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Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, seen here during her official visit in June, continues her silence on atrocities in Rakhine state. 

By Charles Santiago
November 18, 2016

The worst is already happening in Rakhine State, Myanmar, with tens of Rohingya murdered, mutilated, and tortured. Unverified accounts have emerged of horrors, including children being thrown into burning homes by the Myanmar military, who are acting with total impunity.

This escalation of violence has been going on for weeks now, with the Rohingya diaspora and human rights advocates appealing for intervention and help through social media.

Yet the world is silent. There has not been a whimper from Asean or its member governments. Malaysia, a country with an added responsibility given its instrumental role in bringing Myanmar into the Asean fold, is quiet. The United Nations has not said very much, and the world superpowers are dismissive. No one believes that the butchering of Rohingya by the military is a worthy enough cause to take up.

It's even more appalling that such brutality is happening under the leadership of the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi. Once considered an icon of democracy, Ms Suu Kyi has simply disappeared, much to the disappointment of allies who once considered her worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize that she won while under house arrest in 1991.

Human rights activists, civil society representatives, and even political leaders from neighbouring countries have lost faith in her, and even more so when she turned a blind eye to the sacking of Myanmar Times journalist Fiona McGregor, who was fired after she reported that security forces had raped Rohingya women. Ms Suu Kyi has not ordered an exhaustive and comprehensive probe into the allegations.

Instead, the military and police have upped attacks against Rohingya, including air strikes last weekend. Access to areas which are under siege by security forces has been denied for diplomats, journalists and humanitarian aid workers, meaning there is no way for independent observers to verify the government's claims.

The world catches glimpses of the horror inflicted on Rohingya men, women and children through the photos and short videos captured by people on the ground. But stakeholders, regional bodies such as Asean, and governments, including Malaysia, have not acted to stop the targeted killings and sexual assaults on a group of helpless people.

This is unconscionable. This is about a group of men in uniform, without public objection from the NLD government, unleashing violence against the Rohingya seemingly without regard for civilian life. And every one of us will be complicit in these crimes, which are being carried out with impunity, if we remain silent.

Asean, government leaders, the United Nations, and international organisations must therefore come together to exert pressure on Myanmar to stop these atrocities.

This humanitarian crisis could lead to another exodus of the Rohingya to neighbouring countries through a perilous sea journey. This would mean another round of abuse, victimisation, and horror at the hands of traffickers.

It would mean Rohingya children being forcefully married off to traffickers to settle money owed by their parents for the boat rides.

This is happening in our backyard. Asean must therefore demonstrate its commitment to the Asean Charter and respond effectively, in accordance with the principle of comprehensive security, to all forms of transnational crimes and transboundary challenges.

It's also time for Asean to reaffirm its commitment to the Declaration Against Trafficking in Persons Particularly Women and Children, adopted in 2004.

As violence in Rakhine State continues to escalate, silence equals complicity. Asean as a region has a duty to act.

Charles Santiago is a member of the Parliament of Malaysia and Chairperson of Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR).

A Rohingya man is seen at a fishing port at a refugee camp outside Sittwe in Myanmar, on Oct 29, 2015. (Reuters photo)

Bangkok Post
September 18, 2016

The situation of the Rohingya boat people may have eased for now, but "humane and sustainable solutions" are still a long way off as only one-third of those people have been resettled, human rights activists and the United Nations say. 

There are 329 migrants (313 Myanmar Muslims from Rakhine State and 16 Bangladeshi migrants) in six Immigration Detention Centres, five Shelters for Children and Families, and five Welfare Protection Centres for Victims of Trafficking in Thailand, according to the six-page report titled ''Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea Crisis Response'' by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM). 

Of the 329, 68 are women, 117 are men and 144 are children, said the report released this week, avoiding the controversial term Rohingya. 

The plight of the Rohingya reached a critical point early last year when thousands of them stranded at sea and countries in the region had to come forward to help. 

Over the past 15 months, international agencies estimate that as many as 88,000 men, women, and children have traveled from Bangladesh and Burma in boats to Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia, said Human Rights Watch. 

Bangkok hosted the Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean in May and December while Malaysia hosted a similar one in April last year. Indonesia also hosted the region-wide Bali Process conference. 

At least 5,543 people who departed from Myanmar and Bangladesh managed to land in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand, between May 10 and July 30, 2015. Another 1,500 people departed from Myanmar and Bangladesh and landed in Thailand between September to December last year, said the report. 

About one-third of the boat people, or 2,688 Bangladeshis, who landed in May last year in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand have returned to Bangladesh under the IOM's Assisted Voluntary Return Programme and government agreements. 

However, a January-June 2016 report by the UN High Commission on Refugee released last month showed conflicting figures. 

Roughly 10% of those abandoned in May last year by smugglers in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman remain detained or in confined shelters, but the vast majority are either residing in refugee communities or have returned home, the UNHCR said. 

There have now been no large-scale mixed maritime movements in Southeast Asia since the events of May 2015, it said. 

Of the two-thirds of migrants, almost all have been repatriated. More than 600 of the refugees have been or are in the process of being resettled, including 47 particularly vulnerable migrants who departed for resettlement countries in the first half of 2016. 

"There is a small resettlement programme from Thailand for this group currently in immigration detention or government shelters, but the numbers are very small given the limited number of resettlement places around the world," said UNHCR spokeswoman Vivian Tan. 

Echoing Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Volker Türk's call in Bangkok last December to allow asylum-seekers to contribute to the economies of the host countries, Chris Lewa, Arakan Project director, said Rohingya in Thailand are still kept in indefinite detention. 

"This is inhumane and unacceptable. Rohingya are stateless and fleeing persecution," said Ms Lewa. Attempting to send them back to Myanmar would also be refoulement, "but, most importantly, Myanmar would not readmit them", he said.

(Photo: Reuters)

By Larry Jagan
Bangkok Post
August 14, 2016

The NLD continues to urge patience as it starts to transform Myanmar, but critics see little evidence of change after its first 100 days in power

It is now more than four months since Aung San Suu Kyi took power -- forming the country's first civilian government for more than 50 years. 

But the public euphoria that followed her National League for Democracy's overwhelming electoral victory last November has subsided. There is increasing criticism of the lack of change and the absence of clear policies during her first 100 days of official governance.

The promises that followed victory at the polls have left many people confused and irritated.

"The main change I've experienced in the last three months is that the price of eggs has jumped from 100 kyat each to 150 kyat," complained May Kyi, an 80-year-old pensioner who voted for the NLD, although she preferred to blame the previous government for this rather than Ms Suu Kyi.

