Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law 52 (2020)
Crime as Cognitive Constraint
ultranationalist monks, military generals, local and national
government officials, and politicians, including members of the National
League for Democracy (NLD), the political party of State Counsellor
Aung San Suu Kyi. 57 These figures used Facebook to manipulate the
narrative on the Rohingya in two ways: first, they used the platform to
post or share hate speech to a broader audience; second, they
maintained official Facebook pages and accounts that easily connected
them with like-minded constituents. This rendered the platform an
important aspect of political life in Myanmar. 58
Ashin Wirathu, a member of the MaBaTha (“Association for the
Protection of Race and Religion” renamed “The Buddha Dhamma
Charity Foundation” 59), was the most outspoken monk responsible for
spreading hateful rhetoric. His aggressive lobbying led to the passage of
the controversial Protection of Race and Religion Laws in 2015, which
targeted Muslim cultural practices. 60 These laws disallow polygamous
marriages, regulate the marriage of Buddhist women to non-Buddhist
men, and require birth spacing for women from certain ethnic groups.61
Wirathu also used the derogatory word “Mout Kalar” to generally refer
to Muslims, including Rohingya. 62 Even the late U Ko Ni, a prominent
Muslim advisor to the NLD, 63 was a regular target of Wirathu’s vitriolic
posts. 64 Wirathu referred to him as a “Mout Kalar MP” or “Mout Kalar
Nga Ni,” and questioned his role as a Muslim in Myanmar politics.65
57.
See Detailed Findings of the FFM, supra note 7, ¶ 696.
58.
See id.
59.
Moe Moe, Ma Ba Tha Changes Name, Still Officially Illegal, THE
IRRAWADDY (Sept. 3, 2018), https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/ma-batha-changes-name-still-officially-illegal.html; Htet Naing Zaw, Ma Ba Tha
is a Necessity: Military, THE IRRAWADDY (June 19, 2019),
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/ma-ba-tha-necessitymilitary.html.
60.
Buddhism and State Power in Myanmar, supra note 36, at 11.
61.
Detailed Findings of the FFM, supra note 7, ¶ 600. For a concise account
of MaBaTha’s prominence in Myanmar’s Buddhist-majority society, see
id. at 10-11. For a brief description of the Race and Religion Laws, see id.
at 11-13. See also Matthew Walton, What are Myanmar’s Buddhist
Sunday Schools Teaching?, EAST ASIA FORUM (Dec. 16, 2014),
https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2014/12/16/what-are-myanmarsbuddhist-sunday-schools-teaching/ (describing how MaBaTha, along with
“different organisations have been creating networks of Buddhist Sunday
schools in an attempt to instill Buddhist values in children”).
62.
Detailed Findings of the FFM, supra note 7, ¶ 1312.
63.
Id.
64.
Id.
65.
Id.
155