MYANMAR CHRISTIANS AND THE STRUGGLE TO BE FAITHFUL

Myanmar is emerging from almost fifty years of military rule, often brutal in its repression of dissent. In November 2015, the country held a democratic election, the first in decades, and the party of Aung San Suu Kyii, recipient of the Nobel Peace prize, had a landslide victory. The army, however, still wields tremendous power.

Most Christians in Myanmar are from one of the seven minority ethnic tribal groups recognized by the government. The Burman, 63% of the population and Buddhist (hence the former name for the country, Burma), hold the power of government and the military. Thus most Christians find themselves twice disenfranchised, by both religious faith and ethnicity.

What does it mean to be a faithful Christian in Myanmar?

In addition to their second class status, the church continues to face numerous challenges as they navigate through a jungle of competing stances, positions and perspectives within their faith communities. What does it mean to be a faithful Christian in these contexts?

Should Christians hold to a strictly non-violent agenda or support their tribes’ armed resistance against the government? If they choose the former, non-violence, are they being sufficiently loyal to their tribe?

Since independence from England in 1948, there has been insurgency fighting within Myanmar, led by tribal groups who want autonomy and self-governance within their regions. What role should Christians take in these conflicts which sometimes divide churches and families?

What is a Christian stance towards protecting the environment when sometimes the only work available degrades the environment?

Myanmar is rich in precious and semi-precious stones, including jade and rubies, and timber and forest products make up a sizeable part of the country’s resources. Much of the mining and lumber industry is located in tribal regions and sometimes this is the only employment option for Christians, other than subsistence farming – and yet many are aware how these industries do great damage to their environment.

What should a Christian’s response be to unjust laws set down by the Myanmar government?

In 2015, four laws, known as the “Race and Religion Protection Laws,” were adopted by parliament. They are, arguably, protection for the Buddhist majority and not for religious or tribal minorities, including Christians. These include having to petition your township if you wish to convert to another religion, or if a Buddhist woman wishes to marry a non-Buddhist man.

Another provision makes it a criminal offense to have more than one spouse, or to live with someone who is not your legal spouse (clearly aimed at the Muslim minority). Most troubling for many tribal Christians is the requirement that women in certain regions must space the birth of their children at least 36 months apart. This is clearly aimed at controlling population growth among the tribal Christians and Muslims. Should Christians comply with this government order?

Should churches continue to worship in the manner taught them by missionaries fifty years ago, or should they contextualize to their culture, time and place?

There is both love and resistance to the history and legacy of missions in Myanmar, as there is in other post-colonial countries. Great power and deference is given to western missionaries and Myanmar Christians still look to the west as the defining foundations of their faith.  After more than a century of hard work, Christianity is perceived as a potted plant, not yet rooted in the soil of Myanmar, and most believers are unwilling to break the pot.   There are some people that see the need for change, but they are clearly in the minority.

Myanmar Christians have truly embraced the Good News of Jesus Christ, knowing all too well the darkness and oppression of their land. Myanmar Christians need courage, wisdom and fortitude as they discern what faith-full living means in their complicated living experiences, even as we must discern what it means to live in ours alongside them as supporters. 

The Christian leaders and pastors of Myanmar have endured so much, and have had so few resources, that we should be proud to respond to their requests for our help. The needs and challenges of the Christians in Myanmar are most of the time unfathomable to westerners.  We find it hard to accept that needs could be so great.   They are great and they never end.  When one challenge is solved another emerges.   Burmese Christians are our brothers and sisters in Christ, we dare not turn our backs on the family of God.

Will you help us encourage and equip God’s family in Myanmar? Your generosity will enable us to demonstrate to this long-suffering church that we love them enough to help them effectively communicate God’s word.

___________________________________________________

Life in a Garbage Dump - Burmese Migrants scrounge through trash to survive

MAE SOT, Thailand - February 2019 — When entering the landfill on the outskirts of Mae Sot on Thailand’s border with Burma, flies buzz chaotically around the waste, which ranges from metal devices to worn out clothes to rotten food, the pile standing taller than a grown man.

“We consume wasted food if it is good enough. We cook it, if needed. We make our living by collecting wasted and recyclable materials and selling them,” explained Ma San Aye, a 45 year-old Burmese woman originally from Kyaukki Township in Pegu Division who has made her home at the garbage dump for more than 15 years along with her children and grandchildren.

“We can survive on 20 baht (US$0.58) a day here,” she said, sipping her tea as flies attempt to land on the cup’s rim.

Ma San Aye prepares to head out to collect rubbish. The garbage piles stand like a small hill in an area called Mae Pa—it is where all of the waste from Mae Sot town is thrown.

“Of course it is bad for our health. Before, I had no diseases. Now, I have back pain and chest pain. It is smelly, but we have adapted to it. Before, I would vomit and I couldn’t eat for five days. But it is okay now,” said Ma San Aye said.

She said she makes around 2,000 baht (US$58) a month selling materials she finds at the dump.

Those who reside near the waste site live in makeshift tents, where they eat and sleep. Some sort through the trash during the daytime, and others do so at night.

Ma San Aye’s grandson plays in a tent near the landfill where he lives with his family. 

“We can’t survive if we are afraid of bad, dirty and smelly waste. It is like our kitchen—we eat here and live here,” said Ko Than Oo, 49, while collecting recyclable materials around the landfill.

Sweat fell on his face and his clothes were soaked with perspiration.

