Hard-line Buddhist monks threaten Myanmar’s hopes

YANGON, Myanmar

More than 10,000 Buddhist monks and nuns rallied recently to celebrate Myanmar’s restrictive new race and religion laws, packing themselves into an indoor soccer stadium to cheer and chant nationalist slogans.

The event, held last month in Burma’s commercial capital, was a dramatic display of a rising force in Myanmar’s political landscape — a group of ultranationalist Buddhists called the Ma Ba Tha, whom analysts say could pose a threat to the country’s shaky hopes for democracy.

Voters in Myanmar, or Burma, head to the polls Sunday in a landmark election that is the first since the military junta eased their control and began democratic overhauls in 2010. Reliable polling is scarce, but Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s Nobel laureate, has been drawing large crowds as she campaigns across the country for her National League for Democracy party.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Ma Ba Tha, which translates to the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, have thrown their support to President Thein Sein, the former general, and his military-backed ruling party. The movement’s growing influence and its support for laws restricting religious freedom have troubled Myanmar’s advocates in the United States, who saw the country as a potential model for democratic overhauls and an Obama administration success story.

Tom Malinowski, assistant US secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, said there were two narratives in the election.

“There is the narrative of democracy vs. dictatorship and then a competing narrative which aims to convince voters this is an election about protecting the vast majority of Burmese who are Buddhists against what has been characterised as an existential threat from a tiny minority that is Muslim,” Malinowski said. “That gives rise to worries many people have about potential violence down the road. You can’t invent such a narrative for an election and then forget about it the day after.”

Ashin Wirathu, the firebrand Buddhist monk who is a leader in the Ma Ba Tha, said that the group is supporting Thein Sein because his government passed the legislation governing interfaith marriage, family size and religious conversion that many say targets the Muslim minority.

“As President Thein Sein implemented the race and religion protection laws without caring about international pressure, we see him as a special one,” Wirathu said in an interview. If Suu Kyi and her party come to power, he said, Myanmar would have “female dictatorship.” Suu Kyi is technically barred from the presidency by a constitutional provision, but she has said she will lead the country anyway if her party wins a majority.

“The way she behaves, the way she treats the people inside the party and the audience, and the small parties, she has more percentage on the authoritarian side,” the monk said. “So, if she is in power, I can imagine that a female dictatorship country will emerge in the world.”

Ashin Wirathu, 47, is one of the Ma Ba Tha’s most outspoken advocates. He has called Muslims mad dogs and the United Nations envoy for human rights a “bitch” and a “whore.” He has been dubbed the “Burmese Bin Laden,” a label he once rejected but says no longer troubles him.

“About the election,” he says. “Ma Ba Tha just hopes for security and peace.”

— Washington Post