Yamnath Upadhyay

Southeast Asia

Class Presentation

Fourth Semester
Myanmar
 Key facts
• Official name: The Republic of the Union of Myanmar
• Land Area: 676,577.23 sq km
• Population (2018): 53.63 million
• Capital: Nay Pyi Taw
• Head of government: President Win Myint
• GDP (2019):  76.09 billion US dollars
• GDP Per Capita (2019): 1608.50 US dollars
• Major cities (2014 census): Yangon (7.355 million), Mandalay (6.14588 million),
Bago (4.863455 million), Nay Pyi Taw (1.158368 million)
• Major language Burmese, minority languages
• Major religions Buddhism
• Life expectancy 64 years (men), 69 years (women)
Political Map Of Myanmar
 Introduction

• Myanmar is located in the western portion of mainland

Southeast Asia and is bordered by China to the north and
northeast, Laos to the east, Thailand to the southeast, the
Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal to the south and southwest,
Bangladesh to the west, and India to the northwest. Its total
length from north to south is about 1,275 miles (2,050 km),
and its width at the widest part, across the centre of the
country is approximately 580 miles (930 km) from east to
west.
 A Chronology of key events
1057 - King Anawrahta founds the first unified Myanmar state at Pagan and adopts
Theravada Buddhism.
1531 - Toungoo dynasty reunites country as Burma.
1885-86 - Burma comes under British rule.
1948 - Burma becomes independent.
1962 - The military junta takes over, initially in the shape of a single-party socialist system.
1990 - Opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) wins landslide victory in
elections, but the military ignores the result.
2011 - The military hands over to a nominally civilian government following elections the
previous year.
2015 - Elections. Opposition National League for Democracy - led by Aung San Suu Kyi -
wins enough seats in parliament to form a government.
2018 August - UN accuses Myanmar of genocide against Rohingya Muslims.
2021 February - Government overthrown in military coup.
 Administrative divisions
• Myanmar is divided into seven states and seven regions formerly
called divisions. Regions are predominantly Bamar (that is, mainly
inhabited by Myanmar's dominant ethnic group). States, in essence,
are regions that are home to particular ethnic minorities. The
administrative divisions are further subdivided into districts, which
are further subdivided into townships, wards, and villages.
 Administrative divisions

No. State No. Region No. Union Territory

1 Kachin State 1 Magway Region
2 Kayah State 2 Mandalay Region 1 Naypyidaw Union
3 Sagaing Region Territory
3 Kayin State
4 Tanintharyi Region
4 Chin State
5 Yangon Region
5 Mon State
6 Bago Region
6 Rakhine State
7 Ayeyarwady Regio
7 Shan State n
 Languages Religion Ethnic groups 
Official languages Burmese Religions Percentages Ethnic groups Percentages
Recognized •Kachin Buddhism 87.9%  Bamar 68% 
regional  •Kayah Christianity 6.2%  Shan 9% 
languages •Karen Islam 4.3%  Karen 7% 
•Chin Hindu 0.5%  Rakhine 4% 
•Mon Others 1.1%  Chinese 3% 
•Rakhine Indians 2% 
•Shan Mon 2% 
others 5%

Source : The World Factbook. U.S. Central Intelligence Agency 2018.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Myanmar was worth
76.09 billion US dollars in 2019, according to official data
from the World Bank. The GDP value of Myanmar represents
0.06 percent of the world economy.
The Gross Domestic Product per capita in Myanmar was last
recorded at 1608.50 US dollars in 2019. The GDP per Capita
in Myanmar is equivalent to 13 percent of the world's average.
 History
Pagan Kingdom
Pagan gradually grew to absorb its surrounding states until the 1050s–
1060s when Anawrahta founded the Pagan Kingdom, the first ever
unification of the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery. In the 12th and
13th centuries, the Pagan Empire and the Khmer Empire were two
main powers in mainland Southeast Asia.
The Burmese language and culture gradually became dominant in the
upper Irrawaddy valley, eclipsing the Pyu, Mon and Pali norms by the
late 12th century. Theravada Buddhism slowly began to spread to the
village level, although Tantric, Mahayana, Hinduism and folk religion
remained heavily entrenched. Pagan's rulers and wealthy built over
10,000 Buddhist temples in the Pagan capital zone alone.

