Religious Rhetoric and Symbolism in Myanmar’s 2015 Elections

• In Event: Religion and Nationalism in Contemporary Southeast Asia: Historical Legacies, Political Mobilization and Identity Formation

Abstract

Myanmar’s 2010 elections (the first to be held in two decades) were striking in the absence of religious rhetoric from candidates, parties, or religious leaders. This was a significant contrast with elections in other eras, especially 1920s-1960s Burma, where monks sometimes campaigned for political parties and candidates touted their religious pedigrees. But after this brief recent absence, religion has once again returned to Myanmar’s electoral stage as a particularly salient factor, driven by the rise of groups like the 969 Movement and the Organization for the Protection of Race and Religion.

The primary vehicle through which these groups have sought to influence Myanmar’s politics in the last two years has been a set of “religious protection” laws that Parliament will likely have passed into law by the time of the elections. In addition to suggesting that support for or opposition to the laws ought to act as a barometer for Buddhists’ support for particular parties and candidates, these groups have expanded their activities to other areas, including opposing development projects on religious grounds and seeking to limit Muslims’ ritual slaughter of cows in some parts of the country.

Observers have worried about the possibility of the election context further inflaming religious tensions in the country, as some religious and political actors seek to promote a national identity that excludes certain communities on religious grounds. This paper will analyze the ways in which religious rhetoric and symbolism are deployed, championed, and contested during the campaigning leading up to Myanmar’s elections on 8 November.

Author

• Matthew J. Walton, University of Oxford