Tinyism: a possible future for Myanmar?

by Hein Htet Kyaw


Ironically, these NUCC factions were critical of the NUG and the previous NLD administration for keeping quiet about the Rohingya genocide. They accused some members of the NUG and NLD administration of keeping quiet to work closely with the military junta in the hope of avoiding a possible coup. In 2022, the same fractions that managed to get into NUCC decided to ignore the Uyghur genocide to get support from the Chinese imperialist camp against the military junta. This kind of hypocrisy reveals that the NUCC leadership is full of opportunistic liberals who are not taking social justice, human rights, and grass-root democracy seriously.


Myanmar is well-known for having the longest civil war among the ethnic groups for their independent state rights since its independence. Since the military dictatorships and the last pseudo-democratic governments under the 2008 constitution, Myanmar has been divided into seven regions, seven ethnic states, one union territory, one self-administered division, and five self-administered zones. Under the leadership of NUG and NUCC, the concept of having eight ethnic states with variable self-administered division as well as zones has been introduced.

Seven regions and one union territory will be merged into a single state for Bamar ethnic people. Superficially, this seems to be the solution that will put an end to all the ethnic conflicts in Myanmar. 
Myanmar has 135 distinct ethnic groups but only has 7-8 ethnic states. When the national question is seriously considered, tinyism is the only solution to a grass-roots democratic confederation with such diverse ethnic groups. For example, Shan ethnic state is a state for the Shan ethnic majority in Myanmar. However, Shan itself is a majority of several minority ethnic groups. Within Shan states, there are several ethnic armed organisations that represent different ethnic groups, such as Shan, Wa, Pa-O, Ta'ang, and so on. The Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS) is one of the largest EAOs in Shan state. RCSS is based on Shan nationalism and is calling for a Shan independent administration that includes the whole Shan territory.

However, the United Wa State Army, an ethnic military split from the People’s Liberation Army of the Communist Party of Burma, claims that the Wa ethnic group is different from the Shan ethnic majority and is demanding an independent administration from the Shan region itself. Similarly, the Ta'ang National Liberation Army, an ethnic armed organization representing the Ta’ang ethnic group, is also echoing the similar demand that Ta'ang ethnic groups demand an independent region that’s free from Shan administrations.

Similarly, the Shan ethnic state shares a long borderline with the Kachin ethnic state. Since they shared a long border, there were a lot of migrations between each state. As a result, there are some Shan ethnic people in Kachin state and some Kachin ethnic people in the Shan region. Thus, these areas are historically claimable by both sides. Some Shan ethnic people inside Kachin state are demanding those Shan-condensed areas from the Kachin state be a part of the Shan region. The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which represents Kachin nationalism, refused to accept such a split. Due to these disputes, the KIA itself became divided, and the Shanni Nationalities Army (SNA) was created to liberate those areas from the Kachin ethnic group.


Such kinds of nationalist conflicts among diverse ethnic groups might be solved by having autonomous regions for every ethnic group. Then, if the neighboring ethnic states still insist on forming a federal administration or confederal administration, such an alliance should be conducted voluntarily. Neither ready-made band-aid solutions from liberal leadership of having eight ethnic states within a union nor the Bamar chauvinist solution of maintaining the status quo by force will solve such complex nationalist ethnic liberation movements. Advocacy movements should be carried out to replace nationalism with communal consciousness in a near future to achieve the legitimate communal tinyism that will put an end to the spooky concepts known as the state and nationalist organizations. Such movements shouldn’t limit themselves within Myanmar region and extend to neighboring states to weaken the imperialist nature of neighboring countries. 

Summary 


Summing up, the concept of having eight ethnic states within a union under some neo-liberal government is more likely to be the result of this revolution if the people failed to organize themselves spontaneously to create democratic autonomous regions that are run communally. In the worst-case scenario, the military junta might be able to maintain the status quo if the PDFs didn’t get enough military supports.