Introduction

Since the military took power in Myanmar on 18 September 1988, most of the academic literature and almost all of the news and commentaries on Myanmar politics and security have been focused on three broad themes: Human rights and democracy issues revolving around the democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the narcotics issue associated with the infamous “Golden Triangle” and ethnic issues viewed as a dichotomous relationship between the majority Bamar and the minority ethnic nationalities. With such a fixation on these seemingly intractable problems, equally significant issues relevant to the physical and spiritual well-being of Myanmar's inhabitants — both citizens and non-citizens alike — remain relatively obscured and unarticulated. This chapter is an attempt to address those issues from a human security perspective in order to highlight the vulnerabilities of the people of Myanmar to threats which are perhaps more insidious and no less deserving of policy sensitivity and response than those posed by armed conflict, erosion of national sovereignty and loss of territorial integrity. The aim is to identify a “convergence of the development and security agendas”.