The Primacy of Liberation over Peace/Reconciliation in Myanmar’s Revolutionary Context: A Theological and Ethical Reflection

While there are research and theological arguments regarding the relationship between liberation and reconciliation, a fresh and specific context-based reflection is necessary and will be helpful to revisit both their relationship and respective theological implications. This proposed paper presentation would like to argue for the primacy of liberation by engaging and reflecting on the sufferings, struggles, resistances, and aspirations the oppressed masses and ethnic minorities in Myanmar, and by reviewing failing efforts of peace and reconciliation led by successive military regimes. Three basic tenets of liberative theology, namely, the preferential option for the poor, the centrality of praxis, and the epistemological privilege of the oppressed and marginalized, will be revisited and employed as methodological guides to explore and reflect on the liberative struggles of the oppressed and ethnic minorities in Myanmar. To advance the proposed argument, the primacy of liberation/freedom over reconciliation/peace, the lived experiences and perspectives of the oppressed in Myanmar will be consulted with special references to the works of liberative theologians and ethicists in Christian tradition and beyond.

Firstly, the paper will use the method of preferential option for the poor as a starting point in/for doing critical analysis and reflection to address the socio-political sufferings and struggles facing the masses in Myanmar, especially the poor and ethnic minorities. the country. Failure to start with this liberative principle has caused repeated and expensive failures of peace and reconciliation efforts, mostly led by oppressors, successive military regimes. Therefore, the preferential option for the oppressed and suppressed peoples in Myanmar is a critical and necessary to be able to analyze and reflect the power dynamics and, especially, the liberative struggles and resistances against brutal and perennial military dictatorships. The paper will explore differences and distinctions between liberative approach and the reconciliatory approach in doing theological and ethical reflection in revolutionary contexts. 

Secondly, the proposed paper will focus on what the resistant actions and struggles of the oppressed and brutalized peoples and ethnic minorities in Myanmar. Doing liberative/liberation theology requires a radical commitment to the praxis/action and the lived experiences of those poor, marginalized and oppressed. Such centrality of praxis is a critical principle of liberation asking a question primarily about what the marginalized and oppressed are doing as they struggle under/against the powers that oppress and dehumanize them on daily basis. This principle distinguishes the understanding and concept of liberation to be found more in the struggles and actions of the oppressed than to understand liberation as merely something to achieve in the end or at some point as a result. Reflecting on the struggles and resistances of the oppressed and marginalized peoples in Myanmar, and on their means of resistances, this paper will explore and argue that their struggles prioritize liberation over peace/reconciliation. 

Thirdly, the paper will adopt and apply the method of the epistemological privilege of the oppressed to do a theological and ethical reflection on the liberative struggles of ethnic minorities and the people’s defense forces. Do the oppressed and marginalized know what they are doing when they resisted their oppressors in a variety of ways including armed resistance? This is a kind of typical question that a rationalistic and euro-american way of thought would ask, assuming that ‘knowing’ is primary and superior to ‘doing’. For example, are the armed resistance employed by the people’s defense forces (PDFs) and ethnic armed groups against and in defense of their rights and their communities from the military’s brutalities in Myanmar foolish/irrational and unethical (e.g., Gene Sharp, a nonviolent theorist)? What are the oppressed people doing and saying about violence and nonviolence, and liberation and reconciliation?

{I trust that the proposed presentation paper will relate well to Freedom, the Presidential Theme of AAR 2025, to the liberating freedoms in the Liberation Theologies Units' call, and to 'Religion in Southeast Asia Unit' in the unit's emphasis on alternative and liberating epistemologies. }