The Political Theatre of the "Buddhist bin Laden"

On the 28^th May, The Myanmar government issued a warrant for the arrest of the ultra-nationalist Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu. Wirathu, who has referred to himself as the “Buddhist bin Laden”, has been widely criticised by the international community for his racist, inflammatory, and dangerous rhetoric aimed at the Rohingya minority of Rakhine State. Wirathu’s Islamophobic speeches are absolutely an incitement to violence against the Rohingya, pouring fuel on the fire of the “textbook ethnic cleansing” undertaken by the military in 2017 and continuing today. Acting as a mouthpiece for the campaign of hatred directed towards the beleaguered minority group, Wirathu has claimed he is proud of being referred to as “a radical Buddhist”.

This is a title that he has made sure he earned. In various speeches dating back to 2012, he has laid plain his disdain for the Rohingya through many hateful and dehumanising comments. In 2013 he compared Muslims in Myanmar to a “mad dog”. In a 2018 interview he claimed that the 1 million displaced Rohingya “don’t exist”, and that the images of destitute and starving refugees in camps across the border in Bangladesh were staged for the camera. In a 2017 interview with the Guardian, where he was asked about the allegations of the widespread rape of Rohingya women in the government-led ethnic cleansing, he responded that it was impossible, because “their bodies are too disgusting”. In 2012, a riot broke out following one of his speeches in Meiktila, resulting in the burning of a mosque and over 100 dead.

And yet none of these incidents led to the issuing of the warrant of Wirathu’s arrest. Instead, the warrant has been issued under article 124(a) of the legal code. This covers sedition, defined as “attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government” [emphasis my own]. He is to be arrested for supposed inflammatory remarks made regarding allegations of corruption by de-facto government leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Not only has he been a vocal proponent of the military-led crackdown on the Rohingya, but he has repeatedly accused Aung San Suu Kyi of not being hard-line enough in her repression of the group. This is despite the fact that she has overtly, and repeatedly, demonstrated her explicit consent and complicity in the violence. Now, his accusations of her supposed corruption has finally seen him fall foul of law enforcement.

The message is clear: Allegations of corruption against a disgraced government official with murky political connections are a crime. Deliberately inflammatory incitements to violence against a persecuted minority are not.

That criticism of the civilian government of Myanmar would result in such a swift backlash is unsurprising. The response to Wirathu echoes the treatment of the two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were sentenced to seven years imprisonment for their role in uncovering a massacre of 10 Rohingya men by the Myanmar military and Buddhist villagers in September 2017. Though they were later released after international condemnation of the arrest, this action sent an important message at a time of great political upheaval in Myanmar. Accusations of wrongdoing against the government will not be tolerated.

This sort of reaction is to be expected from a government that cares only about retaining the power it has. As Myanmar’s first civilian government following the brutal military regime that imprisoned Suu Kyi herself for decades, it could be argued that the current ruling party has every right to be nervous about threats to their leadership. But it is becoming increasingly clear that such self-interested political manoeuvring directly contributes to the marginalisation of the Rohingya.

I wrote in 2017 that Aung San Suu Kyi had been forced into a corner by the military action to remove the Rohingya from Rakhine because to condemn such action would be an unpopular move in a political climate defined by mistrust of Muslim groups within the majority-Buddhist country. Such a political climate has been curated by extremists like Wirathu, meaning that since her rise to power in 2016 he has been quietly pulling the strings as she makes decisions designed to consolidate and solidify her position.

Now, with her political future challenged by allegations of corruption, she is forced to act against a figure who has at least to some degree dictated her tenure in office so far. The ugly head of the Burmese ruling class emerges as the ultra-nationalists and the government butt heads. The tit-for-tat attacks between the populist hate-monger Wirathu and atrocity-apologist Suu Kyi plunges Myanmar deeper into turmoil and confusion as the military continues its ethnic cleansing unimpeded.

The rich and powerful scramble for supremacy whilst the Rohingya die.

Suu Kyi will let them die for as long as it is politically expedient to do so. She will also continue to let the likes of Wirathu spew their vile hatred, providing they leave her name out of it.

It may be the military that are acting with genocidal intent. But it is the words of Ashin Wirathu and the complicity of Aung San Suu Kyi that make their actions possible. Now that they have turned on each other the waters of political discourse in Myanmar become murkier and the complicated web of conditions that allow this violence to continue becomes more impenetrable.

Whoever wins, humanity loses.