Cont.
British Burma (1885–1948)
In the 19th century, Burmese rulers, whose country had not previously been
of particular interest to European traders, sought to maintain their
traditional influence in the western areas of Assam, Manipur and Arakan.
Pressing them, however, was the British East India Company, which was
expanding its interests eastwards over the same territory. Over the next sixty
years, diplomacy, raids, treaties and compromises, known collectively as
the Anglo-Burmese Wars, continued until Britain proclaimed control over
most of Burma. With the fall of Mandalay, all of Burma came under British
rule, being annexed on 1 January 1886.
On 1 April 1937, Burma became a separately administered colony of Great
Britain, and Ba Maw became the first Prime Minister and Premier of Burma.
Ba Maw was an outspoken advocate for Burmese self-rule, and he opposed
the participation of Great Britain, and by extension Burma, in World War II.
He resigned from the Legislative Assembly and was arrested for sedition. In
1940, before Japan formally entered the war, Aung San  formed the Burma
Independece Army in Japan.
As a major battleground, Burma was devastated during World War II by
the Japanese invasion. Within months after they entered the war,
Japanese troops had advanced on Rangoon, and the British
administration had collapsed. A Burmese Executive
Administration headed by Ba Maw was established by the Japanese in
August 1942.
The Burma National Army and the Arakan National Army fought with the
Japanese from 1942 to 1944 but switched allegiance to the Allied side in
1945. Overall, 170,000 to 250,000 Burmese civilians died during World
War II.
Following World War II, Aung San negotiated the Panglong
Agreement with ethnic leaders that guaranteed the independence of
Myanmar as a unified state.  In 1947, Aung San became Deputy Chairman
of the Executive Council of Myanmar, a transitional government. But in
July 1947, political rivals assassinated Aung San and several cabinet
members.
Independence (1948–1962)
On 4 January 1948, the nation became an independent republic, under
the terms of the Burma Independence Act 1947. The new country was
named the Union of Burma, with Sao Shew Thaik as its first president
and U NU as its first prime minister.  A bicameral parliament was
formed, consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a Chamber of
Nationalities, and multi-party elections were held in 1951-1952, 1956
and 1960.
When the non-Burman ethnic groups pushed for autonomy or
federalism, alongside having a weak civilian government at the centre,
the military leadership staged a coup d'état in 1962. Though
incorporated in the 1947 Constitution, successive military governments
construed the use of the term 'federalism' as being anti-national, anti-
unity and pro-disintegration.
Military rule (1962–2011)
On 2 March 1962, the military led by General  Ne Win took control of
Burma through a d'état, and the government had been under direct or
indirect control by the military since then. Between 1962 and 1974,
Myanmar was ruled by a revolutionary council headed by the general.
Almost all aspects of society (business, media, production) were
nationalized or brought under government control under the Burmese
Way to Socialism, which combined Soviet-style nationalization and central
planning.
In May 1990, the government held free multiparty elections for the first
time in almost 30 years, and the National League for Democracy (NLD), the
party of Aung San Suu Kyi, won  earning 392 out of a total 492 seats (i.e.,
80% of the seats). However, the military junta refused to cede power and
continued to rule the nation as SLORC until 1997, and then as the State
Peace and Development Council (SPDC) until its dissolution in March 2011.
Democratic reforms
The goal of the Burmese constitutional referendum of 2008, held on 10 May
2008, is the creation of a "discipline-flourishing democracy". As part of the
referendum process, the name of the country was changed from the "Union of
Myanmar" to the "Republic of the Union of Myanmar", and general elections
were held under the new constitution in 2010. Observer accounts of the 2010
election describe the event as mostly peaceful; however, allegations of polling
station irregularities were raised, and the United Nations (UN) and a number of
Western countries condemned the elections as fraudulent.
2015 general elections
General elections were held on 8 November 2015. These were the first openly
contested elections held in Myanmar since the 1990 general election. The
results gave the NLD an absolute majority of seats in both chambers of
the national parliament, enough to ensure that its candidate would become
president, while NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi is constitutionally barred from
the presidency.
2020 elections and 2021 military coup d'état
Suu Kyi's NLD won the 2020 Myanmar general election on 8 November
in a landslide, again winning supermajorities in both houses—winning
396 out of 476 elected seats in parliament.
Coup
In the early morning of 1 February 2021, the day parliament was set to
convene, the Tatmadaw, Myanmar's military, detained State Counsellor
Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the ruling party. The military
handed power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing  and declared a state
of emergency for one year and began closing the borders, restricting
travel and electronic communications nationwide.
Geography
Myanmar has a total area of 678,500 square kilometres. Myanmar is
bordered in the northwest by the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh and
the Mizorma, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh states of India.
Its north and northeast border is with the Tibet Autonomous
Region and Yunnan for a Sino-Myanmar border total of 2,185 km. It is
bounded by Laso and Thailand to the southeast. Myanmar has 1,930 km
of contiguous coastline along the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea to the
southwest and the south, which forms one quarter of its total perimeter.
In the north, the Hengduan Mountains  form the border with China.
The mountain chains divide Myanmar's three river systems, which are
the Irrawaddy, Salween, and the Sittaung rivers.
Genocide allegations and crimes against Rohingya people
The Rohingya people have consistently faced human rights abuses by
the Burmese regime that has refused to acknowledge them as Burmese
citizens the Rohingya have been denied Burmese citizenship since the
enactment of a 1982 citizenship law. The law created three categories of
citizenship: citizenship, associate citizenship, and naturalized citizenship.
Citizenship is given to those who belong to one of the national races
such as Kachin, Kayah (Karenni), Karen, Chin, Burman, Mon, Rakhine,
Shan, Kaman, or Zerbadee. Associate citizenship is given to those who
cannot prove their ancestors settled in Myanmar before 1823 but can
prove they have one grandparent, or pre-1823 ancestor, who was a
citizen of another country, as well as people who applied for citizenship
in 1948 and qualified then by those laws. Naturalized citizenship is only
given to those who have at least one parent with one of these types of
Burmese citizenship or can provide "conclusive evidence" that their
parents entered and resided in Burma prior to independence in 1948.
Rohingya are not allowed to travel without official permission, are
banned from owning land, and are required to sign a commitment to
have no more than two children. As of July 2012, the Myanmar
government does not include the Rohingya minority group—classified
as stateless Bengali Muslims from Bangladesh since 1982—on the
government's list of more than 130 ethnic races and, therefore, the
government states that they have no claim to Myanmar citizenship.

Thank You