Correcting the false narratives of the Ma Ba Tha
Two years ago, the Time magazine depicted saffron-robed Wirathu,
a Buddhist monk from Mandalay in Myanmar (Burma ), as the ‘Face of Buddhist
Terror.’ It was a very candid description of the terrorist Buddhist monk who
was convicted of inciting deadly anti-Muslim pogroms in 2003. After
serving only seven years of his 25-year prison term behind the bars he was
released in 2010 by Thein Sein’s government reportedly to act as its hound-dog,
a task which he had loyally performed ever since. He has been the driving force
behind the fascist Buddhist organization – Ma Ba Tha – that has played a major
role in genocidal activities directed by Buddhists against Muslims of Myanmar.
In January 2015, Wirathu called Yanghee Lee, a U.N. special
envoy on human rights, a "whore" and a "bitch" after she
criticized a bill restricting interfaith marriage and religious conversions in Myanmar . It was
among four race and religion bills championed by Ma Ba Tha and signed into law
last year despite opposition from the NLD party, led by Suu Kyi. Although his
racist, bigoted and sexist
rants and criminal incitements have been condemned in many quarters Wirathu
remains very popular amongst many Buddhists, not just inside his native Myanmar
but also outside in places like Sri Lanka.
Presiding over some 2,500 monks at Masoeyein monastery in Mandalay , a Buddhist
monastery, Wirathu has thousands of followers on Facebook and his YouTube
videos have been watched tens of thousands of times. It would be no hyperbole
to state that he and his band of criminal Buddhist monks have hijacked Buddhism
and poisoned the political discourse inside Myanmar .
Ma Ba Tha uses
the news of the rape and murder of a Rakhine woman allegedly by Rohingya
Muslims in Arakan in 2012 to paint a very damning picture of the divide between
"us" and "them". And such a nasty propaganda, a false one,
which I must remind our readers, has worked because people are always willing
to believe the worst about one's enemies if they are programmed as such.
For too long, in the context of Burma , her various ethnic and
racial groups were poisoned to hate each other, which only helped the divisive
forces inside, let alone the military that ruled the fractured country with
strong arms tactics and brutal strategy. Wirathu and the hateful, xenophobic
monks like him were used as the willing partners to prolong this environment of
hatred and intolerance against the minority Muslims, esp. the Rohingya people,
and strengthen the grip of the military that ruled and other divisive forces
within the country to arrest a change for the better in the political
scene.
Fortunately, even though most Muslims were barred from
voting and participating in the latest election process, people inside Myanmar have
spoken loud and clear. They have rejected the criminal messengers and
propagators of hatred and dehumanization.
It is high time to stop Ma Ba Tha once and for all time.
This would require not only serious efforts within the movers and shakers
within the poisoned society, esp. those with some authority, e.g., the NLD and
various political parties that represent the very mosaic of Myanmar but also a
brave intelligentsia that knows its historical role to correct the wrongs and
create an environment of inclusion, tolerance and hope.
Surely, such an endeavor is never going to be an easy one,
but we can all try our best with our limited resources to make that happen, and
multiply our voices as change agents for the better.
This process can start by educating the broader public about
the falsity of the very narrative that Ma Ba Tha has been exploiting to poison Buddhist
minds. Burmese human rights activist Dr. Maung Zarni was able to expose that
there is no truth to the claim that the Rakhine Buddhist woman was raped and
killed by Rohingya Muslim(s). He wrote that “the rape narrative of the
Rakhine woman - the late Ma Thida Htwe - raped by 'Bengali men' was patently
false, but spread by President Thein Sein's men the likes of Major Zaw Htay
(Hmu Zaw), Colonel Ye Htut (now deputy information minister) as a trigger event
to set the fire of genocidal hatred towards the Muslims. Ma Thida Htwe was NOT
raped but was simply murdered - the doctor who examined her body told Ko
Zaganar [a popular comedian], in no uncertain terms, that there was absolutely
no evidence of rape on Ma Thida Htwe's dead body. The doctor
was forced to sign the medical report which claims falsely she was
raped. The rape story was spread by government agents on the social media and
was used as a launching pad to start waves of mass killings against the
Rohingya and the Muslims across Burma
or Myanmar .” “Within
a month of his death - when [Maung Thura] Zaganar attempted to meet Htet Htet's
wife,” writes Dr. Zarni in his blog, “she was found dead in a village well. How
convenient!” It is believed amongst the independent analysts that NASAKA
security forces killed Ma Thida Htwe and possibly Htet Htet’s wife.
Rumors around rape of Buddhist females by Muslim males have
often been used inside Myanmar
to unleash ethnic cleansing of the latter. There is no truth to such
allegations. In 2014, Muslim shopkeepers were similarly accused of the rape of
a Buddhist woman in Mandalay, reports of which were spread on social media by
Ma Ba Tha members, triggering three days of deadly riots in that city. The allegation
was later found to be groundless, resulting in 21-year jail terms for five
people convicted of spreading the false rumor. The previous year, similar
communal riots saw a Muslim orphanage razed to the ground in Meiktila.
As subsequent inquiries have proven most of the
anti-Muslim pogroms and genocidal activities inside Burma
(or Myanmar )
owed their origin to the
government – central and local. These crimes were sometimes scripted and
often times sanctioned by the government.
I can only pray and hope that the upcoming NLD government
will take a different course than its predecessors thereby making the country a
safe and secure one for all its people – Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike.
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