Posts Tagged ‘Myanmar coup’
a bonobo world 29: the 30% rule and Myanmar
Myanmar students finding inspiration in The Hunger Games in their fight against the coup
I mentioned the 30% rule in a previous essay – an idea that’s been bruited about, suggesting that it takes 30% female infiltration to change the culture of an organisation. This is obviously a rule of thumb, but it’s worth applying to those organisations that have power in the land, whatever land that might be.
Such organisations, institutions or sectors include government, law, business, military, health, science, education and welfare. Without doing any research, I would guess that, of those eight sectors, four – law, health, education and welfare – might have significant female infiltration, the other four not so much. Though I might be wrong about science, and of course all these sectors are much more open to women when we take the long view, of centuries. Social evolution is relatively quick, but not always relative to our short, impatient lives.
Since I first learned of this rule of thumb in an essay about Myanmar’s military, I’ll first look at Myanmar society, currently still in upheaval due to the Min Aung Hlaing coup and its aftermath. Considering that Aung San Suu Kyi recently won a landslide election and is very popular, especially among the Buddhist majority, it might seem surprising to those of us in settled democracies that a military coup could be staged there with such apparent ease, but of course the military – entirely male until recently, and still entirely male in its hierarchy – has been massively interfering in this fledgling democracy from the start. We in Australia have only to think of our nearest neighbour, Indonesia, to be aware of how dangerous a politicised and corrupt military can be.
There’s much international reporting about how disappointing Aung San Suu Kyi, the recipient of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her championing of democracy, has apparently turned out to be. She’s been criticised for cosying up to the military and doing little to stop the Rohingya massacres, but seriously, to expect one woman to transform her fragmented (with at least 14 major ethnic groups), impoverished society into a go-ahead democratic concern is a bit like expecting one or two forceful, charismatic proto-bonobos to transform their world from a hunt-em-down, beat-em-up chimp arena into a paradise of tree-hugging, child-friendly libertine vegos. You don’t need a few, you need a barmy army with sex appeal to spare. Above all, the over-arching power of the military needs to be addressed.
I’m being a bit unjust to chimps here, and I’m sure the Myanmar military aren’t all bad, especially now that women are joining the (lowest) ranks, but my point is that the country needs more female monks (they can only be thilashin in Myanmar, a lower order than the male bhikkhu), intellectuals and political leaders.
In 2016 the Asian Development Bank (ADB) released a paper, Gender equality and women’s rights in Myanmar: a situation analysis. In light of recent events, this positive and hopeful document, dealing with (admittedly limited) advances made and to be made in the future, makes for difficult reading.
Not that pre-coup Myanmar was anything to be proud of, woman-wise. For example, the nation’s 2008 Constitution, while prohibiting gender discrimination in the appointment to government posts, states that ‘nothing in this section shall prevent appointment of men to positions that are naturally suitable to men only’. It may well be this clause in the Constitution that prevented Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming the nation’s President.
What would Simone de Beauvoir say? (My next bumper sticker or customised t-shirt). According to the ADB paper:
Global and regional indices and national data reflect continuing gender inequalities in Myanmar. The 2013 Gender Inequality Index ranked Myanmar 83rd of 187 countries, while the 2012 Social Institutions and Gender Index placed the country at 44th of 86 countries and 8th of nine countries in East Asia and the Pacific.
The nation’s labour force participation rate for males is almost double that for women – though you can bet that, as always, women are doing the majority of at-home work and ‘informal job sector’ work, with the usual inadequate and unreliable remuneration from their male bosses. Government ministries experienced female staff levels of just over 50% in the 2000s, though this fell away for mid-management staff and higher, and gender wage gaps are greater than in developed countries.
Literacy rates nationwide are slightly lower for females than males, but this masks major disparities between urban and rural areas and between subcultures. Outside the major urban areas the disparity between male and female literacy is greater.
Violence against women, human trafficking, and ‘rape in conflict’ were described as under-reported problems in a 2008 report by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The report singled out Rakhine province (later the scene of genocidal violence against its Muslim Rohingya population), stating that, ‘in addition to being subject to multiple forms of discrimination by the authorities, [women and girls] were also subject to conservative traditions and a restrictive interpretation of religious norms, which contribute to the suppression of their rights’.
In reading this ADB document, I’ve learned that the 30% rule (actually a target) came from the Beijing Platform for Action of 1995, though I don’t like to credit Beijing, or China, for anything much to do with the advancement of women (I’ll look at the situation in China in an upcoming post). The Beijing Platform for Action emerged from the Fourth World Conference on Women, which happened to be held in that city.
The ADB report points out that female representation in parliament in Myanmar, though increasing, lags behind neighbours Cambodia and Laos (both of which are profoundly corrupt non-democracies). Remember we’re talking 2016 here. Thein Sein, the moderate President of Myanmar from 2011 to 2016, increased female representation in government towards the end of his period in office. I doubt if Min Aung Hlaing will be considering female representation a major focus as he fights, and doubtless butchers, to maintain power.