Food prices have risen significantly since April and the Central Bank of Myanmar recently put the Consumer Price Index at 12.14%.

Inflation since the new government took over is running at over 10%, according to bankers, like Soe Thain, the deputy general manager of the Asia Green Development Bank.

Consumers believe the figure is closer to double that. Hanthar Myint, an NLD economic adviser and member of the party's central executive committee, acknowledged prices were rising significantly and that the government had no clear handle on the actual situation, which in turn hampers policy decisions. "We don't have reliable figures or data," he told Spectrum.

POLICY VACUUM

This is seen as symptomatic of a general malaise in government. Critics say the country is directionless, amid an acute policy vacuum.

"There are no policies, plans or strategy," said KK Hlaing, owner of the Smart group of companies and a political commentator.

As a result there is an intense inertia in government administration, with the business community in particular frustrated by the government's repeated delays in announcing the new economic policy. When it was finally unveiled at the end of July, it left many business people disappointed as it was too general and failed to give details of how the new government was going to boost economic growth and further liberalise the economy.

In the meantime, Ms Suu Kyi as State Counsellor, the key position she created for herself in April which effectively makes her the equivalent of the prime minister, is distracted by the peace process, to the exclusion of all else, according to some analysts.

"But she should not neglect the economy," said KK Hlaing. "If business grows, the country grows. Otherwise there is a danger of social and economic unrest, which would certainly threaten the country's stability."

"The government is rudderless," said a Myanmar businessman who deals directly with several ministers, on condition of anonymity. "It's like a ship without a helmsman."

CABINET RESHUFFLE?

Part of the problem, according to many Myanmar academics and business people, is the cabinet.

"These ministers lack credibility," said Nay Zin Latt, a former political adviser to president Thein Sein and founder of the National Development Party which did not win a seat in the November elections. "It's a team of nobodies, idealess and docile."

Most observers believe many of the ministers are only temporary, meant to pacify the bureaucracy and start to develop a plan of action for each ministry.

After only four months in office, a major cabinet reshuffle seems to be in the pipeline. According to NLD insiders, the selection of the ministers was part of a deliberate strategy. All the ministers are in their sixties and seventies -- many with previous government experience as bureaucrats.

Critics charge they are likely to be cautious in their policy approaches and the pace of change.

Stability, for the moment, appears to be the government watchword.

"Ministers must have a passion for the country, passion for the people and initiate dramatic change," said KK Hlaing. "This lot are too worried about doing something wrong, being reprimanded or sacked."

Many Myanmar academics, businessmen and social activists fear the new government has chosen stability over development.

One key consequence of the NLD's failure to grapple with the problems facing the country, is that government administration remains paralysed, with no clear policy positions in most sectors and most ministers and bureaucrats waiting to be told what to do.

"The public servants are sitting at their desks doing nothing while waiting for instructions from above," Hanthar Myint said.

Since the cabinet was sworn in, Ms Suu Kyi has continued to be careful not to upset the bureaucrats.

The former parliamentary speaker, Shwe Mann -- who was the third most important general in the regime before the 2010 elections -- has been a key adviser to Ms Suu Kyi and counselled her early on to be careful not to pick unnecessary fights or antagonise the bureaucracy.

She has followed that advice stringently. Ms Suu Kyi warned her MPs not to criticise the country's public servants and told senior party officials to be patient and not put pressure on them to change just yet.

RULED BY FRUSTRATION

Originally, the permanent secretaries -- the top public servant in each ministry and appointed by the previous government some 18 months ago -- were seen by the NLD as essential for the continuity of management and policy, something Hanthar Myint confided shortly after the elections. Uncertainty dominates all the positions in Myanmar public service, but it is even more unsettling for the top ranks of the ministries: directors-general and directors.

Most ministers are unable to provide leadership, leaving much to the permanent secretaries. In most ministries this has resulted in inactivity and confusion.

There is no incentive to perform even the perfunctory tasks of the job. As a result there are bottlenecks in the system.

A senior official in the agriculture ministry recently summed up the situation: "Before, top government officials were ruled by fear, now we're ruled by frustration."

Businessmen complain that nothing is happening, that ministers seem loathe to make decisions and that the government generally is overwhelmed. The Myanmar Investment Commission -- which approves foreign investment projects and joint ventures -- was recently reconstituted and only met for the first time in June. It has met twice since then -- though few joint ventures and foreign investment projects have been approved.

Foreign direct investment -- a significant part of the government's economic strategy -- has fallen to a trickle, according to government officials. MIC figures show foreign investment stood at $381 million (13.3 billion baht) for the first quarter of this fiscal year, about a sixth of the previous year when Myanmar attracted a total of $9.48 billion.

But there have been reasons for this hiatus, as businessmen -- especially foreign investors -- are quietly waiting for the government to announce its policies and priorities. There are exceptions of course, with Asian entrepreneurs, especially from Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, anxious to increase their toehold in the country.

SAME OLD PROBLEM

Another key issue re-emerging is corruption: though not among the ministers, but bureaucrats, especially in the state and regional governments.

"Things haven't changed," said one Myanmar businessman.

"Corruption is endemic," complained KK Hlaing. "Corruption is evident in every sector and every region. The higher the position, the greater the corruption."

But most Myanmar businessmen believe Ms Suu Kyi's uncompromising stand on corruption has set an example for all her ministers.

"Corruption remains a huge challenge for the government," said Maung Maung Lay, vice-chairman of the Union of Myanmar's Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

"What is needed is a master plan for how the government intends to stamp out corruption, and as yet nothing concrete has been done, though the intention is there."

RELIGIOUS DIVIDE

In the meantime, the NLD is carefully choosing its battles in the post-election period: ones that are seen as crucial to the government's long-term strategy. For some years there has been a festering battle between the NLD and the Buddhist nationalist movement -- Ma Ba Tha, or the Committee for the Protection of Race and Religion.

In government, the Union Solidarity and Development Party used them as a battering ram against the NLD -- particularly Ms Suu Kyi -- accusing her of being pro-Muslim. The NLD struggled with the issue last year -- and took every step to avoid any direct confrontation with the movement, especially the firebrand monk Ashin Wirathu.

The NLD went as far as to ban the selection of Muslim candidates in last year's election for fear of inflaming religious tensions, according to a senior NLD leader.

The NLD's massive electoral victory was a shock and rebuff to the movement, which thought it had captured the minds of the Buddhists at least -- which make up the vast majority of the country.

