Burmese Muslims learn lessons from the West
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| Burmese Muslims visiting Southern Cross University Zaw Minn Htwe (left) and Myo Win ( - ABC North Coast) |
The official policy of the Government of Burma is that all ethnic, religious and language groups are equal. Two Burmese Muslims visiting Southern Cross University tell a different story.
Myo Win didn't choose to be born in a Muslim house, but he was. And that house happened to be built in a country where Muslim people have long been persecuted.
Burma, also known as Myanmar, was ruled by a military junta from 1962 until last year.
The generals who ran the country have been accused of many human rights abuses and the diverse population itself has been riven by religious and ethnic tensions.
Myo first felt the sting of discrimination as a young child.
"I noticed that most of the students and even the teachers at the school, they are discriminating especially for minority people," said Myo.
"They think we are the stranger, we are foreigner, even though our forefathers were born in Burma."
Zaw Minn Htwe, also a Muslim, was regularly called a 'kalar' growing up in Burma.
"It's an insult, especially for Muslim people," he said.
"It means we are not from Burma."
The discrimination reached its worse for Zaw when Buddhist monks attacked his family's tea shop in 2003.
"They wanted to take revenge because people had destroyed a Buddhist statue in Afghanistan," he said.
"We haven't heard about Afghanistan before and we don't know anyone from Afghanistan but they target us.
"One day they came to our tea shop, we had to hide in our house and then they destroyed it.
"I was so scared, really afraid of the people.
"At that time I could not trust anyone, even our neighbor they do not protect us."
Education the answer
Rather than retaliate or flee Burma as many Muslims have done in the past, Zaw and Myo wanted to discover what the true motivation was behind the Burmese Buddhists' hatred towards them.
They came to realise the Burmese education system, or lack thereof, was the problem.
"They are no educated, they do not think separately with religion and people," said Zaw.
"I started to think about the underlying reason, why they hate us. The reason is nothing.
"The main problem is the education they are receiving because the education system in Burma is established by the government to brainwash people."
Myo said it wasn't just the Buddhist majority to blame.
"Even the Muslim community also encourages stereotypes," he said.
"They are not really encouraged to study."
Myo and Zaw said the Burmese education system was made up of rote-based learning and critical thinking was not allowed.
Myo set up a program called SMILE Education in 2007, with the aim of introducing new methods of learning to Burmese people.
"We encourage to study because we have so many identity issues we cannot defend because our people are not educated," said Myo.
Learning from Australia
Myo and Zaw are now visiting Southern Cross University's Tweed campus to learn more about Western research methodology.
"We think to make change we need proper research because all research done by government is cheated data so we cannot rely on it," said Zaw.
"We are focusing our learning on how to develop cultural research in our country and set up an education community in Burma that can bring change to the future of Burma."
They hope to set up a research centre in Burma and to one day see tertiary institutions like SCU in their home country.
"I hope if we really try to work in this kind of establishment with linkage to good governance... we can establish this type of institution in the future,'' said Myo.
