By Dhaka Tribune Editorial

November 21, 2016

What is more problematic is how Myanmar continues to deny this phenomenon, despite evidence to the contrary

Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingyas has been dismal.

The subjugation and brutal repression of the Rohingya community continues despite Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s much-heralded government being in power.

Rohingyas have been shot, raped, and looted, and their houses have been torched to the ground.

This is the horrific reality of this minority community that inhabits Myanmar’s Rakhine state.

According to the UN, Rohingyas remain among the most persecuted peoples in the world. The world should not allow this situation to continue any longer than it already has.

The Rohingyas boast no freedom to speak of and their lives remain constantly under threat.

Is it any surprise then that so many of them attempt to flee to Bangladesh, seeking to escape the hell that Myanmar has become for them?

What is more problematic is how Myanmar continues to deny this state of affairs, despite evidence to the contrary.

This can be seen as nothing more than a systematic attempt by the Myanmar government to drive the Rohingyas towards our borders.

It is shameful that a nation state continues to behave in this way despite international outrage against such inhumane tactics.

Bangladesh, which boasts a significant Rohingya refugee community, and as a neighbour to Myanmar, has a role to play.

The Bangladeshi government would do well to impose strict trade sanctions on Myanmar unless and until the Rohingyas are allowed to return to their homeland and are granted equal rights as citizens of their country.

Bangladesh can do this by proposing such sanctions at the UN General Assembly, which would work greatly towards bringing the plight of the Rohingyas to the attention of the world.

The continued persecution of Myanmar’s Rohingya community not only speaks poorly of Myanmar, but of the rest of the world. No longer can the world stand idly by and watch.

By The Nation Editorial

November 20, 2016

The targeting of rohingya by Myanmar security forces in the name of cracking down on extremists is unacceptable

The October 9 killing of nine Myanmar police officers in Rakhine State has jolted that country and its security apparatus is doing all it can to hunt down the culprits behind the attack, seemingly by just about any means possible.

But the massive security sweep in Rakhine is tainted by allegations of rape, execution, torture and arson attacks on the homes of Rohingya Muslims in the conflict-affected region bordering Bangladesh.

According to the United Nations, so far, about 30,000 Rohingya have been displaced by this operation.

The October attack posed a serious challenge to the government of Aung San Suu Kyi which came to power just six months ago and undermined the country’s military that is constitutionally in charge of national security.

The famous pro-democracy icon is facing serious criticism for failing to deal with the abuse of the Rohingya – who the Myanmar government consider as stateless people – and other Muslims in the country amid a vicious campaign of Islamophobia by radical Buddhist monks and Myanmar nationalists to devastate their livelihood.

What’s disturbing about this blind security operation is the kind of reports coming out from the area. This is not the first time Myanmar’s security forces have been accused of using rape as part of their strategy to crush ethnic groups they consider enemies of the state. 

Just days ago, Reuters interviewed eight Rohingya women who told the news agency they had been raped by soldiers dispatched to their U Shey Kya village on October 19 to conduct a clearance operation.

The Myanmar government wants to paint itself as a victim of international terrorists since the October attack but it seems to forget the decades of persecution the Rohingya have been subject to, including some 125,000 people forced to flee their homes several years ago. Some of those people ended up fleeing to foreign shores, including Thailand. 

“I have urged that there has to be complete access to this area and an impartial investigation needs to be conducted to verify, to explore the scope and nature and the cause of this recent attack,” the UN’s human rights envoy on Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, told reporters in New York.

To make matters worse, the government is planning to arm and train non-Muslim residents in the state as part of their security measures to curb any possible insurgency activities. 

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), a leading international rights watchdog, warned that the plan is likely to “aggravate an already dire human rights situation”.

“Establishing an armed, untrained, unaccountable force drawn from only one community in the midst of serious ethnic tensions and violence is a recipe for disaster,” Sam Zarifi, ICJ’s Asia director, said in a statement on Friday.

A senior police official was quoted as saying there will be no problem with these local civilian “police”, as they will be operating under the watch of the national police. But that’s hardly reassuring, given the decades of abuse and atrocities in that part of the world. Numerous investigations over previous years have pointed to security forces and officials tacitly supporting what some organisations described as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.

