Burma’s Path to Democracy Is Being Wrecked by Lethal Identity Politics

The very word “Burma” was once shorthand for a brutal military dictatorship, but things have now changed dramatically.

An ethnic Rohingya Muslim child in a camp set up outside the city of Sittwe, in Rakhine State, Burma, on May 21, 2015. Malaysia ordered search and rescue missions on May 22 for thousands of boat people stranded at sea, as Myanmar hosted talks with US and Southeast Asian envoys on the migrant exodus from its shores. Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images

The very word “Burma” was once shorthand for a brutal military dictatorship, but things have now changed dramatically. Burma (or Myanmar) has come to be viewed as a country firmly committed to the establishment of a new reality, founded upon respect for human rights and the rule of law.

Behind this changing perception are a series of planned government reforms and gestures. In 2010, under the auspices of the so-called “seven stage road map to democracy,” Burma’s government ended the 15-yearslong house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi. A further 2,000 political prisoners were subsequently released, many of whom had languished in the aptly named Insein Prison.

Given a series of recent events and one longstanding problem, Burma's reform process is in serious danger of collapse.