Drivig factors on recent Bengali/Rohingya flight
When assessing a political situation such as recent large-scale movement of Rohingya/Bengali people, one needs to look at the event in every possible angles. It is probable that multitudes of factors have contributed to the recent Rohingya/Bengali flight. Nothing, at this preliminary stage, should be ruled in or out. A careful and politically neutral investigation is essential to establish the proper root causes of the flight. Some identifiable root causes, in order of relevance, at this stage are:
(A) The Rohingya/Bengali population's disappointment of Burma's new democratic government; (B) The socio-economic condition; (C) The Rohingya/Bengali political groups inciting the exodus; (D) The Burmese military staging up to expelling that minority group; (E) The harassment of local Rakhine political groups.
A. ROHINGYA/BENGALI COMMUNITY DISAPPOINTMENT ON THE DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT
One obvious main cause for the flight will be the Rohingya/Bengali community's disappointment about Burma's new democratic leadership. The community's long held expectations for a better treatment -- particularly the resolution for their Burma residency status -- from the elected NLD government have not been met. There have been several areas of political expectations where the performance of elected NLD government cannot reach. Some specific issues that can be identified are:
(i) The NLD government's position with regards to the stateless Rohingya/Bengali (the white card holders) has been vague and unclear. The government did not communicate about whether these people will be granted a proper Burma residency. Nor, any other initiatives that the government itself might have been making were not communicated. One and a half years period which the NLD government had taken charge has been long enough time to make decisions as to grant the stateless (the white-card holders) to proper Burma residency. This is because, all the complex issues -- including long standing and vexatious issue of Rohingya Identity -- were all sorted out at the research and policy levels. The NLD Government apparently had failed to take up these initiatives, simply due to lack of political authority or not having the political courage.
(ii) Failure to restore Arakan to pre-2012 condition. There are internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan from the 2012 riots, of which both from Rakhine as well as Rohingya/Bengali communities. The NLD government should have taken serious steps to sort out and restore the IDPs to their former places of residence. This task should have been done as soon as the inter-communal conflict had winded down. Failure to do so have given the impetus to recent flight.
General issues in this regards are:
(i) The NLD leadership's failure to put forward an un-ambiguous support for Burma's Muslim religious minority, and an assurance that the government had considered Bengali/Rohingya as proper Burma subjects. This is very important because other political noises are attacking Muslim religious minorities and are also accusing the Rohingya/Bengali community as "illegal immigrants".
(ii) The vague and un-decisive stance by NLD leadership on the status of Rohingya/Bengali has also been contributing factor. For the inquiry into situation in Arakan, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had been appointed, delivered recommendations a year after. However, on the ground, there have not been any visible initiatives made to resolve the Rohingya/Bengali issues. These initiatives should have been carried out by either by NLD government itself, or the Burmese military or, even, the Burmese civil society. This factor has been very important from the minority groups' perspectives, that their situation and their community's wellbeing are considered by the governmental authorities and society at large. The recommendations made by Kofi Annan, of course, nothing wrong in anyone's perspectives, but these cannot arbitrarily be imposed upon Burma. Either the elected NLD government or the Burmese society must do the political ground work.
(iii) Another possible factor is the violent death of the NLD's own MP, U Ko Ni. The late U Ko Ni was the only Muslim member of parliament within NLD rank-and-file, and considered him to be the right-hand man for Aung San Suu Kyi. From the perceptions of Muslim community as a minority group, they would "feel being secure" and able to look him up as "their" man at the positions of authority. The killing of U Ko Ni in such public ways would have cast enormous fears on the Muslim communities, especially the Rohingya/Bengali.
(iv) The NLD government's inaction on the claims of Burmese military harassment of Rohingya/Bengali IDP, which made on early 2017, may also have contributed to the community's loss of confidence on the elected civilian government. Regardless of whether certain claims of mass sexual violence by the Burmese army are credible or being unfounded, the NLD government's inaction, or even failures to communicate these matters in timely manner can contribute to the loss of confidence by Rohingya/Bengali community.
As had been noted in FAQs (1-4), there had been unchecked political propaganda campaign on the so-called Identity of Rohingya running on the global media for over 20 years. The issues such as the disputed origins and the myths about Rohingya, the nature of political oppression that had taken place on this immigrant community since 1948 needed to be addressed in a full and frank manners, not only to the Burmese general public but also to the global community. These initiatives -- given all the available research outcomes that had been made since 2015 -- are entirely do-able. The continued silence and willful avoidance to take on this particular issue by the elected NLD government must be immediately corrected.
As for the recent cause of flight, the NLD government should fully cooperate with UN Human Rights mechanisms. If any of the independent and professional human rights NGOs such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch were to examine the root causes of recent refugee flights, the NLD government should cooperate and grant full access to those NGOs.
| FAQ-01 || | FAQ-02 || | FAQ-03 || | FAQ-04 || | << FAQ-05 || |
|---|