What is the main message of Myanmar's Enemy Within?

The main message of Myanmar's Enemy Within explores the complex issues of identity and discrimination in Myanmar.

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The reading time for Myanmar's Enemy Within varies depending on the reader's speed. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Who is the author of Myanmar's Enemy Within?

The author of Myanmar's Enemy Within is Francis Wade.

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Myanmar's Enemy Within Book Summary - Myanmar's Enemy Within Book explained in key points

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Myanmar's Enemy Within summary

Name: Myanmar's Enemy Within
Rating: 4.5 (84 reviews)
Author: Francis Wade

Francis Wade

Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim “Other”

4.5 (84 ratings)

28 mins

Brief summary

'Myanmar's Enemy Within' by Francis Wade is an investigative account of Myanmar's Rohingya crisis, tracing the origins of the conflict and the ongoing persecution faced by the Muslim minority in the country.

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Islam Asian History

Table of Contents

Myanmar's Enemy Within
Summary of 9 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? A deep dive into Myanmar's fascinating history.

For decades, journalists reporting on Myanmar told a simple story about the country. It pitted a virtuous population of nonviolent Buddhists against a brutal military regime that had isolated the country from the wider world.

When the military stepped back in 2011 and Myanmar embraced democracy, it appeared that justice had triumphed. But then a new wave of iniquitous violence began to crest – and this time the Buddhists were the aggressors.

What had gone wrong? Why, with democracy and equality on the horizon, did so many Buddhists attack and condemn their Muslim neighbors? These blinks address these questions, explaining how the conflict began and why Myanmar’s democrats are still struggling to end it.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

why many Buddhists regard Muslims as enemies of the nation;
how British colonial policy shaped ethnic conflict in Myanmar; and
what the pro-democracy movement and the dictatorship have in common.

The transition from dictatorship to democracy was a cause of anti-Muslim violence in the summer of 2012.

Rakhine State is Myanmar’s westernmost region. Much longer than it is wide, the state’s coastline begins at the Bangladesh border in the north and runs south along the Bay of Bengal for some 300 miles.

Sittwe, the state’s capital, is a fishing town. For many years, its Muslim and Buddhist inhabitants lived together in relative harmony. In neighborhoods like Nasi, they didn’t just work and trade together – they sent their kids to the same schools and often intermarried.

In the summer of 2012, that changed. After months of rumors that Muslims were attacking Buddhists, busses full of armed vigilantes began appearing in Sittwe. On June 12, they moved into Nasi, where they spent the day burning down Muslim-owned houses and driving their residents into displacement camps. It was the first of many similar incidents.

The key message in this blink is: The transition from dictatorship to democracy was a cause of anti-Muslim violence in the summer of 2012.

The targets of this violence were Muslims known as Rohingya, an ethnic minority in Rakhine State.

The Rohingya see themselves as Myanmar, but Rakhine Buddhists deny their claims to common citizenship. As they see it, the Rohingya aren’t from Myanmar at all. Instead, they’re the descendants of Bengali immigrants from Bangladesh and India, who crossed the border and settled on land that rightfully belongs to the Rakhine Buddhist majority.

Losing their land isn’t the only thing Rakhine Buddhists fear. Like many nationalists in Myanmar, they call the nation’s border with Bangladesh the “Western Gate.” This is the final frontier between the Muslim world to the east and the Buddhist world to the west, and it is all that stands between them and “Islamization.” As one Rakhine Buddhist told the author, “If I don’t protect my race, then it will disappear.”

Why, after years of peaceful coexistence, did so many Rakhine Buddhists suddenly feel that they were under attack? One answer is that the campaign against the Rohingya coincided with another development in Myanmar: the shift from dictatorship to democracy.

Between 2011 and 2015, Myanmar – which had been ruled by a military dictatorship since 1962 – adopted a more democratic system. During the years of dictatorial rule, the country’s army had suppressed the political movements of ethnic minorities. Now that the military wasn’t in charge, though, groups like the Rohingya might start asserting their rights. And that, Rakhine Buddhists feared, would erode their rights.

Extremists used newfound freedoms to target the Rohingya.

What triggered the violence in 2012? There are two explanations.

The first has often been cited by participants. In May 2012, a Buddhist seamstress was raped and murdered in Rakhine State. Three men described as “Bengali Muslim” were arrested, tried, and found guilty. Days later, 300 Buddhists beat ten Muslim men to death in a “revenge” attack. The victims of this attack had nothing to do with the seamstress’s murder, so why were they targeted?

Anti-Muslim violence spread throughout Myanmar after June 2012.

Clashes between Rohingya and Buddhists became increasingly common after June 2012. The violence was tit for tat; attacks by one side were answered with reprisals by the other.

