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Democracy extremism

While Myanmar's population has gained greater freedom and must vote in parliamentary elections on 8. November, Buddhist extremism, abuse and discrimination against Muslims is being institutionalized.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

“I no longer dare to serve food for my Buddhist friends. If they get a stomach ache, it can lead to violent conflict, ”says Kyaw Thet Naing with severe mine. The 58-year-old Muslim man has lived all his life in the city of Meikthila, where he manages a local mosque. He has known his friends since school. They tend to celebrate each other's religious holidays together. "We used to be very close and it was no problem teasing each other, but now we are very careful about what we say," he adds. He fears not alone in a city where a loose indictment about food poisoning, for example, can have serious consequences. "I have Muslim friends, but deep down I don't trust them," explains Maung Kyaw, an 55-year-old Buddhist truck driver. “It is best if Muslims and Buddhists live separately. If they live close together, small problems can develop violently. ”
Meikthila is a regular provincial town, located on the main road between Mandalay and the capital Nai Pyi Taw, where Buddhists and Muslims have lived peacefully for decades. In 2013, a minor dispute developed into a massacre in which more than 100 were killed, many of them Muslim schoolboys. About 1500 houses were burned down – the vast majority inhabited by Muslims. "I don't understand why the hate has exploded," explains MP Win Win Thein, who is elected from Meikthila, one of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's close supporters and top leader of the opposition party National League for Democracy (NLD). "Before, here was so peaceful." When he heard of the unrest, he hurried from Parliament to his hometown. In vain he asked the assembled crowd to stop the violence. “I saw six to seven Muslim school students being killed right in front of me. Knocked to death. The police and district authorities stood right next door and did nothing, ”he explains. Meikthila is a garrison town with several thousand soldiers posted. Only when the military was deployed three days later did the unrest cease.

Violent conflict. The conflict in Meikthila is not isolated. Since 2012, local conflicts have broken out in a large number of cities in Myanmar, several of them with violent outbursts – and in the vast majority of cases, it is Muslims who have been attacked. In the state of Rakhine on the border with Bangladesh, more than 140 Muslims live from the roughly one million Rohingya minority detained in shrunken camps following violent assaults. In Myanmar, they are considered illegal immigrants, despite having lived in this border region for centuries. The local Buddhist Rakhine people feel pressured by the central government and the Burmese majority, and are worried about becoming a minority in what they consider to be their own state. But the conflict runs deeper than that – and has spread to large parts of the country.
The anti-Muslim movement in Myanmar is led by a number of prominent monks under the name Committee on the Protection of Race and Religion, better known by the abbreviation Ma Ba Tha, which in two to three years has built 250 local branches and has more than 10 million members, according to U Kyaw Sein Win, project manager for Ma Ba Tha. "Our goal is to protect against racial and religious conflict and to avoid extremism in a multi-religious society," he explains. Political analyst Khin Zaw Win, on the other hand, sees Ma Ba Tha «as a radical buddy-
historical movement that has influenced at a critical time. In itself, it is not great, but it has convinced millions of Buddhists by playing on ethnic-religious fears and attitudes. ”
In 2015, Ma Ba Tha was successful in enacting four laws limiting the opportunity to change religion, to mission, and to allow Buddhist women to marry non-Buddhist men. It also allows the authorities to limit the number of children. The laws are generally seen as aimed at Muslims and have been criticized by human rights groups for being racist and oppressive. David Mathieson of Human Rights Watch believes that Ma Ma Thas's rise as a new social and political movement is the era of reform w – a growing nationalist movement with a pronounced pro-government stance, xenophobic and violent. ”The organization has received larger sums of money from leading local politicians from the Union Development and Solidarity Party (USDP) government, which also participated in some of its major meetings. However, the party's leadership has so far not expressed open support for Ma Ba Tha, except for President Thein Sein, who in 2013 publicly called Ma Ba Tha's most prominent and radical member the monk Wirathu the "Buddha's son" in response to a cover in Time Magazine proclaimed Wirathu the "Face of Buddhist Terror".

It is a conscious choice that the country's leading opposition party and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize Aung San Suu Kyi have divorced Muslims.

