Myanmar, Aung San, and Rohingya In my fellowship, I had the opportunity to mingle with my fellow Delegates from Myanmar. There were 3 of them, : Kyi Pyar, the youth trainer from NLD party Led by Daw Aung San Su Kyi, May Myo, a township planner from the USDP, the military backed ruling party of Myanmar, whom father is also an elected Senate of the USDP party, and Thant Zin, a Myanmarian Journalist who works in humanitarian desk in one of the leading newspapers in Myanmar. The ASEAN spirit quickly kicked in and I spent a lot of free and vacant time bonding with the Myanmar delegate (which I shall do with the Philippines one soon!). I did so partially because of my curiosity over the political development in Myanmar, and also my lists of questions hanging there craving to be answered. I wasnt disappointed by them at all. With these three, all who has absolute proximity to their apex echolon of influencers : Opposition leader Daw Aung San, President Thein Sein, and the Media, I have most my doubt clarified on many things, particularly the Rohingya Issue. Before I share with u on the Rohingya issue, let me offer you some premises first 1) delegate from NLD (opposition) Kyi Pyar spoke with absolute certainty about her hatred towards the military led USDP government, whom she thinks had oppressed Myanmarians for the past 20 years. The hatred is dramatically beyond any reconciliation effort can solve. 2) Thant Zin from the Media was a political prisoner (he is only one year older than me). Doesnt matter if he called me a Wikipedia but I am very fond of this friend because he is very rational, and humble. Less emotional and more rational. Despite having experience prison in the past for a prolonged period, he didnt allow that to impair his judgment on many good reforms USDP has made 3) May Myu is a typical conformist of the government, thinking that USDP did everything they could to ensure the survival of Myanmar, and were troubled by the misinterpreted democratic ideology by opposition. 4) Daw Aung San Su Kyi is revered as a Saint by her party members because of her big heart and libertarian ideology which resonates better with many Myanmarians. 5) many in the NLD are doing soul searching on the topic of Democracy. Ive shared my studies on democracy (my dissertation on jurisprudence) with Kyi Pyar and she was absolutely facisnated by it. She asked that I email her my writings and recommend her relevant articles on democracy. 6) the picture circulated in the internet depicting hundreds of dead body were fake photo. It was the photo taken during Sichuan earth quake when the muddy body trapped under dust and rubbers were retrieved and laid. There were killings in Rohingya but were all happening at isolated instances, and it happens both ways (much like the XinJiang Han-Uyghur killing). 7) they have high respect to Malaysias Ghazali, the UN representative to help mediate between Aung San and USDP. ROHINGYA and the silence of Aung San - caveat : these are all my personal views based on what Ive gathered from my Myanmarian friends (above mentioned) and is no way authoritative or conclusive to the actual truth, which is known to no one but God. For years, Aung San has been branded as a liberal and libertarian. Unfortunately many Myanmarians were unaware of what these ideological branding connotes. The NLD branded Aung San as a liberal based on her believes : indiscriminate humanitarianism, and fair for all. Opportunists thus capitalized on the ignorance of Myanmarians by misleading them into believing that Aung San is an extreme liberal, that If Aung San won the election, Myanmar will be declared a Muslim country. That propaganda went off like wild fire, and many ignorant Myanmarians began to believe it. Now Malaysians, I want you to view this a a fellow human being, not as Muslim. I know you would argue that Islam is the best religion and would be better for Myanmar whatnot but thats because youre taking the viewpoint of a Muslim and it does not contribute to the understanding of the issue in Myanmar. Lets put that aside and try to assess this on a humanitarian stand point : you have a big huge bunch of people that believes that their own religion will vanish when Aung San wins. Similiar emotional comparison in Malaysia would be like telling a malaysian, if Anwar wins, Islam will be replaced by Christianity in our country, which is totally absurd and untrue. But thing in Myanmar is, people bought that. Later on, as the conflict broke off, some people died (not many as sensationalized by the western media , agreed by all three of my friends : NLD, USDP, and Local Media). Again, the conflict sort of began with a potential separatist movement in Rohingya. Might be too far fetched to compare it with BangsaMoro Muslim separatist movement in Philipines or Southern Thailand Muslim separatist movement which are more equipped in military, Rohingyians Muslim were just showing the signs of it. As any other country would have reacted on separatists, they became hostile to the Rohingyians. That led to many major and minor conflicts involving dead from people of both religions : Islam and Buddhist. It is not as depicted in the western media according to all of them. And as such, its not really a humanitarian issue per se. Its more like a separatist conflict incurring collateral death, and hence its hard and unfair for Daw Aung to take a stand to support the separatists. If she does so in Myanmar, not only no one would resonate or concur with her stand of supporting one side of the collateral victims, she would be branded as traitor who support Islamist separatists who would make Myanmar a Muslim country when she is elected president too. Again, she did make a stand on the issue, which is that everyone must be given equal opportunity to practice their believe and religion free from persecution. But thats at a very fundamental level, and must not be confused with a sophisticated and complex separatists movement. As you can see in Southern Thailand, Bangsa Moro in Southern Philippines etc, it seems that many south east ASIAN Muslims living in a predominantly non-Muslim country would ask for autonomy or would go down the separatist route that would end up with death from both side inevitably. Myanmars Rohingya sort of facing similiar situation but due to the lack of internet penetration, social media, and media coverage locally, the outside world is deprived of facts nearer to truth. I have not made my mind yet on this issue but their earnest explanation really did impact and alter my previous stand on the same issue. Looking forward to learning more about a fellow ASEAN country more in my trip. #ACYPL
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 11:13:42 +0000
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