Controlling the Narrative at Home and Abroad
Whether internationally or domestically, the NLD-led government is clamping down on expression and assembly during protests or political opposition, while deliberately obscuring the discussion of deeply worrying human rights concerns at platforms such as the UNHRC.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar has recently outlined key concerns to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) as part of his regular reporting on the human rights situation in Myanmar, including restrictions of freedom of expression, and the disenfranchisement of those most marginalized in the country such as the Rohingya. The attempts by the Myanmar government, and its allies in the HRC, however, to interrupt and create obstacles to this reporting speaks volumes about Myanmar’s attempts to control and manipulate the narrative regarding the hugely problematic upcoming election.
On 22 September, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Mr. Tom Andrews, was presenting his report to the UNHRC, outlining problems regarding hatespeech, and bigoted language used by political parties in the upcoming election in November – Myanmar attempted to shut this down. As Mr. Andrews presented a widely circulated photo of a recent campaign poster for an independent parliamentary candidate in Latha Township, Yangon, in which he proudly pronounces his ‘No Rohingya’ policy, Myanmar interjected with a point of order, in that they opposed the use of such an image. Its political allies on the HRC then made statements of support in the rejection of the use of this image, while other countries made statements to the opposite effect. After Mr. Andrews then went on to show images of Rohingya villages that were destroyed during the Myanmar military’s genocidal campaign of violence in 2017, and what is now a military installation, a further interjection and a vote was called for, in which members had to decide whether or not to allow the continued use of images.
Such attempts to obfuscate, distort, and censor essential reporting of the human rights situation in Myanmar on the international stage is a continuation of the years of denial employed by Myanmar representatives during military junta rule, most notably by former Chair of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, Win Mra, during his stint as Myanmar’s UN representative in the 1990s. That this is done under the watch of the NLD-led government, should be a wakeup call to their international backers that believe there is a genuine and substantive transition to democracy in the country.
The censorship of human rights reporting also tallies with the situation closer to home. A series of nighttime raids, arrests, and police harassment of peaceful student protesters is a blatant attempt to clamp down on any legitimate dissent. The students are members of the All Burma Federation of Students Union (ABFSU) who conducted a sticker and flier campaign, in solidarity with Rakhine students who had been arrested for protesting the intensifying war and ongoing internet restrictions in townships in Rakhine and Chin States. Charges have been brought or are in the process of being brought against over 30 students, with authorities using the Penal Code, the Disaster Management Law, and the deeply problematic Peace Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law. This is a blatant and authoritarian tactic all too familiar with those who lived through military rule.
It appears that not much has changed in terms of political dissent and reporting of human rights in Myanmar. Whether internationally or domestically, the NLD-led government is clamping down on expression and assembly during protests or political opposition, while deliberately obscuring the discussion of deeply worrying human rights concerns at platforms such as the UNHRC. Myanmar must do more to protect freedom of expression and the discussion of the atrocities that the military has and is committing. Until it does, any optimism that greater freedoms afforded in recent years has generated will continue to diminish.
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[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’ in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.
Resources from the past week
Statements and Press Releases
By 29 Rohingya Organizations
Rohingya Groups Stand in Solidarity with Rakhine People Suffering from Burmese Military Crimes
By 29 Rohingya Organizations
By 30 Civil Society Organizations
By 30 Civil Society Organizations
By 364 Civil Society Organizations
By 364 Civil Society Organizations
ပြည်သူလူထုတစ်ရပ်လုံးသို့ပန်ကြားလွှာ
By All Burma Federation of Student Unions
Statement on the Arrest and Prosecution of Students during COVID-19 Pandemic
By Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
Concerns Over Possible Anti-Muslim Violence During Burma’s Election Campaign
By Burma Human Rights Network
BHRN Concerned Over Arakan State Troop Buildup and Border Wall Rhetoric
By Burma Human Rights Network
By CSO Working Group on MNHRC Reform
By CSO Working Group on MNHRC Reform
By Free Expression Myanmar
By Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma
By Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Reports
A Critique of Burma’s COVID-19 Economic Relief Plan
By Karen Peace Support Network
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ၏ COVID-19 စီးပွားရေးထိခိုက်မှုသက်သာရေးစီမံချက်ကို ဝေဖန်ဆန်းစစ်ခြင်း
By Karen Peace Support Network
An Overview of the Human Rights Situation in Burma (January to June 2020)
By Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma
မြန်မာနိုင်ငံ လူ့အခွင့်အရေးအပေါ် သုံးသပ်ချက် (၂၀၂၀ ပြည့်နှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ မှ ဇွန်လ အထိ)
By Network for Human Rights Documentation – Burma
Myanmar: Ethnic Politics and the 2020 General Election
By Transnational Institute
Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10, 2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for Progressive Voice.”
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