The media, however, applied a double standard in reporting the conflict. Buddhists were portrayed as only ever acting in self-defense. The Rohingya, by contrast, were “terrorists” who were always on the offensive.

The British empire’s policies in Myanmar laid the foundations for anti-Muslim resentment.

The first Muslims to settle in Myanmar arrived over 1,000 years ago. They came from Persia and India and set up trading posts along the Bay of Bengal. Eventually, they intermarried with the local population and became an established presence in places like Arakan – today’s Rakhine State.

Wars were a constant feature of Myanmar’s history during this time, but religion rarely played much of a role in them. In fact, such conflict was typically driven by rival kingdoms’ claims to territory. When kings needed soldiers, they recruited from the communities they happened to govern, whatever their creed or ethnicity.

Myanmar’s dictatorship sought to unify the nation by any means necessary.

For many years, visitors to Myanmar’s immigration offices were confronted with a large red sign bearing a bold and alarming message. “The Earth,” the sign warned, “will not swallow a race to extinction, but another race will.”

Such messages were typical of Myanmar’s military dictatorship. After independence in 1948, Myanmar – then still known as Burma – was rocked by instability. In 1962, the military was asked to restore order, which it did, and then hand power back to a civilian government. This it refused to do.

The military regime was suspicious of Myanmar’s history of fluid ethnic identities.

Just before Myanmar gained its independence in 1948, minorities living in the country’s border regions were promised the right to secede from the future nation state. Other groups were assured that they’d be given the same rights as Myanmar’s largest ethnic group, the Bamar.

Both pledges were withdrawn after independence. When the army seized power in 1962, many groups – like the Kachin in north Myanmar – took up arms. These insurgencies were easily defeated. In the process, however, the military became the country’s best-resourced institution.

The dictatorship excluded the Rohingya from its index of national races.

When the regime created its index of 135 “national races,” it applied a simple rule: if there was evidence of a group living in the country before 1824 – the year Britain annexed Arakan – they also belonged in the modern nation.

The Rohingya met this standard. In the late eighteenth century, for example, a Scottish physician called Francis Buchanan wrote a study of languages in Arakan. In it, he noted that one of the tongues used in the area was of Indian origin and was spoken by Muslims known as “Rooinga.” Other European texts supported Buchanan’s observations.

Resettling Buddhists was part of a plan to change Rakhine State’s demographics.

In the mid-1990s, wardens in Myanmar’s prisons approached criminals belonging to Buddhist ethnic groups and made them a compelling offer. They could either continue to languish in jail, or they could be released early. The catch? They would have to move to Rakhine State.

Those who agreed boarded a ship in Yangon, Myanmar’s capital until 2006. After a four-day journey, they disembarked in Sittwe. From there, they traveled over land to remote villages in the north. When they arrived, they were given newly built houses, a monthly stipend, food rations, cows, and paddy fields.

The pro-democracy movement refused to take the side of the Rohingya.

It wasn’t just the violence against the Rohingya and other Muslims that shocked observers like the author. The public’s reaction to that violence was equally startling.

When refugees carried their few remaining possessions from scorched villages, crowds of Buddhists lined the roads to jeer and mock them. Meanwhile, violence in Rakhine State was quickly spreading to other areas of the country, propelled by a popular wave of anti-Muslim resentment.

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What is Myanmar's Enemy Within about?

Myanmar’s Enemy Within (2017) examines a shocking outburst of violence against an ethnic minority – the Rohingya Muslims in western Myanmar. Beginning with an account of the events of 2012 and 2013, these blinks work their way back to explain the historical context of anti-Muslim resentment in the country. Along the way, they explore the legacies of British colonialism, the rise of nationalism, and the country’s troubled transition to democracy.

Myanmar's Enemy Within Review

Myanmar's Enemy Within (2017) explores the intricate dynamics of religion, ethnicity, and nationalism in Myanmar, shedding light on the country's ongoing struggle for democracy and peace. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Through an impressive depth of research, the author offers an insightful analysis of the history and current reality of Myanmar's deep-rooted internal conflicts.
By showcasing personal stories and testimonies, the book provides a human perspective, making it relatable and emotionally compelling.
With its nuanced examination of the complex interplay between internal and external factors, this book offers readers a comprehensive understanding of Myanmar's challenges.

Best quote from Myanmar's Enemy Within

The rationale had moved on from one of defending the country against illegal invaders, and towards a general assault on the Muslim community.

—Francis Wade

Who should read Myanmar's Enemy Within?

History buffs
News addicts who want to dig deeper
Anyone interested in contemporary Asian politics

About the Author

Francis Wade is a British journalist best known for his reporting on Myanmar and Southeast Asia. His work has appeared in the Guardian, Al Jazeera, Asia Times Online, Foreign Policy, and the LA Review of Books. He was previously an editor and reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma, a news organization founded by exiled dissidents from Myanmar.

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