MYANMAR: RELIGIOUS MINORITIES AND CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTIONS

Abstract

This article examines the experience of religious minorities in Myanmar between 2011 and 2017 in the context of the 2008 constitution and a new system of governance. It highlights the precarity of religious minorities and argues that neither the constitution nor the state were reliable sources of protection or redress during this period. The first section considers the multiple identities of religious minorities with regard to citizenship and national belonging. The second section elucidates how an enabling environment for Buddhist nationalism emerged and what types of actions state and non-state actors have taken with regard to religious minorities. The final section addresses the 2008 constitution and rule of law in Myanmar in order to understand the challenges for religious minorities in securing justice and protection.

Keywords:

• Myanmar
• Burma
• Buddhism
• Rohingya
• constitution
• minorities
• nationalism
• citizenship
• religion

Notes

1 M. Ismael Khin Maung, The Population of Burma: An Analysis of the 1973 Census. Honolulu: East-West Center, 1986, 4 at: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/eace/c7ee6be0f7cbd835b43f3a0c86c487ef2548.pdf. This number includes over 800,000 estimated residents of ethnic conflict areas who were not formally enumerated in the 1973 census.

2 Department of Population, Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population. The 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census: Census Report Volume 2-C The Union Report: Religion. Nay Pyi Taw: 4 July 2016 at: http://myanmar.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub-pdf/UNION_2-C_religion_EN_0.pdf. The Muslim population figures include the 1.09 million people in Rakhine State who identify as Rohingya and Muslim, and were not formally enumerated in the 2014 census.

3 See Nick Cheesman, ‘How in Myanmar “National Races” Came to Surpass Citizenship and Exclude Rohingya’. Journal of Contemporary Asia Vol. 47. Issue 3 (2017): 461–483, for a more detailed explanation.

4 In fact, the list contains the names of dozens of dialect groups, clans, and other types of labels. While one could perhaps argue it was a misguided attempt to be inclusive, the military regime’s deployment of the phrase “135 national races” was often in the context of legitimizing continued military rule. In other words, how could any other type of government hold together a society composed of so many different groups? Regardless, given the long history of population movements and inter-marriage in the pre-colonial period and subsequently, the concept of pure races is a fiction.

5 Min Min and Moe Aung, ‘The Welcome Migrants from Bangladesh’. Frontier Myanmar, September 23, 2015, at: https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/features/welcome-migrants-from-bangladesh.

6 Lawi Weng, ‘Some See Politics in Burmanization, Suffrage for Ethnic Chinese in N. Shan State’. Irrawaddy, March 25, 2016, at: www.irrawaddy.com/burma/see-politics-burmanization-suffrage-ethnic-chinese-n-shan-state.html.

7 Nyi Nyi Kyaw, ‘Islamophobia in Buddhist Myanmar: The 969 Movement and Anti-Muslim Violence’, in Melissa Crouch (Ed.), Islam and the State in Myanmar: Muslim-Buddhist Relations and the Politics of Belonging. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 184–211.

8 Images Asia, Report on the Situation for Muslims in Burma. Chiang Mai: Thailand, 1997; Human Rights Watch, Crackdown on Burmese Muslims, 2002, at: http://pantheon.hrw.org/legacy/backgrounder/asia/burmese_muslims.pdf; Christina Fink, Living Silence in Burma: Surviving Under Military Rule. London: Zed Books, 2009.

9 The number 969 signifies the nine attributes of the Buddha, the six attributes of his teachings, and the nine attributes of the Sangha, or monastic order.

10 Kevin Roose, ‘Forget Washington. Facebook’s Problems Abroad Are Far More Disturbing’. New York Times, October 29, 2017, at: www.nytimes.com/2017/10/29/business/facebook-misinformation-abroad.html.

11 Matt Schissler, Matthew J. Walton and Phyu Phyu Thi, ‘Reconciling Contradictions: Buddhist-Muslim Violence, Narrative Making and Memory in Myanmar’. Journal of Contemporary Asia Vol. 47. Issue 3 (2017): 376–395.

