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Rohingya would be political suicide for the NLD and Suu Kyi who has been branded by some as a ‘the Muslim lover’. One Buddhist resident of Mandalay expressed his concern for Myanmar’s future, claiming that if the NLD were to win the November elections, the country’s national identity and Buddhist majority would suffer, and ‘mosques will take over the city.’ Despite this, Suu Kyi has played a major role in inspiring peace and non-violent protest. She has shown that even in times of violence and hardships, peace is possible, and says that despite repression, imprisonment, and the prevention of her presidency, she ‘never learned to hate’ the SLORC or the army.49 The next actors to bring to attention, though a more detailed analyses will be conducted in chapter two, is Wirathu and The Association to Protect Race and Religion, otherwise known as Ma Ba Tha. Wirathu is a Buddhist nationalist monk who rose to prominence in 2001 when he created the ‘969’ movement; a nationalist campaign to boycott Muslim businesses. He was jailed for 25 years in 2003 for inciting anti-Muslim hatred but freed in 2010 under a general amnesty, after which he returned to preaching hate and continuing to lead the 969 movement.50 Ma Ba Tha was founded in 2014 when central figures from the 969 movement started campaigning for laws aimed at controlling Myanmar’s Muslim population and protecting the ‘Burman race’. Four laws banning polygamy, restricting interfaith marriages and religious conversions, and enforcing birth control measures were passed by the government earlier this year.51 Ma Ba Tha and Wirathu play central roles in inciting hatred against Muslims, advocating discriminatory laws, and promoting an exclusive ideology of Burman-Buddhist identity. As noted in the first of Levinger’s steps, this marginalisation of ethnic minority groups is a key factor in dividing society and driving conflict, which brings us onto the next step: drivers of conflict and peace. 49 Suu Kyi, A. S., (2008) The Voice of Hope: Conversations with Alan Clements, Rider, p.41. 50 Hodal, (2013). 51 Nilsen, M., (2015) The Rise of Political Buddhism in Myanmar, Tricycle, available at: http://www.tricycle.com/blog/rise-political-buddhism-myanmar [November 2015]. - 25 -

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Religion, hate speech and social media in Myanmar: Analysing methods of intervention

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Language

English

Topic

Hate Speech
Rohingya Crisis

Author(s)

Bethany Davis

Date Published: Dec 1, 2015

Abstract: Myanmar is home to one of the longest running intrastate conflicts in the world, involving a series of ethnic and religious clashes that have caused harm to all parties involved. The ideology of a homogeneity based on Buddhism and the Bamar ethnicity has marginalized minority groups, which make up a third of the population, and has particularly affected the Rakhine state’s Buddhist and Muslim communities, the latter of which are subject to what international human rights organizations are calling an ethnic cleansing. Since the government relaxed restrictions to the access of foreign websites, the social media site Facebook has become a popular means to disseminate misinformation and rumours, and this has created mistrust and hatred against Muslims across the country, heightening the polarization between Buddhist and Muslim groups. This study will combine conflict analysis with the assessment of different approaches of countering hate speech to propose which methods of intervention are most suitable for this situation in Myanmar. Lederach argues that to counter hatred and avoid reoccurrence of violence, deep alterations of the parties’ relationships is needed. This idea forms the basis for chapter three which examines educational methods, interfaith projects and social media campaigns to both prevent and change negative attitudes towards the religious ‘Other’. It argues that education and awareness campaigns are more effective than the implementation of legal regulation as we need to combat the underlying issue. In addition to secondary sources, this study involved field research to collect information about how the youth are influence by hate speech and counter hate campaigns in Myanmar.

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Religion, hate speech and social media in Myanmar: Analysing methods of intervention

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