- Myanmar
With Rohingya disenfranchised, NLD takes on nationalists in southern Rakhine
Soe Win, a National League for Democracy (NLD) candidate, clutches the microphone and paces about as he shouts questions at a crowd of hundreds of Buddhist Rakhine residents in Sin Khaung village. “Was it Aung San Suu Kyi who ordered assaults on the Buddhist monks protesting against the military dictatorship back in 2007? Did she order the attack on the monks with firebombs protesting against a Chinese-funded copper mine at Letpadaung Mountain in 2012?” “No!” the villagers shout back in unison, applauding his rousing campaign speech along a dusty road in a remote village east of Thandwe, southern Rakhine State’s biggest town. The only group in Myanmar that ever hurt Buddhist monks, the NLD candidate said, was the military and the former generals now in the current Union Solidarity and Development Party led government. The opposition candidate’s rhetoric reflects the role Buddhist nationalism has played in Myanmar’s election campaign as the country heads for the polls on Nov. 8. The widely popular NLD has been forced to counter claims by the Buddhist nationalist movement Ma Ba Tha that the party of Aung San Suu Kyi would not defend Myanmar from what radical monks claim is an “Islamic threat” to the…
- 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…
