A State of Being

A State of Being

Episode #567: Stella Naw, a Kachin academic activist focused on indigenous and decolonial peacebuilding, is joined by Dustin Barter, a senior research fellow at the Humanitarian Policy Group at ODI, and together they argue that in the turmoil since the 2021 coup, ethnic resistance organizations (EROs) and their civil society partners are reshaping governance and legitimacy from the ground up, even as international recognition and aid decline. Stella traces the problem to Myanmar’s founding. Before 1948, indigenous communities governed themselves. The creation of the Union imposed internal and external borders that divided communities and ignored longstanding political realities. After the military consolidated power in the 1960s, governance became increasingly centralized, and divide-and-conquer tactics deepened ethnic and religious fragmentation. In response to state neglect, EROs began to build parallel systems—schools, clinics, land administration, and local dispute resolution—in areas beyond effective central control. During the 2010s political opening, international engagement centered on Naypyidaw and Yangon. The Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA), a centralized peace framework between the military and selected ethnic armed organizations, drew major donor funding and pressure on non-signatories. While it introduced some reforms, Stella and Dustin argue it ultimately reinforcedcentralization and sidelined federal visions emerging from border regions. After the coup, urban protest evolved into nationwide armed resistance aligned with longstanding EROs. As junta control contracted, regional authorities expanded governance. In Kachin and Karenni, resistance-linked institutions collaborate with civil society and religious networks, emphasizing accountability. Stella challenges international definitions of legitimacy, arguing it should derive from sustained relationships between governing actors and communities. Though some fear decentralization may marginalize minorities within minority regions, Dustin maintains that complexity requires inclusive negotiation, not disengagement. With humanitarian funding shrinking, he calls for cross-border aid and sustained diplomatic pressure. As he concludes, “The best pathway forward… is for the revolution to succeed.”

At the Dhamma Hinge

Episode #566: Daniel M. Stuart, an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Carolina and a visiting scholar in Hamburg, examines the elusive historical figure Maung Po Thet—also known as Saya Thet Gyi—whose place in the lineage associated with S. N. Goenka reveals how modern Vipassana narratives often simplify a far more complicated past. Stuart explains that there is very little firm historical evidence about him, the available sources limited mainly to a colloquial Burmese meditation manual and a later biography written in the 1970s. While these texts preserve important memories, they also reflect the conventions of religious writing, elevating the teacher and blurring the line between devotion and documentation. As a result, Saya Thet Gyi remains historically important yet difficult to reconstruct with certainty. From those sources, Stuart presents a portrait that differs from the polished lineage figure often found in contemporary meditation accounts. He explains that Saya Thet Gyi was a lay farmer who turned to meditation after suffering painful, personal losses, connecting this to other important lineage figures for whom healing was an important part of their Vipassana story. He was also a practitioner whose authority came from disciplined practice and communal recognition rather than scholastic rank or monastic recognition. Saya Thet Gyi’s importance also lies in his role as a lay person in the dissemination of the teachings, as the influential monk Ledi Sayadaw recognized his progress and encouraged him to teach. This moment opened the possibility that lay practitioners could become meditation teachers themselves, helping Burmese meditation spread through lay communities and eventually beyond Burma. Stuart also emphasizes that Saya Thet Gyi’s training complicates simplified portrayals of Vipassana. Before becoming known for insight meditation, he intensively practiced samathā, or concentration meditation, a practice that many modern mindfulness iterations downplay vis-à-vis vipassana. Within traditional Buddhist cosmology, such concentration could involve experiences interpreted as encounters with spiritual beings, elements that the rational and scientific presentations of contemporary teachers often minimize. By restoring these dimensions, Stuart argues that Vipassana’s history becomes more understandable as a tradition shaped by interpretation and change.

