In order to analyse the activities and advocacy positions of various civil society groups (as covered in Chapters 4 to 6), it is important to establish the identity factors that influence people’s lived experiences and help explain their stance towards the government and other actors. By employing this intersectional lens, moreover, we can explore how certain minority identities interact to create multiple forms of marginalization. The fault lines in Myanmar that are most relevant for analysing contemporary civil society are ethnicity and religion, generation and gender, and class, including poverty levels and the rural/ urban divide. Furthermore, this chapter covers the division between independent and government-associated civil society organizations (CSOs), and between organizations inside and outside the country. Lastly, it will reflect on the elitist nature of some CSOs and their relationship with grassroots activism.

Fault line 1: ethnicity and religion

As discussed earlier, religious organizations have historically played a key role in Burmese society, where around 90 per cent of the population is Theravada Buddhist. Buddhist monasteries have been providing social services such as schools and orphanages in central Myanmar since long before any of the ‘Western type’ non-governmental organizations (NGOs) appeared, and Christian organizations (consisting predominantly, but not exclusively of ethnic nationalities) have long been active in the ethnic states. In fact, a distinction between religious and secular organizations in the context of Myanmar would be rather artificial, as many actors working outside faith-based organizations nevertheless identify with a particular religious group.

The role of Buddhist monks

Buddhist monks (together with nuns referred to as sangha) have gained prominence in the Western imagination of Burmese civil society, especially since the 2007 uprising in which they played a significant and internationally visible role. The role of Buddhism as a force in contemporary Myanmar politics, however, continues to be subject to debate (Jordt, 2007). Aung-Thwin (2013), for example, argues that the Western scholarly and media emphasis on politically motivated monks is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the sangha, which remains predominantly apolitical. According to Aung-Thwin, monks only made up 10 per cent of those involved in the 2007 uprising, and the uprising itself was heavily influenced by external (mainly American) funding.