Recently Ashin Wirathu seemed to be making a cautious comeback, holding several high-profile rallies in Yangon and Mandalay -- his home base. But the NLD took on Ma Ba Tha, calling for it to be disbanded because it had no religious authority.

In this battle, the party seems to be winning. The Buddhist ruling body has declared that it was never sanctioned or agreed to. In an important ruling, it said that Ma Ba Tha had no official Buddhist status and the Sangha may even disband it altogether in the near future. This has been greeted with approval by many Myanmar citizens, and has been a significant win for the NLD, and for the time being at least has reduced the group's influence.

THE LONG PEACE

Also on the positive side, a recent series of meetings between Ms Suu Kyi and the leaders of ethnic armed groups -- who have been fighting for autonomy for more than 60 years -- has increased the likelihood that planned 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference will take place at the end of this month, after which the renewed peace process could bring an end to hostilities in ethnic areas -- especially in Kachin and Shan state -- and provide an impetus for political dialogue, which envisages making Myanmar a federal state.

This is still somewhat precarious, but it has also revealed that the relationship between the NLD and the military has improved since the "tug-of-war" immediately after the election.

Ms Suu Kyi has held several secret meetings with army commander-in-chief Sen Gen Min Aung Hlaing -- largely about the peace process and constitutional change. Several public meetings between the two also highlight the growing warmth and understanding between them -- which also augurs well for the country's future.

So as the government completes its first four months in office -- or first hundred days, which the NLD dates from the beginning of May rather than April -- the conventional honeymoon period, there seems to have been little change so far. Be patient, is the mantra of senior government officials.

But the growing public unease is unlikely to be placated until the government announces its plan of action for all the ministries -- which was expected to be the key results of the first "100 days" of government.

"Nothing is actually worse now, and at best much has been done, is ready to go and will be unveiled in detail in the near future," said Sean Turnell, an expert on Myanmar's economy at Sydney's Macquarie University and an informal adviser to Ms Suu Kyi, in an email interview.

"Above all, the entire system is much more stable and predictable. Fifty years of arbitrary and irrational decision-making has been replaced by, whatever the complaints about the pace of change, with something that is essentially just 'normal' political economy."

Comedian and political activist Zaganar said, "We should be cautiously optimistic."

What is clear is that while the middle classes -- academics, businessmen and professionals -- may be disappointed and frustrated, the mass of the population which voted the NLD into power, remain hopeful and supportive.

"It's best to be safe, slow and sure," said Win Lwin, a 40-year-old taxi driver in Yangon who voted for the NLD. "We trust Auntie and are confident she will succeed in making the country better for everyone."

But for how long will they be patient?

"We have a year to meet their expectations," senior NLD leader and patron Tin Oo said shortly after the election results.



By Editorial Board
Bangkok Post
July 8, 2016

Mob attacks against Rohingya Muslim communities and the burning of mosques in Myanmar's northern Kachin state and Bago Region in the past weeks remind many of us that there seems to be no end in sight for the chronic and terrifying anti-Muslim violence.

The violence is driven by Buddhist extremists against this minority group in our neighbouring country.

It is worse when those who fall prey to violence are marginalised people who are not entitled to any basic rights. In the latest incidents, security forces stood by and offered no protection.

Despite much hope being pinned on the National League for Democracy-led government, the ongoing violence against Rohingya demonstrates one fact: There is no difference between the Myanmar military regime and the civilian government under de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on this matter.

Upon her election victory, Ms Suu Kyi pledged to prioritise the peace process and end the country's chronic ethnic conflicts. But, sadly, that priority and the peace effort under her leadership has so far excluded the Rohingya while including other ethnic groups. It should be noted that during her recent official visit to Thailand, Ms Suu Kyi succeeded in advocating for the rights of Myanmar migrant workers, a minority here. She however has been cautious in doing the same for the Rohingya -- a minority at home.

Having suffered persecution and discrimination for decades, the Rohingya have endured another round of bloodshed and violence in the predominantly Buddhist nation after tensions between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingya erupted and boiled over in 2012. At least 200 Rohingya men, woman and children were killed and over 100,00 of them fled their homes to live in crowded camps.

Fleeing persecution at home by boat and trying to enter Muslim countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia via Thailand, tens of thousands of them have fallen prey to human traffickers, been killed at sea or forced to work under hellish conditions.

Upon her return from a 12-day trip to Myanmar last week, United Nations rights investigator Yanghee Lee warned that religious tensions remained pervasive and called for the government to end institutionalised discrimination against Muslim communities. She also asked the government to investigate the latest attacks and hold the perpetrators to account.

Ms Suu Kyi and her government should heed the call of the UN rights investigator. Practical measures to protect this minority from sporadic but prolonged violence and enforce the rule of law against perpetrators are urgently needed.

Meanwhile, long-term solutions to root out the anti-Muslim rhetoric and pave the way for granting the Rohingya basic rights including citizenship should be part of the government's priorities.

The government's recent effort to alternatively refer to Rohingya as "Muslim communities in Rakhine" has failed to keep the tension from boiling over. Buddhist nationalists, who brand the Rohingya as immigrants from Bangladesh, still find the term unacceptable.

While changing the public's hostile sentiment toward the Rohingya may take time, it is essential that the Myanmar government use laws to investigate the violence and prosecute the abusers. This will send out the key message that acts of violence will not be tolerated.

As a popular politician, Ms Suu Kyi should not only think about maintaining popular support. She must do more to end the widespread rights abuses and transform Myanmar into a more open-minded country that will ensure sustainable peace.

Is Burma under Aung San Suu Kyi moving towards democracy, or a form of "liberal authoritarianism"?

By Johanna Son
Bangkok Post
May 24, 2016

A tenuous civilian-military dance. Simmering Burman Buddhist nationalism. An impatient populace that is struggling with rising prices and power cuts, amid record-high GDP growth. A popular but inexperienced political leadership inching toward what some call “liberal authoritarianism”.

All these make for a powder keg of apprehension and impatience, at times reluctantly expressed but nevertheless real, that is fast tempering the heady optimism about Burma’s political change nearly two months into the Aung San Suu Kyi-led government.

This sense of discomfort peppered much of the insights from political figures to business people to academics and activists at the Myanmar Forum 2016, which was organised by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore on 20 May.

“It’s not only that people expect too much … but people are trying to endure,” political leader and activist Ko Ko Gyi said, adding that Burmese people are impatient after decades of deprivation not only for political freedoms but for the basic essentials of life.

