In August last year, the Karen ethnic affairs minister in Ayeyarwady region, Ga Moe Myat Myat Thu, released a statement that many of her constituents felt was a betrayal of the Karen people. 

The annual Karen Martyrs’ Day celebration, the statement said, would have to change its name; the word martyr was only allowed for events officially sanctioned by the Union government. 

Several activists were later jailed for 15 days for going ahead without changing the name of the event, which commemorates the assassination in 1950 of Karen ethnic leader Saw Ba U Gyi. 

Ga Moe Myat Myat Thu argues that she did not have the authority to resist the order, which was issued by the chief minister of Ayeyarwady, Hla Moe Aung, and the military-controlled border affairs ministry.

 

 

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“I was pressured by the minister to issue the statement, and I issued it to protect my people,” she told Myanmar Now.

The incident highlights the weak position Myanmar’s ethnic affairs ministers find themselves in despite the fact that, unlike other regional ministers, they are directly elected  by the public.

Several ethnic affairs ministers told Myanmar Now they are unable to exercise the full range of powers granted to them under a 2015 law, often because their departments are underfunded and understaffed. 

“The law says ethnic affairs ministers are responsible for the development of transport and education in the ethnic regions, but we don’t have the authority to do important work like developing transport links between villages,” said Ar Ti Yaw Han, who represents the Lisu people in Kachin state. 

“They have little authority... it looks like they are appointed just for show,” said Ngai Sak, chair of the Chin National League for Democracy.   

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Dr Tun Hlaing, the Intha minister in Shan state, said his office was not given a budget for infrastructure projects, so had to rely on other ministries to get projects approved. 

“It takes a long time to get anything done, whatever the reason they give,” he told Myanmar Now. 

The ministers are only given a budget for cultural events, but they say the 80m kyat ($65,000) they get each year doesn’t go very far.  And, as the Karen Martyrs’ Day incident shows, their colleagues elsewhere in government have the final say in this area too. 

“Celebrations and cultural heritage are covered by the law but they still didn’t give permission,” said ethnic rights activist Naw Ohn Hla, who was one of those jailed for ignoring the government order last year. 

She is running this year for the position of Karen ethnic affairs minister in Yangon region, hoping to convince voters she will do a better job of standing up to pressure from other ministries than the incumbents. 

Myanmar’s 29 ethnic affairs ministers are elected by members of the ethnic group they hail from. A region is allowed to have a minister to represent a minority group if at least 51,000 members of that group live there.

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Under the previous administration, the ministers were not considered real members of the government, and they did not even have their own offices, said Pu No Than Kap, a former Chin ethnic affairs minister.

But in 2015, the new Ethnic Rights Protection Law was supposed to give the ministers more powerful roles. Among other things, it allowed for the formation of the Union Ministry of Ethnic Affairs. 

But the ministry’s departments are still understaffed, and have yet to perform to their full potential, said both Ga Moe Myat Myat Thu and Mwe Mwe Khin, Sagaing region’s Shan ethnic affairs minister. 

The military-led border affairs ministry has more power to build roads and infrastructure than ethnic ministers, said Mwe Mwe Khin.

Ga Moe Myat Myat Thu said she feels as though the nature of her role is unclear and dependent on the whims of other ministries. 

“We have no specific guidelines."