11 July 2016•Update: 12 July 2016
By Kyaw Ye Lynn
YANGON, Myanmar
A leading member of Myanmar's ruling party has said it will not respond to a demand for an apology from a powerful nationalist organization at the center of anti-Muslim sentiment in the country, after a senior official publicly doubted the monk-led group's need to exist.
The Association for the Protection of Race and Religion -- better known as Ma Ba Tha -- has been demanding Chief Minister Phyo Min Thein apologize after he publicly questioned the need for Ma Ba Tha while in Singapore last week, underlining that Myanmar already has a government-sponsored State Sangha Mahayanaka Committee, which is tasked with regulating Buddhist orders.
Ma Ba Tha has set itself up as a regulating body enforcing religion in the predominantly Buddhist country -- in direct opposition to the state body -- and was instrumental in the previous government establishing a set of controversial laws connecting race and religion.
On July 7, it threatened the Yangon chief minister with nationwide protests unless Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) apologize on his behalf.
On Monday, Tin Oo -- an NLD founder -- told Anadolu Agency that the party would not respond to Ma Ba Tha demands.
“NLD policy divides religion and politics. And everyone has the right to disagree on an issue. He [Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein] has the right to dislike Ma Ba Tha’s existence," he said.
“Therefore, we have nothing to do with him and will not make any respond to Ma Ba Tha’s demand for apology.”
Ma Ba Tha rose to prominence on the back of communal violence between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims which broke out in western Rakhine state in mid-2012, and pressured former President Thein Sein into enacting a set of four Race and Religion Protection Laws deemed to target Muslims.
Anti-Muslim rhetoric from the group has been seen as deliberately stoking the flames of religious hatred against the country's Muslims, with Wirathu blaming them for communal conflicts, and accusing them of attempting to 'Islamize' the country of 57 million people.
On June 9, Religious Affairs and Cultural Minister Thura Aung Ko, in a meeting in Yangon with members of Myanmar Muslim Traders Association, also underlined that the government would not take action against Phyo Min Thein.
“He has the right to speak out his opinion about the Ma Ba Tha,” Thura Aung Ko was quoted as saying.
