In the Claws of the Next Asian Tiger

Photo: AFP

The new international significance of Myanmar can be judged by the fact that the US president chose this country as his first destination abroad. This first ever visit by an US president to the hitherto forbidden land also signals the end of international isolation for the country. Since 2011, when the nominally civilian government led by President Thein Sein assumed power, an era of political and economic reform has descended on the country, ending their isolated position in the community of nations. This has been made possible by the more relaxed political atmosphere where hundreds of political prisoners have been released, and many opposition leaders, most notably Aung Saan Suu Kyi have been allowed to return to public life. No longer is the name of Myanmar mentioned in the same sentence as repressive and backward states such as North Korea. Rather Myanmar is predicted by many as the next 'Asian Tiger', a far cry from the international pariah status it suffered before President Thein Sein took over.
However, as Myanmar seems destined to roll on a seemingly smooth road to prosperity and democracy, it seems determined to do so without some of the country's ethnic minorities. The most notable of them are the Rohingyas of Arakan (Rakhine) province, a community considered as aliens in their native land. Last year, in a span of three months, the Rakhine province has gone up in flames twice, once in June and then in October. In both instances, the Rohingyas have been at the receiving end of pillaging Rakhine mobs and a hostile state machinery. Authorities claim that 200 people, mostly Rohingyas have been killed, though human rights groups estimate the figure to be many times higher. The current situation of the province remains volatile, and likely to go up in flames any time.
Following the 2012 violence, approximately 115,000 people, mostly Rohingyas, have been displaced. The entire Rakhine province is segregated along ethnic lines. As Rakhines dominate the province, Rohingyas have lost out more in the process, their homes destroyed and their property seized. Refugee camps have sprung up in the Rakhine province.
The conditions of the refugee camps, which are segregated, vary according to the ethnicity inhabiting it. Rakhines are free to move in or out of their camps, food is provided to them, and basic living conditions are maintained by the authorities.

In contrast, the Rohingya refugee camps are literal hellholes. Rohingyas are imprisoned in the refugee camps, without sufficient food, sanitation and lodging.
Hundreds of Rohingyas have been imprisoned by the authorities on trumped up charges of instigating riots. At least 68 have been tortured to death in custody.
The majority Buddhist Rakhines of the province regard the Rohingyas as illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, a sentiment echoed by the rest of Myanmar. The dark complexion of their skin, the grounds for many a derogatory slang in Myanmar, and their Muslim faith are seen as foreign imports from South Asia. As Myanmar, previously known as Burma gained independence from the British, the Rohingyas soon discovered that they are being regarded as foreigners in their homeland.
Since then, their situation have rapidly degenerated to a point to which they have become one of the most persecuted communities in the world. Even in a country known for their notorious crackdown on ethnic minorities, special hatred has been reserved for the Rohingyas. Arbitrary killings, rape, property confiscation, theft and so on, perpetuated by the authorities in cohort with the Rakhines, are widespread. The phenomenon, very common since the military junta took over in 1962, can be described as 'slow burning genocide', devised to escape international attention but quietly and gradually achieving the ultimate intention -- complete ethnic cleansing and/or driving the Rohingyas into Bangladesh. The slow burning genocide is still ongoing, conducted by the authorities in cohort with pillaging Rakhine mobs and is being cheered by a large portion of the Myanmar populace, most notably the Buddhist monkhood.
At a time when 'the winds of change' are sweeping across Myanmar, the embattled Rohingyas might have expected support from within the country. Instead, different sections of the Myanmar populace reacted with hostility and fresh bigotry, language that seems eerily similar to the rhetoric directed against the Jews of Nazi Germany, or the Asians of Idi Amin's Uganda, or any other populace earmarked to be wiped from the face of a nation.
On September 2, the Buddhist monks of Myanmar flooded the streets of Myanmar openly petitioning for the suppression of Rohingyas. Buddhist monks are famed for their loving kindness of all human beings. But this is a country where Buddhist monks have been at the forefront of the pogroms directed against the Muslims of Myanmar. The rally supported Myanmar President Thein Sein's suggestion that the Rohingya population in Myanmar should be put in camps and sent across the border to Bangladesh or any other nation that would accept them. This is the biggest rally to have taken place in Myanmar since the Monk's protests of 2007.
Incidentally almost one tenth of the estimated 800,000 Rohingya population of Myanmar is effectively imprisoned in camps. Had Bangladesh opened their borders, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas would have flooded into the country. Currently there are an estimated 400,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and the country is determined not to accept any more. Many of them reside in sub human conditions in refugee camps, vindicated by the local populace and the administration who see them as a burden on their impoverished country.
For many Rohingyas, what was more disappointing for them was the lack of concern shown by the democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi. In 1988, when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) participated in what was the country's last democratically election, all the seats in the Rohingya populated areas went to the party. Most Rohingyas will to this day unanimously declare their unwavering support for the NLD and Suu Kyi. For a long time, the Rohingyas had counted on Suu Kyi and the NLD to rescue them. They would be bitterly disappointed.
Suu Kyi, like all successful politicians had read the pulse of her nation very well. She sensed that the vast majority of Myanmar's populace regards this unfortunate community as outcasts. Her reactions on the bloody violence of Rakhine province can at best be described as evasive. It is evident that the Nobel peace laureate does not want to draw flak from her electorate by siding with the Rohingyas.
As Myanmar enters a new era of liberalisation, the Rohingyas seem to be increasingly targeted for ethnic cleansing, with few in Myanmar prepared to protect them. On the other hand, the international community, awed by the speed of reforms in Myanmar, and lured by the prospect of gold in this resource rich country can be expected to do little to ease the sufferings of the Rohingyas. 2013 holds little optimism for the beleaguered Rohingya community.

Shudeepto Ariquzzaman is a freelance writer.