[000:00:00;00] the hello, i'm vanilla chan. you are tuned into modus operandi. me and mars military junta sees power back in february of 2021. and has since triggered on going wide spread protests and opposition throughout the country. but the story doesn't actually begin there. today will dig into the decades long battle for power in myanmar and what this means for its neighbors across southeast asia. all right, let's get into the m o the, for many people around the world. it's name is stone,

burma. it's rebranding to me and mar. didn't come until 1989. but it's people are still referred to as bernice. it's there that the national league for democracy, a political party founded by august on sushi. the youngest daughter of the late revered independence, later general on son, one big in the 2021 parliamentary elections. but it wasn't long before the military leadership cited mass, broad as the reason to overturn election results. fresh out of her cross decades, long house arrest suits you issued a statement calling for her supporters to resist what she described as a return to military dictatorship. it was here in me and mar 2021. that was served as newly minted us president joe biden, and secretary of state anthony blinking 1st test on international relations and

diplomacy. today, that would be temporary, military control, still continues. joining us to unpack this very complicated situation and me and mar that is asian pacific affairs expert kj know k j is also an educator, a writer. his most recent piece on this particular matter can be found as a public policy journal called pearls and irritation at john men and do dot com k j . thank you so much for making some time for us. pleasure to be with you manila. so 1st of peter, i guess i just got to ask you a point blank is me and more in a civil war. yes it is. it's a very complex, multi party civil. it's not this binary between military crew government and, you know, people seeking democracy so much as it is. i'm

a civil war between 30 at least 30 different ethnic on organizations. and then the deposed bottom of majority civil government. what we refer to as the, and huge you as a national unity government and then the military hotel, which card a controls of the country. and it's a very complex situation. but essentially it's a continuation of a 75 year old civil war. the longest in modern history, and it really has its origins in bush colonized ation. the british simply a long rated a whole bunch of different countries and that the cities and regions into a single uh, colonial domain. and when they left, uh they left the country in disarray, the leader of the country on side who was trying to pull the country together into confederation was assassinated. and it's very highly likely that he was

assassinated by british leads. and so as a result of the country devolved into chaos and civil war. and that has essentially continued to this card day. it involves different regions, different ethnicities. so certainly the con, you know, the conflict between the military and all the groups, but also there's a religious stein, mention christians, muslims, buddhist, as well as intro religious conflicts. so it's a complex civil war. and war is, is not as cut and dry as much as the us media wants to paint it in the, the typical fashion of democracy on one side and then dictatorship or to tell a terry. and as i'm on the other, there are a lot of interested parties here, both domestic to me and more and internationally, like the us and china. american main stream media is doing with me and more what it did with ukraine,

acting like this conflict began in russia's special military operation back in february of 2022 in during the 2014 to and the nuanced history before that. so the same thing applies here for me and more for american media. and this is a cool of 2021. nothing else to see here, folks. but the reality is, under brock obama. the u. s. has been eyeballing me and mar from very long time. obama went to visit sushi at her residence while she was under house arrest, staying for hillary clinton and she went to visit as well. why did obama and clinton both go meet with suki and what vital role does me and more even play for the us? the, the key role is a jo, strategic one. bed more is right next to china. it has, you know, thousands over a 1000 miles of border with china. and when barcode bama initiated the pivot to asia,

grandma became incredibly important. they needed to pull them off into the us or that in order to use it as a bulwark against china. and also to prevent china from developing its belt and rode out into the indian ocean through capsule port. and so they strongly and very actively courted on some sushi was, you know, at the, at that time, the deposed leader of the country, the post civilian leader of the country. uh. and then uh, essentially through a series of pressure and negotiations, they were able to create a co habitation between ounce on sushi and the military government. the military junta that had controlled the country for decades. what happened later was the,

