How Social Cohesion and Community Relations Have Improved Under the Arakan Government

Aung Naing Lin, Opinion

Global Arakan Network December 9, 2025

Photo Credit to Arakan Bay News

Arakan has never been a land for one people only. It is the shared home of Arakanese Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Chin, Mro, Thet, Khumi, Khumei, Daingnet, and Mramagyi. Temples, mosques, and shrines sit side by side. Children of different faiths play in the same streets. This diversity is not a problem; it is our strength. The land belongs to every community that has lived, worked, and died here for centuries.

For decades, central Bamar governments treated Arakan as a colony, not a homeland. They feared the people would rise together, so they copied the old British trick: divide and rule. They kept just enough tension alive between communities so that no one would look up and fight the real ruler. The clearest proof came in 2024. When the Arakan Army pushed the junta out of the north, the military did not fight alone. It openly armed and guided ARSA and RSO extremists to attack villages, burn houses, and kill civilians, hoping the chaos would turn Muslims against the AA. The plan failed, but the scars remain.

Everything changed the day the Arakan government took control. The new rule is simple: this land is big enough for all of us, and power must reflect that truth.

Today, Muslim leaders who were never allowed to hold any position under Bamar governments now serve as deputy township administrators, village heads, and department officers inside the United League of Arakan (ULA) administration. Nearly five thousand Muslims work inside the government structure, from clerks to security personnel. Hindu, Mro, and Khumi representatives sit on local councils. Decisions about schools, clinics, and markets are made together, not handed down from Naypyitaw.

Travel through the liberated areas and you see the difference with your own eyes. In mixed villages, Buddhist and Muslim families rebuild homes side by side after the fighting stops. Joint patrols of Arakan Army soldiers and local Muslim volunteers keep the peace. When a mosque needs repair, Buddhist neighbors carry bricks. When a monastery roof leaks, Muslim carpenters arrive first. Children study in the same classrooms again, speaking both Arakanese and Rohingya dialects without fear.

Of course, a few loud voices in the diaspora still shout that nothing has changed. They repeat old stories and post old photos because new pictures would ruin their narrative. But the people living here know the truth. Mothers who lost sons in 2017 now send their younger boys to the same ULA training camps alongside Buddhist recruits. Farmers who once hid from both the army and extremists now pay taxes to one government that protects everyone.

This is what real ownership looks like. The Arakan government is not perfect; no government born in war ever is. But for the first time in living memory, power belongs to the people who actually live on the soil, not to distant generals who play communities against each other.

The international community says it wants peace and stability. Here it is, growing village by village. Supporting the current Arakan government is not choosing one side; it is choosing the only side that includes everybody. Keep funding projects that bring all communities to the table. Keep pressing for recognition of the new reality. Keep listening to the voices inside the villages, not only the megaphones far away.

Arakan has waited centuries to be governed by its own children, all of them. Today, that dream is no longer a dream. It is daily life. And it is working.