Myanmar's Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim 'Other' (Asian Arguments) - Hardcover

Wade, Francis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1783605286 ISBN 13: 9781783605286

Publisher: Zed Books, 2017

Synopsis

For decades Myanmar has been portrayed as a case of good citizen versus bad regime – men in jackboots maintaining a suffocating rule over a majority Buddhist population beholden to the ideals of non-violence and tolerance. But in recent years this narrative has been upended.

In June 2012, violence between Buddhists and Muslims erupted in western Myanmar, pointing to a growing divide between religious communities that before had received little attention from the outside world. Attacks on Muslims soon spread across the country, leaving hundreds dead, entire neighbourhoods turned to rubble, and tens of thousands of Muslims confined to internment camps. This violence, breaking out amid the passage to democracy, was spurred on by monks, pro-democracy activists, and even politicians.

In this gripping and deeply reported account, Francis Wade explores how the manipulation of identities by an anxious ruling elite has laid the foundations for mass violence, and how, in Myanmar’s case, some of the most respected and articulate voices for democracy have turned on the Muslim population at a time when the majority of citizens are beginning to experience freedoms unseen for half a century.

About this title

About the Author

Francis Wade is a freelance journalist. His work has appeared in the Guardian, Al Jazeera English, Asia Times Online, Foreign Policy, and Los Angeles Review of Books. He previously worked as an editor and reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma, an exiled Burmese news organization based in Thailand.
 

Review

“Lucid . . . exceptionally timely . . . vital to understanding how things could go so disastrously wrong. Wade predicted the miserable fate of Myanmar's hated Muslim minority.” (Economist)

“The roots of ethnic and religious conflict in Myanmar, especially in relation to anti-Muslim hatred, stretch back further than is often acknowledged. By training his analysis on relatable perspective via rich reporting, Wade seeks to trace the lineage of violence, for which some of Myanmar’s present-day leading lights and even venerated monks are culpable, in an investigation that’s at once illuminating and sobering.” (Los Angeles Review of Books)

“Bold and brave. . . . Wade's book tells the personal stories of Muslim and Buddhist characters who have animated the tragic scenes of Myanmar's deadly morality play.” (TIME)

“Wade’s book is grounded in his reporting, which is rich in detail and the voice of Burmese people. . . . Myanmar’s Enemy Within is not just about the Rohingya. It also describes the discrimination face by other minority ethnic or religious groups in the country.” (Times Literary Supplement)

“As Wade’s excellent new book shows, this disaster was easily predictable and, with a bit of forethought, could have easily been prevented.” (Literary Review)

“[An] insightful, well-researched new book. . . . Wade shows the role that nationalist Buddhist monks have played in the ongoing devastation of the Rohingya in Myanmar. He reveals the flaws that have always existed in Myanmar’s fragile democratization.” (Washington Monthly)

“This is a deeply insightful work on the dynamics of ethnic violence.” (Foreign Affairs)

“The strength of Myanmar’s enemy within lies in Wade’s attempt to understand and explain the complex ways in which discrimination has been perpetuated and entrenched, by looking at the human experience—on all sides—of this ongoing situation. . . . Excellent starting-points for those wanting to understand more about the situation of the Rohingya in Myanmar.” (International Affairs)

“In every way, Francis Wade has presented an outstanding account of a complex contemporary situation involving religion, ethnicity, and national identity in an Asian context.” (Pacific Affairs)

“For anyone wanting to understand the situation in Myanmar, and how international and domestic optimism for the new era got ground down so quickly, this will be an important addition to the bookshelf.” (Post Magazine)

About this edition

• Publisher: Zed Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1783605286
• ISBN 13: 9781783605286
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304