i'll sensory chee instead of going along with the us plan. she started to do her own rock prussia mall with china in particular, authorizing scores of mountain road projects through me and my especially through right kind state. when that happened, she lost favor with the us ruling elite, and then her fate was sealed. they alleged that there was a ethnic, cleansing genocide, a rowing got going on. this is true, but it was nothing unusual relative to all the other ethnic jenna sites that were happening. uh and, and therefore she was put into, you know, uh uh, she was put into the dog house, essentially. and then the military scene that she was, you know, on federal situation, they decided we've had it with this co habitation. we don't like the election of fraud that has happened, which has disenfranchised us. and they initiated

a cool put her back on the house arrest. and since then the country is read to fall back into total a civil war. man, moore has been aide for a very, very long time by us and west, and multinational corporations. it is an incredibly rich country. it has strategic minerals. it has incredible stores of jams, uh tons and night. jade uh, rubies, uh teak as well as oil. and so it is an incredible rich resource that is being i, by the capital, at least for a very, very long time. and the hope was that during on the august on sushi, that they would be able to open the country up into this neo liberal field of exploitation. really. it was the new market,

the new frontier. and they were creating arrangements for that. but it was also geo strategic play important. and because of that, uh, the geo strategic se, uh, took precedence. uh and they undermined on the sides sushi and then that all cleared the way for the miller cheek to take back total power. now if we go deeper into history, into the world war 2 era backs and burma had portions of the country occupied by japan who used to permit territory to then subjugate chinese citizens along the border region. fast forward to present a myanmar, what are relations between them and, and china, given that they share this, you know, 1000 plus mile long border of the relations or complex a china is general. a relationship with bottom a has been one of non interference. but that said,

it has many complicating factors. one of the 1st things to understand is that china had a civil war in which the communist won the war. but during that period, the losing side, the losing fascist side, the k empty military. when they lost the war, they bifurcated one half of them the camp to tie one island did. they created a rump state under the control and to the ledge of the us, which became the us base until the 1970s. the other half of the k m. t military went to barnes and from burma for about 2 decades, they waged a war against china in order from their standpoint to liberate united province, which is on the border with above or myanmar. and so in 1961,

china actually engaged in a full scale invasion of man ma, with 20000 troops in order to quell of the k m t a harassment. and so that is one piece of you know, that engagement to and then we also have to understand that there are multiple chinese estimate minorities that live inside a yeah. and mark proffer that is to say, traditionally these are being the ancestral lands and those ancestral lands don't respect martin board board is especially borders imposed by you know, west and colonial powers. and so for example, the sean state, the why the mon are primarily ethnic chinese. and so that creates another set of complications. and then more recently, once again, i said,

even since the crew, the military cool, china has been a resolutely non interfering except the last year uh, thousands of chinese were becoming in slave inside, beyond mars, a slave caps they were, you know, essentially there's a lot of cross border criminality in yet more and, you know, there's 1200 miles of border and thousands of chinese nationals had been kidnapped into slavery in moore. these were the kind of call center stems that are very, very common in the region. and so once again, a china actually engaged in border conflict and incurred, they went into yeah. and more to liberate uh, you know,

thousands of chinese nationals and they've, you know, issued arrest warrants for, you know, some of these crime families. but this has to do with the fact that under the conditions of this chaotic civil war, there's been this massive growth uh of, uh, you know, uh, organized crime, uh, and the china had been trying to shut down the slavery in scabbing. and when it didn't work, it green lighted or supported, an alliance of northern ethnic armed organizations. erica, not me, man, my national democratic alliance army and the time national liberation army to smash the criminal gangs and re take control of the board, which they did. and what that did was that, you know, demonstrated weakness of the military government. and as a result that, you know, over a 100 basis will overrun by, you know, resistance forces against the military. and then that is created yet more chaos.