Ko Ko Gyi, general secretary of the 88 Generation who spent 19 years in prison under the military regime, used an anecdote about frequent power outages to explain that youngsters may not be as patient as older people who were part of the pro-democracy struggle when it comes to waiting for change.

“I can endure [things like] what was my second home, my prison. But my nine-month old baby daughter, when the electricity is shut down, she cries a lot,” he said. “I’m just always holding the fan in the hand but I try to endure this because I want the National League for Democracy [NLD party] to [achieve] success. So many [Burmese] people have expectations but they are ready to endure.”

Just do it

The government led by State Counsellor Suu Kyi and her NLD does not have a lot of time to produce results and must urgently decide on its priorities, Ko Ko Gyi said, be it about the peace process, constitutional changes and policies on the economy, electricity, education.

“This is not an everlasting period. It’s about how much our people can endure,” he added. “In the short, medium and long term, we need to set priorities. If not, we are talking about a variety of issues but we cannot solve anything.”

The NLD has not been laying down concrete policy, instead issuing “rhetorical” pronouncements on foreign and economy policy, said Min Zin, an analyst and a veteran of the 1988 student uprising. “[As activists] we tend to confuse, conflate slogans with programmes. The NLD government is now suffering from this confusion.”

In March, the Suu Kyi-led government announced a 100-day programme, which was to have started on 1 May, to show quick results. The government said it would make daily announcements about this on Facebook and a phone hotline, but there have been few details.

A feeling of waiting — and more waiting — for the government to make decisions and lay down policies reigns among different sectors.

The deep fissures in Burmese society, and the gulf between state and society, make the stakes of inaction or miscalculation by the NLD even higher. These fissures include trust issues between the government and the ethnic groups, the unstable compromise between civilian and military and decades-old distrust across communities in society.

“If we had to reduce the problems of the peace process to one word, it would be trust-building,” said Kyaw Yin Hlaung, director of the Center of Diversity and National Harmony.

The end to ethnic groups’ fighting came during Thein Sein’s military-backed government due to “personal-based trust between negotiators from both sides”, he recalled. “This is the legacy of Thein Sein,” Kyaw Yin Hlaung said. “But the government never managed to build this trust at the systemic level.”

Despite the NLD government’s decision to hold a “21st century Panglong Conference” with ethnic groups, few expect radical change from it.

The military has the edge when it comes to dealing with ethnic unrest, not least due to the pressure to produce results.

“Suu Kyi does not have much preparation on how to proceed. At the end she will likely adopt the military position as a default policy choice,” except for small changes like giving a new name to the organisation leading the peace process, Min Zin said. “Politically speaking, her view is more or less the same as the military.”

Broken society

“The almost impossible barriers to overcome are the deep divisions in Myanmar [Burmese] society. It’s a sense of despair, especially from ordinary people, about the future of their kids,” the University of Washington’s Mary Callahan said. Over six decades of repression under a national-security mindset, on top of their isolation from the outside world, Burma’s people have had “negative socialisation over and over and distrust of anyone outside your intimate circle”, she said.

This same distrust of a “broken” society later bred “deeply distorted expectations” of Suu Kyi if she ever came into power, Callahan added.

“It’s been 15, 20 years since taxi drivers and rickshaw drivers have been telling me that when Aung San Suu Kyi is elected, there will be no more traffic, corruption, floods like last year, dengue fever. Street dogs will be gone and global warming will end, and everyone will have electricity for 24 hours,” she told the forum. But as patience thins, people now call the power outages “Daw Suu power cuts”, Callahan said.

While moves like the release of political prisoners are welcome, these are “elite-level reforms” that don’t affect people’s ordinary lives much, she said. They are more concerned about land-grabbing, poverty and inclusive growth.

“The opportunity has been opened for the new government, as the NLD holds 80 percent of seats. They can amend the law or dissolve an existing law by simple majority. This is easy to implement; this is the opportunity,” Ko Ko Gyi pointed out. “How much can we make use of this opportunity? How can we improve the daily lives of people?”

Not a few reminded Suu Kyi that her pro-democracy origins require her to use consultative processes — and look beyond today to build democratic institutions that will make sure democratisation stays.

Benevolent authoritarianism?

Putting the NLD in electoral power is not the be-all and end-all of the struggle for democracy, so “there is a need to bring in all stakeholders”, Min Zin stressed, including civil society that has been sidelined by the government. “The goal must be go to beyond getting an electoral mandate; otherwise, what we have is benevolent authoritarianism.”

ISEAS’ Tin Maung Maung Than questioned the huge political power in Suu Kyi’s hands after the state counsellor’s portfolio was created to make her the country’s top leader in addition to her two cabinet posts. “We are changing from illiberal pluralism to liberal authoritarianism — but it can still change from illiberal pluralism to quasi-liberal democracy too because it’s only been less than 100 days.”

As it is, Tin Maung Maung Than said many find worrisome the arrests of anti-government protesters, since these sectors, which include workers, are part of those who invested in the democratic struggle.

“They [the government] need to listen to what is really happening, but only getting information from the party is not enough,” Ko Ko Gyi said. “We need to make open civil society and local media, so they can have a different perspective to find a solution.”

NLD has tended to “sideline mediating institutions” like civil society, political parties and media, but their involvement is key to governance, Min Zin pointed out. Suu Kyi’s bypassing of these is creating “a populist sentiment such as the Suu Kyi consensus, and if you deviate from the Suu Kyi consensus, you will be named and shamed, especially in social media”, he warned.

Buddhist monks attend a Ma Ba Tha ceremony to mark the approval of race and religious laws at Thuwana stadium in Yangon. The nationalist Buddhist network won an award for its good work to protect Buddhism in Thailand last month. (EPA photo)

By Sanitsuda Ekachai
March 23, 2016

Ma Ba Tha is known across the world as a racist Buddhist organisation. Its work fans the flames of hatred and violence against Muslims in Myanmar, particularly the Rohingya in Rakhine State. Its most prominent leader is Ashin Wirathu, dubbed the "bin Laden of Buddhism" for his violent, religious extremism. 

Last month, Ma Ba Tha, or the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion, received an award in Thailand for being an "outstanding Buddhist peace" organisation. The firebrand monk attended the ceremony and received a red-carpet welcome by members of the Thai clergy.

Does this mean the clergy endorses militant Buddhist nationalism?

No Thai monk would openly admit to that. But shared Islamophobia and the clergy's current push to make Buddhism the official state religion point to a dangerous precedent.

The questionable award first became public last week when a Facebook post by academic Somrit Luechai showed Ashin Wirathu at the award ceremony which was presided over by an elder from the Supreme Sangha Council.

