable foreign policy announcement about Myanmar, let alone drafted a grand strategy regarding the
country a rather surprising fact given that the two states share a land
border stretching 1,643 kilometres. Drawing on interviews with different
stakeholder groups, Gottschlich shows that there is agreement neither on
the most decisive issues in the bilateral relationship nor on the order of
Indias foreign policy priorities towards Myanmar. However, five themat-

Myanmar: Political Reforms

15

ic areas have emerged as the de facto cornerstones of Indias interest:

Democratisation, the most important focal point of Western actors, is
probably the weakest and fuzziest one in Indias case. New Delhis
more crucial foreign policy concerns are directed towards security in
Indias Northeast and the problem of illegal migration, the expansion of
trade and infrastructure development, access to energy resources, and the
role of Myanmar in Indias relations with China. Beijing naturally plays
an important role in all of New Delhis foreign policy considerations.
India and China seemingly compete for influence in Myanmar in every
policy area. According to Gottschlich, many members of the Indian
foreign policy establishment perceive their own nation and China as
rivals, particularly regarding the crossroads nation Myanmar.
China is an equally important factor in Russias emerging relations
with Myanmar. In the concluding paper of this special edition, Ludmila
Lutz-Auras demonstrates that in view of the rise of China as well as
Washingtons Pivot to Asia announced by the Obama administration
Moscow does not want to risk any kind of marginalisation in Southeast
Asia, a region increasingly seen as an economic and strategic priority.
Russia aspires to gain a foothold in Myanmar, with the threefold geopolitical objective of increasing and strengthening its access to the Indian
subcontinent, the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. Unlike the US, the
EU and other Western powers, Russia never imposed sanctions on Myanmar or interrupted political and economic relations. Yet, economic ties
form a weak base the bilateral trade volume totalled 113.9 million USD
in 2013, a negligible sum. In the light of activities of Chinese, Thai and
Indian entrepreneurs, the Russian businesses look quite pale in Myanmar, writes Lutz-Auras, pointing to a wait-and-see mentality of Russian
companies. However, Russia has recently begun to successfully establish
itself as a major stakeholder in the countrys oil and gas sector. Defence
relations between the two countries fuelled by Russian weapon sales
have also been growing.
Overall, the six articles provide evidence of a frantic international
search for both opportunities in Myanmar and competition for influence
there. Based on substantial ODA and investments, but also general diplomatic and political support, the US, the EU and Japan have sought and
secured major roles for themselves in Myanmars socio-economic and
political transition, which has translated into an expanding US, European
and Japanese presence in the country. This development has come at the
expense of Chinas influence. However, China has maintained its position as Myanmars second-largest trading partner (the top position has
been occupied by Thailand for more than a decade) and is possibly still

16

Marco Bnte and Jrn Dosch

seen by sizeable segments within the military-turned-civilian government

as the countrys most important political ally. Domestic peace-building,
the democratisation process and the human rights situation in Myanmar
are matters of interest and concern for the US, the EU and to a lesser
extent Japan, but not for China and Russia. Despite its rhetoric and
support of liberal values, Indias position is closer to China and Russias
than to the former groupings. At the same time, the US, EU and Japan
let us call them the international pro-democracy actors are not
following a coherent and coordinated strategy in their support of the
reform process. Even within the US and the EU, there is hardly any
agreement on the best and most preferable policy options to pursue in
relations with Myanmar. While in the case of the US the argument is
being fought between the administration and Congress, the EU member
states, amongst themselves and in conjunction with the European
Commission, have not even tried to harmonise their approaches. At first
glance, the situation resembles Cambodia in the 1990s, when international donors transformed the country into a playground for their
development experiments (Dosch 2007: 152). There is, however, a striking difference: The involvement of foreign actors in Myanmar is mainly
driven by powerful mercantilist interests that were absent in the case of
Cambodia. As Pierre Gottschlich rightly points out in his article, Myanmars vast oil and gas resources are intriguing to many countries.
Competition for exploration and exploitation rights began long ago.

