To elect a Ward Administrator with the votes of a mere 50 household representatives while there are around 1300 households are in the ward is a disgrace to democracy.

Hundreds of years ago, the Myoma Kayintan village tract in Maungdaw township was built by Rohingyas. This village tract consists of both Myoma Kayintan and Maung Ni villages. Since the beginning, dwellers of these two villages have been exclusively Rohingya. From the past till now Rohingyas have been elected for the village administration tasks such as the Village Head, the Village Chairman and the Village Administrator in Myoma Kayintan village tract. 

Traditionally there have been six wards in Maungdaw township. However, according to the notice (304/2019) released on the 27th of September, 2019 by the Union Government; six more wards have been added to Maungdaw township. In doing so, Myoma Kayintan village tract is split and shifted into Myoma Kayintan Ward and Maung Ni Ward respectively. 

Previously there were no other ethnic groups except Rohingyas living in Myoma Kayintan. During SLORC/SPDC dictatorial rule, No (18) Military Intelligence (MI-18) under the leadership of General Khin Nyut confiscated Rohingyas’ firm lands to the southern side of the village and build a Buddhist community hall for religious purposes. Ten houses for Rakhine were also build in around the community hall. Later MI-18 confiscated more Rohingya’s land and build a Buddhist monastery called Aung Myay Bawdi Monastery.

Myoma Kayintan village is situated to the east of Myoma East Ward formerly known as Ward-4. Recently a few Rakhine household from Myoma East Ward are transferred to the newly formed Myoma Kayintan Ward and are planning to elect a Ward Administrator for Myoma Kayintan Ward from those transferred Rakhines.

At the end of December 2019, without notifying the Rohingya residences, the office of Maungdaw Township Administrator formed a five person committee for administrating Myoma Kayintan Ward. All of the representatives of the committee are from the said transferred Rakhine community. 

Without taking consideration of the 1,300 households consisting of around 10,000 Rohingya residence in Myoma Kayintan Ward, electing a Rakhine from another ward as a Ward Administrator for Myoma Kayintan Ward is a deliberate and intentional planning to discriminate and further marginalize the Rohingya community. Even after transferring the household list of Rakhine from another ward to Myoma Kayintan Ward, Rakhine people makes around 0.1% of total population of Myoma Kayintan Ward. In a democratically elected government, the ward administrator is elected with the vote of majority. Electing a Ward Administrator for Myoma Kayintan Ward either from the newly transferred Rakhine or the Rakhine settlers of SLORC/SPDC government without consent of majority of Rohingya in Myoma Kayintan Ward is indeed a total disgrace for today’s democracy.

It is known that three Rakhine have submitted their nomination application for the Ward Administrator. One of the nominees is a retired Police Officer. The Rakhine staffs in township administrator along with other Rakhines in Maungdaw are said to be protesting to not elect the retired Police Officer as Ward Administrator as he maintains a good relation with the Rohingya residences of Myoma Kayintan Ward. It is crystal clear that the Township Administrator and Rakhine community are planning to remove Rohingya from ward administrating so that they can persecute and discriminate Rohingyas on daily basis.

Neglecting Rohingya residences of Myoma Kayintan Ward and electing a Ward Administrator from the votes of such a small fraction of the population is not an act of coincidence. In doing so, Rohingyas from Myoma Kayintan will loose all of their basic rights.

Electing a Ward Administrator from consideration of less than 4% of households and 0.1% of the population which is Rakhine and neglecting 99.9% of the Rohingya population in Myoma Kayintan is a desperate and intentional act to deprive Rohingyas of their basic rights. From the act of Township Administrator, it seems as though the Government is actively engaged and materializing discriminatory policies to destabilize the region.