The Rohingyas: A struggle for identity

Aung San Suu Kyi (ASSK) and her government have orchestrated one of the most brutal genocidal attacks in the contemporary history of the world. According to the Doctors Without Borders (MSF), at least 6,700 Rohingyas were killed alone in the first month of violence, but many consider it as an underestimate. While the brutal massacre of Rohingyas has been going on a slow motion for a very long time, it is ASSK's ascendancy to power that has provided the conditions for the process of genocidal attacks on the Rohingyas to put on a fast forward motion, forcing more than 600,000 Rohingyas to flee their home within a couple of months. The army and Buddhist vigilante groups were driving them out of their homes with bullets, rape and arson and then their villages were razed. Now one million Rohigya refugees are living across the border in Bangladesh in pretty squalid conditions. Rohingya refugees also fled to countries like Malaysia and Indonesia - and to some Middle East countries. They now constitute the largest group of 'stateless' people in the world - 'stateless', because the Burma Citizenship Act of 1982 robbed the Rohingya ethnic group of their right of Myanmar citizenship.
The discrimination, oppression and persecution of the Rohingyas by the Myanmar state and other forces including Buddhist vigilante groups with the total support from the state are very well documented by the United Nations Human Rights Council and other independent human rights groups. The Rohingyas suffered a systematic campaign of murder, rape and arson by the Mynamar state. The United Nations itself has described the Rohingyas as one of the most persecuted minorities. To mark the International Human Rights Day, the European Union (EU) issued on December 09 a statement saying: "The recent situation of the Rohingya community in Myanmar has once again reminded the world that, almost 70 years after the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, these rights are still vulnerable''.
Pope Francis visited Myanmar in late November. He has earned a reputation for speaking up for the downtrodden, powerless and persecuted people around the world. Standing next to the Myanmar leader ASSK he said "The future of Myanmar must be peace, a peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity'' but preferred not to mention the key word "Rohingya'' let alone criticising the on-going genocidal attacks against them. It was a case of pure political expediency unlike Irish musician and activist Bob Geldof who described ASSK as "a handmaiden to genocide''. He returned his Freedom of the City of Dublin award declaring " I don't want to be on a very select roll of wonderful people with a killer''. ASSK was given this award in 1999. Geldof further said ''we honoured her, now she appals, and shames us.'' US Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson described the massive human rights violations against the Rohingyas as "ethnic cleansing''. The UN Human Right Commissioner, Zeid Ra'ad Al Husseini described the expulsion of Rohingyas as a "textbook example'' of ethnic cleansing. This state-sponsored campaign of violence pushed more than 600,000 Rohingyas across border to Bangladesh where many perished in the sea while taking the voyage and many were killed by landmines planted by the Myanmar army on their paths to flee.
It is suggested that Pope Francis refrained from mentioning the word "Rohingya'' at the behest of Cardinal Charles Maung Bo and other leaders of the Catholic church in Myanmar. Cardinal Bo also defends ASSK on the ground that Tatmadaw or the military remains in control of the State apparatus thus fearing backlash against Catholics in the country if the Pope used the word 'Rohingya'. In effect Cardinal Bo was peddling the very puerile as well as totally discredited argument to defend ASSK and her regime. Whether the Pope or any state such as India or any other state or regional organisation such as ASEAN in public statements or official documents endorse and use the word 'Rohingya' is of no consequence. The historical facts will always vindicate who these people are - they are Rohingyas. The international community also recognises them as "Rohingya''. The Rohingayas have been for many, many centuries inhabiting the very landmass they have been expelled from and where many hundreds and thousands of Rohingyas were murdered and raped.
So the manufactured popular narrative is that the fragile democracy in Myanmar must have to be defended, even if it means complete ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas from the country. But her unqualified support for the military's genocidal attacks against the Rohigyas makes ASSK equally culpable for this violence. By her words and actions she has already made herself an accomplice of the military and its actions against the Rohingyas. She denied all allegations of rape and killings by the army even when UN observers provided evidence of mass rape and other crimes against the humanity. She never ever uttered the word "Rohingya" and she was even dismissive of the Rohingyas in her September speech by referring them as "the few''. She has already proved herself to be a political opportunist par excellence and a woman completely devoid of moral compass.
