Rohingyas are humans too!

Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
My View - The Sun Daily
December 14, 2016

EACH time one reads about the plight of the Rohingyas in the Indochinese state of Myanmar; one cannot help but cast the mind back to similar incidents that took place in another Indochinese state, then known as Kampuchea. More so when the Rohingyas are allegedly subjected to oppression, torture and even claims of genocide from several authoritative international organisations. It is beginning to sound like the making of another "killing field" as unleashed by the Khmer Rouge. At the end of the day, some two million Khmer were tortured and murdered as seen from mass graves. Some are so "unbelievable" that they have become "tourist attractions" with stacks of human skulls and skeletons. There have been many mass graves discovered elsewhere in recent times, but none are as tragic as that imposed on the Khmer people in full view of the international community.

If ideology is said to be the main tension that drove the wedge among the Khmer population of almost similar homogeneity, the case in Myanmar is different. The tension there is rooted more in ethnic heterogeneity and the Rohingyas are deemed as outcasts that the regime is determined to get rid of. This is despite the group's origin in Myanmar is traceable back to the 15th century, according to the Council of Foreign Relations.

The Rohingyas have yet to be treated as humans let alone recognised as citizens and allowed to exercise their rights. Several of their real-life experiences inform us what this actually translates to where survival is the name of the game.

For example, one Osman Gani, an Arabic teacher, claimed that he had to swim across a river to Bangladesh to escape from being killed. He gave a graphic description of murders, rapes, looting and burning of homes by soldiers who are part of "ethnic cleansing" intoxication in Rakhine state. "They (Myanmar's soldiers) oppressed us and fired at us from aircraft. People were killed in front of my house. They chased the girls and gunned them down. And they burnt many people," he testified to the Associated Press. One is tempted to substitute the fate of the Rohingyas with that of the victims of Pol Pot's "killing field" to see how much worse it is for humanity this time. Especially when it had been forewarned by several international bodies which described the current situation as "the worst human rights and humanitarian crisis in decades".

While some credited the new National League for Democrary (NLD)-led government of attempting to do something, others claimed that it has not exhausted all avenues to end the violence by failing to curtail the violations of international law by its own security forces and the military. Instead, the state media is implicated as actively denying what took place and are even accused of publishing "false news". The call for action by the United Nations has been sidelined in ways similar to what was done during the military era.

What is perhaps regarded as most bizarre is that this is taking place when Myanmar is led by a de factor leader who is a Nobel Peace Prize winner. A darling of the west, she gained popularity and rode to power by speaking against the abuses committed against all the people of Myanmar inclusive of the Rohingyas. It is disheartening that she sidestepped the same issue that she cleverly exploited to remain a favourite. "The (NLD) government's response suggests that it either has no control over the still-powerful military, or considers protecting the ethnic minority as too politically charged in light of the country's vocal Buddhist nationalist majority," observes Ryan Aherin, a senior Asia analyst at Verisk Maplecroft in a note last week. (Maplecroft is a global risk and strategic consulting firm)

At the international level, the silence and muted responses from the international community has been deafening. This is unlike the response in earlier years when the Burmese military junta went out of line – then the world community was quick to issue fierce international condemnation and suggestions to investigate as well as impose sanctions.

In the final analysis, in so doing we are likely to foment another "killing field" within Asean as it celebrates its first anniversary of the formation of the Asean Community this year. What shameful hypocrisy!