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‘I Want To Vote:’ Myanmar’s Muslims, Hindus Sidelined in Election

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
08/28/20
in World
Rohingya refugees pray in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Ukhia, Bangladesh, Aug. 25, 2018

Over 740,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since August 25, 2017. Photo: Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP

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One of Myanmar’s five million young adults, May Thandar Maung had been excited to cast her ballot for the very first time in November’s election.

But the 18-year-old is Muslim and says that means she will remain voiceless.

“My religion means I haven’t been able to get an ID card,” she tells AFP in her hometown of Meiktila in central Myanmar — and no ID means no vote.

She describes how local officials have obstructed her attempts for over a year, while Buddhist peers faced no such delays, in a town where memories of brutal inter-communal violence in 2013 are still raw.

The majority-Buddhist nation is widely expected to return Aung San Suu Kyi‘s National League for Democracy (NLD) party to power on November 8 in the second polls since Myanmar emerged from the outright military rule in 2011.

The country’s Rohingya Muslims — whether in Bangladeshi refugee shelters or confined to camps and villages in Myanmar — will nearly all be completely disenfranchised.

3 years ago, the Myanmar military launched a targeted campaign of violence that caused 740,000 Rohingya people to flee the country.

Those who stayed are under siege.

We've verified recent footage showing their continued persecution: pic.twitter.com/Ujm3VlWQdY

— amnestypress (@amnestypress) August 25, 2020

But Myanmar also has many more Muslims of other ethnic heritage — about four percent of the population — whom the country, in theory, accepts as citizens.

In practice, however, it can be very different.

Muslims complained to AFP of systemic corruption, detailing how they are forced to pay backhanders of hundreds of dollars — exorbitant rates in a country where a quarter of the population lives in poverty.

Three members of Maung Cho‘s family had to pay US$370 each, the 53-year-old says, many times higher than the token sums of ‘tea money’ demanded of Buddhists.

‘Mixed Blood’

Their experiences are echoed by Muslims across the country, says Yangon-based analyst David Mathieson.

“Anti-Muslim sentiment is ever-present with discrimination in schools, the workplace, and access to government jobs,” he says.

Challenges continue even for those who obtain an ID in a country where these cards state the holder’s ethnicity.

Many Muslims say false ethnic identities, usually from South Asia, are increasingly being foisted on the community.

Maung Cho’s family has lived in Myanmar for generations, yet when his renewed ID card came back, it labeled him as “Indian-Muslim”.

“It must have been my beard,” he tells AFP, ruefully.

Like other so-called “mixed-bloods,” he now faces extra scrutiny at every ID check and must even stand in a separate queue at immigration offices.

20,000 Rohingya Muslims murdered, 18,000 raped, 35,000 thrown into fire, and 42,000 with gunshot wounds.

One million genocide survivors remain trapped without security, citizenship & justice.

Writes @cjwerleman https://t.co/ZEm7sq3J77

— Md Asif Khan‏‎‎‎‎‎‎ (@imMAK02) August 26, 2020

Myanmar Hindus — who number about 250,000 — are also often branded as “mixed-bloods” and face similar problems.

Yangon-based Tun Min, 28, tells AFP it took him 10 years to get an ID card. 

Last week he chose to speak out, posting a video on Facebook explaining the discrimination his community faces.

“I drove a taxi for eight years but only used to work at night because I couldn’t apply for a license without an ID card.”

The ‘B’ Word

The least desirable label, however, is “Bengali,” a pejorative term normally used to refer to the persecuted Rohingya.

Myanmar faces charges of genocide at the UN’s top court after the military drove out about 750,000 Rohingya in a supposed crackdown on militants in 2017.

Many of the 600,000 who remain in Myanmar live in what Amnesty International calls “apartheid” conditions, refused citizenship and deprived of rights.

Mathieson says there have been numerous reports in recent years of other Muslims across Myanmar also being coerced into adopting “Bengali” as an identity.

He blames “racist and discriminatory” bureaucratic procedures rather than an official policy but warns the government has not tried to stamp the practice out.

The NLD has “more important agendas than pursuing reverse engineering of a racist system many of their supporters are comfortable with. “

An immigration department official, asking not to be named, refuted allegations of corruption and discrimination, insisting ID cards were granted in accordance with the law.

Progress?

But Maung Cho says he thinks racism against Muslims is worse now than under the military junta, describing his community as “disappointed and depressed.”

Many people he knows feel so disillusioned they plan not to vote in the upcoming election.

A campaign to boycott the vote is gathering pace.

Former student leader and political prisoner Sithu Maung is one of just two Muslims out of 1,143 NLD candidates. In 2015, the party fielded no Muslim candidates at all.

He says he understands his community’s disappointment but denies times are worse than under the military.

“They should be optimistic about the future. The NLD has only had five years in power.”

But optimism is in short supply among young people like May Thandar Maung.

“Even though I was born here, I can’t vote and that’s discrimination,” she says.

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Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

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