Reshaping Geopolitical Status

In this vein, the resistance groups and their political bodies have replaced the roles of traditional Shan saophas, working as a ‘quasi state’ to govern Shan states and control border areas (also see details in Section 7.3). This was after the saophas were forced to hand over their powers to the central Burmese government, particularly in 1962 when the military junta took power. As Grundy-Warr and Wong (2002:98) have shown, along the border it was the resistance groups that collected taxes and profits from cross-border trade, not the central government. Thus, tracing back the geopolitical history of Shan states, the status of the Shan has changed from ‘multi-centred Tai principalities’ governed by the saophas in the pre-modern era, to ‘a buffer zone’ in the formation of a nation-state and then later to become ‘a battle field’ in the post-colonial period controlled by the resistance groups.

In the pre-modern period, the geopolitical status of the Tai principalities was characterised by their ‘shared Tai brotherhood’ through a “tacit alliance” (Hsieh, 1995) and multi-tributary relations to seek their survival and autonomy from the neighbouring empires (i.e. China, Burma and Siam). Thus their geopolitical history could be seen to be tied to China, Burma, Thailand and the later colonial powers from the West (in particular, the British and the French) in the changing global political system. The Shan have been regarded as a buffer zone between different contested powers. The political system of the modern nation-state has effectively “silenced” multiple pre-modern sovereignties of Tai states because they did not show clearly on the modern map (Thongchai, 1995:96, cited in Grundy-Warr and Wong, 2002: 98), as if they never existed. Those pre-modern states were instead subsumed within the Shan State of Burma.

Meanwhile, the fixed national borders have also led to transformed meanings of mobility as the porous borders turned from bridges to become barriers with the increase in militarisation and border regulations in the last few decades, human networks, kinship and trade interactions became politically partitioned (Grundy-Warr, and Yin, 2002:98). Daily practices of considerable cross-border flows which used to be the features of pre-modern period could be easily classified or labelled as illegal or illicit

as mentioned in chapter 5.

At present, the Shan resistance groups, together with other ethnic political organisations, have continued seeking for the possibility of autonomy with some kind a federation. Therefore, the geopolitical landscape of Shan State apparently displays the contested powers and negotiation between multiple and overlapping militarily sovereignties and interwoven ethnic resistance.

4.4 Concluding Remarks

From the history of the Shan, this chapter has highlighted three main themes: the first is connections and disruptions, which sees the delineation of national borders as a crucial demarcation point to divide the Tai states into different nation-states; the second is power and resistance, which shows negotiations between national or international powers and response of oppressed Shan principalities; and the third is centre and periphery, which maps Shan within Tai history and examines how contested powers affected the Shan’s lived spaces and socio-political systems over time.

Firstly, I argued that the Tai Muang systems have multi-centred Tai principalities which maintain balance of power among states through “consensus-based systems” (Davis, 2006: 92). It not only illustrates political alliances between Tai principalities, but also their interactions with neighbouring empires to show flexibility of sovereignty of ancient states and the Tai commoners’ freedom of movement. However, a radical break of these relationships was caused by rivalry of colonial powers which had partitioned Tai states and incorporated them into the space of different nation-states. The ambiguity of borders has been harnessed, created obstacles (legal or illegal) for cross- border practices and identified possession of environmental resources. This has forced Shan State into a territorial arena, along with different political and economic purposes.

Secondly, the process of contested powers shows the negotiations between national or international forces and the response of the oppressed Shan states. This involved multiple levels of powers which came together and crossed over the Shan State, and

brought chaos, conflicts and disrupted Shan people’s lives. Shan’s struggles for survival not only included dealing with national expansion from the Burmese regime, but also handling external forces with different levels of control of resources and access to power. The complex and uneven powers created multiple and complicated relationships of political alliance or breakaways between Shan resistance groups and other actors, which significantly affected Shan’s modes of living over generations.

Thirdly, drawing national borders is not simply marking statehood on maps, but it implies the structures of control and order (Baud and van Schendel, 1997: 222) as well as intervention of powers. Simultaneously it breaks the meaning of place and transforms the meaning of cross-border practices. Therefore, in this thesis I aim to provide an account of local views to show their voices in order to know how Shan’s lives have been transformed in response to the oppressive powers; re-centring Shan’s marginalised position is necessary. Their history cannot be seen as marginal which used to be dismissed or suppressed by central national history and “lies at the extremity where the nation-state ends” (Horstmann and Wadley, 2006: 18).

Besides, although the national borders were set up, the porous Thai-Burma border to some degree still existed. Approximately 2,400 km of the border and far from the national centre, the control by central government was comparatively limited. The Shan used various mobility tactics to cross the border, which will be further explored in chapter 5, in particular escaping from human rights abuses and due to forced relocation to seek refuge or safer places. This situation reveals that border is not a “fixed entity” (Horstmann and Wadley, 2006: 19), but can be perceived, defied or (re)constructed at various levels. Meanwhile, in the course of their mobilities, Shan carried with them shared historical context, ancient ties and cultural components, such as rituals, habitus, languages and material cultures. These characteristics may have offered some symbolic or familiar lived ingredients which, later on, facilitated and secured their journeys of exiles; I will discuss these in subsequently chapters 6 and 7.

CHAPTER 5 Displacement and Fragmented Journeys