Interfaith laws may go to parliament shortly

Saw Hla Tun, secretary of the Lower House Bill Committee, said: “There is a possibility that laws about the safeguarding of nationality and religion from related people will be submitted to the parliamentary meeting when it restarts on September 11.

“When these reach to us, related committees and the bill committee will work together on them.”

Leading monk Agga Maha Pandita Bhaddanta Tilawka Biwuntha, chairperson of the Central Nationality and Religion Safeguarding Association, sent a message about enacting the four laws – which cover religious conversion, marriage, monogamy and population control – to the President early this year. Thein Sein passed the message about the laws to the Speaker of the Union Parliament in late February.

Progress on the proposed Marriage Law and Polygamy Law is not known yet.

Groups that support laws to safeguarding nationality and religion have demanded that punishments be increased, with jail terms stipulated for “offenders”, in the draft law on religious conversion.

Groups who oppose this and the allied laws claim they have been drawn up with a political purpose – to distract people’s attention from constitutional reform and the 2015 election.