Rohingya crisis caused by population explosion 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2016
Rohingya crisis caused by population explosion 

Re: “Myanmar holds the only key to Rohingya refugee crisis” and “Suu Kyi’s ‘buddy’ solution will only inflame Rakhine crisis”, Opinion, December 7 & 14.

I read newspapers about once a week. Why then, every time I pick up The Nation, is there at least one article by a Bangladeshi writer on the Rohingya issue? I feel it is about time we viewed the root of this issue from a different angle.
The Rakhine crisis is indeed a major international issue – but one of population.  
The world has to face the fact that Bangladesh has a population that is exploding within a limited space.
A quick Google search reveals the following:
(Population in millions)
        1960    2015
Myanmar    21.5    54.0    (up 2.51 times)
Bangladesh    50.0    158.0    (up 3.16 times)
(Population density: 
persons/square mile)
        1960    2015
Myanmar    82    206
Bangladesh    877    2,772
See the picture?
Isn’t it alarming?
As of 2015, Myanmar’s population was about one third that of Bangladesh’s but its land area is 4.58 times larger than Bangladesh.  
To put it another way, in Bangladesh a population more than three times that of Myanmar is living on land one fifth the size of Myanmar. And most of that land is prone to flooding.
In a couple more decades, Bangladesh’s population will be four times larger than Myanmar’s!
The implication is very clear. Bangladesh as a country is too small for its fast-growing population.
Where are all these Bangladeshi people going to live?
How are they going to make a living on a tiny piece of land?
The immediate solution is of course to cross the border into neighbouring Rakhine. Any wonder we have a serious and fast-growing problem there? 
We didn’t have any glaring ethnic-religious problem before because it wasn’t as crowded in Bangladesh as it is now.
Please recognise that this is the fundamental problem.
Myanmar is willing to help solve Bangladesh’s problem.
Just don’t be one-sided and blind to the obvious!
Aye Shin