Junta minister urges union spirit among Arakanese in Yangon

By Admin 23 Jul 2025

DMG Newsroom

23 July 2025, Yangon

The junta-appointed Deputy Minister for Ethnic Affairs U Zaw Aye Maung has reportedly urged Arakanese people in Yangon to have a union spirit and patriotism.

He made the remarks at a meeting with the Arakan Literature and Culture Committee and Arakan social organisations held at the office of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs in Yangon on July 21, according to junta-controlled media.

U Zaw Aye Maung urged Arakanese people in Yangon to cooperate with related departments in accordance with the Ethnic Rights Protection Law, strengthen ethnic unity, and maintain a patriotic, union spirit.

Yangon Region Ethnic Affairs Minister U Saw Jacob Htoo said the government is focusing on the security of displaced people in Yangon, providing them with job opportunities, and ensuring their children have access to education.

"He [U Zaw Aye Maung] is only a party-goer at the behest of the junta boss and has done nothing to help Arakan State on the ground," said an Arakanese youth in Yangon. "He has nothing to say or do about the arrests of those who were arrested for military service or other Arakanese young people. He has only been doing whatever the military regime wants."

Junta-controlled media reported that U Zaw Aye Maung coordinated the discussions and the needs of the Arakan social organisations that attended Monday's meeting.

He instructed Arakan social organisations to register their organisations at the regional level in accordance with the Associations Registration Law so that they can carry out their objectives and activities within the framework of the law.

"We see him as a puppet of the military regime," said Ko Aung Ko Than, a resident of Arakan State's Pauktaw. "He is trying to gain favor with the military regime and gain more trust. To put it bluntly, he is not doing anything for his own people. When something happens to the Arakanese people in Yangon, he keeps quiet."

Civil society organisations estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of Arakanese people in Yangon due to the fight for control of Arakan State, as well as Arakan State residents who had already settled in Yangon prior to the conflict between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army (AA).

Veteran Arakanese politician U Pe Than believes that U Zaw Aye Maung's words are typical of Burmese politicians and that such patriotic sentiments should be interpreted as meaning that efforts must be made under the 2008 Constitution.

"No matter how much you love your people, you will not be able to get the part you want under the 2008 Constitution. … I think he needs to add a little more to his words. If we only love the current union, the spirit of loving our people will not go anywhere and will disappear under the 2008 Constitution," he said.

"For example, during the British colonial era, people thought that we should love the British Empire and the Arakanese people. So, I think not everyone in the pre-independence era would have said that we should love the empire and love our own people, but we should have said that we should be free from British rule," U Pe Than added.

U Zaw Aye Maung, an ethnic Arakanese man, was previously a top leader of the Arakan National Party (ANP). After the 2021 military coup, the regime appointed him as Deputy Minister of Ethnic Affairs and bestowed the title Wunna Kyaw Htin.