No moral compass to save the Rohingya

The Rohingya of western Myanmar have become one of the world’s most-persecuted groups of people. They continue to die in tragic circumstances, as witnessed again last week when a boat overfilled with would-be refugees capsized off the coast of Arakan State, resulting in at least 20 deaths, including those of nine children.

 “This accident serves as a tragic reminder of the vulnerability that many communities and families face in this area of Rakhine,” declared Janet Jackson, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar. “Their only option is to use this mode of travel in order to access livelihoods and other basic services that are essential for a dignified life.”

 Having migrated from the neighbouring subcontinent beginning a century ago, the Rohingya were stripped of their citizenship in this decade by a military government convinced by bigotry rather than historical fact that their presence in the country was illegal. 

Further restrictions were subsequently piled on, prompting thousands of Muslim Rohingya to flee predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, often at great risk to their lives, to find more hospitable homelands. Thailand, similarly forgetting the Buddhist tenets of tolerance and kindness, most assuredly turned out to be not hospitable at all.

Given that the country’s 1.2 million Rohingya follow Islam, security and intelligence officials in the region were long concerned that their ill treatment would harden the traditionally peaceful people and foment in them the spirit of militant jihad, a vengeful anger directed against the generals of Myanmar. It never happened, of course, in spite of severe provocation, including forced birth control lest the Rohingya population grow beyond control. The authorities – and a sizeable swathe of hateful so-called-Buddhist monks in the country – have always seemed to believe that even one Rohingya is too many.

Roused by the monks, citizens also claiming to be devout Buddhists began attacking Rohingya communities in 2012, sparking bloody riots that left hundreds of Rohingya dead. Human-rights organisations documented government officials facilitating the assaults. In the wake of this calamity, unre

 pentant Buddhists boycotted all Muslim businesses in the country, and the Rohingya have since lived in an apartheid situation. A UN resettlement programme found new homes for 25,000 displaced Rohingya, but their basic rights and freedoms continue to be denied. 

Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has resolutely refused to take sides on the issue, dashing hopes that her international clout could ease the plight of a besieged people. The Nobel Peace laureate was initially gearing up for an election on which Myanmar’s entire future rested. If her silence on the Rohingya issue was a temporary ploy to calm the generals and allow the democratic path to be pursued, she has yet to speak out since winning a landslide victory in the polls last November. Nor has she indicated a shift in position since being sworn in as state counsellor, the de facto prime minister. Pestered for signals, Suu Kyi’s supporters say she needs more time to still the roiling waters of national politics.

As precarious as Suu Kyi’s position is, with the generals still poised to derail her ambitions, the wellbeing of the Rohingya is even more precarious. Improving their lot should be of the utmost priority, and not just for the new government of Myanmar both for all members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, some of which are transit points and destinations for the fleeing Rohingya. 

Asean’s failure to act undermines its moral stature in the eyes of the world. With every fresh tragedy, such as last week’s boat accident, in which another 20 people are missing and feared lost, shocked Western powers have to be told that the Rohingya must escape by sea because they’re not permitted to travel by land. They learn that greedy, opportunistic traffickers pile the boats too full. And they discover that no one here really cares.