Latest Highlight


By Timothy Mclaughlin and Hnin Yadana Zaw
June 27, 2015

Yangon -- The United States said on Friday that an effective legislative veto held by Myanmar's military was undemocratic and reiterated calls for changes to the constitution, a day after lawmakers from the armed forces bloc rejected any significant amendments to the charter.

Washington has re-engaged with Myanmar since a quasi-civilian government took power in 2011, ending 49 years of military rule, with President Barack Obama investing substantial personal effort and prestige in promoting democratic reform.

The United States has pushed for the country's military to be reined in, submitting to civilian control and stepping back from the political arena.

But Thursday's parliamentary vote, in which a proposed amendment to the veto provision failed to gain the necessary support, showed the military has no immediate plans to give up its powerful influence over public affairs.

"There are provisions in Burma's constitution, such as the lack of civilian control of the military and the military's veto power over constitutional amendments, that contradict fundamental democratic principles," a spokesman from the U.S. Embassy in Yangon said.

"It will be important to the ultimate success of Burma's democratic transformation that the constitution be amended to make it appropriate for a democratic nation."

In order for proposed changes to the military-drafted constitution to be accepted, more than 75 percent of lawmakers must support the amendment. With 25 percent of Myanmar's parliament seats reserved for unelected military MPs, the bloc has an effective veto power.

A proposed amendment voted would have seen the threshold of support lowered to 70 percent, but failed, as expected, to gain enough support with lawmakers.

Military MPs said that while they did not opposed changing the constitution in the future, the time was not right and doing so now might risk instability.

"We are making the country's situation stable by putting 25 percent military MPs in the parliament," said Brigadier General Tin San Hlaing, a military MP.

"If these articles really need to be amended, the military representatives would not hesitate to do so."

The country's military has not given any indication when it might consider stepping back from its powerful political position.

Myanmar's seven-point road map for a "disciplined democracy" was first laid out more than a decade ago and former strongman Than Shwe stepped aside in 2011, but military officials have shown little will to move away from politics.

In addition to the military's seats in parliament, the commander-in-chief appoints the ministers of defense, border affairs and home affairs.

Five of the 11 members of the country's high-level National Defense and Security Council are also active military members.

A proposed change to a separate section of the constitution, which includes a provision that bars opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president because her children are foreign citizens, also failed to pass. 

The proposed change however, would not have gone far enough in helping secure Suu Kyi's presidential hopes, as it would only have allowed for individuals with children married to foreign citizens to hold the president's office, leaving her out. 

Both amendments, if accepted, would have then needed the support of a national referendum.

Suu Kyi said after the vote that the military appeared opposed to even the slightest changes to its position. 

"If we are going to amend the constitution, we have to make big moves. Today, we can see clearly that they don't even want to make small changes," she said.

Oma Salema, 12, holds her undernourished brother, one-year-old Ayub Khan, 1, at a camp for Rohingya in Sittwe, Myanmar, this month. Photo: New York Times

By Annie Gowen
June 27, 2015

Mohammed Islam is a Rohingya Muslim who has lived in a refugee camp in Bangladesh since he was nine, after his family fled religious tension in his home country of Myanmar.

His life is one of uncertainty coupled with despair, which has deepened in recent weeks because of a Bangladesh government proposal to move 32,000 Rohingya refugees to a remote island that swamps at high tide.

"We don't want to die," he said in an interview. "We are already persecuted; we don't want to suffer more."

Islam, now 29, is an activist at the Nayapara camp, a foetid assemblage of tarp-roofed huts in the touristy Cox's Bazar beachfront area in southern Bangladesh. He said he and other refugees don't want to leave to move to a barren, 40-square-kilometre island in the Bay of Bengal, a two-hour speedboat ride away.

"The refugees are deeply concerned," he said of the island, which completely floods when the tide rolls in. "We are not willing to move from this place until they find a solution."

The remote island, Thengar Char, disappears completely under water at high tide, and has no roads or barriers to flooding, according to an AFP report. Accounts from locals and a forest department official who oversaw the planting of mangroves on Thengar Char in 2011 gave an indication of the challenges, according to AFP.

"At high tide the entire island is under three to four feet (0.9 metres to 1.2 metres) of water," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It is impossible to live there."

About 32,000 Rohingya Muslims live in two government-run camps in the Cox's Bazar area, according to the United Nations, but the government estimates that hundreds of thousands of other Rohingyas live illegally in Bangladesh, a country of more than 155 million.

The stateless Rohingya Muslims have long been victims of persecution in Myanmar. Their situation worsened during violent ethnic clashes in 2012 between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state that resulted in more than 100,000 Rohingya being confined to displacement camps.

More than 25,000 Rohingya and others have fled both Bangladesh and the Myanmar camps since January, according to the United Nations, precipitating an international crisis after thousands became stranded at sea attempting to enter Malaysia and Thailand.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, criticised the migrants in remarks last month, saying they were "mentally sick" for wanting to leave Bangladesh, adding, "they are tainting the image of the country along with pushing their life into danger".

Mrs Hasina had reportedly visited Cox's Bazar in the northern hemisphere autumn and decided that the grimy Rohingya camps were an impediment to tourism, officials said. A plan to relocate them was launched.

Gowher Rizvi, an adviser and special representative to Mrs Hasina, said that the proposed move was still in the preliminary stages and that no final decision had been made.

"There are a large number of Rohingyas, as you know, in Cox's Bazar area, which is not ideal for keeping people there," he said. "There have been discussions about whether or not a better or more suitable location can be found."

Ma Ba Tha chairman Bhaddamta Tiloka Bhivunsa watches as a Thai monk signs a memorandum of understanding promising funding for the construction of two Buddhist radio stations in Burma, at Ma Ba Tha’s weekend conference in Rangoon. (Photo: Steve Tickner / The Irrawaddy)

June 27, 2015

Funding radio stations for the ultra-nationalist burmese monks goes against buddhist beliefs of peace

In another setting, president of the youth wing of the World Fellowship of Buddhist Youth would be holding an assault rifle and making all sorts of noises about how much he wants to liquidate unbelievers from the face of the Earth.

In the case of Dr Pornchai Pinyapong, he was not holding an assault rifle, but a pile of money to put toward the setting up of two radio stations for the nationalist Buddhist monks who have launched an anti-Muslim campaign in Myanmar.

Though he may not have been armed, the very thought of him and the Thai-Buddhist community financing Myanmar's nationalist monks for their propaganda purposes is scary. 

He defends this by saying the money is going towards enhancing communi?cation 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 it.

Pornchai was leading a delegation to donate US$35,800 (Bt1.2 million) to Ma Ba Tha, or the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion - a network of ultra-nationalist monks behind much of the anti-Muslim sentiment in Myanmar. The money was for the construction of two radio stations. 

