On Feb. 11, Myanmar’s President Thein Sein rescinded a voting rights offer to the country’s Rohingya community amid intense pressure from far-right Buddhist groups. Last week hundreds of Buddhists took to the streets to denounce the continuation of a 2010 law that extended the right to vote to the country’s more than 1 million ethnic Rohingya. Myanmar does not regard the minority group as citizens. The violence directed toward the Muslim Rohingya community has been characterized in the media as Buddhism’s terrorism problem. However, the faith-based portrayal of the Rohingya crisis devalues the political and social nuances necessary to understanding the conflict.

The ‘Burmese bin Laden’

‘Discrimination against a Rohingya or any other religious minority does not express the kind of country that Burma wants to be.’ President Barack Obama

The Rohingya-Buddhist conflict in Rakhine dates to the 17th century. The animosity between Muslims and Buddhists in western Myanmar has roots in a history of successive invasions by the British and Muslims. “Rakhine identity … has been partially built around a feeling of being besieged (and conquered) by Muslim kingdoms to the west and Burman (Buddhist but ethnically different) kingdoms to the east,” according to Oxford University researcher Matthew J. Walton. Walton is not alone in highlighting the political nature of this conflict. “It’s more about politics,” former United Nations Ambassador Nyunt Maung Shein said of the conflict in 2013. “It is not due to a crisis of religion … It is a political play, not due to the discrimination and religion.” In 1982 authorities in Myanmar stripped the Rohingya of Burmese nationality under the country’s Citizenship Law, often referring to them as “resident foreigners” and “Bengalis.” The move was part of the ruling elite’s xenophobic refusal to recognize other ethnicities, including ethnic Chinese minorities. Ironically, Gen. Ne Win’s government, which promulgated the law, was famous for its socialist program and lack of clear interest in promoting the edicts of Buddhism. Meanwhile, the lack of international spotlight has allowed radical monks such as Wirathu to legitimize their vitriolic rhetoric, ethnic cleansing and massacres against Rohingya. The negligence and blatant collusion of the Burmese state and its policies is far more problematic than demonization campaigns by ultra-Buddhist nationalist groups. The existence of contentious legislation such as the Citizenship Law means the Rohingya will continue to remain stateless, with few to no legal rights.

Meek responses