Other pictures from Ashin Wirathu's Facebook page showed "The Face of Buddhist Terror", as the controversial monk is dubbed by Time magazine, receiving a hearty welcome at the Dhammakaya Temple and Mahachulalongkorn Rajavidyalaya University. 

Mr Somrit strongly condemned the award being given to a militant monk whose campaigns of hate have triggered mass killings of Rohingya Muslims. He also named Dhammakaya and Maha Chula as collaborators in the ceremony which he described as an abuse of Buddhism and an endorsement of hatred and violence.

Maha Chula is at the centre of the clergy's campaigns to make Buddhism the state religion and another supporting Somdet Phra Maha Ratchamangalacharn, also known as Somdet Chuang, to become the next supreme patriarch.

Since Somdet Chuang and the centre's links with the highly controversial Dhammakaya Temple are public knowledge, Mr Somrit's posts immediately triggered an online outcry and concerns that Dhammakaya would lead the country toward religious extremism.

Maha Chula, Dhammakaya, and the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth (WFBY) quickly came out to distance themselves from the controversial monk, albeit unconvincingly.

A Dhammakaya spokesperson denied organising the World Buddhist Outstanding Leader Award on Feb 23 which took place at AIT Auditorium. The temple also denied inviting the militant monk to Dhammakaya, saying he was there to attend the Maka Bucha ceremony. Photos from Ashin Wirathu's Facebook page showed he was not treated as just another ordinary visitor.

Maha Chula adopted a similar line, denying both involvement with the award and having extended an invitation to Ashin Wirathu to visit the Buddhist university, insisting the monk was there on his own to meet Myanmar students. Photos from his Facebook page also showed a hearty welcome from a group of monks who sported a banner that read "We love Wirathu".

The award was actually organised by a group called World Buddhist Leaders Organisation, chaired by Dr Pornchai Pinyapong who is also president of the WFBY. But the award was not for Ashin Wirathu, he insisted. It was for "peace organisation Ma Ba Tha" for its outstanding achievements to protect Buddhism in Myanmar. 

Ma Ba Tha, a peace organisation? Does he pretend not to know Ashin Wirathu is the face of that organisation?

According to Dr Pornchai, Ma Ba Tha succeeded in pushing for a set of laws that promote religious harmony in Myanmar. They include a law prohibiting Buddhists from marrying people of different religions (read: Islam); the law on monogamy (read: to stop Muslim men from having multiple wives and too many children); and the law forcing some women (read: Muslim women) to space pregnancies by at least three years.

At present, he said poverty forces many Buddhist parents to sell their daughters into marriage with men of different religions (read: Islam again). The laws designed by Ma Ba Tha then protect Buddhist women from facing hardship and violence when marrying non-Buddhists, he added.

I reread his explanations several times and still failed to understand why the laws that reflect religious paranoia and racial hatred, portending to prevent an "Islamic invasion", are viewed as fostering religious harmony, and why the organisation propagating such oppression is considered peaceful.

The WFBY must really admire Ma Ba Tha's work. Last year, it reportedly donated over one million baht for the organisation to build two radio stations with the aim of spreading its message to a wider audience. Ashin Wirathu was reportedly present to thank the Thai delegation personally for the donation.

The organiser also praised Ma Ba Tha for setting up schools nationwide to teach youngsters about the traditions of Myanmar and Buddhism. 

Whether we agree with Ma Ba Tha's ideology or not, it is a fact that it is a very powerful organisation.

Anti-Muslim sentiments spewed by Ma Ba Tha and Ashin Wirathu have been so fierce that even Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi chose to keep silent amid the Rohingya massacres. Her party did not even dare field any Muslim candidates.

Here, the clergy are so weak that their nomination for the next supreme patriarch can simply be ignored by the government, as can their proposal for a state religion.

They only have themselves to blame. Temple corruption, monk misconduct, luxurious lifestyles and the total inefficiency of the Sangha Council have resulted in declining public faith in the clergy, which is aggravated further by their meddling in divisive politics.

The positive side to the clergy's downgrading is that while they strive to become as powerful as Ma Ba Tha, it will not be possible for them to become as destructive. Although the clergy tries to find scapegoats for its own problems by blaming other religions, any moves by the clergy to strengthen its own power through ultra-nationalism will always be tamed by opposing forces that do not exist in Myanmar.

We need to avoid the lethal mix of ultra-nationalism, racism and religion currently spreading across Theravada Buddhist countries. What can save us from this destructive militancy is not the clergy's wisdom, but its own weaknesses.

Sanitsuda Ekachai is former editorial pages editor, Bangkok Post.



By Suhas Chakma
November 22, 2015

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in the general election in Myanmar on Nov 8, 2015. The blasphemous question is whether Ms Suu Kyi’s supreme power in the NLD will soon pose a challenge to democratic Myanmar.

Ms Suu Kyi’s silence on the Rohingya issue has received international censure but her democratic credentials, as opposed to her campaign against the military dictatorship, have seldom been scrutinised. The NLD lacks inner party democracy and history is against Ms Suu Kyi.

It is precisely because Ms Suu Kyi lacks a team, unlike many pro-democracy leaders. The Myanmar pro-democracy movement has been mostly about her. The founder of non-violent mass political movements Mahatma Gandhi never had to participate in governance and, within the Congress Party, democracy was entrenched. Gandhi’s candidate for Congress President Dr Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya, was defeated by Subhas Chandra Bose in the party elections held in 1939.

During 27 years of imprisonment, Nelson Mandela became the symbol of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa but the African National Congress in the meantime had been led by distinguished leaders such as Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, etc. The NLD lacked such leaders at home while the government of Burma in exile died a natural death for want of leaders of high stature, among other reasons.

Since her release from house arrest, Ms Suu Kyi has shown glimpses of authoritarianism. Seventeen members of Myanmar’s respected “88 generation” were denied NLD tickets to contest the Nov 8 general election. Earlier, reformist Dr Thein Lwin was sacked from the NLD’s auxiliary Central Committee in February 2015 for lending support to the students protesting against the adoption of the National Education Law supported by the NLD in parliament in September 2014. Ms Suu Kyi called on demonstrators to abandon plans for an ill-fated protest march from Mandalay to Yangon in January 2015 but the students refused. Those who defy or question her decisions have been purged. The statement of Ms Suu Kyi on Nov 10 that the elected president of Myanmar “will have no authority, and will act in accordance with the decisions of the party … because in any democratic country, it’s the leader of the winning party that becomes the leader of the government” may be instructive.