In other parts of the country, such as Shan State, government security forces have been accused of using rape as a weapon to demoralise ethnic minorities who they accuse of supporting the rebels. 

Most of these armed rebel groups have entered into peace negotiations with the government. But from the look of it, the Myanmar military is determined not to let the Rohingya evolve into any meaningful outfit in spite of having accused foreign jihadist groups of “invading” the country and supporting the October 9 attack. 

To make their point, Myanmar government troops last week fired from a helicopter, killing 30 people who they said were armed with guns, knives and spears. But human rights groups say many Rohingya civilians were among the casualties. 

Needless to say, the preconditions for a genocide are already in place. The world can continue to turn a blind eye to this atrocity at its own peril. There will come a day when future generations will ask what did we do to end these atrocities.

By Editors

Carbonated.tv

October 24, 2016

The complicity of security forces could embolden Buddhist extremists and bolster the anti-Rohingya Muslim campaign, thereby causing state-sanctioned bloodshed.

Around 80,000 Rohingya Muslims in northwestern Myanmar cannot receive humanitarian aid by the U.N.’s World Food Program due to a severe military clampdown.

However, disruption of food aid is just one of the many grave abuses, including extra-judicial killings and rape, being carried out against the embattled ethnic community in the Southeast Asian nation.

The situation for the Rohingya people went from bad to worse after nine Burmese police officers were killed on Oct. 9 in three separate attacks, targeting border guard outposts in the Rakhine (aka Arakan) state, near the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.

The attacks, according to Myanmar’s Ministry of Information, were carried out by Aqa Mul Mujahidin, a militant group purportedly trained by Taliban in Pakistan.

While the Burmese government declared Aqa Mul Mujahidin, a non-local group, the mastermind behind the Oct. 9 events, it also accused members of the local community of aiding them, without providing concrete evidence, whatsoever. (FYI: Rakhine is home to about 1.1 million members of the mostly Muslim Rohingya.)

Even more puzzling is the fact that the government named the Rohingya Solidarity Organization complicit in the attacks. But the said militant group is believed to have been operationally defunct for years, maybe even decades.

Despite the lack of sufficient proof against possible Rohingya involvement, Myanmar’s military launched an operation, indiscriminately targeting the Rohingya community.

As per the latest numbers reported by independent news organizations, the army has killed at least 100 Rohingya civilians, including men, women and children, in just two weeks — again, all based on mere speculation.

Meanwhile, state media figures differ greatly, stating “no more than 33 people” have been killed at the hands of security forces during the crackdown.

The Rohingya people claim the military is using the border attacks as an excuse to further persecute the already-beleaguered, stateless community.

Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, a human rights group based in Asia, said the army is implementing "typical counter-insurgency measures against civilians,” such as "shooting civilians on sight, burning homes, looting property and arbitrary arrests.”

So far, the Rohingya in Myanmar were largely under attack from extremist Buddhists as well as the government’s deafening silence. However, the purported involvement of the country’s security forces signals an even worse time for a community that’s been persecuted for decades.

It’s not like the Myanmar military’s role in repressing the Rohingya people is totally unheard of. In 2014, the Women’s League of Burma alleged Burmese soldiers were raping Rohingya women to “demoralize and destroy the fabric of ethnic [minority] communities.”

Still, the security forces partaking in hostilities against the Rohingya could embolden Buddhist extremists and bolster their hate campaign, thereby causing state-sanctioned bloodshed.

The latest bout of unrest comes only a month after Myanmar’s de facto leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi oversaw a special nine-member panel to address the Rohingya crisis.

It was a small but much-needed step taken by any Burmese administration in years to find a solution to resolve the conflict between the Buddhist majority and the Muslim minority group.

However, considering the violent and extra-judicial force the military is using against the Rohingya people, it is difficult to believe a resolution is possible anytime soon.

By The Nation Editorial

October 16, 2016

The government and military will have to bear the blame if estranged Muslim community decides to take up arms

One can make a strong argument that the ongoing insurgent violence in Myanmar's Rakhine State has been in the making for some time now.

Just over a week ago, suspected Rohingya militants attacked three border posts, killing nine Myanmar police officers, The Global New Light of Myanmar reported. Official reports said 62 pieces of arms, 27 bullet cartridges and more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition were stolen during the attack.

