There has been a surge in calls to save the Rohingya Muslims who have been subjected to killing, to being driven out of their homes and to ethnic cleansing in their homeland at the hands of extremists from the majority Buddhists with the clandestine support and blessing of the government of Myanmar. Rohingya Muslims are an ethnic community in the western Rakhine state of Myanmar, who have for decades suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination in the Buddhist-majority country, which considers them illegal settlers from Bangladesh. Prominent among those who have raised their voices in support of these people is the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader. He has urged fellow Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, main opposition leader in Myanmar, to do more to help protect the persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority in her country amid a worsening migration crisis. Despite thousands of Rohingya fleeing on harrowing boat journeys to Southeast Asia to escape a wave of deadly attacks and discriminatory treatment, Suu Kyi has yet to speak out against their plight. Even the continuous persecution of these hapless people has not prompted Suu Kyi to break her long silence over the issue. Suu Kyi must voice her opposition to the persecution, the Dalai Lama said, adding that he has already appealed twice to her in person to do more on their behalf since 2012 when deadly sectarian violence in the Rakhine state pitted the Rohingya against local Buddhists. “It's very sad. In the Burmese (Myanmar) case I hope Aung San Suu Kyi, as a Nobel laureate, can do something,” he said. “I met her two times, first in London and then the Czech Republic. I mentioned this problem and she told me she found some difficulties, that things were not simple but very complicated. But in spite of that I feel she can do something,” he added. The Dalai Lama said that it was not enough to ask how to help the Rohingya. “This is not sufficient. There's something wrong with humanity's way of thinking. Ultimately we are lacking concern for others' lives, others' well-being," he said. In Oslo, a conference was held late last month with the aim of drawing international attention toward solving the increasing persecution and suffering of the stateless Muslims who are ethnically linked to Rakhine state. Several prominent global figures, including philanthropist and business tycoon George Soros, and Desmond Tutu converged at the Nobel Institute together with pastors, imams, and monks. In his speech, Soros recalled his visit to Myanmar and Rakhine state where he witnessed the plight of Rohingya Muslims. He said: "In January when I visited Burma for the fourth time in as many years, I made a short visit to Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine State in order to see for myself the situation on the ground. I met with state and local readers and both Rakhine and Rohingya populations, and also talked to internally displaced persons and those, mostly Rohingya, living in a section of Sittwe called Aung Mingalar, a part of the city that can only be called a ghetto." Soros continued: "In Aung Mingalar, I heard the echoes of my childhood. You see, in 1944, as a Jew in Budapest, I too was a Rohingya. Much like the Jewish ghettos set up by Nazis around Eastern Europe during World War II, Aung Mingalar has become the involuntary home of thousands of families who once had access to healthcare, education, and employment. Now, they are forced to remain segregated in a state of abject deprivation. The parallels to the Nazi genocide are alarming. Fortunately, we have not reached a stage of mass killing." Soros said: "I feel very strongly that we must speak out before it is too late, individually and collectively. The Burmese government's insistence that they are keeping the Rohingya in the ghetto for their own protection simply is not credible." He added: "I hope those in power will immediately take the steps necessary to counter extremism and allow an open society to take root. In the lead up to the elections, it's crucial that official acts should be taken to counter the pervasive hate and anti-Rohingya propaganda on social media and the racist public campaigns of the 969 movement." Addressing the gathering, Desmond Tutu, the South African Bishop and Nobel laureate, said that Rohingya Muslims face slow genocide. Suu Kyi was not among those at the Oslo conference. Perhaps, she did not receive an invitation to attend the meeting due to her known negative position on the Rohingya issue. According to some analysts, she is now working for politics and not for peace for which she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Her position on the issue was evident during her visit to Europe when the Rohingya crisis was thrown into the international spotlight in 2012. She kept silent about the miserable life of Rohingya Muslims. Even the winning of the Nobel Prize has not made her come out in defense of basic human rights and morality. American actor Matt Dillon put a rare star-powered spotlight on Myanmar's long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims, visiting a hot, squalid camp for tens of thousands displaced by violence and a port that has been one of the main launching pads for their exodus by sea. It was “heartbreaking,” he said after meeting a young man with a raw, open leg wound from a road accident and no means to treat it. These are the observations of some prominent non-Muslim figures who refuse to remain silent about the slow genocide as described by Desmond Tutu. In the next article, I will shed light on the comments of some Islamic figures about the persecution of Rohingya Muslims.
— Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at [email protected]