12 Francis Wade, Myanmar’s Enemy Within. London: Zed Books, 2017, pp. 203–206.

13 Susan Hayward, ‘The Double-Edged Sword of “Buddhist Democracy” in Myanmar’. The Review of Faith & International Affairs Vol. 13. Issue 4 (2015): 32.

14 International Crisis Group, Buddhism and State Power in Myanmar, 5 September 2017, at: www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-east-asia/myanmar/290-buddhism-and-state-power-myanmar 20–22.

15 Min Zin, ‘Anti-Muslim Violence in Burma: Why Now?’ Social Research Vol. 82. Issue 2 (2015): 388.

16 International Crisis Group, Buddhism and State Power in Myanmar, 11–12.

17 Burma Human Rights Network, Persecution of Muslims in Burma, 2017, at: http://bhrn.org.uk/en/component/edocman/?task=document.viewdoc&id=1&Itemid=; Poppy MacPherson, ‘“No Muslims Allowed”: How Nationalism is Rising in Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar’. The Guardian, May 2016, at: www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/23/no-muslims-allowed-how-nationalism-is-rising-in-aung-san-suu-kyis-myanmar.

18 Burma Human Rights Network, Persecution of Muslims in Burma, 42–48.

19 Burma Human Rights Network, Persecution of Muslims in Burma.

20 Naw Betty Han, ‘Kayin CM Disowns Order for Muslims to Report Travel Plans’. Myanmar Times, October 6, 2017, at: www.mmtimes.com/news/kayin-cm-disowns-order-muslims-report-travel-plans.html.

21 Burma Human Rights Network, Persecution of Muslims in Burma, 47

22 Burma Human Rights Network, Persecution of Muslims in Burma, 24–27.

23 Tin Aung Khine, Khet Mar, and Wai Mar Tun, ‘Myanmar Buddhist Monk Erects Another Pagoda on Disputed Land’. Radio Free Asia, May 4, 2016, at: www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/myanmar-buddhist-monk-erects-another-pagoda-on-disputed-land-05042016154223.html.

24 Rachel Flemming, Hidden Plight: Christian Minorities in Burma. US Commission on International Religious Freedom, December 2016, at: www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/Hidden%20Plight.%20Christian%20Minorities%20in%20Burma.pdf.

25 Flemming, Hidden Plight: Christian Minorities in Burma, 14.

26 Médecins Sans Frontières, ‘Myanmar/Bangladesh: MSF Surveys Estimate That at Least 6,700 Rohingya Were Killed during the Attacks in Myanmar’. December 12, 2017, at: www.msf.org/en/article/myanmarbangladesh-msf-surveys-estimate-least-6700-rohingya-were-killed-during-attacks.

27 Kristen Gelineau, ‘Rohingya Methodically Raped by Myanmar’s Armed Forces’. Associated Press, December 11, 2017, at: www.apnews.com/5e4a1351468f4755a6f861e39ec782c9.

28 Maung Maung, Burma’s Constitution. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1959, p. 98.

29 Donald Eugene Smith, Religion and Politics in Burma. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965 (reprinted in 2015), p. 120.

30 Melissa Crouch, ‘Constructing Religion by Law in Myanmar’. The Review of Faith & International Affairs Vol. 13. Issue 4 (2015): 6.

31 Nyi Nyi Kyaw, ‘Islamophobia in Buddhist Myanmar’, 194.

32 Nick Cheesman, ‘That Signifier of Desire, Rule of Law’. Social Research Vol. 82. Issue 2 (2015): 267–290.

33 Karen Human Rights Group, Foundation of Fear: 25 Years of Villagers Voices from Southeast Myanmar, 2017, at: http://khrg.org/sites/default/files/khrg_foundation_of_fear_english_full_report_october_2017_w2.pdf, 263.

34 Flemming, Hidden Plight: Christian Minorities in Burma, 21.