And then on Tuesday, the same government mouthpiece reported the death of four soldiers and one so-called culprit after troops were attacked "by hundreds of men armed with pistols, swords and knives".

A "clearance operation" by government forces encountered resistance from a group of villagers who were armed with guns, swords and sticks.

The Buddhist majority in Rakhine State - many would argue with the support of the state - has long oppressed the local Muslim Rohingya, who are dubbed "Bengalis" by the government and denied citizenship.

No group has claimed responsibility for the recent attacks, but two people who have been captured were Rohingya.

Interestingly, the central government has been level-headed in its response. A press conference was held during which an appeal for caution and restraint was urged. De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi refrained from any accusations and reiterated her commitment to peace and stability.

Within days, high-ranking officials were dispatched to the conflict-ridden area to talk to local Muslim leaders.

There is real concern that the stolen weapons will be used against government troops and police at a later date.

There is also a serious danger of the repeat of the 2012 communal violence between Buddhists and Muslims that killed scores of people and displaced tens of thousands.

The level-headed response from the government was not an olive branch and most likely it would not be enough to bring permanent peace.

Myanmar has been dealing with more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups and armies all over the country and therefore, the government should understand the art of compromise.

The Rohingya seem to have concluded that Myanmar would not address their grievances unless they take up arms. The danger is the world could be witnessing the making of another armed ethnic army - one more to be added to Burma's long list of rebel forces.

The situation would not have descended to this level if Myanmar had been more even-handed in its treatment of the Rohingya. Instead of trying to understand the problems on the ground, Buddhist nationalist monk Wirathu was quick off the blocks, painting the clashes this past week as the work of Islamic jihadists.

Normally, it is Muslim terrorists who exploit such terminology. But this is a unique case of a Buddhist monk - referred to by Time magazine as "the face of Buddhist terror" - exploiting this Islamic concept of struggle for justice.

It is high time the Myanmar government did something about this conflict and set the record straight before the likes of Wirathu make this long-simmering crisis far worse.

Myanmar should know that there is a lot of sympathy for the Rohingya people among the world community - from Muslims and non-Muslims.

If the Rohingya do take to the path of armed resistance, undoubtedly there will be support for them. If the Mon, Karen, Wa, Shan, Chin, Kachin and other ethnic groups can take up arms against the Myanmar state, why can't the Rohingya?

The irony here is that all the other armed groups, at one time or another, wanted to break away from Myanmar. The Rohingya, on the other hand, simply want to be accepted as a part of the Myanmar nation.

By Saudi Gazette Editorial

September 5, 2016

Malaysia is considering opening up its job market for thousands of refugees who have no legal right to work. There are some 150,700 refugees and asylum seekers in in that Southeast Asian country. About 90 percent of them are from Myanmar, with Rohingya (53,140) topping the list.

As Malaysia is not a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention, these refugees do not have formal status in the country. The Malaysia government does not extend protection, job opportunities or education to these illegal migrants. Lack of a formal status often leaves refugees vulnerable to exploitation by employers and law enforcement officials. So they felt relieved when the government announced last moth the creation of a task force to handle refugee registration issues. The government-led task force would also look into the possibility of opening up the job market for refugees and allowing their children formal education.

Also last week, UN Secretary-General Ban ki-Moon called on Myanmar authorities to give the right to citizenship to Rohingya. “People who have been living for generations in this country should enjoy the same legal status and citizenship as everyone else,” he said. What he said is important. More important is where he said it. Ban made this appeal on Tuesday at a press conference in the capital Naypyitaw alongside Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Of greater significance is the fact that the UN chief used the word “Rohingya”, ignoring the sensitivity of Myanmar authorities who want the group labeled “Bengalis” so they can cast them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh.

Unfortunately, Suu Kyi who leads Myanmar with the title of state counselor and is also her country’s foreign minister, is on the same page with the majority Buddhists on this issue. In fact, she advised the incoming US ambassador to Myanmar to refrain from using the term “Rohingya”. She says her government will not recognize the name, singing the same tune as its military predecessors.

This also means her government is following the same policies as the military government toward Rohingya though the UN believes the entrenched discrimination this community suffers is so deep that it may amount to crimes against humanity.

