A Muslim man is the first person to be charged under Myanmar’s new Monogamy Law, which critics deride as anti-Muslim at a time of ongoing ethnic and religious tensions in the country. That begs the question: Why do the nation’s leaders seem no longer concerned with the country’s international image?
Earlier this month a Muslim man, already married with a child, was allegedly found living with a Buddhist woman and charged under the new law, which punishes adultery. The legislation is part of a package of Race and Religion Protection Laws. Many observers said the laws’ passage seemed odd, given that Myanmar, when it opened up to the world a few years back, initially tried to show the West a positive face in a bid to get foreign companies to invest in one of the world’s last untapped markets.
These anti-Muslim laws will certainly not do much to help that goal. And while it’s a separate issue, the laws will do little to influence the U.S. State Department to start crossing names off the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. Many of those listed are alleged to have committed human rights abuses or to have engaged in corruption, but U.S. companies have been quietly pushing Washington to take some of the less flagrant offenders off the list, such as those who hold economic clout and could become local partners.
Experts said Myanmar’s leaders are now more concerned about domestic policies, especially since a large segment of the population supports the discriminatory laws. Moreover, many Asian investors in Myanmar tend to look the other way when rights abuses occur.
The laws also beg the question of whether they could lead to more ethnic violence in a country undergoing a political transition, which could chip away at the country’s stability.
“What is more worrying than the laws themselves is the underlying fear and mistrust of Muslims, which provides fertile ground for stirring up communal violence,” Christina Fink, professor of practice in international affairs at George Washington University, told Borderless.
Fink also noted that although the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) party, headed by Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has had many Muslim members since its formation in 1988, the party did not put forward any Muslim candidates for the 2015 election. Moreover, no major political party is willing to speak out for the rights of Muslims during this period of heightened Buddhist nationalism, she said.
Still, Fink noted that many countries in transition go through similar dynamics in which minority populations are targeted by groups attempting to increase their power and influence.
“Hopefully after the election, the dynamics will change and tensions will be reduced,” she said.
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