Myanmar's Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim 'Other' (Asian Arguments)

by Francis Wade

Exiled media organisations, once a key pillar of the pro-democracy movement, soon came to be targeted too. Their shortwave radio and television broadcasts that were beamed into the country from outside had comprised the only independent, uncensored source of information during military rule, but they came to be slandered as “pro-Bengali” for reporting on atrocities committed by Buddhists in Rakhine State. Very quickly, the importance of the nationalist cause had outflanked that of the democratic cause among a sizeable portion of the Buddhist population. Not only that, but the nationalist movement had become a chief threat to the transition, for its hostility towards calls for inclusivity played so neatly into the hands of regressive forces that had no desire to see the democratic opening come to fruition.