It's an act that has been performed by Buddhist monks for many reasons, political or otherwise. I don't think you can make the distinction you're trying to make here.
My impression is that while the impetus could be called political, removing the religious factors here would be far more disingenuous (especially considering the history of self-immolation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-immolation#History).
If you read that last wikipedia page about self-immolation that you linked, you'll find out that:
> Jimmy Yu has shown that self-immolation cannot be interpreted based on Buddhist doctrine and beliefs alone but the practice must be understood in the larger context of the Chinese religious landscape. He examines many primary sources from the 16th and 17th century and demonstrates that bodily practices of self-harm, including self-immolation, was ritually performed not only by Buddhists but also by Daoists and literati officials who either exposed their naked body to the sun in a prolonged period of time as a form of self-sacrifice or burned themselves as a method of procuring rain. In other words, self-immolation was a sanctioned part of Chinese culture that was public, scripted, and intelligible both to the person doing the act and to those who viewed and interpreted it, regardless of their various religion affiliations.
Of course, as the wikipedia article says, "Since 2009, at least 120 Tibetans have self-immolated, more than 40 have died". But later on, you we read, "In 2013, the Dalai Lama questioned the effectiveness of self-immolation as a demonstration tactic. He has also expressed that the Tibetans are acting of their own free will and stated that he is powerless to influence them to stop carrying out immolation as a form of protest".
There are a quite a few Buddhist monks who perform acts that are clearly contrary to the Buddha's teachings. Self harm is a very obvious one. A monk commits suicide for whatever reason and that implicates Buddhism? I don't think so. I think it's a dramatic demonstration of failure to overcome attachment to an idea (although he certainly overcame attachment to his body).
This of course was political, much as it is today in Tibet.
As an aside, I've always found the way in which East Asian Buddhists held firm against cultural invaders, extremely inspiring. In India, there seems to be little other than memories of conspiring with the colonizers for profit.
"It's disingenuous to attribute that act to Buddhism; that was a political act."
I would argue a Buddhist would describe it as a completely 'apolitical' act :)
But I think it's fair to associate such things with Buddhism, or at least specific branches of it, because it's a pattern of behaviour and an attitude, not particularly common elsewhere, and the act itself is to some extent consistent with their actual beliefs and value system.