A study of State-Led Politics of Change In Myanmar After 2011

This paper aims to study the challenges and opportunities of the politics of change in the state-building process of Myanmar after 2011. The study will focus on the main areas of reform conducted under U Thein Sein's government (2011-2015) and the government led by the State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (2016- present). The areas of polities of change in Myanmar include, among other, democratization, peace-building, economic development, and federalism. All these reform areas had to be conducted under the 2008 constitution that was adopted by the Tatmadaw government which government which governed the country in the period between 1988 and 2011. As provided by the constitution, U Thein Sein's government had initiated a politics of change that resulted in the opening of country politically and economically while government led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has to accelerate the reform processes left by the previous government. In fact, the politics of change conducted by both governments is state-led and top-down approach. On the other hand, it is perceived that because of different political, social, and economic contexts and different backgrounds of their existences and ideologies in their change initiatives, both U Thein Sein's government and the NLD government had their owned challenges and opportunities. For U Thein Sein's government, it was perceived that they were the creation of the Tatmadaw government while the NLD government led by the State Counsellor is assumed as one that had opposed the constitution until it finally changed its position to engage in the processes of politics of change emerged from it in 2012. Currently, under the NLD government, the efforts to amend this constitution is at the critical point although almost all the stakeholders agree that changes in the constitution are required to accelerate the polities of change in Myanmar. However, the author perceives that an analytical examination of the challenges and opportunities of the reform processes is essential in finding out the solutions for the successful state-led reform processes. This paper therefore argues that it is important to have common understanding of the nature of politics of change to make the state-led reform successful