While Ms Suu Kyi may still find a rubber-stamp president, the rule of the majority is unlikely to be handy for dealing with the ethnic minorities who have been waging wars against the majority Burmese for the past five decades.

The NLD could not forge any effective alliances with the ethnic minorities while opposing the junta. An effective alliance for power sharing with them may not last long considering the absolute majority of the NLD in parliament and the aspirations of the ethnic nationalities. Cease-fire agreements signed with seven out of the 15 ethnic minority armed groups in October 2015 remain in place but eight other armed groups including the powerful United Wa State Army and Kachin Independence Army remain outside the canvas.

Experiences from Scotland to Catalan of Spain show the struggle of mature Western democracies with the right of self-determination and resource sharing. Ms Suu Kyi has stated numerous times that she is a politician. Should the peace process fail, resulting in renewed armed conflicts, as head of the government or the ruling party, she is unlikely to hesitate to use the army against ethnic insurgents. Obviously, the Rohingya are unlikely to be her nemesis.

Ms Suu Kyi’s rule will however not be undone by the economy. Expectations remain low and the key economic challenge of Myanmar for the economy has been a reduction of Chinese control, one of the key factors behind the loosening of the junta's grip and the start of the democratisation process to facilitate Western investment to counter the Chinese.

Burmanisation of the economy is not new but has become more complex and challenging. In an attempt to Burmanise the business and administration, over 300,000 people of Indian origin were expelled by the architect of the military dictatorship Gen Ne Win in the 1960s. As Chinese have similar physical features to the Burmese they cannot be expelled like the Indians. Further, China holds a seat on the UN Security Council and the position of the second-largest economy in the world. The Myanmar Peace Centre established by the junta government alleged that the United Wa State Army and the Kachin Independence Army did not sign the cease-fire agreement in October 2015 because of Chinese pressure.

The history of transition of pro-democracy leaders into efficient public administrators is not in favour of Ms Suu Kyi. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the exception of Nelson Mandela, leaders of the Orange revolution in Ukraine, the Arab Spring or the Maoists of Nepal have failed miserably to deliver.

The NLD won because the people of Myanmar abhor the military but the NLD has been all about Ms Suu Kyi with the second in command, Chairman U Tin Oo being 88 years old. The absolute majority of the NLD and the lack of inner party democracy due to Ms Suu Kyi’s supreme power may soon become a stumbling block to a democratic Myanmar.

Suhas Chakma is director of the Asian Centre for Human Rights.



October 19, 2015

The monsoon season is ending in western Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal, and that foreshadows a problem. Reports from Bangladesh and Rakhine state of Myanmar are already serving up a warning: traffickers and their prospective Rohingya clients are gearing up to board boats and strike out again for Southeast Asia. A new wave of migrants appears certain.

Neither Thailand nor its affected neighbours appear prepared. Since it is unlikely the human traffickers or the desperate Rohingya will call off their plans, it is past time for the government and other countries to prepare.

Some of their planning will, by necessity, have to be kept secret; governments must not create conditions to attract illegal migrants. Almost all of last year's tragedies and troubles can be prevented, but if nothing changes, then nightmares will repeat.

One must put the blame for this state of affairs where it belongs. The authorities in Myanmar, up to and including President Thein Sein, have not been helpful in stemming the mass migration of the Royingha. Nay Pyi Taw, against all international law and practice, insists that Rohingya who have lived for generations in Rakhine state are not citizens. This basic error has led to the marginalisation of the Rohingya people, their exclusion from almost all opportunity and their descent into poverty, creating the desire to go somewhere, anywhere, to improve their lot in life.

Neither fellow Asean members, including Thailand, nor the world community has effectively called Myanmar to account for this reprehensible, but repairable, problem. Because of Nay Pyi Taw's refusal to legally recognise the Rohingya, it is impossible to ensure the safe repatriation of the Rohingya migrants to the homes they have just fled. As such we have an unbreakable cycle of migration and forced acceptance of camps by Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Amnesty International called last year's migration crisis a "hellish reality". Early indications at this time are that this has not deterred the traffickers. Nor, according to witnesses, has it dissuaded the Rohingya, who remain desperate enough to put their lives on the line in rickety boats to try to find safe harbour in another country.

Vivian Tan, the main spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said last week the number of Rohingya migrants tripled from 2011 to 63,000 last year. "That trend is likely to continue," she told The Guardian newspaper. The only hope to stem that flow is to address the root causes, that is convince Nay Pyi Taw to change its policies. There seems little chance of that. For one thing, the country is deeply invested in a November election.

Most Rohingya migrants do not wish to stay in Thailand, but the human trafficking routes pass through this country. Last year, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered steps to combat the trafficking. That could "reward" Thailand with a promotion on the US Trafficking in Persons list. Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai this past week met and spoke to the senior US analyst working on that list, Kari Johnstone.

There can be little doubt that there are still plenty of human traffickers willing to exploit the Rohingya and Thai hospitality. Last year's crackdown can only mean the traffickers will become warier. The discovery of jungle "killing fields" where migrants were held as hostages means more forceful action against illegal migration must be taken. To "be prepared", like the Boy Scouts motto, means the government adopting measures now, not tomorrow.

Pol Gen Adul Sangsingkeo (right) Minister of Social Development and Human Security, prayed Thursday with 24 Rohingya human trafficking victims at a welfare centre in Pathum Thani. The migrants will travel to the US for resettlement next week. (Photo by Apichit Jinakul)

By Ariane Kupferman-Sutthavong
September 25, 2015

24 trafficking victims about to depart as 540 refugees still languish in detention centres nationwide.

At 46 years old, Basamai, an ethnic Rohingya Muslim man, will for the first time obtain identity documents that will allow him to resettle in the United States next week, along with 23 other trafficking victims.

The 24 to be resettled follow four who left Thailand earlier this month, in a humanitarian programme that has resettled 13,000 Muslims from Myanmar since 2002, according to the US Department of State Refugee Processing Centre.

Mr Basami, who is being split from his wife and eight daughters, was abducted by a group of men -- including Myanmar soldiers -- from his home in Maungdaw township of Myanmar's Rakhine state while he was cutting wood in the forest to sell at the market.

He was beaten and forced by his captors to board a ship, likely headed towards Malaysia, when it was intercepted by police in Thai waters after weeks at sea.

He was held at the Immigration Bureau's detention facility in Ranong for months before he was identified as a trafficking victim and placed in a shelter under the custody of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, also in Ranong.

