Hluttaw silent on religious violence

By Ei Ei Toe Lwin | Wednesday, 23 July 2014

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After the latest outbreak of interreligious violence between Buddhist and Muslim
communities in Mandalay subsided, President U Thein Sein declared that the
incident was incited by an unknown group whose motives remained similarly
unclear.
In his July 7 speech, the president reiterated that his government would not tolerate any
efforts to encourage violence and would take severe legal action against those inciting
hatred and hostility.
The message was similar to that which he delivered after other outbreaks of violence. And
in each case, President U Thein Sein has been unable to pinpoint the actors behind the
blood-shedding in Rakhine State, Mandalay Region, Shan State and elsewhere.
But his government is not the only body unable or unwilling to come up with answers.
Elected parliamentarians have rarely submitted any proposals aimed at halting religious
conflict and sectarian violence, and ask few questions of the governments efforts to resolve
the underlying causes of the conflicts and its apparent failure to halt riots quickly and
decisively.
Some hluttaw representatives told The Myanmar Times in recent interviews that they have
tried to submit proposals on conflict in their constituencies. Instead of trying again,
however, they simply give up and stop asking questions.
Moreover, some representatives do not want to ask the hard questions because they are
worried of creating tension with fellow MPs who practise a different religion or come from
another ethnic group.
I submitted a proposal in February 2013 regarding the conflict in Rakhine State in 2012,
said Dr Aye Maung, an Amyotha Hluttaw representative for Rakhine State. The proposal
was rejected because we are a minority in the hluttaw. I did not submit any further
proposals. But this case concerns the whole country its everybodys problem. The
government must do something if the hluttaw submits proposals on it.