Before we blame Myanmar, the government and the people, for the atrocities, it is necessary to try and understand how/why there is so much hatred, which led to the inhumanity we currently are witnessing.
Trying to understand the situation is important to make sense of the probable workable solutions. You cannot just throw the ball here and there. Over simplified solutions include:
- "asking the Myanmar government to sort out the issue before more refugees die trying to get out of Myanmar"
- "sending them back to Myanmar"
Even the democracy champion Aung Sang Suu Kyi has remained cautious with her statements on the issue. When the Dalai Lama asked her to help to sort out the problem, even she said it is not so simple, in fact it is a highly complicated issue. It would be easy if it was pure genocide, pure racism ... but there is bad blood that runs much deeper than the surface. You do not get so much hatred just based on race issue or just on having different religion.
Desmond Tutu and George Soros have basically called for a total restoration of citizenship, nationality and basic human rights to the Rohingya. If only it was that simple. The model answer masks the hard facts and deep seated hatred that would make such solutions untenable over the long run.
Soros said he visited a Rohingya settlement in January and saw parallels to his youth as a Jew in Nazi-occupied Europe. “You see, in 1944, as a Jew in Budapest, I too was a Rohingya,” he said. That was a heartfelt comparison but unlike the Jewish people, who were basically persecuted based on their faith, the situation is quite different for the R. They are not as blameless as the Jewish people.
Myanmar refuses to recognize the term Rohingya and calls the people Bengali instead, suggesting that they come from neighboring Bangladesh. Officials in Myanmar said they would not attend the government meeting in Thailand if the term Rohingya were used.
There are a great number of indigenous minorities in Burma, a detail most of us know little about. In fact there are 135 distinct ethnic groups as first defined by General Ne Win’s government in 1962, a list still used today. The major ethnic populations in Burma are: Bamar, 68%; Shan, 9%; Kayin, 7%; Rakhine, 3.5%; Chinese, 2.5%; Mon, 2%; Kachin, 1.5%; and Indians, 1.25%. The percentage of the balance of the 135 minorities is too small to mention here. The unrecognized ethnic groups are Anglo-Burmese, Burmese Chinese, Panthay, Burmese Indians, Gurkhas, Pakistanis and lastly, the Rohingyas.6 There are no census figures for unrecognized groups. They are simply in the country illegally.
Then there is the well organised militant group, the Rohingya Solidarity Organisation, which was formed in 1982 by the remaining Mujahideens who were defeated by the Burmese army in 1978's Dragon King Operation. The RSO has incited a lot of fear and hatred because they developed strong ties with extremist groups in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. To make matters worse, in the 90s the RSO act as a conduit to supply fighters to be trained and some even serve under Al Qaeda.
The humanity and the inhumanity of it. ASEAN must take a stand, they must come up with some viable solutions. The silence is deafening, no one wants to say anything cause if they do, they would have to be the first to absorb some of the refugees. You cannot expect just UNHCR or the US or other developed nations to take the lead... when the issue is at our doorstep.
Unfortunately there are no easy solutions. I do not think you can carve out a land just for them. They should not remain together as the legacy issues are too strong. Possibly the best is for an ASEAN unit to tabulate and ascertain the real Rohingyas and each country in ASEAN to accept a number according to their population and resources. If we are talking of just over 1 million... its going to be less than 100,000-200,000 per country.
For example, Indonesia 200,000 ... Malaysia 100,000 ... Thailand 100,000 ... Brunei 50,000 ... Singapore 50,000 ... and the rest taken by Australia, NZ and the US. Somehow I think Singapore would strongly oppose that solution... sigh.
If we choose to shame and force Myanmar to do the right thing and take them back, and give them proper citizenship... I think that will mask the underlying hatred and discrimination... which will only blow up again and again in the future.
Sunkist118
Halo Mr Fortune, we had Muhibbah lar but we lost it mah. Ask why lor? Not insist we still mah...where now got muhibbah.
2015-06-01 13:21