- Myanmar
Myanmar’s Kaman Muslims look to elections to restore their rights
In October two years ago, Zaw Lin ran to the top of a forested hill behind his thatch-roof farm house in this tiny hamlet of Pauktaw in Myanmar’s southern Rakhine state. His family is Muslim. He and his relatives were running for their lives as sword-wielding Rakhine Buddhists, angry about reports of a Buddhist woman allegedly raped by Muslim men in nearby Thandwe, were on the rampage, torching down Muslim houses and now about to enter his village. While he was running away with his wife and two children, Zaw Lin said he managed to call a police station, two miles away from his village to ask for help. But none came. Although his family survived, dozens of Muslim houses including his own in Pauktaw were burned to the ground and a 91-year-old Muslim woman was tossed into the fire by a Buddhist mob in the neighbouring village of Thebyu Chai. He says he does not bear grudge against his Buddhist neighbours. “We all were victims. The Rakhine Buddhists were also used by those who wanted to exploit the religion for attacks against Muslims,” he said, while sitting on the bamboo floor of the house he rebuilt after the violence…
- News
Can soldiers vote in Myanmar elections without fear?
At the end of a day’s training in a vast military compound in the suburbs of Yangon, Corporal Khin Maung Than and three of his fellow comrades stepped out of a lush paddy field, their green uniforms coated with mud. The soldiers had recently arrived in the city from different army regiments across Myanmar for a training course on agricultural techniques. Asked how they were going to vote in the parliamentary elections on Nov.8 and if they felt they could make a free choice, none of them came up with a clear answer. “We haven’t been told which party to vote for,” said Khin Maung Than, 52, who has served in the army for 35 years. He said he had no idea whether he would be able to vote because he had to leave his national identity card, needed on polling day, back with his regiment. “Maybe I will send the name of the party I want to vote for in a phone message to someone back in my mother regiment,” he said hopefully. One of his fellow comrades said that the commander of his regiment would probably vote on his behalf. Another besides him grew angry at the questioning,…
- News
Burma’s next parliament may be devoid of Muslims
Of the more than 6,000 candidates running in the elections, the overwhelming majority of them are Buddhist, and only 28 are Muslim.
- Myanmar
Will there be any Muslim MPs in Myanmar’s Parliament?
On Nov. 8, Myanmar will go to the polls in what has been billed as the first free and fair parliamentary election in 25 years, yet the marginalisation of the Muslim community has left local and international observers concerned about how democratic the vote will be. Of the more than 6,000 candidates running in the elections, the overwhelming majority of them are Buddhist, and only 28 are Muslim, representing just 0.5 percent of candidates, according to the final list of candidates released by the Union Election Commission (UEC). Muslims make up about 5 percent of the country’s predominantly Buddhist population. The UEC has rejected more than a hundred would-be candidates, mostly Muslims, stating that their parents were not recognised as citizens yet at the time of the candidates’ birth, meaning their candidacy would be in violation of the Elections Law. The decision has raised concerns among rights groups and observers, and regional lawmakers warned it could “undermine the credibility of the contest”. “In any other country the rejection of an entire class of candidates would render the contest itself undemocratic,” Charles Santiago, a member of parliament from Malaysia and chairperson of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights said in a…
- News
Parties question UEC impartiality
The Union Election Commission’s (UEC) decision on Tuesday to publicly propose and then drop a plan to delay Burma’s 8 November polls has prompted criticism from major political parties, who questioned the commission’s motives for floating the controversial proposal. Local and international media had widely reported on remarks by UEC chairman Tin Aye on Tuesday morning about a possible nationwide polling delay, which were supposedly necessary because of problems posed by the flood disaster that hit parts of Burma in June and July. Later, the commission said in a statement that it had “reviewed a number of opinions put forward by a number of political parties and decided not to delay the elections and to go ahead with it on 8 November.” Win Htein, a spokesperson of the National League for Democracy (NLD), said he struggled to make sense of Tin Aye’s initial plan and subsequent u-turn. “I welcome the announcement as I was the only one who objected to the proposal for the postponement of the elections,” he said. “But still, I remain confounded by the flip-flopping statements, which are coming out from the elections commission even though it is a top government body.” During a meeting on Tuesday…