Convincing everyone in your newly-formed country to not secede (again): lessons from Southeast Asian history.

Somehow, you’re in charge of a country now. Maybe you had a cozy relationship with the old bosses and they left you in charge when they pulled out (Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines). Maybe you didn’t, but they could put up with you (Myanmar and Thailand). Maybe you just flat out led a rebellion and won (I’m looking at you, Vietnam and Indonesia). Great!

Whatever the case is, you’re now the boss. Now your problem is: unless your country is a single, tiny village in the ass end of nowhere, you almost certainly have groups from different ethnicities, practicing different religions, speaking different languages, and from different cultures in it. It will be very, very easy for one of them to go “Hey, I’m from X group, why the fuck is someone from Y group leading me?” and boom rebellion/secession.

Bonus points if your new country is geographically vast with areas that aren’t quite in reach of the capital (Indonesia and Thailand), has a LOT of groups with very little in common (Indonesia), or your old bosses believed in ‘divide and rule’ and different groups were treated differently shunted into different areas (Singapore, Malaysia, Burma oh god UK why did you think this was a good idea). Economic disparity between various groups is a given, generally worse if it’s along religious/ethnic lines (Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand…) or if some parts are just flat out colonised (THAILAND).

How do you convince people not to secede? You have two options: accommodation, and assimilation. Both have the same end goal: to create an ‘imagined community’, where everyone feels united.

In accommodation, you convince everyone that the multiculturalism is an integral part of the country and to accept it. You should probably use this if you a) have a LOT of different minority groups or b) the ‘minority’ group is still a pretty significant chunk of your population.

In assimilation, ethnic, religious, and cultural identities are subsumed into a larger, monolithic identity as a nation. Use this if a) the minority groups are non-native (eg immigrant Chinese) and likely to put up with it or b) you feel like avenging past injustices by the old bosses (inadvisable, but done in Myanmar).

Three policy types: Language/education, religion, and ideology.

Language/education

Because it’s easier not to hate each other if you can all bitch together.

Basically, get everyone to share a language.

One idea: choose a ‘neutral’ language that none of the majority ethnic groups can ‘claim’ as their first language. Leans more towards accommodation.

Eg. Singapore. English was the language of government and administration for decades. In 1987, it was officially made the language used to teach in all public schools. Because none of the three major ethnic groups – Chinese, Malay, and Indian – actually spoke it as their native language, no one had an advantage over the other. This meant a level playing field to progress in society, since everyone had to speak a language that wasn’t their own to do business or work in the civil service. Success.

Eg Indonesia. Bahasa Indonesia, the national language, is based off a minority language from Sumatra, one of many, many islands in the archipelago. It’s also the regional lingua franca, so even better. In theory, it shows that the Javanese majority won’t dominate the country. (In practice, they actually did. Whoops.) Success, because, granted, the Javanese domination of the government and military was not helped by this, and everyone actually did end up speaking Bahasa Indonesia nbd.

Alternative idea: force everyone to learn the language of the majority, and possibly repress other minority languages while you’re at it. Very much assimilation.

Eg Thailand. Thai was made the medium of instruction and used for government business. Chinese language studies were limited. Result: the already partially-integrated Chinese students ended up mostly speaking Thai outside the home, helping nudge integration along further. Success.

Eg. Myanmar. U Nu (military dictator) made the Burman (majority) language obligatory for government business and made mandatory in schools in 1952. The ethnic minorities who had been in Myanmar for centuries, such as the Karen and the Shan, were Not Pleased at the idea of being forced to speak another language on their own land just to get anywhere in life. Result: the already-ongoing Karen rebellion carried on throughout the 1950s. Failure.

Religion

For the love of your damn neck, handle this with kidskin gloves and at your own peril.

Handled correctly, everyone feels included and no one feels threatened or marginalised. Done badly, people feel alienated and rebel or secede. Tends to be an accommodation strategy.

Eg. Singapore. Presumably having studied history, the first batch of leaders did not attempt to implement a state religion and everyone was given the constitutional right to practice their own religion (so long as it didn’t interfere with others or, say, prevent you from entering military service, since the government drafts all healthy men into the army for a couple of years as a necessity of national defence). The Presidential Council of Minority Rights was formed to attempt to ensure that the inevitably majority-dominated government didn’t marginalise or threaten the interests, including religious, of the minority groups. This helped prevent tensions between the majority and minority religious groups, allowing some level of bonding. Success.

Eg. Philippines. The government formed the Commission on National Integration (CNI), which aimed to equalise the economic disparity between the poorer Muslims (largely in the South) and the wealthier Christians (largely in the North). This included providing university scholarships. In 1977, with Muslims already exempted from laws banning polygamy and a few others I can’t remember, the government attempted to codify Muslim law. However, as is often the case, there tends to be a gap between government rhetoric and actual practice. Christians migrating to Mindanao island displaced the Muslims already living there, raising tensions between the two groups. Throw in the discrimination encountered by CNI scholars when they went to the (northern, near to the capital) universities and, well, a CNI alumnus actually founded the first Muslim separatist front, the Moro National Liberation Front, which declared war on the Marcos administration in 1972. Failure.

Ideology

Because if no one naturally has any beliefs or values in common, GIVE them beliefs or values to have in common.

^that just about sums it up. Ideology strategies usually revolve around the creation of a state-centred ideology for everyone to follow. How this is spread is usually a combination of education, propaganda, and forcing everyone in the civil service to know it by heart. Definitely an assimilation strategy.

Eg. Myanmar/Burma. U Nu, clearly not the brightest spark, thought to create a new, Burmese (not Burman! Burman is the ethnic group, Burmese is the nationality) identity, that was in reality a blend of Buddhism and socialism and more a call to join Burman culture than actually form a new culture. To make things worse, the Karens – the rebels from the Language section – were Christians. Quite understandably, they wanted nothing to do with it and rebelled pretty quickly, seeking secession. Failure.

Eg. Thailand. Thailand is something of an odd duck. While the King was very strongly linked to Buddhism, he was also (thanks to Prime Minister Sarit way back in the 1950s) seen as an integral part of Thai identity, and reverence of the King was just about broad enough a value that everyone, Buddhist, Christian, or not, could get behind it. So basically even if you couldn’t agree about religion, you could at least agree that the King was fucking great and all Thais should be properly respectful and reverent. Luckily, that was about enough to unify even the minority Chinese (granted, who were generally happy enough to roll with what the government was doing) behind a common Thai identity. Success.

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Ok yeah this was honestly just revision practice for my notes.