{"id":3100,"date":"2025-10-05T03:46:20","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T03:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/?p=3100"},"modified":"2025-10-05T03:46:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T03:46:21","slug":"when-faith-becomes-a-political-tool-the-fencing-controversy-in-naypyitaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/2025\/10\/05\/when-faith-becomes-a-political-tool-the-fencing-controversy-in-naypyitaw\/","title":{"rendered":"When Faith Becomes a Political Tool: The Fencing Controversy in Naypyitaw"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Credit to picture by Naung Naung in Mizzima | DARZ-KKG’s Commentary for MMNN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2024, Min Aung Hlaing met with representatives of all four major religions\u2014Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu\u2014and publicly announced the allocation of land for religious buildings. It was a move widely seen as an attempt to soften his image and curry favor with religious minorities and neighboring governments.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A seemingly ordinary municipal approval in Naypyitaw has become the latest flashpoint for political opportunists. In Pyinmana Township, local nationalists have protested against a plot of land permitted for Islamic religious activities<\/em>\u2014a plot that, by all official accounts, was merely fenced, not built upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The land, said to have been allocated by junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing himself, remains empty except for a simple boundary fence approved by the local development committee. \u201cNo mosque, no building, nothing has started,\u201d one resident confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, nationalist groups have turned this small piece of ground into a symbol of imagined \u201creligious threat.\u201d The Patriotic Myanmar Monks\u2019 Association (Yangon)<\/em> even petitioned Min Aung Hlaing on October 2 to revoke the permission entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Bullet U Hla Swe<\/strong>, USDP chairman for the Naypyitaw Council area, tried to downplay the issue, saying the permit did not specify mosque construction and could instead be used for a Muslim clinic or cemetery. He added, \u201cThere are already enough mosques. If they really want, they can apply later\u2014but this permission is only for fencing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further disclosed a striking imbalance in land distribution: while Christians, Hindus, and Muslims were each allocated only one to two acres, the military regime reserved about 100 acres for a Buddhist Religious Zone<\/strong> in Naypyitaw, including large plots for a Nunnery University<\/strong>, meditation center, and prominent monasteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a hotel zone or industrial zone\u2014just for Buddhism,\u201d he said proudly.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This disparity speaks volumes about the double standards in Myanmar\u2019s so-called \u201creligious harmony.\u201d What is presented as equal treatment of faiths in state-controlled media is, in reality, a carefully calibrated showpiece\u2014designed for international optics, not genuine pluralism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But behind that gesture, the same pattern repeated itself: one hand offering \u201cpermission,\u201d while the other quietly fuels division. Nationalist networks quickly revived their anti-Islam campaigns, echoing the dangerous playbook of 2011\u20132016\u2014when hate propaganda was used to distract from political failure and justify violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as elections approach, some locals fear the timing is not accidental. \u201cThey\u2019re creating religious conflict so people won\u2019t focus on the election,\u201d a Pyinmana resident observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, Myanmar\u2019s repeated cycles of religious provocation have never been about faith\u2014they have always been about control. Each time the regime faces public discontent, the \u201creligious card\u201d is played again, and minority communities are made scapegoats for a broken political system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fencing in Naypyitaw is not the real issue. It is the fencing of minds<\/strong>\u2014through fear, division, and propaganda\u2014that keeps Myanmar from achieving the peace and unity its people truly deserve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit to picture by Naung Naung in Mizzima | DARZ-KKG’s Commentary for MMNN In April 2024, Min Aung Hlaing met with representatives of all four major religions\u2014Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu\u2014and publicly announced the allocation of land for religious buildings. It was a move widely seen as an attempt to soften his image and curry […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,7,1,10,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anti-racism","category-articles","category-local-news","category-news","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3102,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3100\/revisions\/3102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myanmarmuslim.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}