InAsia Podcast: Political Unrest Unsettles Myanmar’s Borderlands

On February 1, 2021, Myanmar woke to the news that its military forces, known as the Tatmadaw, had retaken power after a decade of democratic government. The political realignment led to mass demonstrations and nationwide uprisings, with doctors, teachers, and civil servants engaging in a civil disobedience movement. As protests began to spread from urban areas in the majority ethnic-Bamar lowlands to the borders, ethnic communities called for greater changes beyond the restoration of democracy, voicing long-held political grievances over the country’s political system and demanding representative political institutions and future federal arrangements.

In this episode of the InAsia podcast, Tabea Campbell Pauli discusses the political complexity and what the future may hold for Myanmar. She is the Senior Program Officer for the Conflict and Fragility unit at the Asia Foundation

Click to listen to the podcast here.