Comments

NM you attract some weirdos in your commentary!

See how this silly article plays into the hands of Korn and other supporters of the violent dictator who is at present holding Thailand at gunpoint.

Anyone for football, elevated to worship-status sports among other things. And FIFA the body that governs international soccer demonstrated their ‘worship’ of Sepp Blatter by getting re-elected over and over again despite the overt criminal corruption that reeks around him and his capos. Cult worship in FIFA?

In parallel perspective the cult of Thaksin in Thailand lives on and on, his overt criminal corruption and extrajudicial murderous bent notwithstanding.

if Thaksin willingly submits himself to the mercy of the Thai courts, then perhaps Thaksin would prove his critics wrong that he thinks himself above the rule of law. Only them could I be encouraged to start believing that perhaps Thai democracy and rule of law could be re stablished and strengthened in the Kingdom of Thailand

As an athiest I actually defend all people whatever their creed or colour from human rights abuses. My concept of human rights obviously is very different to your’s. According to your scenario I brown nose every person who suffers oppression. A ridiculous and dangerous assumption. I would even defend your human rights however distasteful that would be to me.
You talk about evidence whist not providing any yourself.
The suffering of the Rohingya in Burma is well documented.
So, the oppressed of the corrupt state of Bangladesh want to escape as well.
If they were white Anglo Saxon christians or Jewish would your attitude towards them differ?

West, UN and Bangladesh – all are conspiring against Burma to grab Yakhaine. Why do they bother?:) Who expect anything from Burma?

Many of those hectoring Myanmar and totally ignoring the Rakhine Muslims, are the same individuals who resort to vile and vituperative language on New Mandala, as a substitute for actual logic. It is the Cause de Jour, as long as it is an Islamic cause.
Of course, we heard no such anguish about the Iraq Arab Muslim massacres of the Yazidi. They aren’t as “Sexy” as the contrived “Rohingya” (and true enough, the Yazidi aren’t actually in Asia). The Left needed an Islamic cause in Asia, and as the Uighurs are barely known and defending Beijing is one way to prove anti-American credentials, and one would be hard-pressed to defend Malay and Indonesian Muslim
“Ketuanan Melayu” as persecution, how convenient to now abandon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, as she is now ‘suspect’, and latch on to those miserable Bangladeshi “Rohingya”. Basically, a cause looking for Islam in Asia to justify itself. The reason Tamils in Sri Lanka, don’t do it for the Left, is because they are Hindus, and despite ACTUAL discrimination by many Sinhalese, even Europe classified the LTTE as a terrorist group. The LTTE admitted as much by saying they would lay down their arms and commit no more acts of violence (their words).

So, too touchy for the Cause de Jour crowd. NO…Myanmar fell right in their lap, and voila the “Rohingya” appeared with a Southeast Asian version of Arafat’s and Abbas’ contrived Levant history to go along with it. That some of these Bangladeshi women might have been raped by fellow Muslim Malay officers in Kelantan or southern Thailand elicits no outrage on NM, but should one example be found, after ten years of NGO effort, of the rape of one Bengali Muslim women by a Buddhist, we will be told the Mahdi is soon coming. When Shi’ite mosques are torched in Bangladesh and Pakistan, our NM friends are also silent. Perhaps, they don’t know of Shi’ite and Ahmadi history in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Given the more frequent occurrence of foul language on NM, as proxy for riposte, I am quite sure that Leftist/Islamist political correctness will carry the day, but it won’t do anything for Myanmar or for illegal Bangladeshis in Myanmar.

There is a nice & precise ethnolinguistic map done for Thailand (and 4 other countries of mainland Southeast Asia) by IKAP and Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development. I have only the low-resolution version of the file, but I think my colleagues from the Center for Ethnic Studies and Development, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, have the full resolution map. They also have other documents, including a 2002 census of highland “ethnic” villages for 19 northern provinces.

Since the days of colonial rule, there is a urge in Westerners that “civilized” West must take the responsibility to civilize the natives. In the past, it was meant to Christianize and spread Gospel. But today, it takes a new form and means to spread Western values such as democracy, human rights, and European ethics. Accordingly, the West would identify a group or a country as “victim” and hector and lecture the “aggressor”. But by doing so, they fail to understand the perspectives and motives of both the “aggressor” and “victim”.

The situation in Rakhine is deeply complex, and crosses the lines of colonial experience, demography, religion and psychology of group loyalty. If you ever think Myanmar has always been a country divided along the lines of religion, you will be surprised to hear that the Burmese King Mindon (1853-1878) built two churches and a missionary school for the Christians and helped the Muslims to build mosques. At a time Americans were happy slaughtering Native Americans and enslaving Africans, the Burmese King decided to build a hostel in Mecca for the comfort of Burmese Muslim pilgrims and at his own expense sent Burmese Muslims with money to erect the building which exists to this day. And he was not alone. A long list of Burmese and Arakanese kings built mosques and churches to appease their followers.

All this changed with the British who brought in hundreds of thousands of Indians to Burma to run their colonial regime. The vast majority of Indians were male who took Burmese wives. The tolerated Muslim minority became resented majority in several townships of Burma. To make the matter worse, when the World War II came, with promises of a separate Muslim state, the British armed the Muslims in Arakan who used the weapons to launch wholesale destruction of Arakanese villages. Arkanese retaliated. And when the British promises never materialized, the Muslims organized Mujahid rebellion in the northernmost townships of Arakan. Outrages among the Rakhine are still strong. Many do remember their old villages burned to the ground by Mujaheddin.

To make everything worse, the Bangladesh Liberation War erupted in 1971. Nobody knows how many Bengalis came to Burma to escape the genocide in East Pakistan. But Bangladesh Ambassador Kaiser himself stated in 1975 that “there were upward of 1/2 million Bengali whom the Burmese had some rights to eject”. Ne Win used brute force to drive them out and after international condemnation, accepted 200,000 of refugees who settled in Rakhine, increasing their demography and shifting the ratio.

Now, attempts by Muslims to rewrite Rakhine history that Rakhine was previously a Muslim kingdom are in full swing. If you are not confused enough yet, the widely held Rakhine belief that they would soon become a minority is correct. Today, Rohingya are 40% and has an average 5 or 6 kids per woman, compared to 2.4 total fertility rate of Rakhine. This created fears and resentment. These angers are extended to the aid groups which, with their unwavering support for Rohingya, completely neglected the equally poor Rakhine.

Things will get nowhere with hectoring and lecturing. Many of Rakhine concerns are real, and will not go away. In addition, many Rakhine are equally poor, and leaving their state in large numbers, though no media report about them. The Western attempts are concentrated on “defending” Rohingya, and “hectoring” Rakhine. It will just make the problem worse. As in the case of sanctions, practical solutions are forbidden for the sake of political correctness. It would be no exaggeration to say that the future looks bleak.

They have not. Asiatic Rakhine Muslims have been living in Rakhine until pushed out by illegal Bangladeshis. There is no basis for your claim whatsoever. The Bamar did not “invade” Rakhine State. There is no such term “Rohinyga” in any document from the 17th or 15th Century, and you have failed to provide any. Why can’t you stop brown-nosing and give up your na├пve ideological dream to split Myanmar and look for some post-Israel scapegoat to demonstrate your Islamist-by-proxy pride. Your paradigm is bogus.

Peter,
The Rohiggya have been living in Rakine state at least since 1430 AD. Rakine state was finally invaded by the Burmans in the 17th century. Why can’t you accept Rohingya as Burmese or is it just your hatred of Islam?