Rohingya comprise nearly two percent of the country’s predominantly Buddhist population but are excluded from the official list of ethnic minorities and remain without citizenship — denied freedom of movement, access to education and the ownership of property.

Conflict over land and resources in the western state of Rakhine, where most Rohingya live in squalid camps, often lead to unrest. More than 100,000 people had to flee their homes in Rakhine state in 2012, following deadly violence driven largely by Buddhist mobs.Thousands have fled to other Southeast Asian countries on rickety boats in search of better lives, only to drown or fall victim to human traffickers. International attention grew last May when a boatload of Rohingya was found adrift in the Andaman Sea en route to Malaysia.

But Suu Kyi who fought and suffered long imprisonment for human rights says little or nothing about the abuses faced by the Rohingya. There was a case for reticence when she was fighting the military authorities and wanted to enlist the support of the Buddhist majority in the elections in which her National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory. Now that she is in power, there is no reason why she should continue the same apartheid policies unless she actually believes in them.

The West has rejoiced at the election of a new government headed, in effect, by Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate. It’s up to countries like US and Britain to exert all the pressure they can on Suu Kyi’s government over this issue in the same way they applied pressure on the military junta to release the NLD leader and allow the Myanmar people to choose their leaders through a free and fair election.

By Editors of Carbonated.tv

August 17, 2016

There’s no denying that there can’t be a quick fix for the Rohingya issue in Myanmar. But how much more time does the new government need to, at the very least, acknowledge it?

It’s been more than a 100 days since Myanmar’s first civilian government in over five decades rose to power.

The transition from long-standing authoritarian, military administration to a democratic one was, of course, never expected to be an easy task for the new rulers, especially when their predecessors have left them with challenges, including failing economy, flourishing drug trade and fragile peace with ethnic minorities.

Yet, Myanmar’s people had many hopes when their country’s human rights champion and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party National League for Democracy (NLD) won a parliamentary majority last November.

While Suu Kyi was constitutionally barred from becoming president, she nevertheless became the de facto ruler as she assumed the responsibilities of minister of foreign affairs of Myanmar and the minister of president's office.

So far, she has touched upon issues from economic development to illegal cross-border trade. But the one problem she appears to be hesitant to tackle is that of the persecution of religious-ethnic minority Rohingya.

Myanmar is a 53 million-strong Buddhist majority country that includes a diverse set of ethnic minorities – but the Rohingya people, despite being a population of nearly 1.3 million people and living there for centuries, are not one of them.

Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar are officially stateless. The government regards them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. On the other hand Bangladesh has refused to grant Rohingyas refugee status since 1992.

The situation grew uglier for them in 2012, when Ashin Wirathu launched an anti-Muslim genocidal campaign, which set off a wave of bloodshed, resulting in hundreds of deaths of Rohingya Muslims, leaving more than 140,000 left homeless and over 100,000 forced to flee.

It became worse due to former Burmese President Thein Sein’s criminal silence over the actions of extremist Buddhists.

Many believed things would change for the better after Suu Kyi’s ascension to power. After all, she is someone who spent 15 years under house arrest for her pro-democracy stance and human rights activism.

But things have not changed, and by the looks of it, they are not going to change anytime soon either.

Granted, expecting a quick fix for a problem of this magnitude is naïve and impractical. However, the problem with Suu Kyi, when it comes to the Rohingya issue, is that she seems as disinterested to solve it as her Thein Sein, which would yield the same disastrous results from his rule.

Hopes for any betterment dimmed even further when she banned the term “Rohingya” and instead asked foreigners to refer to them as “people who believe in Islam in Rakhine state.” By doing so, she essentially gave a major victory to all the Buddhist nationalists and extremists who want to get rid of the Rohingya from Myanmar.

Thein Sein was a military ruler who believed in appeasing Buddhist extremists to maintain his power, rather than focusing on human rights abuses being committed against an unwanted people.

But why is Aung San Suu Kyi adopting the same callous approach? What is her excuse?

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.

By Editorial Board

The Washington Post

May 22, 2016

THE TRANSITION from military rule and dictatorship to democracy is treacherous. In the past generation, not every nation that has embarked on that journey has arrived at its hoped-for destination, nor has every revolutionary leader delivered on the promise. Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a champion of human rights and democracy in Burma who has taken most of the reins of power, no doubt has studied lessons from Lech Walesa, Boris Yeltsin and Nelson Mandela. In the weeks since her government assumed control, ending decades of military rule during which she was held under house arrest, she has moved gingerly and cautiously.

