A man walks past a destroyed mosque in Pauktaw,
Myanmar, that was burned in violence between Buddhist Rakhine and Muslim
Rohingya, in October 2012. Rights groups fear that an upcoming census could
spark further violence. (ATAR/AFP/Getty
Images)
BANGKOK — Decades of dictatorship in Myanmar
produced a deep catalogue of casualties: slain dissidents, land mine victims
and economic ruin, to name a few.
A lesser-known casualty of Myanmar’s totalitarian
rule? Facts.
For instance: Maybe Myanmar has the population
of South Korea.
Maybe its population rivals that of France. Both estimates of Myanmar’s
population — ranging from 48 to 65 million — are commonly cited.
The truth?
No one knows for sure.
The troubled Southeast Asian nation formerly titled
Burma hasn’t held a census since Michael Jackson released “Billie Jean” on
vinyl.
In late March, Myanmar will launch its first census
in more than three decades.
The project is designed to collect basic facts
inside a nation shrouded in mystery. It’s being touted as a vital unifying,
nation-building exercise. “Let us build a new Myanmar together,” reads a
pamphlet promoting the census, which the government is undertaking with United Nations
backing.
But Myanmar’s Muslims and outside human rights
groups are sounding an unconventional warning. They contend that data on
religion will reveal a potentially dangerous truth: Myanmar’s Muslims are much
more plentiful than the old military regime ever admitted.
Given waves of anti-Muslim violence and
a pervasive suspicion of Muslim groups in Myanmar — even from politicians celebrated in
the West — there is a real concern that revealing the truth
could fuel dangerous fanaticism.
Buddhist supremacists
Myanmar is several years into a historic
undertaking: transforming from a reclusive and abusive backwater to a freer and
more open nation. In 2011, the long-reviled military ceded power to a
parliament under its sway.
The new establishment — largely composed of former
generals, albeit with a minority of leaders unaffiliated with the army —
promises to rebuild their broken nation. There is much to rebuild. Across
Myanmar, illiteracy is rife, meat is a luxury and electricity is scarce.
The census — indicating which areas most
desperately need schools, wells, power lines and more — is touted as essential
in drafting a blueprint for national rehabilitation.
But it will also probe two of Myanmar’s touchiest
subjects, race and faith, and send census takers to remote places at odds or
even at war with the central government.
Myanmar’s Muslim population is typically cited as 4
percent of its people, a figure declared by the last census in 1983. That tally
was conducted under the iron rule of the dictator Ne Win, architect of the
authoritarian ideology that gave Myanmar its infamy. Then and today, the
dominant Buddhist faith is enshrined in law and society as superior to all
others.
According to the International Crisis Group, the
old regime likely cooked the books. Without naming sources, the watchdog group
states “strong indications” that the real figure was 10 percent, but a “a
political decision was taken to publish a more acceptable figure of 4 percent.”
The Burmese Muslim Association, relying on intel from thousands of mosques,
says the true figure is likely somewhere between 8 and 12 percent.
The International Crisis Group warns that authentic
numbers could be “mistakenly interpreted as providing evidence for a three-fold
increase in the Muslim population ... a potentially dangerous call to arms for
extremist movements.”
Proving that more than 1-in-10 inhabitants of
Myanmar are Muslim would indeed play into the delusions of hyper-nationalist
Buddhist vigilantes, who are personified by a movement known as 969.
Its leading voice, a monk named Wirathu, told GlobalPost last year that “Muslims are
like the African carp. They breed quickly and they are very
violent and they eat their own kind.”
In recent years, many Buddhists have grown obsessed
with fears of Muslim takeover. Conspiracy theories are rampant. Wirathu
propagates bizarre rumors that oil-rich Arabian Gulf states finance secret
Islamic plots to overrun and outbreed Buddhists.
As these beliefs spread, anti-Muslim riots have
grown disturbingly common, leading to
hundreds of deaths and forcing tens of thousands into squalid
resettlement camps.
Given the intensity of Myanmar’s anti-Islamic
fervor, the census should omit all questions about religion, argues Myo Win, a
senior member of the Burmese Muslim Association. The International Crisis Group
has proposed the same. Another rights group, Burma Campaign UK, declares the
census “not worth dying for” and urges its postponement.
“I’m Muslim today,” Myo Win said. “Well, tomorrow,
I can be Buddhist. Then the next day, I can decide to be