ASSK and her party National League for Democracy (NLD) are squarely now in league with the military in running the country. They are jointly responsible for orchestrating and underwriting the current upsurge of nationalised bigotry and violence that Buddhist monks and laypersons unleashed not only against Rohingya Muslims but also other Muslims in Myanmar. ASSK is also known to have expressed anti-Muslim sentiments to at least two diplomats based in Myanmar. Her party NLD has purged all Muslim members from the party. Her government's genocidal attacks against the Rohingyas is popular with the majority Bamar ethnic group and she herself also belongs to that ethnic group. Her family has a long-standing relationship the army. This has enabled her to coalesce support behind her and NLD, so much so that the military will now have to think twice before they try to undermine her position as the supreme leader of Myanmar.
Penny Green, a professor of Law at Queen Mary University of London who researched the Rohingya conflict, described ASSK's speech delivered in the Myanmar capital in September this year as disingenuous and filled with underlying denials. She went further to say that such a behaviour is consistent with typical behaviour of a state criminal. The Irish rock band U2, who had campaigned for ASSK's release while she was in house arrest, also said her silence was "starting to look a lot like assent''. U2 also had written a letter to Dublin City Council to strip ASSK of the honour. In the face of mounting pressure, Dublin City Council has now voted to revoke the freedom of Dublin city award given to ASSK. The recipient of this award include people such as George Bernard Shaw, Nelson Mandela, John F. Kennedy and Bono (of U2) among others.
Critics point out when the Myanmar government is denying the existence of Rohingyas, how could the Pope even raise the issue the Rohingya crisis with ASSK without mentioning "Rohingya''. The ruling party NLD led by ASSK has continually denied to recognise the Rohingyas as an ethnic group who have lived in Rakhine State for centuries. If the Pope named the Rohingyas, the core of the issue would have much better chance to be addressed. And that issue is the recognition of the collective identity the Rohingyas. Even more appalling is the final document released at the conclusion of the ASEAN leaders' meeting held in Manila ( also attended by ASSK) where the Rehingya genocide was mentioned only in passing, garbled in the midst of other issues without mentioning the word "Rohingya''. One can only pity the South East Asian leaders' response to such a terrible human catastrophe in the contemporary human history.
However, the Pope used the safe political strategy to use the name "Rohingya'' after arriving in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A small group of Rohingya refugees were brought to Dhaka to meet the Pope. There was a man in this group whose 3-year-old son was killed by the Myanmar army. His message to the Pope was clear. He was not seeking humanitarian relief for his fellow Rohingya refugees, not even justice for his own child, he wanted something entirely different that goes to heart of the issue - the Pope should say the word "we are Rohingya". In Dhaka, the Pope has tried to reclaim his moral authority by declaring "The presence of God today is also called Rohingya''.
The heart of the issue is Rohingya identity. The Rohingyas are fighting to retain their identity for which hundreds and thousands died already over the five to six decades and right now one million Rongayas are living in squalid refugee camps in the border area of Bangladesh.
In the very recent past the government of Bangladesh signed an agreement with Myanmar to repatriate Rohingyas, but details of the deal have not yet been made public. But one thing is clear to all, when the refugees are to go back, they must go back to their homes strictly under the UN supervision, and definitely not to resettlement camps which for all practical purposes are concentration camps in Myanmar. Whatever might or might not be in the deal, unless and until the core of the issue is addressed, no durable solution to the crisis can be achieved. The core of the issue is Rohingyas' claim to their ethnicity. The political struggle for the Rohingyas is fundamentally a struggle to retain their ethnic identity. Their ethnicity claim is not negotiable nor will anything short of full recognition of their ethnicity resolve the issue.
The writer is an independent economic and political analyst.
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