Beyond doubt, she realizes the enormity of the obstacles facing her and threatening Burma’s transition, but at the same time she sees that popular expectations are running high. She has freed political prisoners and set a new tone. Thin Yu Mon, a human rights activist in Rangoon who was recently in Washington, marveled at the atmosphere she encountered in a public festival. “Now we are really free,” she said.

But Burma’s democratic trajectory is not assured. The Obama administration properly recognized this Tuesday with a calibrated easing of sanctions on Burma, also called Myanmar, that left some in place, signaling a continuing concern over human rights abuses, ethnic conflict and the continuing influence of the military, which is trying to preserve undemocratic power through a constitution it wrote before allowing free elections.

One of Aung San Suu Kyi’s most daunting challenges, therefore, is to deal with these powerful and unelected generals, who control a quarter of the seats in parliament not subject to election and thus can block constitutional reform; who hold the key Defense, Home Affairs and Border Affairs ministries; and who have grown accustomed to profiting handsomely from the nation’s bounty. In the latest action, the United States has retained an arms ban, as well as sanctions on individuals and entities that are obstructing political reform, committing human rights abuses or engaging in illicit military trade with North Korea.

At the same time, Aung San Suu Kyi faces a cauldron of ethnic tension and conflict. Among the most severe is the plight of the 1 million Rohingya, a Muslim minority who have been subject to persecution and misery, denied citizenship and crowded into squalid camps. Some 100,000 Rohingya were driven from their homes in 2012 in a wave of violence. Subsequently, many fled and lost their lives on rickety ships at sea. Nationalist Buddhists have insisted the Rohingya are not Burmese and call them “Bengalis,” as did the former military government. Shockingly, after the U.S. Embassy expressed condolences recently for the loss of at least 20 people whose boat capsized on April 19, Aung San Suu Kyi suggested to the new U.S. ambassador that the United States should not use the word “Rohingya.” Ever careful, she may have been catering to Buddhist nationalists, but if so, it was an egregious error.

She must find a way to correct the mistakes of the past, not repeat them.

By Saudi Gazette Editorial

May 20, 2016

Washington, it seems, is not fooled by developments in Burma. It has just announced a further easing of sanctions, but has kept in place bans on around 100 companies and individuals who are linked to the armed forces. Targeting the country’s military, who ruled ruthlessly for half a century, sends the message that Burma’s new democracy is still seen as being under threat.

The White House has been putting a positive spin on the new removal of sanctions on 10 state-owned companies involved in banking, lumber and natural resources. This has been done at the request of Aung San Suu Kyi, who although she is barred from holding the presidency is effectively the country’s leader. But “The Lady”, as the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate is known affectionately by her supporters, has also been sent a message by Washington, which is that it considers the restoration of human rights in Burma to be still a work in progress. In particular, the Americans share the deep concerns of the Muslim world about the treatment of the Rohingya Muslims, persecuted and made stateless by the fallen military junta.

Suu Kyi made little reference to the fate of the Rohingya and the country’s other Muslims during her electoral campaign, even though a key plank of her New Democracy Party’s campaign was respect for democratic freedom. At the time, her aides briefed that the subject was too delicate to form a specific part of her platform, but that she would address the issue as soon as the election was won. Well, the election was won in November and six months later the Rohingya are still waiting for that promised action. 

Suu Kyi’s people are now arguing that the issue cannot be taken in isolation. Burma has been plagued by rebellions among other minorities and there is a wider campaign to bring years of violence to an end. Last year, draft peace deals were signed with 16 rebel groups. These have to be worked through and made permanent. This is, however, to ignore one glaring truth.

The Rohingya never rebelled against anyone. It was they who were attacked by their neighbors egged on by fanatical Buddhist monks. The police and army stood by and did nothing while Rohingya Muslims were assaulted, robbed, murdered and raped. In an act of supreme cynicism, the military rulers then forced the victims into concentration camps “for their own protection”.

This brutality set in train a flood of refugees seeking to escape from persecution. The authorities quietly encouraged this tide of despair while profiting from the supply of rickety boats to carry the refugees out to sea.