"We only had pens before, but now we've got microphones too. So thank you for the donation," the Irrawaddy quoted Wirathu, the most well-known Ma Ba Tha member, as saying.

While the Myanmar military was in power, people like Wirathu were kept at bay by draconian laws. Now however, with newfound freedom, Wirathu and his like can direct their frustration and anger towards the country's Muslims, especially the Rohingya. 

What's more worrying is that Myanmar's military leaders are quietly supporting the anti-Muslim campaign, which many say is close to genocidal. Also, the country's political leaders are either keeping their mouths shut or openly backing these hideous events. Clearly they are forgetting that they too once lived in the same hell they are creating for the Burmese Muslims now. "We will begin a revolution via our own media to protect our religion," Wirathu declared.

Pornchai said monks in Thailand and Myanmar need to aggressively defend their religion against threats from the minority Muslim population.

"We need to have monks like Wirathu. About 80 per cent of monks only act according to tradition; sometimes we need fighter monks," Pornchai said.

He told the Irrawaddy that funding the radio stations was justified because 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 many Thais, who are unable to let go of their racist and ethnocentric attitude, Pornchai and his ilk will see the conflict in the deep South the way they want to see it - especially if it advances their agenda. 

If Pornchai and Ma Ba Tha leaders want to win converts or to strengthen faith in Buddhism, then that's fine. But they should not try to achieve this at the expense of the country's Muslim minority. Instead, they should practice the teachings of the Buddha - especially those related to peace. 

Even if they are not out to convert anybody, but to contain Muslim people's influence and role in society, perhaps they should ask themselves if Buddha would approve of their tactics.

Like many people, Myanmar's nationalist monks have said they despise extremists like the Islamic State, yet these very monks are taking out their frustrations on Muslim people living by their side and slowly becoming more like IS members themselves. 

These monks may not tote automatic rifles, because who needs them when they have microphones to rouse anti-Muslim sentiments and instruct others to do the dirty work?

Forty years ago, a prominent Thai monk declared that it was not a sin to kill Communists. The following day, many Thais went on a killing spree against pro-democracy students.

Sadly, some of us still haven't come to our senses and obviously see nothing wrong with courting ultra-nationalists like Wirathu and Ma Ba Tha monks.

Aung San Suu Kyi greeting supporters in the remote central Myanmar town of Natmauk. Source: AFP

By Amanda Hodge
June 27, 2015

In the days leading up to Aung San Suu Kyi’s 70th birthday on Friday last week, public affection for the icon of Myanmar’s long struggle for democracy took many forms — from glowing pictorial ­tributes in newspapers to Happy Birthday medleys on high Yangon radio rotation.

On the weekend, The Lady confirmed what most in Myanmar had already assumed — her National League for Democracy party would contest the November general elections, the closest this Southeast Asian nation will have seen to a genuine democratic contest for about 50 years.

Suu Kyi’s state visit to China this month at Beijing’s invitation reflects a common view within and outside Myanmar that she and the party she leads will be a significant force in the next government, even if she is barred constitutionally from becoming president.

Yet after two decades of house arrest and great personal sacrifice, just as Suu Kyi is on the verge of becoming her country’s most powerful politician, her reputation as an unimpeachable defender of democracy and human rights is taking a beating.

The Nobel Peace laureate’s transition from democratic figurehead to politician since her release in 2010 has necessarily involved great compromise, not only on public policy but also human rights.

Last month she was criticised publicly by fellow laureates Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama for not speaking out on behalf of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya Muslim population, most of whom are confined to vast and squalid refugee camps in western Rakhine State.

The Tibetan Buddhist leader told The Australian he had twice appealed to Suu Kyi to speak out for the minority whose predicament hit international headlines when thousands of desperate, starving Rohingya boatpeople were bounced from one hostile Southeast Asian nation to another. “It’s very sad,” the Dalai Lama said. “In the Burmese case I hope Aung San Suu Kyi, as a Nobel laureate, can do something.”

The reality for Suu Kyi the politician is there is nothing to be done. Though she defended her record this month, telling The Washington Post: “I’m always talking up for the right of minorities and peace and harmony, and for equality and so on and so on”, the truth is there are few votes in defend­ing the widely reviled minority. And with the NLD on the verge of a historic election win, Suu Kyi will not jeopardise that result.

Yet within Myanmar she is also being criticised from former rusted-on supporters for political failings. Five months out from an election, critics talk of a lack of policies, of her autocratic leadership style, a fortress mentality by gatekeepers, and her refusal to nurture a second generation of NLD leaders, notwithstanding the fact even if her party were to sweep the elections she could not be president because she married a foreigner and her sons are British citizens. That is not widely understood among the Myanmar voting public, many of whom believe an NLD victory will mean a Suu Kyi presidency. How they will react to the discovery is one of many unknowns.

Kyaw Lin Oo heads the ­Myanmar People’s Forum Working Group, which gauges public opinion on government policy on development, peace, democracy and human rights, and feeds it back to the administration. The 38-year-old former student activist, who returned from a decade in exile in 2011, says he would have preferred to contribute to Suu Kyi’s NLD — if only they would have him.

“It’s ironic that I’m now serving the government, as are a lot of my friends who were once student activists. Many of them served time in jail but now work in the Myanmar Peace Centre or as presidential advisers,” he tells Inquirer. “I want to be used by the democratic party and the person I once supported but the people around her think I am not a real supporter.”

Lin Oo says he understands Suu Kyi’s desire to achieve tangible results after spending so many years in isolation. “But the problem is people around her just blindly follow her and she will not accept criticism. That’s old person mentality.”

Though he once thought of Suu Kyi — daughter of slain Burmese independence hero Aung San — as a national hero, he says he will not vote for the NLD now.

“A lot of our generation, and also those of the ’88 generation (those involved in the suppressed democracy uprising of that year) are upset with the NLD,” he says.

“It’s not because they contested the (2012) by-elections (in which they won 43 of 45 seats) but because their political message is very ambiguous and general. ‘Please vote for me. I will work for democracy.’ But everybody is working for democracy. Even the USDP (the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party) says that. We want to hear how you will bring the country up, how will you improve the health and education system?”

November’s election is a watershed for Myanmar, despite criticism that the polls cannot be fair while 25 per cent of parliamentary seats are reserved for unelected military commanders — a constitutional clause deemed necessary by President Thein Sein to win military support for the transition from junta to nascent democracy. Though the NLD is expected to win the most seats, Lin Oo — like many political analysts — says the party cannot replicate its stunning 1990 victory that the military refused to recognise. “Her political party — and also her personality — are not the same as in the 1990 period,” he says.

