With the Junta's Arakan Offensive, Revolutionary People Need to Be Aware of the Ethnic and Religious Incitement

Aung Naing Lin, Opinion, September 16, 2026

With the Junta's Arakan Offensive, Revolutionary People Need to Be Aware of the Ethnic and Religious Incitement

Since the unjust military coup in 2021, the violent military led by Min Aung Hlaing, which has been facing opposition and resistance from people across the entire country, has continued to lose most of the country's territory to this day. Although in recent months, due to assistance from some foreign countries and forced recruitment, it has been able to recapture some areas, it is still losing without achieving significant military results across the entire country and (especially) in Arakan and Kachin.

Under such circumstances, the "9426" offensive that their military lobbyists have been proclaiming since September 4th has also failed at the initial stage in Ponnagyun and Kyaukpyu areas, and has not broken through in other areas east of the Arakan Mountains. Even at a time when military defeat is almost certain, the military regime is launching a new political offensive front.

This is deliberately stirring up existing ethnic and religious divisions and disputes among the people, igniting sparks to make problems between them grow, thereby extracting military and political advantage. In other words, it is expanding and implementing the 'divide and rule' method among different ethnic and religious groups.

Examining the Military Regime's Incitement

One of the main reasons the military regime has been able to maintain power since 1962 is its ability to divide the people by creating distrust and conflict among them. However, after the 2021 coup, the majority Bamar and ethnic minority groups became united to a certain extent, causing difficulties for the coup military. Therefore, the military regime can no longer divide Bamar and Arakanese, or Bamar and Karen as before.

On the other hand, as military offensives are being launched into Arakan, the military regime is distributing hatred between Arakanese and Muslims, Arakanese and Chin, the Arakan Army government and the people, and between southern and northern people in Arakan State and related areas, conducting a political offensive, and it also means risking the lives and blood of many people to achieve its military objectives.

Such incitement may be directly led and managed by the current military regime's Union Minister of Information, U Htein Lin (former Chief Minister of Arakan State), who is also a former Rakhine State Border Affairs Minister and knows the Arakan region thoroughly. Therefore, he can be identified as a major threat to the social harmony of Arakan State.

Methods Being Implemented

Under the direct instructions of such individuals, social media accounts (Facebook accounts, pages, etc.) posing as Muslim (Rohingya) are attacking and inciting against Arakanese on ethnic and religious grounds, while accounts posing as Arakanese are found insulting and attacking Muslims. By doing so, the existing tensions between Arakanese and Muslims become more severe than before, and some people with weak social media literacy share them further and accept them as absolute truth, causing hardened attitudes and anger on ethnic and religious grounds.

As a second method, creating conflict between Arakanese and Chin people. Historically, Arakanese and Chin people have lived like brothers. However, some who do not want Chin-Arakanese unity, including the military regime, are inciting suspicion to fracture the unity between the Arakan Army and Chin Brotherhood, acting in accordance with the military council's wishes.

Those who want to fracture Chin-Arakanese unity are mainly those working only for the benefit of the military council, and it also coincides with the military council's offensives in Kanpetlet, Mindat, and Matupi. Such inciters routinely use various social media accounts posing as Chin or Arakanese to make derogatory remarks about one side on ethnic and religious grounds, and to incite tension by exaggerating issues related to Paletwa or border affairs.

On the other hand, as a third method, there are also statements inciting division between the Arakan Army government and the people, and using subtle methods to divide southern and northern Arakanese people. Among such statements, they mainly pretend to be ordinary people, speak as if voicing the grievances of some people, and make false claims without solid evidence, mainly to destroy trust between each other.

In conclusion, the violent military that is losing militarily is igniting problems and violence among the people through various methods, but revolutionary people always need to be aware and vigilant, and must not fall into the political trap according to the wishes of military dictators.