A youth activist has started a petition on change.org asking authorities in Myanmar to take action against a group of nationalist monks who forced Muslim vendors out of Shwedagon Pagoda on Saturday and seized hundreds of dollars in goods.
Thet Swe Win of the National Youth Congress is behind the move, and he plans on forwarding the results to Yangon’s new chief minister.
“I am doing this petition because we need public awareness for these kinds of cases. And a petition is credible,” he told Coconuts Yangon today, emphasizing that he is acting as an individual and not a representative of any organization.
Thet Swe Win had previously spoken out about the incident on his Facebook page. Yesterday he met with Muslim vendors and authorities.
The petition has reached 700 people, but was dismissed by one of the monks involved in the incident.
“As we are protecting our land, pagoda and territory, we don’t care whether they get 7,000 or 700 signatures or if they send their petition to the president or UN,” U Thu Seikkta, a leader of the nationalist Patriotic Monks Union, told Coconuts Yangon.
What happened on Saturday does not seem to be in much dispute apart from a few details.
Members of the Patriotic Monks Union seized products worth from a handful of vendors who sold belts, pots and mobile phone accessories, before violently kicking them out of the pagoda.
“They hit my face and attacked [with] knee and took me into the monastery for a beating,” Ye Ko Ko, one of the vendors, told Myanmar Muslim Media.
There are several monasteries (where monks live) near the pagoda.
U Thu Seikkta admitted in an interview to hitting one of the vendors on the head, though he quibbles with where the altercation took place, saying it was outside the monastery.
The monk said his group had complained about Muslim vendors in pagodas for the past five years and decided to take action.
Vendors are a common sight in Myanmar’s biggest pagodas, which are popular with tourists. Shwedagon is the Buddhist-majority nation’s holiest religious site.
“Gradually, Muslims are occupying this pagoda (Shwedagon) as vendors, who can guarantee that they will not bomb the pagoda one day?” U Thu Seikkta said in an interview yesterday.
He promised to return the goods if the three vendors could show letters from police and local authorities saying they would not work at the pagoda again.
Relations between the religious minority and segments of the country’s Buddhist majority have been strained since anti-Muslim riots broke out in 2013.
It’s one of the many challenges faced by the new National League for Democracy-led government and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Yangon’s chief minister could not be reached, but Nay Phone Latt, Yangon Regional MP from Thingangyun Township, cautiously praised the petition.
“It is good because now the government can also know the opinion of the people. But as a first step, National Monk Committee should take action instead of the government taking action,” he said.
“Politically, I think this case is the big test for the new government. If they take action severely, it seems like there will be problems between the monk community and government. So the new government needs to be smart in this case.”
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