Many NLD supporters were shocked by the party’s recent ­decision to expel writer and provincial party spokesman Htin Lin Oo in Mandalay for speaking out against extreme Buddhist nationalism and the persecution of Rohingya ­Muslims. It was at an NLD literary festival that Htin Lin Oo, as an invited speaker, told the audience: “Buddha is not Burmese, not Shan, not Karen. So if you want to be an extreme nationalist and if you love to maintain your race that much, don’t believe in Buddhism.”

The comments scandalised Myanmar’s powerful Buddhist nationalist group Ma Ba Tha (Association for the Protection of Race and Religion), which lobbied the Religious Affairs Ministry to pursue charges of “outraging religious feelings” — a crime for which he ultimately was found guilty this month and sentenced to two years’ hard labour.

His imprisonment earned the admonishment of UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, who warned Myanmar against creating a new generation of political prisoners. Months earlier, former NLD Central Committee member and education specialist Thein Lwin also was expelled, for championing student protests against a controversial national education bill.

“People are questioning the NLD, political activists especially are questioning what the NLD party’s stand is on controversial issues like human rights, Rohingya, the education bill,” Kyaw Lin Oo says. “Many people feel there needs to be an alternative to the USDP and NLD, but our political culture makes that very difficult. They can’t survive without the patronage of one or the other of these two parties.”

In the stifling, tin-roofed cafe he runs in a back street in Mandalay — a Buddhist nationalist stronghold and home to the militant anti-Muslim 969 movement — former 88 generation activist and Muslim Ko Nyi Nyi says the country will vote for Suu Kyi’s party, notwithstanding her shortcomings and that of her party.

“We have no choice but to choose Aung San Suu Kyi, unless she dies,” he says. “We don’t really like her party but the problem is people confuse the NLD and Aung San Suu Kyi. So whenever an NLD member does something wrong people blame her.

“People in Burma hope for messianic figures and consider Aung San Suu Kyi to be one of those. So they believe if she gets involved in the Rohingya issue, everything will be resolved. If she spoke out for the writer (Htin Lin Oo) he would be released. If she spoke in favour of student activists there would be no crackdown.

“We need to wait for a time when people see Aung San Suu Kyi as just a political leader and not a messiah,” he adds, though he acknowledges that, at 70, time is running out.

In the absence of second-line leaders, there is talk of a looming leadership crisis. By contrast, the ruling USDP, also dominated by septuagenarians, has a clear succession plan.

One element in Suu Kyi’s favour is the schism within the USDP between supporters of Thein Sein and parliamentary lower house Speaker Shwe Mann, another former military commander turned social and economic reformer who harbours presidential ambitions.

At Washington’s Asia Society last month, Mann openly stated his support for Suu Kyi and said he would be happy to enter coalition government with her party.

Though Thein Sein is seen as a “clean man” — untainted by the cronyism that inevitably has crept into Myanmar’s nascent capitalist economy — Kyaw Lin Oo says most people don’t like his ruling party, seeing it as a rebadged civilian version of the military junta, and believe that reform has stalled. Certainly foreign investment has slowed in the lead-up to the November election as investors await the outcome of the poll, and inflation and unemployment are high. By contrast, Shwe Mann’s family has grown rich in recent years through its government links.

Suu Kyi herself has benefited from the support of Myanmar business tycoons, including Mich­ael Moe Myint, a neighbour, former pilot for Myanmar dictator Ne Win and now an oil tycoon who in 2013 sold 50 per cent of his Bay of Bengal exploration rights to Australia’s Woodside Petroleum.

A story published by The ­Irrawaddy magazine in 2013 on ­efforts by Myanmar’s so-called crony capitalists to rehabilitate themselves through association with The Lady and her NLD observed that Suu Kyi “surprised many by saying that those who became wealthy during military rule should be given another chance to reform themselves”.

“Those who are considered cronies have supported the social activities of the NLD and others,” she was quoted as saying. “What is wrong with that? Instead of spending their money on things that have no purpose, they have supported things that they should support. It’s a good thing.”

It is one of many issues needling a generation of Burmese who, like Suu Kyi, sacrificed years of freedom — albeit in less comfortable surrounds than a sprawling ancestral home — in the fight for democracy.

Kyaw Zwa Moe, editor of the English language edition of The ­Irrawaddy magazine and a former student dissident who spent eight years in jail for producing a political journal, says while Suu Kyi is rightly focused on coaxing the President and ruling generals into a national reconciliation dialogue, she has ignored the country’s ethnic minorities and former student groups. “I personally think she should have been more engaged with those people,” he tells Inquirer from the magazine’s small but bustling Yangon newsroom.

“She genuinely believes in national reconciliation but thinks the current government and military are more important than anyone else. The problem is a lack of team capacity and her age. She ­really needs to meet the people more; ethnic leaders, civil society groups, opposition people.”

Meanwhile, the USDP is building alliances with some ethnic parties to make up electoral ground against the NLD, which commands significant support in ethnic Burmese areas but less so in the seven ethnic states on the country’s periphery — many of which have longstanding ethnic insurgencies.

Still, Kyaw Zwa Moe predicts that, come November, few people will be able to stomach a vote for the military-linked government party. “People still hate this government,” he says. “That leaves them with not many choices.”

Buddhist monks and people from western Myanmar's Rakhine state shout slogans during a protest against boat people in Sittwe, June 14, 2015. (Photo: AFP)

June 26, 2015

A group of nationalist Buddhist monks in Myanmar plan to set up a radio station to protect and disseminate their religion, despite fears that they will use it as a platform to foment anti-Muslim sentiment.

Members of the Committee for the Protection of Nationality and Religion, better known as Ma Ba Tha, want to use the station to spread the Buddha’s teachings in the predominantly Buddhist country, said the group’s senior monk Parmaukka.

“It [setting up the radio station] is according to our discipline or code of conduct because we are doing this to protect and spread our religion, not to get involved in conflicts and hatred,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

He added that Ma Ba Tha is in the process of trying to get a broadcast license and searching for a place to establish the radio station.

Buddhists monks from Thailand have thrown their support behind the project, offering to set up the station for them because they like what Ma Ba Tha has done for Buddhism in Myanmar, Parmaukka said.

Ma Ba Tha has pushed for controversial "protection of religion" laws in Myanmar and protested against ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims, whom the government refers to as “Bengali” because it views them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

In May, more than 1,000 monks and other activists staged a protest in the commercial capital Yangon, urging the government not to accept the stateless Rohingya, some of whom were among the boatloads of migrants found adrift in the sea near Myanmar.

