e_Paper 27-11-2016

No direction home
Opinion 21
Genocide is taking place under the watchful eye of a democratically elected government
DT
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2016
HARD TARGET
own turf.
But enough is enough. NLD
can’t fix this problem. It is time
for the world to get tough on
Myanmar, and not take genocide
for an answer.
• Abak Hussain
Did the world really think
Myanmar would change?
In spite of the much
anticipated elections last
year which saw Suu Kyi’s party
come to power, Myanmar remains,
in effect, a military regime that
continues to rape, kill, and burn
down the homes of the nation’s
own Rohingya people.
What is going on is nothing if
not genocide, and it is happening
right under the watchful eye of
Myanmar’s beacon of peace, Nobel
laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
As the world waits for Suu Kyi
to say something, do something,
she remains silent. In fact,
she won’t even use the word
“Rohingya.” Whether Suu Kyi is
unwilling or unable to make a
stand, it is clear that her moral
high ground has long been
compromised.
The Nobel peace prize itself
has always been a bit misleading
though. Barack Obama had won
the prize for achieving nothing
more than a very inspiring
presidential campaign, a
decision that gained the Nobel
committee some flak. But Obama’s
unworthiness was nothing
compared to Suu Kyi’s complicity
in the worst humanitarian crisis of
our time.
Military rules
While Suu Kyi’s National League
for Democracy (NLD) is, in theory,
the ruling party of Myanmar, the
military retains a chokehold on the
nation, controlling a number of
things, from national security, to
police, to the justice system. The
NLD seems powerless to stop the
military from committing human
rights violations.
This does not let Suu Kyi off
the hook. She has lacked the
backbone to take a stand, possibly
in fear of political repercussions.
After a very long time, she is in
a position of some actual power,
and she would rather not risk it by
angering the military.
Of course, Suu Kyi herself
will never acknowledge this. She
maintains a delicate balancing act
of telling the world community
that the NLD needs a bit of “space”
to address the complicated issues
of the country, thereby dancing
around the issue of the crimes
against humanity going on in her
The good neighbour
Recently, Dhaka summoned
the Myanmar ambassador to
talk about putting an end to the
atrocities, but all that seems to
have taken place is an exchange
of hot air. Dhaka “conveyed” its
message to Yangon.
Tell that to the people about to
be killed.
Bangladesh may well be
the only safe haven for many
Rohingya feeling persecution.
However, we have had a
complicated relationship to the
Rohingya issue for quite some
time. On the one hand, many
Bangladeshis feel a natural sense
of fraternity towards our darkskinned,
Muslim neighbours from
across the border. Nonetheless,
the long-standing refugee crisis at
the Bangladesh-Myanmar border
The Rohingya are
at the door, and
Bangladesh has a
choice to make. After
all, it is our moral
choices that define
who we are
is one of immense logistical
complexity, and one that most of
our top public officials don’t have a
clue about how to solve.
But right now, those are details.
What matters is that these
refugees are fleeing death. They
are coming to us because they
have nowhere else to turn.
Never mind the fact that the
plight of the Rohingya is not our
fault, that it is all Myanmar’s
doing. Let’s not hope to work out
fully the logistics of how such a
large refugee population will be
contained in Bangladesh, and what
the ramifications are, right away.
The Rohingya are at the door,
and Bangladesh has a choice to
make. After all, it is our moral
choices that define who we are.
If Bangladesh looks deep within
itself, if we are being honest with
ourselves, the answer is obvious:
We must open up our borders.
Let’s not forget our own history.
When Bangladesh was faced with
genocide, India welcomed us, and
A people without a nation
took in some 10 million refugees.
It is time for us to pay it forward. It
won’t be easy, and it will strain our
already overburdened resources.
But the right thing to do is the
right thing to do.
A global humanitarian problem
Ultimately, the Rohingya crisis is
the whole world’s problem, and
turning a blind eye to it makes us
look bad as a species.
Why are the world’s powerful
nations not coming forward? The
United States and Australia have
embraced refugees before -- why
are they not coming to the aid of
the Rohingya now?
The world needs to take a
hard stance against Myanmar’s
still-military government and its
genocidal activities, and place
economic sanctions if needed.
A good start is to stop
pretending as though Myanmar is
now a functional democracy, and
that Suu Kyi will eventually do the
right thing. If the world fails to act
now, one day it will have to look
back and wonder: How could we
have idly stood by and let a whole
population get wiped out?
Rakhine referendum?
A couple of years ago, an op-ed
piece by Zeeshan Khan published
in this very newspaper suggested
that Rakhine state, 42% of which
borders Bangladesh, be allowed
to hold a referendum. After all,
Myanmar does not acknowledge
Rohingyas as rightful citizens, and
kills them as though it is routine
government business.
The why not let the Rohingya
people decide if they want to
secede from Myanmar? This
would involve the districts of
Sittwe and Muangdaw joining
Bangladesh, and becoming part of
the Chittagong division.
At the time of publication,
the op-ed seemed like just a
theoretical exercise, but protests
soon broke out in Myanmar.
Buddhist monks took to the
streets.
Yangon summoned the
Bangladeshi ambassador to ask
if this was Bangladesh’s official
position. The ambassador, who I
doubt was a Dhaka Tribune reader,
must have been a bit flummoxed
about the whole thing.
The Myanmar government’s
reaction was very telling.
The country was, and still is,
unfamiliar with the concept of
a free press that raises human
rights concerns independent of the
actions of the government.
It is not surprising, then, that
no one in Myanmar, not even
the great Aung San Suu Kyi,
is denouncing the shameful
treatment of the Rohingya that is
taking place right now.
But the rest of us cannot stay
silent. •
Abak Hussain is Editor, Editorial and Op-Ed,
Dhaka Tribune.
REUTERS