Suu Kyi has an immediate solution at hand. The Rohingya, who have lived in Burma for generations, have been denied Burmese nationality. This exclusion has underpinned their appalling treatment. While she is still at the peak of her powers and popularity, Suu Kyi should recognize the Rohingya as Burmese citizens and grant them equality under Burmese law. Buddhist bigots will not like it and the military will mutter, but there is surely no better time than now to make this crucially important move. If Suu Kyi fails to act, then Washington should lead the international community in threatening a return of sanctions. The peace credentials of the widely-admired Nobel Laureate are being put to the test.

By The Nation Editorial

March 20, 2016

Thai Buddhists who hail Ashin Wirathu and his anti-Muslim dialogue are embracing a misguided xenophobic logic

Sad to say, but the Maha Chulalongkornrajavidyalaya University (MCU), a public Buddhist university in Thailand, is playing with fire.

The Dhammakaya Temple, whose abbot is in hot water with the law, reportedly gave an award to a radical anti-Muslim monk from Myanmar, also known as Burma, in recognition of his promotion of Buddhism in his country.

Prachathai news website quoted a Buddhist scholar, Somrit Luechai, as saying the kind of welcome that the Thai monks gave the controversial Burmese monk, Ashin Wirathu, has surprised and frightened him.

Somrit pointed to the anti-Muslim movement that Wirathu pushed in Burma and suggested that such action and activities have no place in Thailand.

The scary part is that "it seems as if this is normal", Somrit wrote.

Photos of Thai monks welcoming Wirathu were posted on social media with the words "We Love Wirathu".

According to Prachatai, on the same day, Lalita Harnwong, a Thai historian lecturing at Maha Sarakham University who also posted the same set of pictures on her Facebook page, wrote "the behaviour of Dhammakaya and CMU in opening their arms to welcome Wirathu shows the xenophobic logic and thoughts of certain Buddhist groups in Thailand".

The radical Burmese monk, Lalita said, monk is trying expand his network in Thailand.

It is sad and unfortunate that some monks and institutions in Thailand are overlooking the hateful message that has been generated by Wirathu over the years as he successfully painted Burmese Muslims as part of an evil plot to destroy and take over his country.

In June last year, Pornchai Pinyapong, president of the youth wing of the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth donated a large sum of money to Wirathu to help set up two radio stations so that the controversial monk can continue his anti-Muslim campaign in Burma.

Pornchai defended his move by saying the money is going towards enhancing communication channels for monks. But if there is a place where words can actually kill or encourage people to murder members of another race, then Myanmar is that very place. Evidence and reports by international human rights organisations have shown that this to be the case.

In fact, the Burmese government has been accused of not only turning a blind eye to vicious attacks against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine State, but also providing tactical support for mobs conducting anti-Muslim riots.

Pornchai led a delegation to Myanmar to donate Bt.1.2 million to Ma Ba Tha, or the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion that Wirathu had set up.

As democracy opens up space in Burma for various sectors of society to voice their opinion, it is troubling that people like Wirathu have been able to take the lead in terms of this new-found freedom.

Ma Ba Tha became so successful in stirring up anti-Muslim sentiment that even politicians were afraid to confront them for fear that they would be accused of being unpatriotic by the movement, which could be costly in political terms.

The narrative that Wirathu created suggested that ethnic Burmese are victims of Muslims, who are just a small minority in the country, and that every Buddhist in the country has a moral obligation to see to it that the Muslims do not prosper. This meant the public should boycott their businesses.

While Wirathu has his own agenda, the silent majority of Burmese, who have lived under brutal military dictators for decades, are not speaking out against such injustice.

Sadly, the treatment of the Muslims in Burma suggests that Myanmar's new democracy has been reduced by a "what's in it for me" phenomenon, as opposed to a society that cherishes the principles of justice, fairness and equality for all of its citizens.

Pornchai was quoted in Irrawaddy news magazine as saying that the Muslim threat was real, citing the ongoing conflict in Thailand's southernmost provinces, where more than 6,000 people have been killed since January 2004.

Like other Buddhist nationalists in Thailand, Pornchai is using the Patani Malay insurgency in the far South to advance his agenda while conveniently forgetting that Thai Muslims in the rest of the country are just as Thai and just as patriotic as him.