NLD members back 2-child rule
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Statement says Rohingya population growth 'terribly high' and policy needed in interest of national security
National League for Democracy members in Myanmar’s Rakhine State have showed their support for the government’s two-child policy imposed on Rohingya families in two townships – Maungdaw and Butheetaung – in the state.
The NLD offices from eight townships in Sittwe district released a statement on Friday saying they support the policy, which could possibly lead to a reduction in population growth of the Rohingya communities in the townships.
The NLD offices in the district showed their support for the policy on that day even though NLD chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi, on May 27, had slammed the policy as an unlawful discrimination.
The statement says the population growth of the Rohingya communities in the whole Rakhine State is awfully high, and they supported the policy as it is required for the state’s demography and national security.
“The state government’s policy is right as there are too many Bengalis [Rohingya] in Maungdaw and Butheetaung [compared with other ethnic nationals]. The government only issued the policy as it’s required indeed. [We] support it. The population growth [of the Rohingya] is terribly high,” said Kyaw Aye, the chairman for NLD (Ponenakyun Township).
San Shwe Kyaw, the NLD secretary for Sittwe township, said: “There were policies like that even earlier. We do not see anything objectionable in it.”
When Eleven Media contacted Nyi Pu, a central committee member of NLD and the chairman for Rakhine State NLD about the statement, he replied that he didn’t know anything about it and it’s still not the whole state’s idea.
Aye Maung, the chairman of the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, stating his views on the policy, said: “We accept the policy. Only if [you] live in our state, you will know that it’s required. If you live in Yangon and Shan state, you may not understand it. Compare today’s population with that at the time of our country’s independence. You can understand it. How do we control it, if not by the policy to limit child-birth? If we can’t control it, there may be regional conflicts. We accept it for the sovereignty of the state.”
