Myanmar violence reflects latent intolerance

A single incident in the relatively peaceful town of Lashio in northeastern Myanmar would never have turned into chaos unless there had already been prejudice among the population of this complex society. Power, authority and control of the agencies of law and order are not enough, it seems, for the government under President Thein Sein to handle outbreaks of communal violence and restore lasting peace to the country.

Fresh rioting in Lashio, in Shan State, began with a simple quarrel. Later, one Nay Win from Kengtung poured gasoline over Ma Aye Aye Win, a 24-year-old vendor, and set fire to her. She survived but was seriously injured.

The authorities identified Nay Win as a drug addict after finding illegal pills in his shirt pocket. He has been charged for both the attack and possession of drugs.  That was supposed to be the end of story. Nay Win would be brought to court to face justice and then be punished under the law. However, it turned out to be only the beginning of the story. An angry mob including Aye Aye Win’s relatives gathered in front of the police station demanding that Nay Win be handed over to them.

As tension rose, more people swelled the ranks of protesters. Many people armed with rocks, sticks and machetes – and led by Buddhists – went on a rampage around the town, looting and burning shops belonging to Muslims.

This is just the latest in a series of communal and sectarian riots in Myanmar following violent unrest in Meikhtila and Bago in March. Communal violence and clashes between the overwhelmingly Buddhist population and the Muslim minority first made headlines last year in western Rakhine State. 

Anti-Muslim sentiment might have been endemic in Myanmar long before these recent incidents, but it has largely gone unnoticed by the outside world, and it surfaced only after the authorities started to relax their grip as economic and political reforms began the long journey toward democracy. Many groups in the country have abused the new opportunity for freedom of expression to lash out against the Muslim minorities. 

Violence has erupted from town to town while the regime in Nay Pyi Taw has no clear idea of how to solve this problem at its root. The authorities, the elite and, indeed, the majority of the Buddhist public keep blaming only the Muslim minorities for the violence. Prosecution for violence during communal clashes in Meikhtila has mostly seen Muslims punished by the courts, although Muslims were mostly the victims of the violence. Extremist Buddhists who were more or less involved in the violence were untouched by the hand of the law. 

Investigations conducted by several agencies in the country have not looked deeply into the root cause of the problem. Every time such incidents take place, the authorities announce they will bring all guilty parties to justice. The government says it treats all citizens equally before the law, but it is apparent that the minorities are unlikely to enjoy equal treatment before the law. 

The current regime, which has championed reforms and the notions of democracy and an open society, rarely addresses the issue of ethno-religious conflict. More often it pretends there is no such conflict in the country.

The violence seen in Lashio will not be the last of its kind unless those in power and the state authorities in this predominantly Buddhist country change their attitude toward the country’s Muslim minorities and do something to root out the growing anti-Muslim sentiment.