Catalonians are headed to the polls today in a regional election many predict will strengthen the hand of parties seeking independence from Spain. However, several key separatist leaders are either in jail, on the run, or out on bail while facing charges of rebellion and sedition over an independence referendum in October that Spain considers illegal.
The election is the latest stage in a political crisis that has been going on for months. Throughout this time, as one Coconuts Yangon reader pointed out, there has been an unexpected level of online interest in Catalonian politics among Myanmar’s Kachin community.
We reached out to a few Kachin Facebook users to find out why. (Only one replied.)
“Actually, many of us envy [the Catalonians],” said Khon Ja, a Kachin humanitarian worker and resident of Banmaw, Kachin State. “They have a chance to express their willingness to be independent. We had the same feeling during Scottish referendum.”
For many Kachins, the need for independence – or some political transformation – is dire. In the last few days, the Myanmar military has ramped up its assault on the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), shelling the townships of Banmaw, Mansi, and Tanai, killing an undetermined number of people and forcing others to flee the area or take shelter in churches or monasteries.
According to Khon Ja, this is the defining experience many ethnic minority groups share with Myanmar’s central government.
“If Myanmar were to conduct an opinion survey of citizens to see whether they want independence, I think many ethnics, including Bamar (Myanmar’s ethnic majority group), might want to be independent from the country ruled by the regime using the 2008 constitution. We are just so fed up,” the activist said, adding that the option for independence was built into the 1947 Panglong Agreement, which granted “full autonomy” to certain ethnic minority groups living in Myanmar’s “frontier areas.”
So why are Kachins not following the same path as the Catalans and the Scots?
“We also understand that total separation of a landlocked province with bad neighbors is also dangerous,” Khon Ja said. “That is the reason many Kachins agree with the Kachin Independence Organization’s pursuit of ‘federalism with self-determination.’”
