I am taking the liberty of using the title of Bertil Lintner’s famous book “Land of Jade” to bring attention to the current social realities in Kachin State, my homeland. It is well known that Kachin State produces 90 percent of the world’s most prized jade and, in the process, can generate annual revenue as high as US$31 billion in just one year. That is equivalent to 39 percent of Myanmar’s total GDP in 2019, and is 53 times higher than the official government expenditure on public health for the country in the same year. Clearly, the public health system and, consequently, health of the people in general are not on the list of priorities for investing the wealth that the jade mines in my homeland generate.
At the same time, the jade mines are notorious for a whole host of problems, from appalling working conditions and wages to conflict, severe environmental destruction, contamination and pollution. While a small group among Myanmar’s elite is earning huge sums from the jade business, landslides in the mining areas routinely occur, robbing the lives of hundreds of poor men and women, young and old, along with their hopes and dreams. These people are mostly migrants from different parts of the country, trying to escape poverty at home by seeking to eke out a living by searching for jade in the rubble left behind by big mining companies. Elliott Prasse-Freeman has recently referred to this desperate situation as a “necroeconomy” in which people’s labour becomes unnecessary only when they are finally submerged under the earth.
Myanmar is a very diverse country with many different ethnic groups. The majority Bamar (Burman) population lives in the central plains, which are surrounded by hills and mountain ranges inhabited by a wide variety of nationality peoples. Myanmar is also rich in natural resources, and most of these are located in the ethnic states. This includes Kachin State, situated in the upper north of the country bordering India and China.
Like other ethnic regions in the country, Kachin State has also suffered decades of armed conflict. Fighting between the national armed forces and the Kachin Independence Organisation (KIO) started in the early 1960s and continues until the present day. The KIO was established in 1961 to achieve equal rights and autonomy for the Kachin people and currently aims to create a federal union based on democratic principles. In addition to the lack of political rights, economic grievances and anger over what is regarded as systemic discrimination in support of a long-term policy of “Bamarnisation” by central governments have all played a key role in the emergence and determination of the Kachin nationality movement.
It should also be added that the extent, scale and intensity of extractivism in Kachin State is not only confined to the jade mining sector nor that particular geographical area. By extractivism in this commentary, I am referring to Hamza Hamouchene’s definition of:
“activities that overexploit natural resources destined particularly for export to world markets. As such, it is not limited to minerals and oil: it extends to productive activities which overexploit land, water and biodiversity, such as agribusiness, intensive forestry, industrial fish farming and mass tourism.”
Today the entire physical and social landscape of Kachin State is being shaped and reshaped by the dictates of extractivism. Our natural resources are being extracted and exported to an extent, and at a pace, unlike any previous time in the history of the state, contributing to severe ecological and social damage, including displacement, conflict, soil erosion, deforestation, water pollution, loss of food sovereignty and the deterioration of biodiversity. Rampant extraction and exploitation have also further fuelled armed conflicts as the Myanmar military tries to gain complete control of mineral-rich areas, such as Tanai and Hpakant townships, by launching “regional clearance” operations that have been internationally condemned by the United Nations and many human rights bodies.
Before we examine the current situation further, it is necessary to first pay a brief visit to the past.
* Lahkyen Roi is the pen name of a scholar-activist, working on land, natural resources and investment issues together with local movements in Myanmar.