At village level, Ma Bha Tha has effectively spread its message that Muslims threaten Buddhism and that Buddhists must be vigilant. Thus, large sections of the regular Buddhist population today consider themselves to be at risk of abuse – and not vice versa. Paradoxically, Myanmar's Muslim population is generally pacifist and there have been no examples of suicide bombings or support for radical groups. Myanmar has a tradition of strong nationalism and, during its previous attempts at democracy in the 1950s, has also considered the introduction of Buddhism as a state religion.

Normalization of extremism. Ma Ba Thas power extends far into the political sphere. During the election campaign, none of the country's leading parties have fielded candidates of Muslim origin. At New Time, U Win Thein of the NLD leadership admits that it is a conscious choice that the country's leading opposition party and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize Aung San Suu Kyi has expelled Muslims. "If we have a Muslim candidate, it gives Ma Ba Tha a reason to attack us – and it could become a nationwide problem," he said. Aung San Suu Kyi himself has been more taciturn. At a large voter meeting in Yamethin outside Meikthila in late September, one of the crowd asks about the NLD's position in relation to. religious minorities. “The NLD will never use religion and racial relations to get votes,” is her response.
During the election campaign, Ma Ba Tha himself held rallies to "celebrate the adoption of the four laws and thank the MPs who voted for," while warning the people against voting for the NLD. In early October, the organization gathered about 10 people at Yangon National Stadium. However, there are also more moderate attitudes among Ma Ba Tha members. Ma Ba Tha the monk of Yamethin emphasizes that "Buddhism is a minority religion in the world today and is threatened by all religions […] but everyone has the right to vote as they wish." He, too, is showing up for Suu Kyi's voter rally.
Far from everyone agrees with the NLD's decision not to pose Muslims. U Khin Maung Myint of the National Democratic Party for Development is a Rohingya of origin and former NLD member. “Many Muslims have sacrificed their lives for NLD for more than two decades and then we are treated this way. NLD is racist, scared and has sold out to Ma Ba Tha as they are nervous about losing votes. What the NLD has done is unforgivable. ”His own party has had seven out of eight candidates running for parliament declared invalid by the electoral commission, like most other Muslim candidates. In addition, in November 2015, Rohingyans were deprived of their right to vote.

The role of the international community. The situation leading up to the election has caused a number of countries to react. In a joint statement in September from the US, UK, Australia, Denmark and Norway, among others, concern was expressed that "religion is used as a tool to create division and conflict during the campaign period". Matthew Smith believes that “the international community should consider Myanmar's progress more bleak and realistic. There have been many advances, but the human rights situation has gotten worse. "U Khin Maung Myint is more direct:" Many countries are only interested in natural resources and competition with China. Norway, for example, has been receiving telecommunications and oil, while Muslims and Rohingyans are dying, ”he says.
In Meikthila, the traces of the assaults are still visible. The prominent Thiri Mingalar mosque in the main street has been reopened, but 10 of the city's 14 mosques have remained closed under orders from local authorities. A local NLD candidate would rather not talk about the problems.

The fear is still breathing. The city's progressive youth, on the other hand, are full of words. The hip hop band Bliss is rapping against the government, about peace, human rights and revolution. Band member Ye Wint Maung of 20 years explains how he helped his Muslim neighbors during the riots: «A Buddhist-
a guy with guns came to our street and asked if I had seen any Muslims. I said no when I didn't want to see more dead, ”he says. Despite the band's courage they dare not play in Meikthila. "One of our crew is our Muslim brother, so we're afraid other guys will attack us," he concludes.
U Thiszana, the upper body of the Buddhist monastery Myitta Ye Kyi, looks out over the large beautiful Meikthila lake. He rescued 160 Muslims who sought refuge in the monastery. The convent school and the health clinic he runs are visited by people from the neighborhood of all religions. At the same time, it is the only safe place for Muslim leaders to meet with outsiders. It was right here on the lake shore that many were killed. "Many Muslims have not returned," he explains quietly as the Buddhist
ke sasan flag flies over the former multi-religious neighborhood just behind the dam.

This is first part of a series of three about Myanmar related to the election.


Kempel is a freelance journalist.
suannekempel@gmail.com.

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