The United Nations estimates that about 130,000 ethnic Rohingya have fled Myanmar by sea since a violent and deadly clash with majority Buddhists in mid-2012. Others, who were displaced by the violence, remain housed in camps in the country’s western Rakhine state.

At the time, Parmaukka had told RFA that the monks were repeating their call for the government to never accept the Rohingya and other boat people.

No policy of hatred

When asked if the group would use the radio station as a platform to speak out against other religions, Parmaukka said the monks do not harbor a policy of hatred, which would go against Buddhist teachings.

“We don’t have any policy of hatred,” he said. “According to Buddha’s teachings, we can’t even kill an ant. Our policy is a nonviolent one, and it prohibits us from killing anyone. Even when we have conflicts in our society, our policy is to resolve them in a peaceful manner. That’s why we can’t have any conflicts because of this radio station.”

But Ye Htut, the information minister and presidential spokesman, said the government would not permit the monks to create a radio station.

“No, no way. We can’t allow them to do it because we don’t have a broadcast law yet,” he told a Myanmar newspaper last week, when asked whether the government planned to grant the monks a radio license.

The country’s current seven FM radio stations have joint-venture business agreements with state-owned Myanmar Radio, which is under the purview of the Ministry of Information.

Reported by Tin Aung Khine for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

By Harun Yahya
June 26, 2015

Last month, the plight of the Rohingya Muslims came into the focus of the world media with the heart-wrenching images of them being stranded at sea.

Following these harrowing scenes, many people across the world came to know the details of the humanitarian crisis they have been through: their villages have been torched, hundreds of thousands of them were forced from their homes and crammed into concentration camps while some others were forced into slavery. Ultimately, these dire circumstances left this minority group no better option than getting on leaky boats and fleeing for better shores.

Now the international community is savvy about this outrage that offended every reasonable conscience by means of international press coverage and social media. While desperate men, women and innocent children are being caged in their own country, deprived of any essential needs, stranded at sea or held for ransom in a nearby jungle, this worldwide awareness will surely bring some prospects of a better future for the Rohingya people.

However, being aware of the problem in no way contributes to tackling their plight or the mass migration it entails. Efforts to resolve the issue must be profound and permanent, and they must address the root causes rather than simply providing interim relief.

Looked at from this perspective, the odds of any resolution seems very dim. Why?

The main party responsible for this atrocity is the government of Myanmar. Tomas Ojea Quintana, the UN special rapporteur for Burma, says that human rights abuses committed by Myanmar's security forces against the Rohingya are widespread and systematic. And with a recent official declaration, the government of Myanmar stated quite bluntly that it has no intention of softening its stance against the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority.

This was a clear message that the government would not curb its grotesque human rights violations, and that message echoed loud and clear in the international media.

Despite having lived in Myanmar for many generations, the Myanmar government does not acknowledge Rohingya Muslims as Burmese and denies them the rights of citizenship. They are confined to specific areas where they can live and work under inhumane conditions. Even humanitarian assistance by international aid groups to these ghettoised people is forbidden by the state authorities in Myanmar.

Despite this policy adopted by Myanmar, some Western states and the Asean countries have made great efforts to promote Myanmar, which was until quite recently a military dictatorship, as a rising star of democracy.

However, during the peak of violence against the Rohingya, Human Rights Watch brought evidence of their pronounced affliction: “The October attacks were against Rohingya and Kaman Muslim communities and were organised, incited, and committed by local Arakanese political party operatives, the Buddhist monkhood and ordinary Arakanese, at times directly supported by state security forces.

“Rohingya men, women and children were killed, some were buried in mass graves, and their villages and neighbourhoods were razed.”

It is not possible to forget the instances of recurrent assault and genocide committed to eliminate the entire Muslim population living in the country.

Then how can the so-called forerunners of democracy be deaf and dumb to this apparent extermination, which is actually deteriorating all pillars of human rights?

The reason for such gilded grandstanding of democracy is not hard to imagine: economic interests. Many countries, among them China, the Asean countries and the United States being among the foremost, are most eager to reap the rewards of Asia’s largest – and the last, except for North Korea – untapped market.

Those governments and corporations seeking economic benefits, especially the manufacturing industries, consider Myanmar a new playing field for access to low-cost labor.

As we can clearly see, it is flagrant economic self-interest that explains the motive behind the efforts to burnish Myanmar's democratic credentials while simultaneously ignoring the obvious and horrific state-sanctioned discrimination against the Rohingya Muslims.

First off, the international community must make its presence more keenly felt on the government of Myanmar. Through economic sanctions focused on Myanmar’s newly-flourishing and key industries, the Myanmar government can be compelled to soften its discriminatory policies against its own minority and persuaded to stop brutalising them.

The US and the European countries play this trump card when it comes to a country like Russia, so the fact that it is not played against Burma clearly reveals the course of action taken by the interest-ridden Western countries and multinational corporations.

While providing humanitarian aid to the Rohingya Muslims is a must, we must be aware that such actions can only be a source of temporary relief. The ultimate goal must be to eliminate the root cause of the problem and provide a durable solution to give the Rohingya Muslims the quality of life that every human being deserves in this world. – June 26, 2015.

* Harun Yahya has authored more than 300 books translated in 73 languages on politics, religion and science. He may be followed at @Harun_Yahya and www.harunyahya.com.

A group of Moken families rest in the shade of trees on an island in in the Mergui Archipelago, Burma. Pic: AP.

By Casey Hynes
June 26, 2015

The persecuted Rohingya Muslims of Burma’s Rakhine state have drawn international attention recently, rightly inspiring demands for an end to the discrimination and violence that drives thousands of Rohingya to risk their lives seeking refuge via dangerous sea voyages. Human rights groups have taken both Burma (Myanmar) and Thailand to task on the treatment of Rohingya, who are often refused refuge and exploited by smugglers and human traffickers. Last year, Phuketwan reported that Thai officials were involved in asmuggling operation that trafficked Rohingya refugees. Two Reuters journalists won a Pulitzer prize for reporting on those charges.

But now Human Rights Watch wants to draw attention to another outrage occurring off Burma’s shores, one the Burmese and Thai governments criminally exacerbate. HRW this week released a new report, “Stateless at Sea: The Moken of Burma and Thailand,” addressing human rights violations against this sea-faring community.

The Moken are considered one of the 135 ethnic races of Burma, but are a stateless people. These nomadic “sea gypsies” come from the Mergui Archipelago, and make their living off the sea. Roughly 3,000 Moken still call the archipelago near Burma’s southern coast home, while about 800 live in Thailand, according to HRW. However, those in Thailand struggle to access education and affordable health care, and are threatened by discriminatory laws that could push them out of their homes.