Last week, Mr Basamai was transferred to another shelter in Pathum Thani to await his US departure.

"Soon, I will finally receive documents proving my identity and will be able to carry out daily activities without fear," he told the Bangkok Post Thursday.

The United States will become his home, he said, adding he intends to start a new life.

Though an agricultural labourer back in Myanmar, Mr Basamai says he is eager to develop new skills and will seize any opportunity given to him after he relocates.

Following their arrival in the US -- the exact location remains unknown -- the Rohingya group will undergo Cultural Orientation Training before they can be resettled, said a source from the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.

They will be provided English language lessons, as well as sufficient time and space to adapt physically, psychologically and culturally, said the source.

"It will be a fresh start for them, and they need to be ready." 

Meanwhile, a total of 560 Rohingya continue to languish in immigration detention facilities and shelters nationwide.

Their resettlement process can take years, though its duration varies based on their willingness to depart, their health conditions and the progress of their legal case against their traffickers.

The procedure is handled jointly by several state agencies, including the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and the Immigration Bureau, as well as international organisations such as the United Nations Refugees Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

UNHCR officers regularly interview trafficking victims in the shelters, and the agency holds English classes for inmates once a month, though Mr Basamai says it is not enough, as he cannot remember any of the vocabulary. The IOM also carries out medical checkups and makes the travel arrangements for those who are to be resettled.

The legal cases of the group of 24 awaiting departure are nearly complete, the source said. The victims have provided testimony to police, and prosecutors now have enough evidence to file a complaint with the court, he said.

A few members of the group suffer from health problems due to the violence and abuse inflicted on them by the human traffickers, which has led to delays in court procedures, the source added.

Mr Basamai said he feels fortunate compared to other trafficking victims. He hopes that one day his wife and eight daughters will be able to join him in the United States.

He says they continue to face persecution in Myanmar and do not dare leave their homes, which means they cannot work there. "Today, they don't know if I'm alive or dead," he said, adding he had no way to contact them to tell them of his resettlement to the United States.



July 6, 2015

An agreement was signed in Yangon less than two weeks ago for Thai Buddhists to provide equipment and expertise for Myanmar's first Buddhist radio station. The National Thai Buddhism and Culture Mass Media Association produces radio and TV programmes in Thailand. But the Thais have chosen to ignore the Myanmar Buddhist mainstream and basic Buddhist tenets. The small group they are helping, the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion, is a nationalist movement whose chief concern is divisive and destructive attacks on Myanmar's Muslims.

The Myanmar group is better known as Ma Ba Tha, from its Burmese-language initials. It has been implicated in every act of violence against Muslims in the past three years. That includes clashes involving Rohingya people in western Rakhine state, and against Myanmar Muslim communities in other parts of the country. Ma Ba Tha is a prime backer of the movement for so-called "protection of religion" laws. It states clearly that Muslims deserve and should expect discrimination because they are "enemies of Buddhism".

Like most pro-violence religious groups, Ma Ba Tha represents neither Theravada Buddhism in general, nor the Buddhist community of Myanmar. Because of the ethnic attacks spurred on by Ma Ba Tha, whole villages have been burnt to the ground. Most of the country's Rohingya now live in camps. More tragically for Myanmar, the Ma Ba Tha militants have attacked all Muslims, including peaceful communities in Yangon and other major cities. The 1.5 million baht worth of equipment to be donated to Ma Ba Tha will, in the words of the Irrawaddy magazine, help the hard-line group "trade bullhorns for broadcast towers". Instead of preaching to a crowd, the group will be able to reach entire regions with every speech. This will only multiply the hateful messages of Ma Ba Tha. It will crush messages of peace from the mainstream of Myanmar Buddhism, which has no broadcasting ability.

Significantly, and sadly, one of the prime backers of this poorly considered aid agreement is prominent Buddhist lay leader Pornchai Pinyapong. Dr Pornchai is serving his third consecutive term as president of The World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth (WFBY). At the Yangon ceremony to sign the agreement, he claimed the troubles of Rakhine state and the Rohingya are "the same problem as the southern part of Thailand".

This is false on virtually every level. So is Dr Pornchai's poorly thought-out support of Ma Ba Tha. They "just want to protect Buddhism for the next generation", he told the media. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. They want to destroy Islam and get rid of all Rohingya for their own generation. Every such move risks harming the religious tolerance and peace that Thailand has worked to earn. Thai Buddhists and the Muslim mainstream often reject so-called hardline groups that want to create religious strife. Thai Muslims in general refuse to support the southern insurgency. Thai Buddhists have never accepted so-called "leaders" of rogue mosques calling for less tolerance and more confrontation.

Buddhists, Muslims and other great religions have plenty of problems within the ranks of their faithful. At least in Thailand, there is no legitimate group that supports antagonistic messages aimed at other religions. Thais deserve to be proud of this. Religious figures abusing freedom of speech to call for strife and even violence deserve to be shunned and ignored. The Buddhist mass media experts would do the religion and their nation a favour by rethinking the Myanmar venture.

(Photo: Reuters)

By Wassana Nanuam
May 24, 2015


American forces told to leave Phuket

The Royal Thai Armed Forces rejected an American request to use Phuket as a maritime patrol base to assist Rohingya migrants, a military source said yesterday.

The US asked to keep its maritime surveillance aircraft in Phuket after the anti-submarine warfare training exercise “Guardian Sea” ended on Wednesday, the source said.

The US said it wanted to conduct maritime patrols from Phuket as part of an operation to provide humanitarian assistance to Rohingya migrants.

But both the RTAF and the Royal Thai Air Force declined the request and asked the US to remove its aircraft and soldiers from Thailand by Friday.

The source said US officials in Thailand for the five-day training exercise were upset because they asked if they could keep the aircraft in Phuket several times.

The rejection reflects Thai irritation over US pressure to resolve human trafficking problems here, the source said.

The RTAF was also concerned the US would interfere or do something that might disadvantage Thailand's handling of the Rohingya matter, the source added.

Police investigating Rohingya trafficking said no new arrest warrants were issued yesterday. A total of 77 suspects are still wanted and 46 have been taken into custody. Most of the suspects are politicians and leaders in Satun province, said a local source.

Pawin Pongsirin, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 8, said the Office of the Attorney-General has sent a number of public prosecutors to work with police on the Rohingya case.

This is because the case is complicated and witnesses in countries including Bangladesh, Myanmar and Malaysia may be asked to speak to Thai investigators, Pol Maj Gen Pawin said.

Deputy national police chief Ake Angsananont has instructed officers to intensify pressure on suspects to come out of hiding or face arrest, the source said.

