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Buddhist Nationalists on the Back Foot in Myanmar

by Ben Dunant

   YANGON --

   A renowned Buddhist monk's condemnation of fellow monk Ashin Wirathu,
   Myanmar's most prominent hate-speech peddler, has given hope to
   activists trying to promote tolerance in a divided society and rescue
   Buddhism from hardline nationalists.

   Buddhist nationalism, which presents Muslims as an existential threat
   to Buddhist-majority Myanmar, has poisoned the country's politics since
   reforms were launched in 2011. In recent months, influential monks and
   their lay acolytes have stoked public support for the military in its
   brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State.

   At a press conference in Yangon on Feb. 25, Ashin Issariya--the monk
   known popularly as Min Thu Nya, or "King Zero"--prepared to demand that
   monastic authorities punish Wirathu for flouting a one-year ban on his
   inflammatory sermons, imposed in March last year, and asked that other
   monks publicly distance themselves from him.

   The event had to be relocated from the office of the Myanmar Journalist
   Network to a monastery after Wirathu supporters arrived and sparked a
   confrontation. This exposed some of the challenges of standing up to
   nationalists in Myanmar, where contradicting monks is culturally taboo
   and critics of hardline monks face lawsuits and intimidation.

   Diffuse threat

   Min Thu Nya was a leading figure in the so-called Saffron Revolution in
   2007, when monks led a mass uprising against the military junta.
   Originally from Kayin State in eastern Myanmar, the monk has
   reestablished himself in the country after years of exile in Thailand.

   Yet his recent message--delivered on behalf of the Anti-Adhamma
   Committee, a group that opposes ultra-nationalists--did not center on
   secular principles of pluralism and democracy. Instead, he stressed the
   threat Wirathu and his divisive political message poses to the
   integrity of Buddhism and the country's venerated monkhood, or sangha.

   "Monks should be a model for people," Min Thu Nya later told VOA. "But
   if they start treating people cruelly, which is the opposite of what
   Buddha preached, then people will lose respect for the sangha."

   He said he hopes to motivate "those who are speaking out for the truth.
   ['¦] I want to encourage them to keep doing this bravely." However, he
   insisted "the Rakhine issue is separate."

   The previous government of President Thein Sein treated nationalist
   monks' groups such as Ma Ba Tha--the Association for the Protection of
   Race and Religion--indulgently, with members of the ruling party and
   military establishment offering patronage.

   Ma Ba Tha's biggest political victory--the passing of four
   discriminatory laws to "protect race and religion" in 2015--has not
   been matched by any formal successes under the National League for
   Democracy (NLD) government, which took over in 2016

   Under government prodding, the State Sangha Maya Nayaka, or Ma Ha Na,
   the committee of senior monks tasked with regulating Buddhist monastic
   orders, has in the last two years given ordinances withholding
   recognition from, and restricting the activity of, Ma Ba Tha. This has
   diminished their power to lobby parliament and mobilize on a grand
   scale.

   Matthew Walton, an Oxford scholar who writes about Buddhism and
   political thought in Myanmar, told VOA that Ma Ba Tha is now "contained
   as public-political voice, but not broken as a movement."

   Moreover, he said, radical elements are "moving underground, or to
   fringe groups." The NLD lacks a "concerted plan" for this more diffuse
   threat, Walton said, partly because the party "has avoided dealing with
   the issue of Buddhist identity," allowing nationalists to stake a
   monopoly in addressing concerns about preserving tradition amid rapid
   change.

   Brave move

   Though Wirathu and Ma Ba Tha have grown more distant from each other
   over the last year, Wirathu still commands support across the
   nationalist movement.

   Ashin Thaw Parka, a leading member of the Buddha Dhamma Parahita
   Foundation--under which Ma Ba Tha rebranded to skirt a Ma Ha Na order
   to disband last year--accused Min Thu Nya of overstepping the mark by
   criticizing a fellow monk in his Feb. 25 statement.

   "He accused Ashin Wirathu of not following the way of Buddha. This is
   not his job," he said. "How much does he know about the way of Buddha?"

   Myanmar interfaith activist Thet Swe Win, who was present at the press
   conference, applauded Min Thu Nya's "brave move" but told VOA that
   given the government's inadequate stance, civil society and more
   progressive monks need to form a stronger, more united front to counter
   the organizational clout of nationalist groups.

   The difficulty, he said, is the resistance largely lives on social
   media. Posts condemning or ridiculing Wirathu on Facebook are
   commonplace. However, only around 30 people turned up to support Min
   Thu Nya on February 25, and had to contend with close to 200
   nationalist agitators, who swarmed the street outside the venue, he
   said.

   "People are very brave online, because they don't have to show their
   identity. But it's very difficult for us to bring those online people
   onto the ground." he said. "When we really need to show up, we never
   come."

   Additional reporting by Aung Naing Soe in Yangon.