The Burmese government's rocky path toward nation-building
The country is about to launch its first census in decades

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
In March, Burma will count its people for the first time in decades.
In 2012, one year into its disputed age of reform and 39 years after its last census, the Burmese government launched the country's third attempt at taking stock of its population. International observers described the early stages of the process — a "mandatory" prerequisite for further reforms, according to UN population experts — with optimism. At the time, David Scott Mathieson, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch (no great booster of Burma's political transition, either), told IRIN that "the census would have a very positive affect on the ethnic areas."
Two years later, the future of Burma's people-counting is less rosy.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Many minority groups, some still fighting multi-decade insurgencies against the Burmese central government, dismiss its tidy categories for ethnic self-identification. As Elliott Prasse-Freeman observes in a recent Foreign Policy dispatch, identity — specifically, ethnic identity — is rarely as static as Burma's census forms suggest. And Burma itself is a particularly intricate network of ethnicities — 135 "official" ones to be exact — that create a complex populous that defies easy categorization. "A closer look," Prasse-Freeman writes, "at Burma's ethnic make-up...shows a vast diversity not simply within the country, but within people themselves."
For those who benefit from an identity-bounded census, the nuance is inconsequential. But for minority groups like the Rohingya, whom the Burmese government currently denies official recognition, whether they receive a check-box on a census form determines how they vote, how they acquire social benefits, and how they participate in communal affairs — that is, how they live.
Ethnic repression is a familiar feature of Burmese governance. The multi-decade counterinsurgency of the Tatmadaw, Burma's military, razed and then slowly devastated minority communities; among many civilians, "refugee" became a permanent status. The Tatmadaw's operations, however, were those of a weak state that scarcely asserted itself: Local militias, humanitarian groups, and disjointed military brigades, though often in conflict, diffused power between themselves. The central government's totalitarianism was a veneer, and violent conflicts between these unofficial factions were common-place.
Today, the worst violence is caused by the Burmese government's new assertiveness. The "stateless" Rohingya population is historically vulnerable; the past year's violence, in which Buddhist mobs killed hundreds of Muslim Rohingyas, has made it even more so. Anthropologists describe the politics of belonging as a nation's collective identity crisis, but Burma's recent violence against Rohingya civilians is more complex. It has become a matter of who belongs to the state, and who its once-repressive military forces will now protect.
These identities, codified in this year's census, are the stuff of nation-building. The ethnicities in question may be nebulous at best, but the coercive promise of the census — of taxes, political participation, and social welfare for those who belong — makes them real. Beyond Burma's census, this nation-building also refashions the local politics of conflict, as the central government presses for more common negotiations with rebel groups it once confronted as disparate groups.
Even so, the state's nation-building barriers are many and countrywide. Perhaps a recent headline by former-dissident-run Irrawaddy magazine best captured the reality on the ground: "Wary of official census, Burma’s ethnic minorities count their own."
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Daniel Solomon is a writer and consultant based in Washington, DC. He blogs at Securing Rights.
-
5 destinations to visit this fall
The Week Recommends Have a frightfully good time in Sleepy Hollow or enjoy the foliage in Asheville
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Nuclear drills: Putin urged to test atomic bomb
Speed Reads Russian rescue workers practise evacuating citizens as nuclear expert urges 'show of force'
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Elix, part of Mar-Bella Collection review: a Greek beachside oasis
The Week Recommends This family-friendly resort offers access to a beautiful beach
By Kaye O'Doherty Published
-
Dianne Feinstein, history-making Democratic US senator, dies at 90
The Explainer Her colleagues celebrate her legacy as a trailblazer who cleared the path for other women to follow
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Will the cannabis banking bill get the Senate's green light?
Talking Point The SAFER Banking Act is advancing to the US Senate for the first time, clearing a major hurdle for legal cannabis businesses. Does it stand a chance?
By Theara Coleman Published
-
Trump surrenders in Georgia election subversion case
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries chosen to succeed Pelosi as leader of House Democrats
Speed Read
By Brigid Kennedy Published
-
GOP leader Kevin McCarthy's bid for House speaker may really be in peril
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Are China's protests a real threat for Beijing?
opinion The sharpest opinions on the debate from around the web
By Harold Maass Published
-
Who is Nick Fuentes, the white nationalist who dined with Trump and Kanye?
Speed Read From Charlottesville to Mar-a-Lago in just five years
By Rafi Schwartz Published
-
Jury convicts Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes, Kelly Meggs of seditious conspiracy in landmark Jan. 6 verdict
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published