Suu Kyi's delayed realisation

It is intriguing that Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's de facto civilian leader, realises the Rohingya crisis was not handled in a way that it should have been. We wonder whether she also acknowledges that the consequence of her government's so-called mishandling of the crisis, which has come as a cynical afterthought to her, has been extremely painful for nearly a million people. After all, she has been in near-complete denial that fundamental human rights of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya minorities were severely violated in what merits to be called a genocidal military campaign.

Ms Kyi is being too soft on her government and herself. To say that the crisis was "mishandled" is a shameful attempt to play down the severity of the brutality and terror that were inflicted on the Rohingyas.

It was a deliberate brutal campaign against the Rohingya minorities enthusiastically initiated by Myanmar's military, having exploited the ultra-nationalistic hatred inflamed by religious extremists, while her civilian administration watched silently, if not actively partook in it.

Suu Kyi also said that one cannot cherry-pick "who should be protected by rule of law." It is, in fact, the other way around; her government continues to choose to not protect and, even worse, endanger a specific community. Her comment simply echoes the typical nationalistic stereotype justifying the majoritarian rule.

Suu Kyi's apparent "change of heart" should not be taken at face value. It cannot be that you "mistakenly" killed thousands and forcibly expelled hundreds of thousands from their ancestral land. Myanmar's military knows, in retrospect, it has achieved exactly what it intended to do. Thus, it must be taken to task.