Discussions on Governance and Transitional Justice: Evidence from Myanmar Migrants and Refugees in Thailand
While the people of Myanmar suffer with daily violence and other forms of oppression perpetrated by the military regime that seized power on 1 February 2021, in a variety of venues inside the nation and in Thailand and other nations, its future is being debated. This report and the research upon which it is based should be viewed as a reaction to the external conversations that are taking place in Chiang Mai and other locations around the world among Myanmar expatriates, representatives of governments, international agencies, development organisations, and other NGOs regarding the future of Myanmar.
The assessment of the authors of this report and the Myanmar Advocacy Research Group (MARG) is that these conversations/debates regarding the future of Myanmar are dominated by typical sets of actors that include the nation’s expatriate political, economic, social, and academic elites, and elite representatives of the international community. MARG fears that the interests of the groups for which it provides research evidence and advocates – the nation’s least advantaged and most marginalised rural and urban residents – will not be adequately represented or otherwise considered in these elite conversations/debates in Chiang Mai and other locations around the globe. MARG also fears that these conversations fail to recognize that Myanmar’s problems go far beyond disruptions to democratic processes and governance caused by the 2021 coup. Rather, problems associated with inter-ethnic tensions, corruption, and lack of responsiveness, accountability, transparency, and effectiveness in governance are deeply rooted in the social and cultural lifeways of Myanmar and must be addressed at micro levels of experience among the nation’s people.
The current study emerged as a response to these concerns. The evidence that is presented in this report demonstrates MARG’s commitment to these ideas as its research team engaged with members of the Myanmar immigrant/refugee community in Thailand regarding their experiences with violence and other forms of oppression and their assessment of the need for local governance building and transitional justice.
The research team refers to its approach in the current research as “empowering” and “advocacy” in nature. It should not be assessed in standard terms of social research, field work, or qualitative or quantitative methods. It should be assessed in terms reflected in the label “learning discussions” that were applied in the focus group discussions (FGDs) that provided most of the evidence considered in this report.
The research team discussed with Myanmar immigrants/refugees living in Chiang Mai and Mae Sot, Thailand for MARG’s governance and justice ideas. Through these discussions, the researchers sought to develop common understandings regarding how the participants’ shared experiences with violence and other forms of oppression can inform the implementation of grassroots governance and justice-seeking ideas and empower the participants to participate in their application across their nation in the future.
