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Drivers of Conflict and Peace The third step of Levinger’s conflict assessment framework asks: how do actors use dividers to provoke conflict/ promote peace? This step will be used to draw conclusions from the previous two sections about the motivations of the actors, and their means of mobilising their constituents to provoke hate or promote peace. Most importantly for this study, this section will focus on the role or religion as a driver in both conflict and peace, using various economic or political situations to their advantage. Some key questions to consider are shown below.  How are key actors using dividers to escalate conflict, or connectors to deescalate conflict?  What are the motivations of these actors?  What resources do they have at the disposal?52 Buddhism has become increasingly politicized by Ma Ba Tha and Wirathu. Special advisors from the United Nations have warned that ‘the promotion of a political agenda that is based primarily on the protection of a particular religion or ethnic group is dangerous, particularly in a country as richly diverse as Myanmar.’53 They argue that the anti-Muslim rhetoric can promote violence and is furthering the marginalisation that religious minorities have faced for decades. As discussed earlier, Wirathu is motivated by the ideology of a Buddhist nationalist identity that excludes the Muslim minority. Through his growing support online and in the sangha, he is able to play on the fear and scepticism towards Muslim neighbouring countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, to promote the restrictive laws of Ma Ba Tha that aim to control the Muslim population, thus ensuring Myanmar remains a Buddhist state (though consisting of only a small percentage of the population, Muslims pose no real threat). The fear or ‘divider’ generates anxiety over the higher 52 Levinger, (2013) pp.103-106. 53 Dieng, A. and Welsh, J., (2015) ‘UN Special Advisers' Statement on Myanmar’, United Nations Human Rights, available at: http://bangkok.ohchr.org/news/press/SpecialAdvisers.aspx [November]. - 26 -

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

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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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