State of resistance in Myanmar: Fresh approaches to old complexities

Myanmar Keynote

State of resistance in Myanmar: Fresh approaches to old complexities

Five years into Myanmar's Spring Revolution and beyond parallel structures of the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), the National Unity Government (NUG), the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) and the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union (SCEF), second-line and youth leaders are beginning to engage each other more directly and informally, cutting across the ethnic, regional, and ideological divides, and also building a long-term political movement on the ground, through political education programs and public awareness activities. They are building peer-to-peer trust and shared analysis, assessing the movement's strategic setbacks alongside its openings.

Younger leaders informally stitching together and building a ground-up movement offer one of the more promising paths toward both dismantling the junta and constructing a more just and durable federal union. Myanmar's resistance and its long-term political trajectory needs to posit at the intersection of federalism, democracy, governance, and Myanmar's complex political past.

Agenda

• 5-5.30pm - Reception with light refreshments

• 5.30-6.30pm - Keynote lecture

About the keynote speaker

Win Min is a new-generation leader from Myanmar with over a decade of experience advancing governance and nation-building initiatives. His journey spans humble beginnings in a rural village and monastic school to earning a full scholarship to study in the United States. From 2017 to 2021, he served as the principal liaison for strategic policy development and government engagement at Myanmar Center for Responsible Business, contributing policy recommendations to the civilian government. Following the 2021 coup, he became a founding adviser to the National Unity Government (NUG), working closely with the Speaker of the CRPH, the Prime Minister, and the Prime Minister’s Office Policy Unit. Today, he is the Country Director at the Forum of Federations and a trusted resource for diplomats and international officials seeking strategic briefings on the country’s political landscape.

The ANU Myanmar Research Centre is grateful to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government for their generous support in sponsoring this event.