After years of communal tensions, the people of Meiktila are counting on the ruling party to restore peace and stability
As one of Myanmar’s most contested constituencies, Meiktila never fails to attract interest at election time. This year, however, it outdid itself: After delivering a landslide win to the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in 2015, it did the same this time around for the National League for Democracy (NLD).
Surrounded by military battalions and home to some of Myanmar’s leading nationalist activists, Meiktila was widely regarded as a USDP stronghold until the November 8 election. The fact that it has joined much of the rest of the country in voting NLD can be seen as a victory not only for the ruling party, but also for the people of Meiktila.
Among those who celebrated the NLD’s win were members of Meiktila’s Muslim community, who hope that it will give them some protection from the sort of communal violence that swept through the township seven years ago. In Meiktila’s predominantly Muslim Thiri Mingalar and Chan Aye Tharyar wards, the NLD received more than 80 percent of the vote.
“We’re pleading with the government to act so that people don’t have to go through what we did before, regardless of ethnicity or religion. That’s why we voted for the NLD,” Bo Lay, a Muslim resident of Meiktila, told Myanmar Now.
Bo Lay speaks from painful experience: His son, Bo Bo Latt, went missing during the anti-Muslim riots that gripped Meiktila in March 2013. To this day, he doesn’t know if his son is dead or alive.
“I’ve been like a fool, waiting to hear his voice calling me ‘Dad’ again,” he said, holding up a photo of his son saved on his old phone. “Whenever I miss him, I look at this photo. But his disappearance is still like a dream to me, even now.”
He said that he had envisioned his son, who had a heart condition, becoming a preacher, because he couldn’t bear to think of him doing any other work. It was while he was on his way to a religious school that the 17-year-old went missing.
Contested results
The USDP has indicated that it doesn’t plan to give up without a fight. According to a party official, four USDP candidates who lost in Meiktila township intend to contest the election results.
“Mainly, what we’re objecting to is the inaccurate voter lists,” said Aung Kyaw Moe, the USDP secretary for Mandalay region, adding that a letter of objection would be filed within 45 days.
He noted that the list for Meiktila included 83 individuals under the legal voting age of 18, more than 20,000 who didn’t have a valid national registrations card (NRC), and more than 7,000 with overlapping NRC numbers.
“If we lost fair and square, we’ll accept the results. But these errors, are they deliberate? Are they accidental? Or are they a result of incompetence? Only the culprits will know,” said Aung Kyaw Moe, the USDP secretary for Mandalay region
These inaccuracies were reported to the relevant district and township election sub-commissions, but no effective action was taken, said Aung Kyaw Moe, who ran for a seat in the regional parliament representing Meiktila township’s constituency (1).
“If we lost fair and square, we’ll accept the results. But these errors, are they deliberate? Are they accidental? Or are they a result of incompetence? Only the culprits will know,” he said.
In addition to Aung Kyaw Moe, the other USDP candidates who contested in the Meiktila township constituencies are Dr Maung Thin, Ye Tun Naing and Soe Than.
Between election day and November 17, three reports were submitted to the Meiktila district election sub-commission, its assistant manager, Myo Min Htike, told Myanmar Now.
The reports detail cases of voters voting twice, poll station officers handing out incorrect ballots, and the addition of about 200 voters to the voters list without permission, he said.
According to Myanmar’s election laws, objections must be filed, along with a suitable reason, to the Union Election Commission (UEC) within 45 days of the election results being announced.
The UEC has announced that all four parliamentary seats in Meiktila were won by NLD candidates. The successful candidates were Amyotha Hluttaw representative Bhone Kyaw; Dr Sint Soe, who was elected to the Pyithu Hluttaw; and Lwin Maung Maung and Maung Maung Gyi, who won Meiktila’s two seats in the Mandalay region parliament.
At a press conference held at the party’s Mandalay headquarters on November 17, USDP officials called the election results “improbable” and attributed them to a number of factors: unfairness in the forming of election sub-commissions, inaccuracies in voters lists, problems stemming from the long period of advance voting due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and errors on the day of the election.
Hope and fear
While the USDP proceeds with its efforts to overturn the election results, Meiktila’s citizens are looking to the future and hoping to avoid a return to the past.
Most Muslims in Meiktila are reluctant to talk about what happened in 2013, when many saw loved ones killed and their homes destroyed by fire. Speaking about these events awakens too many painful memories, they say.
“What happened in 2013 still haunts us to this day,” said San Win Shein, a Meiktila native who witnessed the wave of violence that started with an incident in a gold shop and later spread to other towns and cities around the country.
According to official reports, more than 40 people lost their lives in Meiktila alone. Many Muslim families in Thiri Mingalar and Chan Aye Tharyar wards were left homeless after their homes were set on fire. Those who could prove they owned the houses they lived in before the riots were given temporary housing, but others had to rent at their own expense.
“They shout ‘Leave our town, Muslims,’ at us. We tell our children to just tolerate it and say nothing,” said one Muslim resident of Thiri Mingalar ward.
“We saw people get killed right in front of us,” said Khin San Myint Yi, a 50-year-old resident of Meiktila whose house was burned to the ground by rampaging rioters.
Like others who spoke to Myanmar Now after the election, she said she voted for the NLD because she believed the party wouldn’t allow a repeat of the horrific events of the past.
“We voted for the NLD because we believe this government won’t let this happen again and will look after the people. We have done our part for our mother. She just has to recognize us now,” she said, referring to NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
For the NLD, part of the solution to the problem lies in recognizing that it isn’t confined to any one community.
“At first, some people turned a blind eye because they thought this problem only affected people of different religious beliefs. But when the effects started to hit them, they realized that it’s not good for anyone,” said NLD candidate Bhone Kyaw, who won a seat in the Amyotha Hluttaw.
But it is clearly Meiktila’s Muslims who are under the greatest pressure. They say that they are still targeted by people who want to provoke unrest as a means of furthering their political goals. One way to make them feel unwelcome is blaring Buddhist chants from loudspeakers in predominantly Muslim neighbourhoods. Other methods are less subtle.
“They shout ‘Leave our town, Muslims,’ at us. We tell our children to just tolerate it and say nothing,” said one Muslim resident of Thiri Mingalar ward.
“During this period, we’re caught in the crosshairs. A guy from our ward went out wearing an NLD shirt to celebrate its victory and he came back without the shirt because some people picked a fight with him on the way,” said Haji Min Soe, a resident of Chan Aye Tharyar ward.
“We only wish that everyone could co-exist and see each other as humans. We would like to live the way we did before 2013,” said Arkar Thein, a Muslim religious leader in Meiktila
But Muslims are not alone in wanting to see an end to destructive divisions. Ven U Vishuddha, the abbot of Meiktila’s Yadanar Oo monastery, said it was important for both sides to build trust in order to restore relations between Buddhist and Muslims to their former harmony.
“There was no segregation before and even monks like me went to the homes of Muslim families for alms. But the town has had a bad name ever since it became associated with nationalism and religious intolerance,” said the monk, whose monastery took in locals, including Muslims, displaced by the riots.
NLD candidate Dr Sint Soe, who is set to represent Meiktila in the Pyithu Hluttaw after winning in this year’s election, said that it was important to foster values common to both communities.
“Everyone has the same core goal. We all have to understand that and move towards a peaceful path paved with good behaviour. And education plays an important part in that,” he said.
Arkar Thein, a Muslim religious leader in Meiktila, put it even more simply: “We only wish that everyone could co-exist and see each other as humans. We would like to live the way we did before 2013.”
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