16 - Epilogue – Concluding Themes

Summary

For the purposes of an epilogue, it is useful to draw some final thoughts from the preceding chapters by reference to the Introduction's observation that the assembly of contributions to this volume reflect “where things are at” in Myanmar at the time leading into the country's 2020 elections. Despite the breadth of topics that are presented in the four categories of parliamentary life, the economy, institutional legacies, and plural identities, the respective chapters serve to present different perspectives on the status of Myanmar's ongoing political and social changes. These perspectives help to delineate the complexities of the country's “transition” – simultaneously addressing historical legacies while progressing towards current aspirations in a context where both frequently exist as opposing forces. In doing so, the disparate chapters identify topics of significance at a national election milestone that will set the larger direction of Myanmar's future.

Among the various prospective concerns of the diverse authors is an underlying theme of significance: cohesion, particularly in terms of its existential nature in sustaining Myanmar as an identifiable entity in the international community. The commentaries of the preceding chapters indicate that Myanmar's cohesion as a nation-state is subject to forces of inclusion and exclusion, with both centrifugal and centripetal dynamics that work to simultaneously pull the country's complexities into a viable whole and fracture its components into irreconcilable division. The dynamics illustrated by all of the authors mark conditions of contestation, and collectively sum to a scale affecting Myanmar's existence. For example, the three chapters regarding parliamentary life demonstrate efforts of parliamentarians to better represent their constituencies (Egreteau, Chapter 2), their deeper engagement with citizens (Nyein Thiri Swe and Zaw Min Oo, Chapter 3), and support for political continuity (Jefferson, Chapter 4). Collectively, they reflect the deep desire of parliamentarians to advance political reform in Myanmar, but also indicate the ongoing issue of elite domination (Egreteau), structural limitations on parliamentary representation (Nyein Thiri Swe and Zaw Min Oo), and the ambivalence of MPs towards the pace and scope of political change (Jefferson). Similarly, the four chapters on Myanmar's economy present comparable complexities. Even as much as the NLD government has pursued broad-based growth and greater equality to extend development to all people across Myanmar (Turnell and Nyein Ei Cho, Chapter 5), the subsequent three chapters note the many issues that plague genuine reform.