Ethnicity

Introduction
Ethnicity is a term refers to a group of people presumed to live in the same society, share the same culture and same language. Nowadays, ethnic diversity is visible in many countries. Diversity of ethnic groups leads to ethnic conflicts in every place with many different ways. There are many factors which cause ethnic conflicts. The factors will be explained below and the taken examples are from Burma.

Nation-state System

The emergence of nation-state system can be considered as the initiation of ethnic conflict. Nation state creates the differentiation between majority and minority. Most of the states in the world today, minority groups always are inferior. The identity of ethnic groups in a nation state is being influenced by the majority. The inferiority and the lost of identity of minority ethnic groups lead to the nationalism of those ethnic minority groups. The weak of kinship organization among same ethnic groups is the result of being inferior and losing of ethnic identity. Therefore, nationalism tends to emerge in a circumstance where kinship organization has been weakened. Then, with the influence of majority over minority and with the emergence of nationalism among ethnic minority, conflicts appear.
 

Consequently, when ethnic majority discriminate on ethnic minority, conflicts occur, too. For example, in Burma especially in Shan State, before 1960 there was not significance of ethnic conflict. However, after the military of U Ne Win went to Shan State and discriminated and abused the people in Shan State, the people started to aware of the situation. The tension between U Ne Win’s military which comprise with mostly Bamar ethnic groups and the Shan continued to conflict to the ongoing now.
 

Moreover, in Burma, the nationalism of Bamar ethnic has been very strong in nation building even though Buram has many different ethnic groups:

…another dimension of internal conflict in Burma, that arose out of independence, was the misconception of “nation-building” for “state-building”, or what became the confusion between “nation” and “state”, which resulted in the implementation of the “nation-building” process as a process of ethnic “forced-assimilation” by successive governments of the Union of Burma. The “nation-building” process with the notion of “one ethnicity, one language, one religion” indeed reflected the core values of Burman/Myanmar “nationalism”, which originated in the anti-colonialists motto of “Amyo, Batha, Thatana”, that is to say, the Myanmar-lumyo or Myanmar ethnicity, Myanmar-batha-ska or Myanmar language,…, and it has become after independence the unwritten policies of “Myanmarization” and…, in multi-ethnic, multi-religious plural society of the Union of Burma. (Analysis paper no.1, January 2012, pg-2, The Dynamics of Sixty Years of Ethnic Armed Conflict in Burma)
 

Historical background and stereotypes
The conflicts among ethnic groups can be occurred because of historical background and stereotypes. Again, example from Burma is necessary to be shown. In term of historical background, the main ethnic minority in Burma such as Shan, Mon, Araken and so forth had a great historical background. Shan, for example, used to have their own empire, strong culture and widely spread living of Shan or Tai people in Southeast Asia. So, after time to time until the emergence of nation-state, Shan which include the Tai race came to be one of ethnic minorities in Burma. Thus, with the proud of their historical background, the Shan also would like to have their own nation. Then, the desire of having own nation lead to ethnic conflict, because the Bamar ethnic which is the majority in Burma, especially the nationalists,  does not want to let go of the Shan territory. Therefore, the revolution to have own nation of the Shan and the controlling of Bamar military over Shan State is one of the reason which cause ethnic conflict.
 

Another thing is that, with the historical relationship in the past among ethnic groups, there are some stereotypes on certain ethnic groups. If the stereotype is pessimistic, ethnic conflict is likely to be occurred. For instance, for Shan people, there is a stereotype about Bamar ethnic groups: even though he is your father, if he is Bamar, do not trust him. Therefore, Shan people do not trust Bamar ethnic groups deeply in their heart. Then, if there is a little spark of any problem, the situation can continue to a big conflict.

 

The balance of political power

In the nation-state with many ethnic groups, ethnic conflicts can be existed due to the balance of political power. Even though democracy is practiced, the political power is still in the hand of majority ethnic groups. For example, many ethnic groups in Burma agree to practice federalism. However, in the real situation, Burma Proper has more political than Shan State, Kachin State and other states. In the military, there are many populations of Bamar ethnic groups. Besides, if there are other ethnic groups in the military, their position will not be over being as generals. Only Bamar ethnic groups are possible to get higher positions. Therefore, because of this kind of unfair power division, many other ethnic groups have bad look on Bamar ethnic groups. In order to have same right of holding power, other minority ethnic groups try to fight for their rights. Some other ethnic groups even try to build their own nation. Then, these movements lead to ethnic conflicts. Moreover, the majority take the resources from the territory of minority ethnic groups for their own benefits. Then, the lack of power in controlling their resources, the ethnic minority might try to find a way out for the solution. When the solution is discussed, the conflicts begin in the means of armed conflicts, political movements and social movements.

Conclusion and suggested solution
There many sectors and conditions which cause the happening of ethnic conflicts. Those sectors or conditions are the emergence of nation-state, historical background of certain ethnic groups and stereotypes among different ethnics groups, and the balance of power among ethnic majority and minorities.
 

The possible solution to ethnic conflicts such in Burma is the use of federated states system with democracy as ruling system. Federalism could make Burma divide the using of political power equality. The reason is that every state which joined the federal states must have their own constitution. Then, each state has each own state government and policies including states’ parliaments. Furthermore, the central government of the federal states should be the one which controls the balance of power among states. In addition, Burma should not have seven states and seven divisions. In contrary, Burma should only compose of eight federated states.