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ABSTRACT
This paper discusses how different groups within Myanmar’s population respond to multiple crises caused by the 2021 military coup, the economic and social consequences of multiple waves of Covid-19 and increasing global food and fuel prices. It is based on monthly observation reports (MOR) by local researchers to focus on the range of actions taken by Myanmar’s silent accommodating majority. Contrary to conventional studies that treat “loyalty” and “passive resistance” as separate categories of individual or collective responses to government failures, this paper introduces “accommodation” as a strategy to reflect actions by those who have engaged in both compliance and passive resistance to deal with the military dictatorship in Myanmar. Those who practice accommodation strategies prioritize safety-first approaches that avoid open resistance to the military regime while simultaneously challenging its claim to legitimacy. Some of the strategies that undermine the military regime’s claim to legitimacy, however, such as the civil disobedience movement in education and healthcare, further deprive the state of the resource to serve the needs of the general population and thus have detrimental and long-term impacts on individuals who use these.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank anonymous reviewers who provided thoughtful and helpful feedback for our paper, and friends and colleagues who generously offered us interviews. This project would have been impossible without the assistance of our local researchers and financial support from the Livelihoods and Food Security Fund, Myanmar. The views expressed in this paper are our own, not those of the organizations that employ us or have provided funding for this project. Any errors are our responsibility.
Notes
2 International Republican Institute Citation2017.
3 Amnesty International Citation2022.
4 The World Bank Citation2019; International Republican Institute Citation2017.
5 Hirschman Citation1972.
6 Thawnghmung Citation2004; Hoffmann Citation2010; Revkin and Ahram Citation2020; Peeters et al. Citation2020; Millan and Fetzer Citation2019; Lee and Varon Citation2020.
7 Dowding et al. Citation2000, 491.
8 Tsai Citation2007.
9 Laver Citation2006, 472.
10 Olson Citation1971; Dowding and John Citation2012, 16; Dowding et al. Citation2000.
11 Dowding and John Citation2012, 18-19.
12 Clark et al. Citation2013.
13 See for example Mwatela and Shauri Citation2018.
14 Dowding and John Citation2012, 24).
15 Rusbult, Zembrodt, and Gunn Citation1982.
16 Rusbult et al. Citation1988, 600.
17 Scott Citation1987; Kerkvliet Citation2005; Tripp Citation1997.
18 Kerkvliet Citation2005.
19 Tripp Citation1997; Tsai Citation2007.
20 Scott Citation1990.
21 Thawnghmung Citation2019.
22 Grudging acceptance is a sub-category of loyalty which should be differentiated from loyal acceptance. See Tsai Citation2007.
23 Prasse-Freeman Citation2022.
24 Information from these twenty sites was obtained from local residents, except for two people who work at these respective sites as program development implementors, and one person who interviewed residents and family members in her hometown. All researchers submitted written papers in Burmese except for one who provided a verbal report to the first author. In addition to MOR research sites, three co-authors also interviewed twenty-four key informants, most of whom are based in Yangon. See a list of researched sites and interviewees in and .
25 This project, which took place from June 2021 to September 2022, was primarily funded by the Livelihoods and Food Security Fund managed by the United Nations Office for Projects Services, https://www.lift-fund.org/en, to provide a monthly briefing on the evolving humanitarian crisis in Myanmar. We received IRB exempted status from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell (21-101-THA-EXM).
26 International Labor Organization Citation2021.
27 The Irrawaddy Citation2021.
28 The value of the kyat gradually declined on the black market from 1,330 kyats to US$1 at the time of the coup to nearly 4,500 kyats to the dollar in August 2022.
29 Food and Agriculture Organization Citation2022.
30 ISP Myanmar Citation2021.
31 Myanmar Ministry of Health Citation2014.
32 Central Statistics Office of the Ministry of Financial Planning Citation2019.
33 Paddock Citation2022.
34 Nyan Corridor Citation2021.
35 The Ministry of Health (MOH) Data Citation2021.
36 We have used the official exchange rate set by the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) during the time when we collected data. See Central Bank of Myanmar Citation2022 We have used informal market exchange rates for data collected after May 2022, as after this time the informal and official exchange rates diverged significantly following the SAC decision to prohibit the use of US dollars for domestic transactions.