“In Thailand, the Moken’s ability to pursue their traditional livelihoods is limited by marine conservation regulations, such as the ban on gathering sea products for trade and chopping trees to build or repair boats,” the organization said in a press release. “Thai middlemen exploit Moken vulnerability in order to persuade them to undertake illegal and dangerous work, such as dynamite fishing. On land the Moken also face forced displacement, since they own no title to the traditional shore areas where they live for part of the year.”

HRW called on the Thai government to grant all legitimate asylum claims and to create better avenues for Moken to file complaints and abuses. Dynamite fishing operations exploit the Mokens’ free diving skills, sending them “under water with air running through thin plastic tubes hooked up to a diesel-run compressor so they can stay longer on the seabed to harvest their catch.”

Many of the divers die or suffer severe physical trauma from ascending too quickly from the dives, while others are killed and maimed using homemade bombs on the job. Of course, they have no recourse and receive little to no compensation after these accidents.

Most Moken cannot get an official state ID in Thailand because they don’t qualify for citizenship, and their stateless status makes it difficult for them to take advantage of state welfare programs, according to the report.

“Because most Moken children are born in villages with the assistance of local midwives or on boats, many do not have an official birth certificate,” it said. “And most cannot meet the residency requirement because their nomadic lifestyle results in their spending long periods of time outside of the country.”

HRW also noted that those Moken who have chosen to settle permanently in Phuket rather than live nomadically often must fight eviction from local businessmen.

HRW accuses the Burmese navy and other Burmese and Thai state authorities of “extortion, bribery, arbitrary arrest, and confiscation of property.” Moken people quoted in the report describe being shot at by Navy soldiers and extorted for what little they had. The threat of military violence prevents some Moken from being able to fish and gather food and goods to trade.

One man said,

They point their guns at us so we just jump into the water. If we show them that we have money then sometimes they stop bothering us and don’t take anything else. If we decide to stay on an island, or fish around it, then we have to pay the island head—and these are also Burmese soldiers.

HRW called on Burma to register the births of all Moken children, providing them with a pathway toward basic care and stability, to ensure equal rights for all Moken, comparable to those given to Burmese citizens. The first recommendation, of course, was to end the abuses being committed by state officials. As for Thailand, HRW insists on an end to threats of forced relocation, access to social welfare programs, and protection of labor rights.

(Photo: EPA)

June 25, 2015

The farce that is Burmese democracy continues and with it continues the oppression of the country’s Rohingya minority.

The Burmese parliament has just thrown out proposals to amend the constitution. The effect has been to seriously weaken the position of the opposition National League for Democracy while entrenching the role of the military in the country’s governance.

The parliament also failed to change the rule which currently debars NLD leader, the Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from running for the presidency, because her late husband was English. The opposition had also been demanding that the 75 percent vote needed to change the constitution be cut by five percent. That too was thrown out. Aung San Suu Kyi had warned that real change could only come with a real change to the constitution. Now she has seen that real change is not on offer.

The elections which are expected toward the end of the year could yet have a nasty surprise for Aung San Suu Kyi and her party. In 1990 the generals ignored an overwhelming win by the NLD and reasserted their dictatorship through a pitiless military junta.

Yet Aung San Suu Kyi seems powerless in the face of this latest setback. It ought to be as clear as daylight that the generals are not going to relinquish power. They even rejected this week a move to remove their veto on legislation.

And there is something no less important that is happening here. With each fresh humiliation, with her refusal to speak out on crucial issues, not the least of which is the appalling treatment of the Rohingya Muslims, Aung San Suu Kyi is losing her reputation and her power.

It is clear that her passivity is causing restlessness among important members of her party. She is still insisting that change can be brought about through negotiation. She does not want to risk violent confrontation. Yet others would argue that her refusal to take a stand and speak out sharply is actually making violence at some point in the future more likely.

It may be a harsh judgement, but maybe Aung San Suu Kyi is trying too hard to live up to that Peace Prize. Maybe if part of the Burmese population were not being persecuted for their Muslim faith and herded into concentration camps for “their own protection”, maybe if Buddhist thugs were not targeting other Muslims and minorities, then maybe the NLD leader’s Gandhi-like nonviolence would carry weight.

But because of the genocidal treatment of the Rohingyas, it is not an approach that works. Yet at the same time Aung San Suu Kyi’s reputation is being used by former general President Thein Sein and his military cronies to lure in foreign businesses and investors.

Until the Burmese Peace Laureate is prepared to quit pussyfooting around and call out the military for their bloody oppression of Burmese Muslims, she and her international reputation are going to be exploited mercilessly by the military regime. There is nothing heroic about staying silent, and the danger for Aung San Suu Kyi is that the world will judge her harshly for her silence. So much was expected of her, so many hopes invested in her. The disappointment may well be as bitter as it will be sudden.



By AFP
June 25, 2015

Washington - The United States on Thursday voiced concern about "significant human rights problems" in Myanmar, shining a light notably on persistent abuses against the minority Rohingya Muslims.

"Human rights abuses in Rakhine State remained a severely troubling counterpoint to the broader trend of progress since 2011, including the 2012 release of political prisoners, efforts to improve prison conditions, and continuing negotiations to pursue a durable ceasefire," the State Department said in an annual frank assessment of progress on human rights around the world.

The plight of the Rohingya, who live mostly in Rakhine, has been thrust to the fore in recent weeks after thousands of desperate migrants had to be rescued from rickety boats in waters off Myanmar's coast.

"The government did not establish a fair process for granting access to full citizenship rights on an equal, non-discriminatory basis to stateless Rohingya," the report said.

It added that authorities in Rakhine State "made no meaningful efforts to help Rohingya and other Muslim minority persons displaced by violence to return to their homes and continued to enforce draconian restrictions on their movement."

More than 140,000 people displaced by violence remained "interned in camps which further entrenched the segregation of the Rohingya and Rakhine communities" leaving them "vulnerable to abuse and extortion."

Rakhine, one of Myanmar's poorest states, is a tinderbox of tension between its Buddhist majority and the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority.

Tens of thousands of Rohingya have fled Rakhine in recent years, joined increasingly by economic migrants from neighboring Bangladesh, mainly headed for Malaysia and Indonesia.

The 2014 report -- which does not include the recent wave of migrants -- alleged government forces were acting with impunity and were to blame for a catalog of extrajudicial killings as well as torture and arbitrary detentions.

The report also denounced the harsh conditions in Myanmar's prisons, and said that even though conditions in labor camps had generally improved, in some places the situation was "potentially life threatening."

In recent years the US has supported a gradual opening up in Myanmar, with the country ushering in reforms since it shed the military junta in 2011.

But many observers say those reforms have now stalled and on Thursday parliament shot down a draft amendment to the junta-era constitution that would have loosened the military's continued political stranglehold.



