Ultranationalist Myanmar Monk Group Declared Illegal by Top Buddhist Organization

[TomSea]

Ultranationalist Myanmar Monk Group Declared Illegal by Top Buddhist Organization
2019-07-30

Myanmar’s highest Buddhist body on Monday declared a hardline monk organization an illegal association and ordered the nationwide removal of all its signage, two weeks after its members blasted the civilian-led government at the group's annual meeting, the country’s Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture said.

The 47-member Sangha Maha Nayaka (Mahana), a government-appointed council that oversees and regulates the Buddhist clergy in Myanmar, summoned the chairman and vice chair of the ultranationalist Buddha Dhamma Parahita Foundation to censure them for publicly criticizing the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) government.

But only the vice chairman of the group, formerly known as the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion (Ma Ba Tha) and a main driver of anti-Muslim sentiment in the country, showed up for the meeting.

Read more at: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/ultranationalist-myanmar-monk-group-07302019164233.html

[PeteS in CA]

The Burmese government started a program of ethnic and religious "cleansing" a decade or two ago. The Muslim ethnic minority in western Myanmar, the Rohingya, got MSM coverage several years ago, but Christian ethnic minorities in eastern Myanmar were the earlier targets. There are refugee camps in western Thailand filled with people of these ethnic minorities.

If that Buddhist-Burmese nationalist group is POed at the government, maybe the Burmese government is backing off some from their ethnic-religious "cleansing".