May 24, 2017
Based on my own
research the following are the drivers behind hate speech and hate deeds,
beyond the country's general anti-Muslim prejudices:
5 major forces, most
of who are rooted in the Burma Armed Forces - not necessarily in coordination -
are behind the anti-Muslim hate campaign across the country in general. Their
motivations and even strategic objectives are not necessarily the same.
But the common
element is this: they definitely want to disrupt, control, limit, slow down and
otherwise derail the country's transition along genuinely liberal democratic
lines.
(1) Thein Sein and
his Union Solidarity and Development Party-USDP (overwhelmingly made up of
ex-army officers)
Here is Aung Ko's
interview hinting at the USDP party's involvement in hate-financing (He and
Shwe Mann turned their back on the party of the military after they lost their
intra-party power struggle to MinAungHlaing-TheinSein clique). Shwe Mann
(DSA-11) was passed over by Than Shwe for the President's position which he was
widely considered a shoe-in. Thein Sein (DSA-9) was hand-picked by Than Shwe to
be the puppet President which he controlled ultimately from his (Than Shwe's)
official retirement.
DVB Burmese: http://burmese.dvb.no/archives/208416
(2) the late Aung
Thaung and his surviving associates, followers, etc. including racist cronies
According to Thura
Aung Ko, the NLD's Religious Affairs Minister and Shwe Mann's close comrade,
now in partnership with Aung San Suu Kyi, Amaya Bank, owned by Aung Thaung
family, is involved, in "hate-financing" - to the tunes of hundreds
of millions in local curreny.
Here is Aung
Thaung's story - when he was still alive.
(3) ex-General Khin
Nyunt and his followers - all purged since Sept 2004
After his release
from house arrest, Khin Nyunt re-grouped his subordinates from the defunct
Directorate of Defense Services Inteligence (DDSI) under the cover of a
meditation retreat. Ex-intelligence officers do not meditate to enter Nirvana.
You have to be really stupid to believe former torturers, plotters and
assassins are "men of Dhamma".
Writing in the
Fletcher's World Affairs policy journal - out of Tufts University - former
Thein Sein adviser Kyaw Yin Hlaing, then a member of the faculty in the department
of Asian Studies at the City University of Hong Kong, noted the role of
military intelligence in spreading false rumors to stoke anti-Muslim racism and
religious riots - every time public anger was roused by any unscrupulous
incidents involving the Burmese military (such as embezzlement or bulgary or
theft suspected popularly of the job of military commanders).
(4) Commander in
Chief Min Aung Hlaing and the security forces, including the post-Khin Nyunt
military intelligence called Military Affairs Security (MAS or Sa Ya Hpa in
Burmese).
As the commander in
chief all intelligence services report to Min Aung Hlaing. In Karen State with
a substantial distribution of Muslims across Karen villages, the military
intelligence have made attempts to instigate anti-Muslim riots using anti-Musli
Karen Buddhist monks and the Tatmadaw's proxy (Border Guard Force) DKBA.
(formerly known as Democratic Karen Buddhist Army).
(5) Muslim-hating
Burmese abbots such as Sitagu, Wirathu, and others that congregate around 969,
Ma Ba Tha, etc. - and that will remain at large and congregate around new
entities they will certainly replace Ma Ba Tha.
These men are
ideologues who have deeply held paranoia about the spread of Islam and its
followers in what they see as "Buddhist Burma". During the monks'
public meeting near Rakhine Buddha Temple (known as Maha Myat Mu Ni) in
Southern corner of Mandalay, the then young and little known Wirathu made his
intentions loud and clear to eradicate and "starve all Muslims" in
Burma as early as 2002/03. He specifically mentioned that senior abbot such as
Sitagu was involved in hatching this national campaign against all Muslims in
the land. A year of two later Wirathu was imprisoned for his involvement in
burning down the 3-storyed house that belonged to the entire well-to-do Muslim
family - with the entire family locked inside - in a town called Kuauk Hse, the
shared birthplace of his and dictator Than Shwe, between Mandalay and
Meikhtila, the site of the major anti-Muslim mass violence in March 2013 which
resulted in the death of at least 500 Muslim victims including children.