By Sunny K
Marxism
June 25, 2015

In the past few months, the international media has been diligently covering the story of rickety boats full of Rohingya Muslims who are desperately trying to flee sectarian violence and systematic state persecution from Myanmar.

From January to March 2015 around 25,000 Rohingya people have braved dangerous seas to reach Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand through the Strait of Malacca, and hundreds have lost their lives. The horrific conditions faced by these migrants have been extensively commented on by the pundits. However, little has been said about the root causes that lead people to embark on such dangerous journeys, let alone the real solution that will once and for all rid the world of such horrendous sights.

The boats that these Rohingya migrants voyage on are barely stocked with clean water and food and many die of dehydration even before reaching the shores. Any person seen to be weak and close to collapse is sometimes thrown off the boat to spare some room. However, their journey does not end when they reach the shores. Malnourished women, children and men who have finally reached the shores of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and other coastal ports are either denied entry, kept at the port while filing bureaucratic papers, or are held in detainment. In a worst case, they are sold to human traffickers to enter the sex trade.

Until recently, the migrants made their first stop in Thailand where brokers held them until they could collect “ransom” money from relatives. Only after the “ransom” was paid the migrants could continue onward, usually to Malaysia. However, a heavy state crackdown on human traffickers has disrupted this profitable enterprise. This forces traffickers, who are afraid of being arrested by the authorities, to abandon boats filled with hundreds of Rohingya and Bangladeshi refugees and migrants offshore. Closed borders and a heavy state crackdown on human trafficking thus have left thousands of Rohingya in the open sea.

The plight of the Rohingya Muslims is similar to the hundreds of thousands of migrants elsewhere who have left their homes because of civil wars and unemployment. The anti-immigrant sentiment whipped up by countries in South East Asia reflects the current backlash against refugees fleeing to Europe. In 2015, from January to April alone, 1600 people died trying to reach Europe in small fishing boats that capsized off the coasts of Italy and Greece. These “accidental deaths” are directly related to the EU’s funding cut back in search and rescue missions. (Read Tragedy in the Mediterranean: Immigration and the crimes of capitalism)

Who are the Rohingya Muslims and what are they fleeing from?

Myanmar was under a military dictatorship from 1962 to 2011. This period had been characterized by brutal state repression, not only against the democratic opposition but also ethnic minorities who have been fighting for greater self-determination. Even though the military junta was dissolved in 2011, today the military is de facto still in power, maintaining a quasi-military rule.

The Rohingya, who are predominantly Muslims, are an ethnic minority who have resided for generations in Myanmar. They reside in the Rakhine State, bordering Bangladesh on the Bay of Bengal, with a population around 800,000. The Rohingya people have been subjected to systematic persecution for decades. They have been forced to flee because they have been rendered stateless in their own homeland, denied citizenship rights and opportunities to education and are subjected to forced labour. The Rohingya people have also been the target of communal violence. The most recent communal violence in 2012 left hundreds dead and forced Rohingya Muslims to abandon their homes, leaving 140,000 homeless within their own borders.

The ruling classes in Myanmar maintain their dictatorial grip over the whole of Myanmar society by relying not only on guns and batons but also on the poisonous mix of Burmese nationalism and Theravada Buddhism. This has allowed for the use of divide and rule tactics by the military regime and its fringe reactionary groups.

Even iconic democracy activist of the oppositional party Ann San Suu Kyi has been silent on the systematic persecution of the Rohingya Muslims. Her deafening silence is a testament to the limits of the bourgeois democrats. With her sights set on the November election, her party needs to garner the support of the monks – many of them are reactionary – and be seen as patriotically defending the Buddhist state. Unable to wage a class struggle that could cut across ethnic and religious differences in society and unite the whole of the workers and peasants against the ruling junta, the Myanmar bourgeois democrats are forced to rely on formal democracy, which means winning the votes from the Bamar (the dominant ethnic group in Myanmar) and the Buddhist constituencies at the expense of other minorities.

Decades of violence and state oppression against the Rohingya people is ominously reminiscent of the hateful propaganda that was directed at the Tutsi population in the lead up to the Rwandan genocide. In November 2012, United to End Genocide warned the Obama administration to take strong and immediate steps to stop the systematic violence and attacks against the Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine State. The Obama administration instead has not only lifted sanctions against Myanmar but has given the regime military aid.

Dangerous waters and closed boarders trap migrants in hellish conditions

Left without a choice, thousands of Rohingya Muslims pay illegal brokers hundreds of dollars to escape resettlement camps for the shores of Thailand, Indonesia and Australia. The brokers are often Rohingya themselves who are desperate to make money out of this mass exodus of human cargo. To date, in South East Asia about 50,000 Rohingya Muslims flee Myanmar by water ever year, and 25,000 have boarded boats between January and March of this year. There have been 300 deaths during these months.

Harsh anti-immigrant policies have completely closed the borders of receiving countries, keeping between 6000-8000 migrants stranded at sea. This horrifyingly high number is due to the fact that smugglers have abandoned their vessels because of engine problems or fear of being arrested by the authorities, leaving starving migrants floating at sea. More than 3000 migrants have tried to swim ashore or have been taken into Malaysian and Indonesian custody. While Malaysia and Thailand have taken in a number of refugees, the authorities claim this will only be temporary. A statement from the Malaysian authorities on May 13th, 2015 made it clear that they would not encourage migrant resettlement within their borders. “We have to send the right message that they are not welcome here,” said Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Junaidi Jaffar.

A vicious anti-immigrant policy has also been adopted by the Australian government that has openly denied entry of the Rohingya Muslim refugees. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has clearly stated that “Australia will do absolutely nothing that gives any encouragement to anyone to think that they can get on a boat, that they can work with people smugglers to start a new life.” Australia has established contracts with Indonesia to intercept boats full of refugees off their borders and direct them to holding centres in Indonesia or Malaysia. Australia is the only country out of the above mentioned three that has signed the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees but refuses to carry out its obligations to asylum seekers under this convention.

The hypocrisy of the ruling class does not end there. The Prime Minister went on to say that “if you want to start a new life, you come through the front door, not through the back door.” Rohingya refugees are stripped of citizenship in Myanmar and denied any kind of documentation and legal identification. The idea of entering the front door of Australia's immigration office is a sick joke on the part of the Australian ruling classes who play down the conditions of violence, rape and poverty that these refugees are escaping from. Abbot's anti-refugee policies do not stop there. This is the same Prime Minister who has sent out gunboats to patrol the waters for any vessels full of refugees and to immediately deport them back to where they came from or to countries like Cambodia, whom Australia has made an agreement with to hold refugees. Tony Abbot's “stop the boats” pledge, which he ran during his 2012 election campaign, even deports genuine refugees who are fleeing war-torn countries.