37 Based on conversations with friends and family members of the first and third authors.
38 MOR July 2022.
39 Students Unions’ Facebook 2022.
40 In Loikaw, Kayah State, for instance, no schools were opened in 2021, but almost all schools reopened in 2022. Among our research sites, most students in government-controlled areas have gone back to school except for those in conflict areas (such as Kayah, Sagaing, and Magwe), those who live in remote areas, those whose parents are struggling economically (Yangon), or those who have moved to the hills for their livelihoods (Pathein). Enrollment rates are highest in primary schools, gradually decrease in middle and high schools, and are lowest among college students. Nevertheless, re-enrollment of university students has increased from between three and five percent to approximately thirty to thirty-five percent of existing university students.
41 The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is an international certification that is based on an English language curriculum. It was developed by Cambridge Assessment International Education, which is affiliated with the University of Cambridge.
42 Based on conversations with friends and family members of authors one and three.
43 Economist Intelligence Unit (Citation2022); Global Initiatives against Transnational Organized Crime (Citation2023).
44 The total population of Myanmar was estimated to be 51.5 million people in 2014 (Department of Population, Citation2016). If we subtract the number of members of ethnic armed organizations (100,000), PDFs (100,000), former government employees (450,000), two million internally displaced people, and military personnel along with their dependents, an overwhelming majority of people have not participated in strikes or joined the anti-military armed resistance.
45 NUG Citation2021.
46 MOR Reports; The Irrawaddy Citation2022a.
47 Throughout the civil war period, the Myanmar military has relied on a notorious “four cut strategies” to deprive food, intelligence, financial support, and potential recruits to insurgents by moving, burning, and denying transport of food and medicines to villages that allegedly support insurgents.
48 MOR Reports 2021-2022.
49 A researcher from Rakhine state reported that a headmaster and two assistant teachers in Maung Taw were kidnapped and held for a ransom of 1,000 lakhs (US$54,054), which was paid with involuntary contributions of 10,000 kyats (US$5) from each teacher working at the school (MOR July 2022). An IFPRI survey of 12,000 households shows that the percentage of households reporting that crime had increased in their communities rose by 7.7 percent between December 2021 and February 2022, 8.7 percent between April and June 2022, and 9.6 percent in July and August 2022. See IFPRI, “Vulnerability and Welfare: Findings from the third round of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey” (July and August 2022). Myanmar SSP Working Paper, https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136449.
50 MOR Reports 2021-22. Entrepreneurs provide cash to people who are unable to withdraw money from their bank accounts due to daily quotas on the amount of money one can withdraw. They provide the amount of money clients want withdrawal for a ten to twelve percent fee. For example, if a person wants cash but cannot withdraw any from their bank, they transfer this amount into the broker’s account (plus the service fee) in exchange for cash.
51 Fishbein et al. Citation2022.
52 Chiu Citation2022.
53 The Guardian Citation2022.
54 Thanaka is a paste made from the bark of several different types of trees in Myanmar.
55 Prominent jade mine owner U Kyaw Thura was arrested in August 2022 for allegedly funding the NUG and resistance groups (The Irrawaddy Citation2022b).
56 Guns and weapons seized from PDFs by the SAC were reported to be made by UWSA, the largest ethnic armed group, which has refrained from fighting since the coup and engages politically with the SAC (The Irrawaddy Citation2022c). Soldiers of the Arakan Army (AA), an armed group in Rakhine State that signed ceasefire agreements with the SAC, were also found to be assisting the anti-coup resistance (The Irrawaddy Citation2022d).
57 Leehey Citation2016; Griffiths Citation2020; Prasse-Freeman Citation2012, Citation2021; McCarthy Citation2022; Rhoads and Roberts Citation2022.
58 Campbell Citation2022.
59 Freedom House ranked Myanmar as “partly free” in 2019, a considerable improvement compared to the “not free” designation under the previous military government. Freedom House Citation2022.
60 Alexander and McCargo Citation2019.
61 Chiu Citation2022.
Additional information
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Notes on contributors
Ardeth M Thawnghmung
Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung is a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. She has written five books and numerous articles on comparative political economy, ethnicity, Myanmar, and Southeast Asia. Her most recent book, Winning the Process: The State and Neutralization of Ethnic Minorities in Myanmar, co-authored with Jacques Bertrand and Alexandre Pelletier, was published in 2022 by Cornell University Press. She was born and raised in Myanmar, where she has conducted research for the past twenty years.
Su Mon Thazin Aung
Su Mon Thazin Aung is Director of the Capacity Building Department at the Institute for Strategy and Policy- Myanmar.
Naw Moo Moo Paw
Naw Moo Moo Paw is a citizen of Myanmar, and currently pursuing her PhD in Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
Duncan Boughton
Duncan Boughton is a professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University. He has worked on issues related to agricultural reforms in Myanmar since 2011.