and there's being this kind of seesaw effect between the on ethnic organizations and the uh, the, the ruling military junta. so, you know, china's approach really has been to try to mediate keys between the groups which it did do after you know, these cross border rate. but essentially, once the ability and peace on its borders, it does not want to pick sides or choose windows in what is essentially across by hurricane have very, very complex cross border challenges. indeed. all right, coming up next nearly a century in its post colonial era. new are remains one of the course nations in asia, despite sitting on vast natural resources. we'll discuss it when we return with k j . no. so tight demo will be right back

the the of this experience for the rest, the problem or the choice dreamforce that is before useful, vice chair, multi cube. good, as i mentioned earlier, is up to steep requirements, not express here, submit item. so image of matter as only can regards no problem, no, no, but up in the front and then for the 5th, and if i know 4 will be street. mentioned there's pretty much full time to go buy some of the work for introducing

over the proof for those types of products that are going to have the most of the things that are available to try and implement. so the most of the triple just the front of the it's almost the that the system, the good english is and you know, the welcome back to the m o. m l a chance catering no asia pacific affairs analyst at expert is back. thank you so much for sticking around k j. so looking at me and mars economy, it remains one of age as poor as nation since it's independence from britain in 1948. it's been noticeably left out of all these various trained deals with the

us that has stitched together with different asian countries. i mean, everything from obama is now defunct, t p, p to trust the version of it. that was called c p tvs. and even now under biden's, i pass that is that one of mine is 1st executive orders. l 14014, dated february 10th, 2021. it opens the flood gates to sanction being more and for me is entities, even individuals. a quick scroll of the state department website and you'll find that since then, dozens upon dozens of sanctions had been heaped on. why as fight in doing this to an already poor and suffering nation? well, i mean, certainly it has an incredible history of being abused and, you know, tortured by colonial powers, and then by its own military hunter. so it's

a long suffering nation. and i really think that, you know, if the world or to, you know, exercise its ideals, it would, it would, you know, treat me on my very, very differently. but the basic fact is that young moore has existed in 2 ways for the west, for the united states, one as a kind of a socialist hold out against west and new liberalism. and countries that do that essentially get sanctioned. you can only exist as a us pass. so if you, if you hold out, if you resist pressure, then you know, you will be sanctioned. uh, you know, the us will try and break your part or they will sanction you to that. so that was the earlier part of yeah, and minus history. and then it became jo, strategically important. and there was an opening that was built by the us support

of amazon, sushi who had, you know, a certain popular legitimacy. and it seemed like for a moment, there that not only was the us going to be able to turn me on more into the latest us the neo liberal frontier for mass extraction that an exploitation. but that it was also just strategically critical. and that is the us envision that it could tilt and more a, to its side as a bulwark and as a weapon against china, simply because you know that vicinity. but also, as i said before, the fact that it is a critical roadway for the belt and road in particular. it seals, china in the us, has a plan to choke off china at the south china sea, where 5 trillion dollars worth of goods. chinese goods, travel, and 70 percent of china is oil moves. and if you can choke off the south china sea,

you can bring down china, except the china can buy, bypass the south china sea by going overland through myanmar, and then through capital port in rock kind state into the indian ocean. so then yeah, and more itself becomes very, very critical. and, you know, leading up and about a decade before the crew, they were massive protests that were funded by the united states against the belt and wrote under the pretext of environmental isn't visual or any d funded attacks. and protests when the crew happened. all of that became neutralized and so then the us results back to its old hammer, which is even more a sanctions, even more threats. because it didn't,

it wasn't able to extract what it wanted on the sensor to military cohabitation. now it's going back to its old habit, which is to sanction the country to death under the pretext of humanitarian causes. i mean, the humanitarian causes, of course, are real concern, but they are also a pretext from the standpoint of the us is real politic towards me and more. alright, going back to us on sushi. so she's been kind of in and out of house arrest since 1988 for her political activism. her human rights crusades, she had brief stints in between as the countries defacto pm. she wanted nobel peace prize in 2012. but under her student as foreign minister in 2015, however, there were alleged human rights abuses in me in mar, against ro, him, the muslims. and what's going on with the brain to now and how does that impact the unrest in me and mart today?

