Supporters from the ultra-nationalist Ma Ba Tha group formed
a convoy of trucks and buses that snaked through the main city of Yangon on
September 14 to welcome the introduction of four Race and Religion Protection
Laws, which the group drafted itself. "If necessary we must erect a fence
with our bones," boomed a song from a truck-mounted speaker. Ma Ba Tha's
senior monks have been accused of stoking anti-Muslim violence with sermons
preaching that Buddhism, the majority religion, is under threat from Islam.
Human Rights Watch has said the bills, the last of which was
signed into law late last month, place "unlawful" restrictions on
people wishing to change religions, and could be used to force mothers to wait
three years between each birth. The laws also outlaw extra-marital affairs and
place restrictions on marriages between non-Buddhist men and Buddhist women.
A joint statement by Amnesty International and the
International Commission of Jurists warned earlier this year that another of
the four laws, the Population Control and Healthcare Bill, could lead to
authorities carrying out forced abortions and sterilisation. The law aims to
control populations in certain areas with "birth spacing", though the
wording is unclear on whether this would be compulsory. It has nonetheless
raised fears for Rohingya Muslim couples in northeastern Rakhine state, who
have in the past been barred from having more than two children.
The celebrations show Ma Ba Tha "asserting themselves
and their newfound clout", said Khin Zaw Win of the Tampadipa Institute, a
think-tank based in Yangon. Hard-line Buddhist groups have taken advantage of “liberalization”
to gain more and more influence in the country's politics.A joint statement
from nine embassies in Myanmar, including the US and Japan, warned against
"religion being used as a tool of division and conflict during the
campaign season".
Muslim candidates have been largely excluded from the
upcoming election, in what also appears to be an attempt to assuage hardliners.
The opposition National League for Democracy, widely expected to win the poll,
failed to field a single Muslim candidate. Myanmar's election commission has
rejected dozens of Muslims on citizenship grounds. Hundreds of thousands of
Rohingya Muslims were disenfranchised earlier this year when the government
withdrew the temporary citizenship cards that allowed them to vote.
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