The Speaker of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, Thura U Shwe Mann, and the heads of more than 40 parliamentary committees discussed a proposal to ban inter-faith marriage at a special meeting in Nay Pyi Taw on February 27.
In the absence of its chairman, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Rule of Law and Tranquility Committee was represented by its secretary at the meeting, which delayed the start of the morning sitting of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw by 45 minutes.
The meeting follows a message sent to the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Speaker on February 25 by President U Thein Sein, requesting that consideration be given, if necessary, to enacting laws concerning marriage, religious conversion and population increase.
Presidential spokesperson U Ye Htut told Mizzima on February 25 the message had been sent in response to a petition in support of an inter-faith marriage ban containing more than 1,000,000 signatures sent to President U Thein Sein by the Myanmar Organization for the Protection of Nation and Religion.
U Ye Htut said it was up to the hluttaw to decide whether a law banning non-Buddhists from marrying Buddhist women should be enacted.
He stressed that the president had asked only whether such a law should be considered, adding that the issue was “sensitive”.
In a related development, some widely-respected senior Buddhist monks have expressed concern about support for an inter-faith marriage ban by younger members of the sangha, or community of monks.
Acknowledging the community support for such a law, the Shwe-nya-war Sayadaw, the Venerable U Pyinya Thiha, said it should not be given priority in the present circumstances.
“I don’t like extreme nationalists,” said the Shwe-nya-war Sayadaw, the abbot of a monastery in Yangon. He said extreme nationalists had marred the image of Buddhism.