According to former foreign minister Kasit Piromya, the experience of handling boats of Vietnam refugees fleeing their country two decades ago should be used to deal with the current wave of Rohingya migration.

Thailand, Asean, the international community and the UN should also cooperate with the migrants' countries of origin, such as Myanmar and Bangladesh, he said.

He called on Interpol and international intelligence agencies to step in to help investigate human traffickers targeting the Rohingya.

Mr Kasit urged countries around the world to set up funds dedicated to caring for displaced Rohingya, improving living conditions for Rohingya people in Myanmar's Rakhine state, and building temporary shelters for Rohingya in Thailand.

Asean should also explore ways of convincing Myanmar to recognise the Rohingya as its citizens, he said.

By Surin Pitsuwan
May 23, 2015

Thailand must turn the Rohingya crisis into an opportunity to rid itself of the human trafficking stigma. So much is at stake if it fails to grasp this moment.

The Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP) is hovering precariously in Washington and the European union's (EU) accusation of illegal fishing and human rights violation and threatens Thai fishery exports to Europe further. The damage to the country’s reputation and profile is becoming more difficult to repair.

Thailand should take the lead in galvanising international attention to focus on the countries of origin of this crisis, while leaving no stone unturned in its own war against human trafficking where its own citizens and officials have been involved. A zero tolerance for such a heinous crime and no impunity for any black sheep in the racket of a modern day slave trade must be adopted.

The world and the Thai people know too much for any thought to be given to whitewashing the shameful crimes.

The highest level of the United Nations must be engaged. The UN secretary-general has already made his opening gestures of concern; it is for the Thai leaders to return the favour by inviting the UN secretary general's highest representative on the issue, the highly charismatic and extremely effective UNHCR High Commissioner Antonio Guterres to join those who have already called for the high-level meeting.

All the countries involved in the region should be persuaded to show up to share the burden equally. Only those immediately concerned, affected and involved should attend such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Apart from a personal plea to the Thai leaders by Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State John Kerry called his Thai counterpart to convey the same passionate message. The collective will of the world to address this tragedy is behind Thailand and the region. Empty chairs at the meeting will not embarrass Thailand, but it will instead glaringly show where the larger proportion of responsibility and blame should rightly be placed in this painful humanitarian crisis.

It is a strategic game that would require Thailand’s stable diplomatic finesse. If we do it right, and conduct it well, we have nothing to fear, but we would have a lot more to gain. As Asean proclaims itself as a community of caring and sharing societies at the end of this year, all 10 Asean member states must collectively demonstrate to the international community that they indeed will abide by their own credo of collective human responsibility. Malaysia, as chair, must be consulted, and should provide much-needed leadership in our united response to this man-made crisis.

Thailand as the main country of transit and host to criminal networks preying on these unfortunate and “most persecuted people in the world” must not waste time in drumming up global support for short-term relief and for long-term solutions to this legacy of exploitation and oppression.

While the region is engaged in apportioning blame upon each other for this shocking crime, it takes our collective will to help us navigate the troubled water of the Andaman Sea, where hundreds of thousands more Rohingya will risk their lives on a precarious journey for a more secure livelihood in a more caring world.

Thailand and Asean must act now to avoid the judgement of future generations that, instead of acting nobly and decisively in the face of this conscience-shocking crisis, we would be perceived to be complacent and reluctant to save even the lives of our own fellow Asean citizens. The verdict of history will be harsh on us indeed.

Surin Pitsuwan is a former secretary-general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), and a former foreign minister of Thailand.

May 18, 2015

Activists urge govt pressure on Myanmar

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon has expressed support for Thailand's plan to hold a regional meeting in Bangkok on May 29 to address the Rohingya migration problem.

During a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-chan Sunday, Mr Ban praised the meeting as a significant initiative to seek international cooperation to solve the growing crisis, a member of the government spokesman's team, Maj Gen Weerachon Sukhontapatipak, said.

Mr Ban said Rohingya migrants should be accorded the human dignity and basic rights they deserve.

Senior officials from 15 countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Australia, the United States, as well as international organisations, are likely to attend the one-day meeting. Myanmar has suggested it may not attend.

Gen Prayut told Mr Ban he was also concerned about the Rohingya migrant crisis, and said authorities are monitoring the situation closely.

Gen Prayut said the government realised the urgency of solving the issue, and stressed that countries in the region and international organisations must work together to come up with solutions. He said the United Nations also must play a major role in coordinating international efforts to address the problem.

He urged the UN to focus on tackling poverty, which is one of the key factors behind the ongoing exodus of the ethnic Muslim minority from Myanmar's Rakhine state, and to find ways to improve their quality of life so they can enjoy their basic rights, Maj Gen Weerachon said.

Gen Prayut said the regional meeting will be a forum for all concerned countries to share their views. He expects the meeting will show Asean countries' unity and responsibility towards fellow humans.

The premier said Thailand has treated Rohingya migrants based on humanitarian and human rights principles, according to Maj Gen Weerachon.

Deputy government spokesman Maj Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Sunday all Rohingya people entering Thailand are regarded as illegal migrants under Thai law, although the country is willing to provide them with humanitarian assistance.

Naval authorities have stepped up sea patrols to monitor Rohingya migrants' vessels in Thai waters and provide them with food and drinking water, and repair their vessels so they can continue with their journeys to their destinations, Maj Gen Sansern said.

He said the government has cracked down on networks involved in Rohingya trafficking to prevent them from using Thailand as a transit route for people trafficking.

Sunai Phasuk, a Human Rights Watch representative in Thailand, said Asean and the West should pressure Myanmar, which refuses to recognise the Rohingya as one of its ethnic groups, to do more to solve the Rohingya problem.

Mr Sunai said several countries have softened their stance against Myanmar, which has won praise for enacting widespread economic and political reforms since it emerged from outright military rule in 2011.

However, there are growing worries concerning human rights in Myanmar. Mr Sunai cited a Human Rights Watch report, saying Rohingya people have been persecuted in Myanmar in violation of international laws.

The UN has urged Thailand to build temporary camps for Rohingya migrants, although Thailand is still reluctant to shoulder sole responsibility of looking after migrants out of concerns for national security and the costs involved.

Mr Sunai said Thailand should ask the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to set up temporary holding centres for the migrants in Thailand as the UNHCR has experience in screening migrants and sending them to other countries. This way, Thailand will not shoulder the burden as the cost of running the camps would be met by the UNHCR, Mr Sunai said.


    • Rohingya Exodus