References
BBC (2012), Suu Kyi: Democracy in My Lifetime, 5 January, online:
<www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16421610> (5 January 2012).
Bnte, Marco (2014), Burmas Transition to Quasi Military Rule: From
Rulers to Guardians?, in: Armed Forces and Society, 42, 2, 742764.
Bnte, Marco (forthcoming), Myanmars Protracted Transition: Arenas,
Actors, Outcomes, in: Asian Survey (Berkeley).
Bnte, Marco, and Clara Portela (2013), The Beginning of Reforms and the
End of Sanctions, GIGA Focus International, 3, Hamburg: GIGA,
online: <www.giga-hamburg.de/giga-focus/international> (26 August 2015).
Croissant, Aurel, and Jil Kamerling (2013), Why Do Military Regimes
Institutionalize? Constitution-Making and Elections as Political Sur-

Myanmar: Political Reforms

17

vival Strategy in Myanmar, in: Asian Journal of Political Science, 21, 2,

105125.
Dosch, Jrn (2007), The Changing Dynamics of Southeast Asian Politics, Boulder and London: Lynne Rienner.
Egreteau, Renaud, and Larry Jagan (2013), Soldiers and Diplomacy in Burma:
Understanding the Foreign Relations of the Burmese Praetorian State, Singapore: NUS Press.
Election Monitoring Network (2012), The Republic of the Union of Myanmar
By-Election 2012, Election Monitoring Report No 1, April, Yangon.
EU see European Union
European Union (2010), COUNCIL DECISION 2010/232/CFSP of 26
April 2010 Renewing Restrictive Measures against Burma/Myanmar, in: Official Journal of the European Union, 27 April, L 105/22.
Financial Times (2013), Anti-Muslim Violence Spreads in Myanmar, 25
March, online: <www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5fdec778-9553-11e2-a4fa-0
0144feabdc0.html> (14 October 2013).
Financial Times (2012), Transcript of Interview with Thein Sein, 12 July,
online: <www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/98722032-cba8-11e1-911e-001
44feabdc0.html> (14 October 2013).
Ganesan (2005), Myanmars Foreign Relations, Reaching Out to the
World, in: Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Robert Taylor, and Tin Maung Maung
Tan (eds), Beyond Politics to Social Imperatives, Singapore: ISEAS,
3055.
Haacke, Jrgen (2012), Myanmar: Now a Site for Sino-US Geopolitical
Competition?, in: Nicholas Kitchen (ed.), IDEAS Report, London:
London School of Economics and Political Science, 5360.
Hlaing, Kyaw Yin (2012), Understanding Recent Political Reforms in
Myanmar, in: Contemporary Southeast Asia, 2, 197216.
Holliday, Ian (2012), Toward a Normal State, in: Asian Survey, 53, 1, 93
100.
ICG (2011), A Major Reform Underway, Crisis Group Asia Briefing, No
127, 22 September, Brussels.
Martin, Michael F. (2013), Burmas Political Prisoners and U.S. Sanctions,
CRS Report for Congress, Washington, online: <www.fas.org/sgp/
crs/row/R42363.pdf> (5 November 2013).
McDonald, Adam (2013), From Military Rule to Electoral Authoritarianism: The Reconfiguration of Power in Myanmar and Its Future, in:
Asian Affairs: An American Review, 40, 1, 2036.
Myanmar Times (2013), Worker Organizations Still Struggle for Rights, 10
October, online: <www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/

18

Marco Bnte and Jrn Dosch

8427-worker-organisations-still-still-struggle-for-rights.htm> (5 November 2013).

New Light of Myanmar (2011), President Thein Sein, Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi Vow to Cooperate for National Interest, 20 August, 9.
Pedersen, Morten (2011), The Politics of Burmas Democratic Transition, Prospects for Change and Options for Democrats, in: Critical
Asian Studies, 43, 1, 4968.
Praeger Nyein, Susanne (2009), Expanding Military, Shrinking Citizenry,
and the New Constitution in Burma, in: Journal of Contemporary Asia,
39, 4, 638648.
Reporters without Borders (2012), Burmese Media Spring, online: <http://
en.rsf.org/IMG/pdf/rsf_rapport_birmanie-gb-bd_2_2_.pdf> (14
October 2013).
Taylor, Robert (2012), From Army Rule to Constitutional Rule, in: Asian
Affairs, 46, 2, 221236.
The Irrawaddy (2012), Lawyers Protest Colonial-Building Privatization, 4
October, online: <www.irrawaddy.org/burma/lawyers-protest-colo
nial-builidngs-privitization.html> (5 October 2012).
The New York Times (2012), Power Shortages Set off Small Protest in Myanmar, 27 May, A7, online: <www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/wor
ld/asia/power-shortages-set-off-small-protests-in-myanmar.html>
(27 December 2012).

Myanmar: Political Reforms

19

Keywords: Myanmar, Burma, foreign policy, political reforms, political

liberalisation, external relations

Dr. Marco Bnte is an associate professor and the Deputy Head

of School (Research) at the School of Arts & Social Sciences (SASS),
Monash University Malaysia, Selangor. He is also the co-editor of
the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs.
<[email protected]>

Dr. Jrn Dosch is a professor and chair of international politics

and development cooperation at the Institute of Politics and Administrative Sciences, University of Rostock, Germany. His current
research focuses on ASEAN and relations between Europe and
Asia.
<[email protected]>