An Ethnic Affairs Minister ( my, တိုင်းရင်းသားရေးရာ ဝန်ကြီးများ) is a representative elected by an ethnic minority in a given
state or region of
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...
if that division is composed of an ethnic minority population of 0.1 percent or greater of the total populace
oughly 51,400 people If one of the country's ethnic minorities counts their state of residence as its namesake, however, it is not granted an ethnic affairs minister (e.g. there is no Mon ethnic affairs minister in Mon State). Only voters who share an ethnic identity with a given ethnic affairs minister post are allowed to vote for candidates to the position.
Composition
There are currently 29 Ethnic Affairs Ministers elected to the
State and Regional Hluttaws
Myanmar ( also known as ''Burma'') is divided into twenty-one administrative subdivisions, which include seven states (; ''pyi ne'', ), seven regions (; ''taing detha gyi'', ), five self-administered zones and one self-administered division (Wa ...
, with the number of Ministers per Hluttaw ranging from 1 to 7 sitting at once. Ethnic Affairs Ministers are considered to be a member of their State or Regional legislature, but unlike State MPs represent a geographically dispersed ethnic group, and are accountable only to them for the purposes of re-election. Ethnic Affairs Ministers are elected in all but one of Myanmar's states and regions, with only
Chin State
Chin State (, ) is a state in western Myanmar. The Chin State is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, Bangladesh to the south-west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to the west and Manipur t ...
electing no Ministers at all.
Ministers are not elected for ethnicities that are a majority of their state/region, or where a state/region already has a self-administered district or self-administered zone dedicated to those ethnic groups.
Groups represented by an Ethnic Affairs Minister in a particular state do not need to be a minority elsewhere in the country - the
Bamar people
The Bamar (, ; also known as the Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan languages, Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia. With approximately 35 million people, the Bamar make up the largest ethnic group in Myanmar ...
have ministers in
Shan,
Kayin,
Kachin,
Kayah, and
Mon States, despite forming a majority of approximately 68% of the population nationwide. Likewise, some minorities such as the
Rakhine may have Ethnic Affairs Ministers in some regions of the country where they are a minority despite also having their own namesake state where they are a majority.
Currently 14 different ethnic groups are eligible to vote for at least one Ethnic Affairs Minister, although they may only do so if they reside within the state for which the minister is elected. Despite meeting the criteria, the
Danu,
Kokang
Kokang ( my, ကိုးကန့်; ) is a region in Myanmar (Burma). It is located in the northern part of Shan State, with the Salween River to its west, and sharing a border with China's Yunnan Province to the east. Its total land area i ...
,
Naga
Naga or NAGA may refer to:
Mythology
* Nāga, a serpentine deity or race in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain traditions
* Naga Kingdom, in the epic ''Mahabharata''
* Phaya Naga, mythical creatures believed to live in the Laotian stretch of the Mekong Riv ...
,
Palaung, and
Wa people are ineligible to elect a minister because they enjoy self-determination within a designated
Self-Administered Zone or Division.
Current Ethnic Affairs Ministers
The current Ethnic Affairs Ministers were elected in the
2015 General Election, which resulted in a sweeping victory for the
National League for Democracy
The National League for Democracy ( my, အမျိုးသား ဒီမိုကရေစီ အဖွဲ့ချုပ်, ; Abbreviation, abbr. NLD; Burmese abbr. ဒီချုပ်) is a liberal democratic political party in Myanm ...
.
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See also
*
Demographics of Myanmar
This is a demography of Myanmar (also known as Burma) including statistics such as population, ethnicity, language, education level and religious affiliations.
Population
1983 census
At the time of the 1983 census in Burma, as of 31 March ...
*
Politics of Burma
Myanmar ( also known as Burma) operates ''de jure'' as a unitary assembly-independent republic under its 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's military took over the government in a coup, causing ongoing anti-coup protests.
Po ...
*
State and Region Hluttaws
Myanmar ( also known as ''Burma'') is divided into twenty-one administrative subdivisions, which include seven states (; ''pyi ne'', ), seven regions (; ''taing detha gyi'', ), five self-administered zones and one self-administered division (Wa ...
References
{{Burma (Myanmar) topics
Government of Myanmar