Recent reports have also discovered large makeshift jails and trafficking camps in Malaysia which contain mass graves of ex-migrants who escaped Myanmar years ago. Specialists have estimated that the mass graves have been there for at least five years. The typical route of a smuggler is to collect money per head of each migrant willing to travel to these destination countries by sea between the dry season of May and October. However, once the smugglers land the migrants they then force them off to trafficking camps in the northern province of Malaysia where they are brutally tortured and beaten until their family members pay up a ransom. The amount demanded rcan reach as high 6000 Malaysian Ringgits, about $2000 Canadian, an almost impossible amount to pay if you are living in the ghettos of the Rakhine state. Those who do not receive their ransom end their journey in the shallow graves.

The common route that the smugglers have used for decades could not have been established without the knowledge of both Myanmar and Malaysian authorities, who have taken bribes and extra cuts from illegal brokers. The ruling classes in Malaysia and Myanmar are both culpable and have bloodstained hands. They have profited just as the smugglers have on human trafficking. Tough immigration laws have left many asylum seekers hopeless in starting a new life free from violence and poverty. The subsequent consequences of harsh anti-immigrant laws have left thousands of Rohingya Muslims vulnerable to human traffickers disguised as immigration agents and brokers.

Poverty in Myanmar

It is important to understand that the recent intensification of communal violence is a reflection of the sickness of capitalism and the parasitic nature of the ruling classes both internationally and in Myanmar. Ethnic violence is, at its root, caused by generalized scarcity and the resulting desperation of the urban and rural poor. UNDP reported that in 2010 there was a 26 per cent rate of incidence of poverty, with rural poor accounting for 84% of the total poor. 32 per cent of children below the age of five suffer from malnutrition, with the highest level found in the Rakhine state (53 per cent) where the Rohingya people reside. This condition is further exploited by the Burmese military and the ruling classes to stoke ethnic clashes that divide the toiling masses and clear prime lands from its indigenous inhabitants for lucrative development projects.

One such example of land grabbing is the destruction of the Rohingya settlement in Kyaukphyu, the main town on Ramree Island off the coast of Rakhine state. Ramree Island is to be the centre of a multi-billion dollar Special Economic Zone (SEZ), that will be built with the involvement of CITIC Group from China and Japanese engineering company Nippon Koei. During the 2012 riots, more than 14 hectares of the Rohingya settlement were burnt to the ground (For the satellite image of the destruction, see here). This Rohingya area, with sea-frontage on two of its three sides, is now clear for private development. The SEZ is based around the Chinese-funded US$2.5 billion energy pipelines that will transport oil and natural gas from Kyaukphyu to Yunnan province, exploiting the newly found gas deposit west of Kyaukphyu (Shew gas field). The Shew pipeline project also traverses through the Kachin state that borders China, resulting in forced evictions and land grabbing in the area. Anywhere the pipe is laid, people are forcefully removed and armed conflicts erupt between the government forces and various armed independence organizations, such as the Kachin Independence Organization.

Myanmar’s capitalist economic development has led to further social decay. The so-called reforms in Myanmar do not solve the fundamental problems faced by the poor workers and peasants, but in turn exacerbate them. The abject poverty that prevails in Myanmar is felt throughout the country and leaves many Burmese people malnourished, unemployed and severely underpaid. This is in stark contrast to the fact that Myanmar is a country rich in natural resources. It is wealthy in gems and also has oil and gas deposits along its coastal land, not to mention fertile land that if tended correctly and not exploited by landlords and private corporations would be able to feed the entire population. However, these riches have so far only benefited the military junta, the capitalists, the big landlords, and their imperialist masters.

What the Rohingya Muslims are facing today is utter barbarity, but it is the same plight many migrants endure as they leave their broken homes in Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Syria, Iraq, etc. They endure inhumane conditions on small leaky boats, travelling the dangerous sea in the hope of escaping communal conflict, barbaric living conditions and unemployment. We live in a society where the productive capacity exists to end poverty, hunger and unemployment. But the ruling elites of Myanmar and many other countries are holding back the whole of society for their own petty interest: profit. To end this barbarity we need to end the very capitalist system that it stands on, this system that produces for profit and not for need. Capitalism and imperialism have displaced tens of millions of people due to war and unemployment. The ruling elites hypocritically criminalize innocent refugees, and yet the only criminals that exist in this story are they and the capitalist system that they rest on.

The plight of the Rohingya people and other minorities in Myanmar, and in fact the whole toiling masses of Myanmar, can only be fought along class lines. The workers and peasants of Myanmar brought together in class unity, marching together regardless of their ethnicities and religions, will be an indomitable force against the military, the capitalists, and the landlords.

(Photo: Reuters)

June 25, 2015

One of the two boats used to smuggle more than 1,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to Langkawi last month, was owned by a local man, said Kedah police chief Datuk Zamri Yahya.

"It (the boat) is registered in the name of a Malaysian who is now under police custody."

He, however, did not disclose details or the date of arrest of the man to facilitate the investigation, but he was believed to have been detained under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007.

All the 1,158 Bangladeshis and Rohingya refugees, including children and women who landed in Langkawi on May 10, are now detained at the Belantik Immigration Detention Depot in Sik, Kedah.

Recently, 61 Bangladeshi men who had boarded the boat involved were deported to their home country.

Asked whether the boat owner was the mastermind behind the human trafficking, Zamri said police were still investigating his involvement.

The police investigation was still centred on the boat registered in his name which was used to bring illegal immigrants to the resort island, he added.

Recently, nine Rohingyas and Bangladeshis were also arrested in relation to police investigation on the landing of boats carrying illegals to Langkawi last month.



By Mirza Arif
June 25, 2015

NEW DELHI: Dust has just settled in after light showers on muddy roads near Kalindi Kunj as an Imam delineates the teachings of Quran and Prophet Mohammad to a small congregation of ten people. He tries to convince attendees with his gesticulations and Mohammad Farooque nods in agreement. 

In a white vest that has turned yellow with a few holes in front and a black pair of trousers, Farooque is a man in his early thirties. However, his bent back and hollow eyes make him look much older. The anguish is visible on his face as he has endured much more than what could be explained through words. Just about a kilometre away from Kalindi Kunj Bridge, where the metro construction is taking place at brisk pace; there exists a camp that comprises of 57 families of Rohingya Muslims who escaped from the persecution of the Myanmar government. 

Farooque is observing fast in the holy month of Ramadaan and narrates his story in a low monotone which is replete with persecution, suffering and the massacres that he witnessed on his home soil in the Arakan district of Myanmar. Before fleeing his country and leaving his family at the peril of never meeting them again, Farooque’s protracted journey from Myanmar to India was one of sheer misery.


