UPDATES THROUGHOUT
By Kyaw Ye Lynn
YANGON, Myanmar (AA) – Census data that rights groups fear may lead to problems for Myanmar’s Muslim population is set to be released later this month, after being withheld along with ethnic data until after last year’s election.
A government official told Anadolu Agency on Tuesday that the region-by-region breakdown of religion in the country from a Population and Housing Census conducted in 2014 will be available July 21.
“However the release date for census data on ethnicity has yet to decided,” added Mya Kyaing, the Labor, Immigration and Population Ministry’s permanent secretary.
The 2014 census was the first in 30 years in Myanmar, which inaugurated its first civilian government — led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party — in late March.
The data is thought to have been withheld due to scaremongering by anti-Muslim groups, who not only demanded that those who practice Islam — which they claim is a growing threat to Myanmar’s predominantly Buddhist society — be banned from voting, but also pressured Suu Kyi’s NLD into distancing itself from Muslim candidates and voters for fear of the damage such affiliation could do to its chances.
With the years leading up to the census coinciding with a rise in ultra-nationalist movements engaging in anti-Muslim rhetoric, rights groups are now concerned that a growth in the Muslim population could lead to an increase in the number of attacks.
The release of ethnicity data in a country of 135 distinct recognized ethnic groups is also troublesome, with Mya Kyaing previously calling it “more complicated than any other issues in the country”.
Some ethnic groups such as Rohingya Muslims are not officially recognized, with the government initially asking one million Muslims in troubled western Rakhine State to classify themselves as “Bengali” — which suggests they are interlopers from Bangladesh — for the census.
On Tuesday, a prominent Muslim lawyer in the country welcomed the scheduled release of the religion data, insisting there was no reason to worry.
“Such exact data is very important for the country,” said Ko Ni, an NLD legal adviser and patron of the Myanmar Muslim Lawyers Association.
He said Myanmar Muslims account for an estimated four percent of the country’s population.
However, international groups have previously not shared Ko Ni’s confidence.
Prior to the 2014 census, the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) warned the government of the potential risk surrounding the timing of the count and publication, calling for the process to focus only on key demographic questions and drop sensitive questions on ethnicity, religion and citizenship status.
The report by the non-governmental organization underlined that there were “strong indications” that the country’s 1983 census found the Muslim population to be around 10 percent, but purposefully underreported it at 4 percent to avoid unrest.
“The results of the current census could therefore be mistakenly interpreted as providing evidence for a three-fold increase in the Muslim population in the country over the last 30 years, a potentially dangerous call to arms for extremist movements,” it noted.
The census puts Myanmar’s total population at 51.5 million.
Since the election, Suu Kyi’s government has attempted to pacify the international community concerned about the fate of Rohingya — which the United Nations has referred to as one of the world’s most persecuted people — by asking them to identify as “Muslim community in Rakhine”.
