The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information about charges brought against a community educator in Burma for teaching political science. Min Min, a human rights defender based in the country’s lowland, is being prosecuted because he refused to heed warnings that he not teaches a course on political science at his community-based education centre. He is currently on bail with the trial underway. The details of the story are below:
On 27 January 2013 this community educator in the central Burma town of Pyi, together with a number of colleagues, opened a political science training programme as part of a range of courses his Olive Branch capacity-building centre offers to local people at little or no cost. The course attracted the attention of some officials who still have the mindset of military government. On the same day, the district administration sent a letter to the subordinate township administration to order that the persons responsible for opening the political science course without permission be prosecuted. The next day, January 28, the local administration twice called Min Min and warned him to shut down the programme, but he refused, saying that he believed that the programme is legal and that it is consistent with the objectives of the government and people at a time of democratisation to teach political science. Min Min explained that political science is a necessary topic to develop the country, and he was not teaching a course about how to overthrow governments or grab power. The township officials said that they understood but that they were under orders from the district. Min Min adds that the district head is a former army officer who still thinks like a soldier in matters of this sort. The day after that, January 29, the local administration opened a case against Min Min. The court charged him with failure to comply with the order of the administration to stop the programme. However, the specific charge does not fit the alleged crime, since it is framed to deal with cases of absconders from summonses or similar orders. The case against Min Min is ongoing, and he has been released on bail. The AHRC is concerned that although officials at the township level were seemingly not much interested to take action about the political science course, under pressure from above they will be forced to convict him, irrespective of the facts of the case.
Min Min was previously imprisoned for giving “illegal tuition” to youth in Pyay about human rights issues. Following his release, he continued to work as a human rights defender and soon set up the Olive Branch capacity-building centre for community education, with the aim of building knowledge among local people so that they can defend their own rights.The Olive Branch centre, which is largely funded out of contributions from participants and the local community, and is supported by voluntarily given classes from expert trainers, holds courses on constitutionalism, human rights, environmental science, management, leadership skills, the United Nations system, international organizations, journalism, international law and domestic law, as well as political science. It has a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/olivebranch.pyay. In the past, the centre had included political science among other subjects in courses and had attracted no problems. It was only when it advertised a separate course on the topic of political science that it attracted the ire of officials. Political science has since the Ne Win dictatorship been absent from teaching in Burma’s universities, replaced at that time by indoctrination in official ideology, and after the end of ideology, with nothing. Up to the present, to the knowledge of the AHRC, degree courses in political science have not recommenced in universities, and no department of political science exists in a state institution.
via BURMA: Community educator charged for teaching political science — Asian Human Rights Commission.
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