“They got hold of me one day (in his village in Myanmar) and took me to the police station. They made me cut the grass for animals and starved me for about two days”, says Farooque. Farooque ran away from the police station through the thick jungles of Myanmar into Bangladesh. He had evaded persecution at the hands of the Myanmar administration but little did he know that his situation was about to aggravate. 

“I was hungry and I didn’t have even a single penny in my pocket. Only I can understand how I passed through those days of extreme sufferings. I found a few companions in Bangladesh who were to leave for India and I went along with them”. Farooques face registered the trauma of these memories and just then, Mohammad Saleem, a man in a white shirt and blue checkered cloth tied at the bottom came by to take the story further. 

The only way for the Rohingyas to India is through the porous India-Bangladesh borders where they encounter very little resistance from the administration but massive exploitation at the hands of locals on both the sides. “We have to pay Rs.1500 on the Bangladeshi side and Rs.1000 on the Indian Side of the border. “If we refuse, they threaten us that they would get us apprehended by the police”, says Saleem. “Even the local coolies are part of this enormous racket”, he explains further.

Mistreatment of the Rohingyas doesn’t end here. Even though the value of Bangladeshi currency is lower than that of the Indian rupee, they are paid much lesser in exchange. “They leave us with limited choice because if the Indian police find Bangladeshi currency with us they would tag us as illegal immigrants. So we take whatever is being offered in exchange”, says Saleem. 

Farooque had received a few images on whatsapp about a fortnight ago. His maternal grandfather who still resides in Myanmar had sent him the pictures of a bearded man who was rammed into by a police jeep. The victim hasn’t received any medical attention as yet and has a white blood stained cloth tied all over his left leg. “These brazen attacks on Muslims happen on daily basis there and they do it intentionally, the policemen”, Farooque empathizes with the victim. 

To negate any possibility of upheaval, the authorities and police conduct vigilance every week and don’t even allow the smallest of knives. The level of suppression in Myanmar is such that the government follows a robust way of managing the population of Rohingyas. “As a person turns 18-19, the government officials would come and make a list of people promising them membership in army but at night they would blindfold the same people and take them away. God knows how many people have been taken away hitherto who never returned”, says Saleem. 

UN describes Rohingyas as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world and their situation as one of the most dilapidated ones. The Myanmar government doesn’t recognize Rohingyas as the indigenous citizens of its state but rather regards them as illegal migrants from Bangladesh. The citizenship act 1982 of Myanmar has kept Rohingyas bereft of any voting rights and with absolutely no political representation. “They can say anything they like but our ancestors have been living there since ages and once Arkan district spread into Bangladesh. We still have one of the pillars in Bangladesh with Arkan inscribed over it”, says Farooque. 

Farooque doesn’t have huge expectations from the Indian establishment either but he doesn’t get tired of appreciating Indian people as they have espoused his cause and understood the plight of his community. The education system in Myanmar is exceedingly prejudiced toward the Buddhists. “I just want my children to study and not to sustain what we had to. There in Myanmar they would fail our children deliberately and keep them stranded at lower grades”, says Farooque. 

The clock shows 7:10pm and Farooque has to break his fast at 7:23pm. It has started raining again and an old lady is struggling to manage her tarpaulin in order to prevent leakage of water. The situation may not appear very exciting but for these Rohingyas their stay in India has brought a ray of hope for their children.

By Lun Min Mang
June 25, 2015

Rakhine State electoral officials have posted voter lists for public inspection ahead of the November general elections and, as expected, several hundred thousand Rohingya Muslims who hold only temporary ID documents had their disenfranchisement confirmed.

An Aung Mingalar resident checks for his name on the voting list at the ward administration office in Sittwe on June 22. (Kaung Htet/The Myanmar Times)

Sittwe district election sub-commission chair U Oo Tun Thar said yesterday the electoral rolls did not include former “white-card” holders.

“In the past they had been permitted to vote in both elections [2010 general election and 2012 by-election]. But now they are no longer allowed to do so. That’s why we don’t include them in the eligible voter lists,” he said.

In February, the government declared the documents invalid from March 31 under pressure from Buddhist nationalists, while parliament has since amended electoral laws to remove voting rights for white-card holders. The Constitutional Tribunal has also ruled that temporary ID holders cannot vote.

In Sittwe, election officials with loudspeakers and public announcements urged residents to turn out and check that their names and data were correctly presented on the lists.

But Ko Soe Naing, a Sittwe resident, said public interest seemed to be low. “We are fed up with the political parties’ self-interest-oriented politics. That may be a reason for less people out there checking their lists.”

But he also said ethnic Rakhines were keeping an eye on the lists to ensure that former white-card holders were excluded. “Many people are interested in that matter. If they are included, that could be manipulation,” he said.

Disenfranchisement of the Rohin-gya community could help the Rakhine National Party, dominated by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists, achieve its goal of sweeping all seats in the state in November, both for the national parliament and the state assembly.

The National League for Democracy led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has little support in Rakhine, where it is seen as representing the interests of the country’s Bamar majority. While she is criticised internationally for not speaking out about abuses against the Rohingya, she is conversely seen in Rakhine State as being too sympathetic to the Ro-hingya cause.

The ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party is also widely distrusted but won some seats there in 2010, largely by rallying Muslim voters to its side.

Most of the white-card holders in Rakhine State are stateless Muslims who identify as Rohingya, but are officially referred to by the government as Bengali. When it announced the cancellation of the white cards, the government also ordered that all temporary ID holders in the country should hand in their documents by May 31 to be eligible to apply for citizenship if they fulfil the legal criteria. The government had said there were 666,831 white cards issued in the state.

One former white-card holder in a camp in Sittwe for Muslims driven from their homes in inter-communal violence in 2012 said he did not believe his name would be on the voter list.

“As the Constitutional Tribunal had decided that granting white-card holders a voting right was unconstitutional, I don’t have much expectation over the voter lists,” the man, who requested anonymity, told The Myanmar Times yesterday.

Leaders of the Arakan National Party were active in parliament in ensuring the disenfranchisement of white-card holders in a direct rebuff to President U Thein Sein, who had proposed earlier in February that they should be granted voting rights in a planned constitutional referendum.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based NGO, said in April that stripping them of their eligibility “severs the last link that many Muslims in Rakhine State feel they have with political life, with potentially serious implications for medium-term stability in that region”.

Rakhine was one of several states and regions, including 21 townships in Yangon, to post electoral rolls on June 22 for a two-week period when the public can check their names and data are entered correctly. Corrected lists will be issued again in August for inspection.

Rohingya Exodus