JUNE 17, 2015
Author(s): David Scott Mathieson
The
impact of Myanmar's repressive policy toward Rohingya Muslims was made
clear in recent weeks with scenes of desperate people crammed into
boats, an escalation of a miserable maritime
flight in which an estimated 90,000 people have fallen prey
to smugglers and traffickers since early 2014. The United Nations
estimates that around 1,000 people have died on the way.
The root cause is the long-term reprehensible treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar (also
known as Burma) — stateless, officially
and socially reviled, with severe curbs on their rights to work,
travel, get health care and education, and practice their religion.
Yet
even as this anguishing exodus has gripped international attention, it
has obscured a connected and equally troubling pattern of rising
religious extremism in Myanmar. At the height of the boat drama,
parliament passed the "population
control law," which permits the government to identify areas
in Myanmar that could be subject to repressive birth control measures.
The law was inspired by Buddhist extremists whose stated agenda is
opposition not just to Rohingya, but to all of
Myanmar's sizable Muslim minority. The law was sharply criticized by
many activists in Myanmar and opposed by the opposition National League
for Democracy, but passed a joint parliamentary vote, 530 to 443, with
39 abstentions.
The
population control law is one element of a package of four "race and
religion protection" bills. The other elements are an interfaith
marriage bill, which grants government oversight of any marriage between
a Buddhist and non-Buddhist;
a religious conversion law, which requires government permission to
change one's religion; and a monogamy law, which could limit the rights
of people living in unmarried relationships and potentially target
Muslims.
These
laws were proposed by the increasingly influential Race and Religion
Protection Association, known by its Burmese acronym, Ma Ba Tha,
consisting of prominent Buddhist abbots. The problem is that Ma Ba Tha
has tapped into a
deep and divisive strain of ethnic Burmese ultranationalism and a
belief in Buddhist religious supremacy that has contributed to vexed and
violent relations with scores of ethnic minorities since independence
from the British in 1948. U Wirathu, Myanmar's
most vitriolic Buddhist monk, infuses his regular public rallies with
populist paranoia over a nonexistent Islamic takeover of Myanmar.
To
push for passage of these discriminatory laws, the Ma Ba Tha staged
public events throughout Myanmar and collected nearly 1.5 million
signatures. The purportedly reformist government of President Thein
Sein, pandering to Ma Ba
Tha's agenda, then drafted similar pieces of legislation and submitted
them to parliament.
There
are fears that the three remaining draft laws will pass in this final
parliamentary sitting ahead of the first ostensibly free national
elections in decades later this year -- and possibly fuel anti-Muslim
violence during what
will be a very tense period. After all, a surge of violence in 2012,
which amounted to ethnic cleansing,
displaced about 140,000 Rohingya,
who languish in squalid camps. At the same time, security restrictions
on the estimated 1 million Rohingya in areas abutting the Bangladeshi
border have been tightened. Several incidents of anti-Muslim violence in
the past two years have caused dozens of deaths.
Last month, local authorities and Thein Sein's office denied permission to
hold a Union Muslims Nationwide Conference in Yangon, citing its
potential for instability. On June 2, a court in upper Myanmar sentenced
a writer and former National League for Democracy official to two years in jail with
hard labor for "insulting religion," over a 2014 speech defending the
purity of Buddhism from Ma Ba Tha's political distortion.
Diplomats
in the country realize that the race and religion laws could spark not
only attacks on Muslims but justifications for government crackdowns.
The United States, European Union and numerous United Nations officials
have therefore
conveyed their deep concern, although Burmese officials have rejected
this out of hand.
Meanwhile, many Muslims see the laws as
just one part of a long-term plan to extirpate the Rohingya and other
Muslims from the country, and there is a danger that all this could lead
to the collapse of the nascent political reforms
over the past four years that have led to the beginnings of economic
development, increased international assistance and direct foreign
investment that are crucial to help pull Myanmar from the hole dug by 50
years of dictatorial military rule.
By
mining the darker nature of Myanmar's Buddhists, religious extremists
and the political opportunists who seek to profit from them are
thwarting the aspirations of generations who have struggled for
democracy and openness. Sadly,
the extremism reflected in the laws suggests a future of even greater
violence and division.
David Scott Mathieson is Senior Researcher in the Asia Division at Human Rights Watch.
Source: here
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