So, sadly, few points for bonobohood in Myanmar at present. It’s perhaps ironic, and in a strange way inspiring, that a lot of young women in the country are joining militias to fight for more recognition for their minority cultures. It could well be that the transformation that occurred to create bonobo society involved a bit of group female biffo too. After all, making love not war is something worth fighting for.
References
https://www.adb.org/documents/gender-equality-and-womens-rights-myanmar-situation-analysis
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2021/02/myanmar-military-coup-joe-biden/617997/
a bonobo world etc 27: male violence and the Myanmar coup
Myanmar protests, from the safety of Thailand
So the military has staged another coup in Myanmar. Bearing in mind the overwhelming maleness of most militaries, let’s take a closer look.
A very interesting article was published in the US Army journal Military Review in late 2019 about women in the Myanmar armed forces, which also gave an overview of the role of women in the society as a whole. The article emphasises women’s positive role in trying to establish peace in the country, and at the same time describes in mixed terms the role of women in the military (they make up about 0.2% of the armed forces). Not surprisingly, they want to see more women joining the military, while praising recent increases. Which raises, of course, the idea of a military as a force for peace. Here’s an interesting example of the article’s thinking:
The speed and spread of Myanmar’s peace, prosperity, and progress depends on the elimination of violent conflicts in its border areas. However, bringing peace to these regions has been extremely slow (almost to a stalemate with some of the ethnic armed groups). As the peace process creeps forward at a snail’s pace, the increased participation of Myanmar women should be seriously considered to quicken the stride. According to data from the Center for Foreign Relations, women and civil-society’s participation in the peace negotiations increases the chance of success by 36 percent, and obtained peace is more enduring. In order for Myanmar women to participate effectively in the peace process, they must be given opportunities to upgrade their capability and capacity. Opportunity to serve in the armed forces is one of the ways to elevate their capability, capacity, and experience to participate in the security sector.
This I think speaks to a modern rethinking of the military as essentially a peace-keeping force, which is essentially a good thing, though in the very next sentence the author writes that the purpose of the military is ‘to win the nation’s wars and to prevail against enemies’. Note the lack of any ethical content in the remark. The reason that I would never for a moment consider joining any military is because I’m profoundly anti-authoritarian. I can’t bear to be told by someone else how to stack boxes, let alone who to kill and maim for the apparent benefit of my country. Australia has been involved in two wars since I’ve lived here, in Vietnam and Iraq. Neither of them had anything to do with ‘keeping Australia (or any of its allies) safe’. They had more to do with advantaging the invading countries at the expense of the invaded. Warfare is getting rarer, and more technological, which I suppose means that brute force, and physical strength, is less important, but to me the best effect women would have is in negotiations and mediation to prevent wars, and of course they’re already doing a great job of that worldwide.
Myanmar’s overwhelmingly Buddhist society is very male-dominated – I don’t know if that’s due to Buddhist precepts or because the Buddhism is interpreted through a traditionally patriarchal society – and this will impede any possible transformation of its military. The article has another comment, which can surely be generalised beyond the military:
Research has shown that a critical mass of 30 percent is needed in order to see the full benefits of female integration and gender perspective within the organization and at leadership levels. However, the drop-offs and second-generation bias can impede the attainment of 30 percent.
Yes, aiming for 30% female control of the military, political systems, the business sector, and all wealth and power, just for starters – and by 2050, since the international community loves to set targets – would be a most worthy thing. But watch out for the backlash.
But returning to Myanmar today, and the coup. But first, I recommend an excellent background piece on the problems in faction-ridden Myanmar, and the role of women in fighting for minority recognition, written last November for The New Humanitarian. The author wasn’t able to put their name to the piece due to security concerns. The piece was written immediately after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) scored a landslide victory in a national election, winning over 80% of the vote and increasing its 2015 majority. But, in a familiar refrain, the military-based opposition party, the USDP, claimed fraud and vote-rigging, claims that are apparently as baseless as those of the Trumpets. The apparent villain in all this is military chief Min Aung Hlaing, a corrupt thug who was sanctioned by the US and the UK for his role in the 2017 Rohingya massacres. He is claiming justification due to the ‘failure to act on widespread election corruption’ (I can’t help reflecting that Trump’s clear contempt for the military and everyone involved in it is a clear factor in his never getting to be the dictator he wants to be). However, the massive failure of the USDP in the recent elections may make it difficult for the coup’s long-term success this time around – but the immediate concern now is about violence, suffering and death in an impoverished, heavily factionalised nation.
The international community will need to play a role in universally condemning the coup – though the Chinese government, well-known for its macho thuggery, is already soft-pedalling its response. China is Myanmar’s principal economic partner.
And I strongly suspect that, with Min Aung Hlaing in charge, that 30% critical mass of female participation in any field of economic, political or military activity will be the last thing his ‘government’ will be thinking about.
References
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/1/who-is-min-aung-hlain