Myanmar enforces controversial land law

Myanmar’s government has actively been enforcing a land law that evicts, fines and imprisons farmers, in a move that is seen by human rights activists as a reversal of promises by Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s government. 

Background

The Republic of the Union of Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a Southeast Asian nation, bordered by India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos and China with a coastline along the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. With an estimated population of about 54 million, Myanmar is a former British colony that was granted independence in 1948. For most of its independence, Myanmar has been ruled by a military dictatorship under the Burma Socialist Programme Party. Despite being under the high control of the military, the nation has been gripped by a plethora of ethnic strife, due to its equally prolific ethnic groups, resulting in one of the world’s longest continuously running civil wars. In 2011, the military junta was dissolved in favour of a nominally civilian government. In a landmark election in 2015, long-time former political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won a majority in both houses of government, although the Burmese continues to exercise significant power in domestic and foreign politics. 

Agriculture is Myanmar’s main industry, employing over 65% of the workforce, producing approximately 60% of the nation’s GDP. Rice is the country’s most important agricultural commodity, followed by pulses, beans, sesame, groundnuts, sugarcane, lumber and fish. In conjunction with these, livestock are reared in order to serve as a source of food and labour. Agricultural methods are largely archaic, with the slash-and-burn method being prominent way to secure arable land. Due to the prominence of rice, large swathes of arable land is required to use as rice paddies. Farmers largely secure the water required for the paddies during the monsoon season. 

Analysis

Myanmar has recently begun enforcing the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law (VFV) which demands that any individual living on land that has been termed “vacant, fallow, and virgin” to apply for a permit to use it for the next 30 years. According to government estimates, land that may be categorised as such totals more than 20 million hectares, which equals to roughly 30% of Myanmar’s total land area. Over three-quarters of this territory is home to many of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities. 

The VFV law is based on a British-era regulation in which land which was occupied by indigenous communities was termed a “wasteland” in order to justify its seizure and revenue extraction. Following Myanmar’s independence, the junta adopted the colonial-era policy as a method to reward their ranks. In 2012, the nominally civilian government under Thein Sein converted the policy into law, using the terms “vacant, fallow and virgin.” Despite vowing to reverse military land grabs and to protect land rights of farmers, the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) made the law more stringent by introducing a prison sentence. 

Many land-rights activists in Myanmar have argued that the implementation of the law criminalises millions of farmers that do not possess the necessary permits required to cultivate such land. The law, they argue, will enable land seizures by the government, the military or private companies vying for access to Myanmar’s many natural resources or to use the land for their own purposes. Once the NLD government made the law stricter, these activist groups began actively seeking its reversal, although the government has been reluctant to respond.

The NLD government has placed foreign investment at the centre of its policy to open up the domestic economy in order to ensure that the Burmese government does not fall back into military hands. The NLD government has also argued that the law is intended to institute the rule of law, which will improve the livelihood and quality of life in Myanmar. However, the law is likely to cause significant discord as it goes against a number of earlier government commitments, including the 2015 National Ceasefire Agreement which helped broker a ceasefire in certain ethnic conflicts. The fallout from the VFV law could lead to an electoral backlash for the NLD come the 2020 elections.

Assessment

Our assessment is that the VFV law is against prior commitments made by the incumbent government and is likely to result in an electoral fallout for the NLD come 2020. We believe that the VFV law is a human rights violation based on the forced eviction of populations. We also believe that the NLD’s continued support for the VFV law is aimed at securing foreign investment aimed at ensuring that the military does not regain a larger political footprint in the country. 

Image Courtesy -  I, Doron [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]