For Whom The Bell Tolls

Episode #565: In Anyar, or the central Dry Zone, community protection is by necessity locally led and informed by facts on the ground. In a huge area comprising swathes of Sagaing, Magway, and Mandalay regions, often referred to as the country’s “political heartland”, communities have faced intensified violence since the coup and persistent barriers to access, information, and livelihoods. Kant Kaw is a protection specialist, and she explains how humanitarian work, including humanitarian mine action, is being implemented on the ground under these challenging conditions. Unlike many ethnic areas in Myanmar, Anyar was relatively untouched by armed conflict prior to the 2021 military takeover. Communities were largely free from contamination by landmines, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), unexploded ordnance (UXO), and explosive remnants of war (ERW). “There are a lot of casualties in central Dry Zone due to military patrols, airstrikes or incidents of landmines and UXO in the community,” Kant Kaw says. “This is a heartbreaking moment for our area.” As a protection specialist, her work focuses on supporting youth empowerment, education, and community protection, including risk assessment and protection strategies to mitigate threats from landmines and other forms of conflict. Airstrikes rank as the most serious threat to civilians, with military patrols and checkpoints posing serious dangers for civilians, alongside the growing threat of landmines and ERW. The humanitarian mine action brief includes risk education and victim assistance, without direct involvement in ad hoc demining being carried out by some armed groups as well as civilians. Kant Kaw provides training to staff covering risks related to landmines and UXO, how to identify such devices, and safe behaviors, using posters, pamphlets, and storybooks for children.

Before the Union

Episode #564: “We want to make federalism not just as a slogan, but also as an action. We want to turn it into action!” Neineh Plo is secretary to the International Relations and Alliance committee of the Karenni National Progressive Party, and he has worked closely with the KNPP since the 2021 coup through international relations, humanitarian work, and headquarters administration. He describes Karenni State as a place where resistance actors are forced to do two things at once under war pressure: protect civilians at scale, and build an interim governing system credible enough to hold a diverse state together. Neineh Plo argues that Karenni State’s diversity makes unilateral leadership both illegitimate and self-defeating. “KNPP cannot do it alone,” he asserts, “and should not also do it alone and impose its agenda on other people.” He describes the KNPP reaching out to other stakeholders and forming the Karenni State Consultative Council, then drafting interim arrangements meant to translate coordination into real authority. Those arrangements created interim executive, legislative, and judiciary bodies, with the interim executive council providing the most visible services. The list he gives is bluntly practical: humanitarian assistance, food and shelter, civilian protection, education, healthcare, and limited rehabilitation and livelihood support. On the international side, Neineh Plo describes access as constrained by aid systems built to work through the junta’s capital. He says organizations willing to cooperate with non-state actors are limited, even as needs expand in displacement and war zones. Here he references cross-border assistance as a longstanding pathway, but argues for an added channel that can reach resistance-held areas directly, including a proposed inclusive humanitarian forum meant to bring donors and Myanmar stakeholders into a workable design. Neineh Plo treats negotiation as a daily discipline inside the wider resistance ecosystem, including relationships with the National Unity Government. “We disagree,” he says simply, “but at least we are on the same side of the movement.” Federalism, in his framing, is the only model capable of accommodating Myanmar’s differences without returning to domination, and he insists that it has to be practiced now through structures and coalition governance rather than promised later.

What Dreams May Come

Episode #563: As president of the CCDK (Chin Community in Denmark), a non-profit organization established in 2003 by refugees from Myanmar, Van Neih Thang believes he has a duty to advocate for the people of his home country and state. This unwavering sense of purpose is tied to his experience as a refugee. “I feel like I have some duty to do something, even though I’m one thousand miles away.” Van Neih Thang’s parents made the difficult decision to leave Myanmar when he was just thirteen years old. He describes his humble life in Chin State, one of Myanmar’s most beautiful yet most deprived regions, before being swept away at such a young age to a place where the people look and sound very different. Learning the Danish language was hard, he admits, but that was the only aspect of his new home that he found difficult. Amid the culture shocks, he made friends and developed a passion for education, eventually becoming an influential community leader within the Chin diaspora. His connection to Chin State and its people never disappeared. He says that providing humanitarian assistance to the Chin people, as well as the wider population in Myanmar, is crucial. Since the coup in 2021, the military has devastated the region, destroying whole towns, while its people lack equipment and financial support. Van Neih Thang discusses the Chin groups that are fighting the junta, how these groups are divided by generations and language. When asked to consider what a post-military Myanmar might look like, it is clear he does not believe in easy answers. Van Neih Thang reflects on how life could’ve been different, especially as a young Chin. He is conscious of his privileged position, calling that privilege a blessing. But, he says, “it is a blessing with a purpose.”