will the ro hang are still under extreme stress? you know, there's currently a case of the i, c, c for genocide against me, and mar, which also implicates on son sushi. as you know, one of the facilitators of it and she defend the military against that. but yes, they've been subject to ethnic cleansing. i think, you know, we remember in 2017, around august there was, you know, the massive ethnic cleansing started. 700000 refugees fled. i think over a 150 were internally displaced. that's in addition to 300000 that have already that had already fled to a bangle. and so you know, somewhere in the range of $1100000.00 refugees have been displaced because of that

. and they still suffer discrimination stress and extraordinary threats. but it's also important to put that into context. the 1st context is that kind of ethnic cleansing had been happening across the board to almost all of the minorities, certainly other ethnic minorities in the right kind state. for example, the rook calling themselves, they were, you know, a considered to be a terrorist and were subject to ethnic cleansing, what the oxide, sushi and the military referred to as the for, knows, no food, no information. you know, no trade, nothing. they were again being starved to death and you know, not the numbers were again in the hundreds of thousands. and that's true for the qur'an, the kitchen chin. almost every ethnic minority that has not that did not sign a compact with the military who,

utah was actually under extreme stress. so we have to kind of take this notion that there's something singular about the role hang oppression. the roy king, the ethnic cleansing as something singular, it's not, it's, it's something that has been part and parcel of the continued state of affairs. in fact, i think it's important to interrogate why the rowing guy themselves were, you know, put into the limelight as opposed to all the other ethnic minorities that have been exposed and subject to similar types of oppression. and then the other piece that's also important, which is often left out of the picture, is that, you know, the rowing has an army cold are so it's, uh, it's hard to come out. yeah. cheese, which has been a designated a terraced, not just environment,

but also in malaysia. and they've been terrorizing that on ro hang. but essentially, this has to do with the long history of the united states weapon icing is law, make fundamental as tech fee re groups just as a way to undermine and to attack its enemies. so that is also part of the picture. and i'm saying that i want to separate our so from the rowing in general. but i do want to point out that, you know, the us has a history of using a extremist islamic terror as a way to create destruction and to create propagation and to force its way on countries that it considers to be. and in the states, the once again, the even larger context has to do with the fact that the rowing, the muslims were probably,

according to most reliable historians were brought in. they imported by the british into myanmar as laborers. and also as part of the bridge, a strategy of divide and conquer. they were muslims. and uh, you know, most of yeah, and more despite many of the cities is primarily buddhist and buddhist animist. and so they, the british, used the rowing of muslims as a proxy force. they actually use them to fight. i was on the other, you know, is on the other forces that were trying to liberate themselves from british calling zation. and then they promise the rowing of muslims, a state, their own independent state inside the inside myanmar in rock kind state. and of course, this was a problem. the british had no intention of keeping,

but it was enough to create ongoing threat and ongoing a civil war and is civil war that lasted for decades. and then has really kind of re ignited in more recent years. that's a tragic story of for, you know, so many minority groups across me and margin. nobody's really talking about them. all right, we've got to make that the last word, unfortunately, catering no asia pacific affairs expert. thank you so much for your expert insight today. be sure to check out teachers latest writing at pearls and irritations. pleasure to be with you manila. and that is going to do it for this episode of modus operandi, to show that dig deep into foreign policy and current affairs on your host manila chance. thank you so much for turning in. we'll see you again next time to figure out the m. o

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the material costume for dominique deal. frontier and bows. oscar no initial starts northern, undermining of this distrust when she was leaving the sponge union for us. the proper work of the tempo, or you have a spring my item for transit almost. so it's good to see where i'm from. cooper style, new industrial ship or store controllers. i bet you pull up a stablish in the loop on here thing you put into the the media. beautiful. if you're getting in the page,