Over the Borderline
Insight Myanmar10 Kesä 2025

Over the Borderline

Episode #353: Professor Lahra Smith, a political science professor specializing in East Africa at Georgetown University, argues that Myanmar’s current struggles must be seen within a global framework of colonial legacies, using Sudan as a comparative case. While acknowledging contextual differences, Smith shows how both countries were shaped by British colonial rule that hardened ethnic divisions, created infrastructure disparities, and entrenched political inequalities.

Sudan lies within Africa’s so-called "coup belt," illustrating a broader dissatisfaction with post-colonial governance and foreign interference. Like Myanmar, Sudan has suffered from military coups that initially promised reform but quickly descended into new forms of repression. Smith discusses how colonial policies divided Sudanese society along racial and religious lines, just as British colonialism in Myanmar entrenched ethnic and religious hierarchies that still drive conflict today.

Colonialism’s infrastructural and missionary legacies further marginalized Sudan’s peripheries, fostering grievances that exploded into civil wars and the eventual, troubled independence of South Sudan. Similarly, Myanmar’s marginalized ethnic regions remain flashpoints for conflict. Smith stresses the need to move beyond thinking in terms of static land borders and recognize the deeper regional and cultural continuities that colonial boundaries disrupted.

Ultimately, Smith emphasizes that identities and nations are constantly evolving, and that just drawing new lines on maps to replace the old, artificial, colonial ones will not solve the problems caused by the colonial experience. She stresses that genuine understanding requires recognizing this fluidity.

Jaksot(512)

Against The Wind

Against The Wind

Episode #333: “The challenging times that we are facing reveal more than what we should do—they reveal who we should be.”So says Jeshua Soh, a Singaporean entrepreneur who has built a life in Myanmar ...

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Livin' On A Prayer

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Bridge to Nowhere

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Episode #331: “My friend told me it is like the crumbling of the world, because everywhere, everywhere is destruction.”Burmese Buddhist nun Sayalay (who has chosen not to give her full Pāḷi name for s...

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Mission Aborted

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Episode #330: “When President Bush called that morning and said, ‘Pull back [away from Myanmar],’ I just couldn't compose myself. I broke down in front of all the Marines, and so I had to run into the...

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US AID is MIA

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Episode #329: “How could this happen now?! I mean, are we part of the problem allowing Burma to slip to that ‘ninth layer of hell?’”These anguished words from longtime USAID official Chris Milligan re...

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Shaken Faith

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Episode #328: In the aftermath of Myanmar’s devastating earthquake, Htuu Lou Rae paints a grim picture of systemic neglect and discrimination faced by the country’s Muslim community. The disaster stru...

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Between the Rubble and the Regime

Between the Rubble and the Regime

Episode #327: In the wake of Myanmar’s devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake, Meredith Bunn, founder of Skills for Humanity (SFH), describes a catastrophic humanitarian crisis compounded by years of c...

2 Huhti 20251h

Fault Lines

Fault Lines

Episode #326: “Every country could face disaster, but every country also has plans to respond to those kind of like devastating events. But our country is not like others! We don't have the manpower, ...

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