“I know the smell is not good for our health. I get severe headaches and dizziness. Sometimes, I have heavy coughing,” he said.  Ko Than Oo collects recyclable waste at the front of the garbage dump in Mae Sot. 

Ko Than Oo has lived near the garbage pile with his blind and aging mother for 12 years. Despite the reforms underway in Burma, he said he has no plan to go back to his homeland, as he does not have a job there. He makes about 150 baht (US$4.34) a day by collecting and selling recyclable materials. This, he said, is enough to feed himself and his mother.

Several other people, including women and children, are also busy, collecting rubbish in the heat. There are more than 100 households living at the garbage pile, and, according to residents, some have been living here for up to 20 years.

Ko Than Oo and other waste collectors work at the garbage pile in Mae Sot. 

U Moe Joe, chairman of Joint Action Committee for Burma Affairs in Mae Sot, has been supporting Burmese workers in the area for 14 years. He told The Irrawaddy that there are 300 Burmese people currently living in and around Mae Sot’s landfill; they came to Thailand hoping to escape poverty and unemployment in their hometowns.

“They depend on the garbage. They make their living by collecting waste,” he said. Although Mae Sot is experiencing economic growth, many of the benefits do not reach the Burmese migrant workers who live and work there, U Moe Joe explained, saying that instead, those who work in factories, construction, and in waste collection are frequently “left behind.”

The garbage collector Ko Than Oo said that migrants like himself are excluded from experiencing development in Mae Sot, adding, “It has nothing to do with us.”

For Ma San Aye, her relationship with the waste site has become a way of life, and a resource on which she depends in order to make a living.

“For us it is like a pile of gold and money. We rely on this garbage,” she says, smoking a cheroot in her tent while her grandchildren play nearby.

Myanmar Military violating human rights in Rakhine Unrest

Amnesty International says military shelling villages, limiting access to food and keeping humanitarian groups out.

Myanmar's military is shelling villages and preventing civilians from getting food and humanitarian help, amid an intensifying crackdown on the rebel Arakan Army in the restive northwestern state of Rakhine that has pushed thousands from their homes, Amnesty International has said.

The human rights group said on Monday its investigations also found that the security forces had used vague and repressive laws to detain civilians in its battle against the Arakan Army, an ethnic Rakhine group that is fighting for more autonomy.

"These latest operations are yet another reminder that the Myanmar military operates without any regard for human rights," Tirana Hassan, Amnesty's director of crisis response, said in a statement. "Shelling inhabited villages and withholding food supplies is unjustifiable under any circumstances."

Fighting between the military and Arakan Army intensified in January after the rebels attacked a police post leaving 13 officers dead.

The military responded by deploying more troops to the region, the site of a massive crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in 2017, in an attempt to "crush" the fighters. The United Nations says some 5,200 people had been forced from their homes on January 28, as a result of the conflict.

There was no immediate response from the Myanmar authorities to Amnesty's report.

Unlawful tactics

Amnesty said it had spoken to people affected by the fighting, as well as to local activists and humanitarian workers to get an understanding of the effects of the latest unrest. It said most of those forced to flee were Buddhist and included minority Mro, Khami, Daingnet and Rakhine people. Myanmar has about 135 different ethnic groups.

It noted that unlawful tactics had been a "hallmark of the military's operations against armed groups" and that previous operations in Kachin and northern Shan states had killed and wounded civilians and displaced thousands. It added that the troop build-up in Rakhine included the 99th Light Infantry Division, a unit Amnesty and others had previously implicated in atrocities against the Rohingya in August 2017.

Two villagers who spoke to Amnesty said that they had fled their homes under military bombardment and when they returned to collect belongings discovered money and other valuables were missing. They suspected soldiers of the theft because troops had been expected to secure the area.

Another said Myanmar soldiers and police had restricted the amount of rice that people in her village could bring into the settlement even though they were already suffering from a shortage of basic foods because fighting in December had prevented them from harvesting their crops. As a result, they abandoned the village, as had other people in settlements nearby.

"We talked among ourselves that it was impossible to live in our village any more," the 34-year-old woman from a remote ethnic Mro village in Kyauktaw Township told Amnesty. "We didn't want to move to a (displaced persons) camp, but we couldn't trade what we found in the forest and we couldn't get through enough supplies."

Military presence

The unrest has also spilled over into neighboring Chin State where locally-based human rights monitors say the sporadic violence and escalating military presence in its southern part is affecting local communities.

An update from the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO) that was released on Sunday said the military had imposed restrictions on movement and a curfew in three villages after troops moved into a nearby town. Residents told CHRO more than 50 military vehicles had arrived in Matupi Town, checkpoints had been erected and that there were regular helicopter flights in and out of the area.

Despite the unrest in Rakhine, the Myanmar authorities have made it more difficult for aid groups to work in the region, Amnesty said. On January 10, the Rakhine government barred all UN agencies and international organizations with the exception of the Red Cross and the World Food Program from operating in the five conflict-affected townships.

"The Myanmar authorities are deliberately playing with the lives and livelihoods of civilians," Hassan said. "As we've seen time and again, the military's priority is not to protect people in the crossfire, but rather to hide their abuses from the international community."

Amnesty said it had also gathered evidence that the military and police were abusing the law to detain and prosecute civilians, including Aung Tun Sein, a Mro village leader who had been picked up in the wake of an outbreak of fighting in the area around his village in mid-January and remained in jail. Ten other men held with him were released.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS