Islamophobia and the fear of 'the other' in Myanmar

Islamophobia and the fear of 'the other' in Myanmar
Racial tensions are coming to a head in Myanmar between the Buddhist majority and the Muslim Rohingya minority.
Last Modified: 11 Jun 2012 08:34
Francis Wade
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/06/2012610134755390151.html

Francis Wade is a freelance journalist based in northern Thailand. He has been covering Myanmar for more than two years and keeps a firm eye on the pendulum that is Southeast Asian politics and the people and the powers that keep that region lurching from side to side.
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Chiang Mai, Thailand - The mob that set upon and killed a group of Muslims riding a bus through western Myanmar on June 3 displayed a depravity normally the hallmark of the country's military. News reports that emerged in the wake of the incident, allegedly in response to the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist girl by three Muslim men days before, described the ten victims of a frenzied beating being urinated upon before the bus was set ablaze.

Comments that circulated the internet in the wake of the massacre were almost as shocking. "Killing Kalars is good!" one person said, using the pejorative slur that has become a popular and casual way of referring to Muslims of South Asian decent (one that state media also regularly employs). It mattered little that the men accused of the rape had already been arrested.

The attack was a rare incident; the reactions suggest however that heightened levels of resentment towards the presence of Muslims in Myanmar society exist on a much wider scale. This animosity is shared by senior figures in the government - current representative to the UN, Ye Myint Aung, once described the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Arakan state who are singled out for particularly savage treatment, as "ugly as ogres", while since 1982 the government has denied them citizenship, claiming they are "illegal Bengali immigrants". Persecution of the group has been so protracted and debased that Medicins San Frontieres describes them as being among the world minority groups "most in danger of extinction".

While Myanmar's myriad ethnic groups have all suffered egregious treatment at the hands of the military government, which has sought to bring the country "under one flag", the fear of Muslims is a particular one. On the website of The Voice journal, which issued an apology after being bombarded with threats following its coverage of the massacre, one visitor wrote: "We should either kill all the Kalars in Burma or banish them otherwise Buddhism will cease to exist".

The 'other'

Treatment of Muslims as the 'other' persists despite the country's push to embrace the outside world and everything it offers. There is something of a contradiction then in the population's desire to become global players, which will see it interacting far more with non-Myanmar, non-Buddhist ethnicities. In Arakan state, where tension between Buddhists and Muslims often spills over into violence, hypocrisy is also evident in attempts by Arakanese to goad public opinion against the Rohingya in the name of "nationalism". These are the same Arakanese who, ironically, regularly accuse the government of attempting to aggressively assimilate Arakanese into the Burman way of life.

Such is the treatment of Rohingya that up to 300,000 now reside in Bangladesh, which in turn sees them as illegal immigrants from Myanmar and denies them citizenship. They are the epitome of stateless, and spend their lives in unofficial camps where conditions are notoriously poor (only 28,000 are registered by the UN). Their disaffection has made them ripe for Islamic militant groups and human traffickers. Many attempt the perilous sea journey from Bangladesh to Malaysia and beyond to find work - in December last year, a boatload of more than 60 who ran into trouble off the coast of southern Myanmar were detained by Myanmar police, ironically on immigration charges.

Accusations that the government has sought to dilute, or "Burmanise", Myanmar's 135 distinct ethnic groups have existed for decades, and factor in the apparently institutional practice of rape of ethnic women by Myanmar troops, as well as the forced learning of the Myanmar language in ethnic schools.

In Northern Arakan state, where the majority of Rohingya reside, and where foreigners are barred from entering, the practice is effectively official: government policy stipulates that Rohingya babies born out of wedlock be placed on blacklists that bar them from attending school and later marrying. A Rohingya couple must apply well in advance before attempting to wed; the frequent denial by authorities, as well as a strict two-child policy reserved only for Rohingya, has led rights groups to accuse the government of attempting to slowly wipe out the population.

Racism or religious discrimination?

Naypyidaw uses the premise of "illegal migration management" and "control on population growth" to justify the persecution of this group. The "immigrant" label however does not match with evidence that modern-era Muslim political participation in Arakan state goes back to the 1930s, while the Arakanese city of Mrauk U, in its zenith in the 17th century a key trading hub in Asia, was ruled by Muslim sultans.

Nor is this a consistent measure, given the millions of Chinese that have migrated to Myanmar in recent decades to become powerful players in the economy. Is there an issue then with the often darker skin of Muslim groups in Myanmar, or that their religion conflicts with Buddhism?

Few seem to know, but one major cause for concern is that this hostility exists across the entire spectrum of Myanmar politics. The post-colonial civilian government of U Nu in the early 1950s expelled the Burma Muslim Congress and made Buddhism the state religion; then came Myanmar's first dictator, Ne Win, who used anti-Muslim propaganda to powerful effect during the mass expulsion of Indians in the 1960s. He branded the tens of thousands brought in for work by the British as colonial stooges, and exploited the subsequent anti-Islam sentiment to ban all Muslims from the army. The same key issue that fuelled the infamous anti-Chinese riots of the late 1960s and 1970s - that Myanmar were aggrieved at jobs going to foreigners - had also driven the anti-Indian and anti-Muslim riots in 1930 and 1938.

Ne Win's propaganda may have had a lingering effect, given the marked levels of resentment and suspicion of Muslims that remain, particularly in the west of the country. Nicholas Farrelly, a Southeast Asia specialist at the Australia National University, thinks however that this is consistent with the attitudes that many Buddhists elsewhere in the region have towards Muslims:

"In general, they find their habits foreign, their lack of integration exasperating, and their proselytising unwelcome. When we compare them to other groups, Myanmar's Muslims enjoy none of the educational or international prestige that is widely associated with the country's Christian minorities. While Kachin and Karen Christians have suffered atrocious treatment I think there is at least some mainstream Myanmar Buddhist respect for their cultures and religion. Such respect is rarely accorded to Muslims."

An 'open', but racist, Myanmar?

In an era of cautious opening, the continued inability of Myanma to debate the subject rationally is worrying. The opposition National League for Democracy, viewed by the outside world as the driving force for change in Myanmar, itself tiptoes around the subject - one party official told the BBC earlier this year that "even in our organisation the Rohingya question has not been settled". Ko Ko Gyi, a prominent pro-democracy activist, said last week that the Rohingya "are not a Myanmar ethnic race... It has become a national concern infringing on our sovereignty". Does he also think that Thailand, for example, should hold the same attitude towards the hundreds of thousands of refugees from Burma living on its soil?

Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been criticised for failing to properly address the wider "ethnic issue" in Myanmar, urged the Buddhist majority to "have sympathy for minorities" in the wake of the June 3 killings, but refuses to weigh in heavily on the debate. She justified this tentativeness by saying that her party "must cautiously avoid amplifying the situation" - that may be true, but what could also be at stake is the risk of losing support from Arakan state's Buddhist population.

Even among the revered monastic community, often seen as staunch defenders of equality in Myanmar, there has been controversy. The Democratic Voice of Burma reported on a statement released by influential monk and former political prisoner, Ashin Virathu, that said: "I see that Muslims make up a larger percentage of the perpetrators in rape and murder cases". It was "reasonable", he continued, that the "[rape] victim's side see this as an insult to their people and [Buddhist] religion".

Now, despite the government announcing an investigation into the killings, race riots have erupted in western Myanmar and President Thein Sein on Sunday announced a state of emergency. At least eight people have been killed, some allegedly by government troops who opened fire on crowds.

Below the surface

The marked difference between now and past periods of heightened racial tension however is that there has been no major influx of Muslims in recent years - perhaps this points to a tension within Myanmar society that has simmered for years, unaddressed and awaiting a trigger.

One hopes this grisly period will bring about some thorough and measured questioning of the catalysts behind the massacre and resultant crisis, but the often inflammatory nature of these discussions induces avoidance. Few therefore acknowledge that xenophobia and fear of "the other" exists in Myanmar, meaning it goes unchallenged.

A census is due to take place in 2014 - the first in 25 years - but at present around 800,000 Rohingya are unlikely to be included. Such discriminatory policies are a major blight on Myanmar's revamped international image, but are largely obscured by the taboo that surrounds exposure of it - observers are loath to broach the subject, given the ramifications that accompany accusations of racism.

But evidence of an ingrained hostility among civilians is there, and it needs to be recognised. The massacre is not the first such sign - a BBC report last year that carried a map depicting Arakan state as the home of the Rohingya sparked an alarming uproar, and online forums again became hubs of bitter discussions, including calls for a nationwide boycott of the BBC and demonstrations outside the British embassy in Yangon.

If Myanmar is to truly join the global community, the floor must be opened to debate. There must be acknowledgement that a malaise exists among the very Myanma that for decades have felt the pain of antipathy and isolation. Taking a sensitive but head-on approach to the problem, rather than the pussyfooting demonstrated even by powerful figures in the pro-democracy movement, would be the first step.

Francis Wade is a freelance journalist and analyst covering Myanmar and Southeast Asia.

Follow him on Twitter: @Francis_Wade

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.

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11-June-2012
Violence in Rakhine State of Myanmar: Likely Implications 
By B. Raman 
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers51%5Cpaper5063.html

A Buddhist girl belonging to the ethnic Rakhine community was allegedly raped and murdered by three Muslims at a village near Kyaukphyu in the Rakhine State (old Arakan State ) of Myanmar on May 28,2012.

2. On June 3, 2012, over 100 Buddhists (Rakhines) stopped a bus in Taunggote in the Rakhine state, allegedly dragged out 10 Muslims and killed them. They suspected that these Muslims were involved in the rape and murder of the Buddhist girl. Only two of the Muslims killed were locals. The remaining eight were from Yangon (Rangoon). They were returning to Yangon after visiting a mosque in the Rakhine State on pilgrimage.

3. The same evening hundreds of Muslims gathered outside a police station in the capital town of Sittwe and threw stones. The Police managed to disperse them after using tear-gas and opening fire with rubber bullets.

4. The next day, Aung San Suu Kyi met representatives of the Muslim community in Yangon and urged them to remain calm and let the law take its course against the Buddhist culprits.

5. The Maungdaw Township of the Rakhine State, where the Muslims constitute about 96 per cent of the population, saw serious incidents of anti-Government and anti-Buddhist violence on June 8 and 9. Muslims, coming out of a mosque after prayers, went on a rampage attacking a government building, a police station and some primary schools for Buddhist children. Seven Buddhists were killed and an estimated 500 houses were burnt down. The Police shifted the Buddhist residents to refugee camps. Incidents of arson were reported from Sittwe. The Police opened fire at Maungdaw and imposed a curfew. But this did not improve the situation.

6. In the meanwhile, there were reports of rival demonstrations in Yangon by small groups of local Buddhists and Muslims.

7. On the night of June 10, 2012, President Thein Sein declared a state of emergency in the State, authorising the Army to assist the civilian authorities to restore law and order.

8. In a nine-minute speech televised nationally, Thein Sein said that the violence in the Rakhine State was fanned by dissatisfaction harbored by different religious and ethnic groups, hatred and the desire for revenge.

9. He added: "I would like to call upon the people, political parties, religious leaders and the media to join hands with the government with a sense of duty, to help restore peace and stability and to prevent further escalation of violence.

10."If both sides kill each other in hatred and revenge, putting anarchy before everything, the violence is in danger of spreading outside Rakhine State.

11."I would like everyone to take special care because of the damage that could be done to the peace, stability, democratic process and development of our country during its period of transformation, if the unrest spreads," he said.

12. Buddhists constitute about 89 per cent of Myanmar's total population and Muslims about four per cent. The remaining seven per cent consist of Christians and animists.

13. The Muslims in Myanmar are of Indian, Chinese and Bangladeshi origin. The Muslims of Indian and Chinese origin have had no problems in integrating themselves with the rest of the society. The Muslims of Bangladeshi origin, known as Rohingyas, who speak Bengali, and who live in the Rakhine State in the areas bordering Bangladesh ( about 750,000), have not been able to integrate themselves with the local Buddhists though Muslims in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh generally have no problems in living together with Bengali Buddhists.

14. The Rohingyas have not been given full citizenship rights by successive Myanmar Governments. International human rights organisations such as the Amnesty International describe the Rohingyas as a highly persecuted ethnic and religious minority group in Myanmar. The feelings of alienation of the Rohingyas had led to violent clashes with the local Buddhists in February 2001 resulting in the imposition of curfew.

15. The Myanmar authorities look upon the Rohingya Muslims as illegal Bengali immigrants from BD and do not treat them on par with other ethnic groups. There is a feeling among the Rohingyas that even Suu Kyi, who has been supportive of the ethnic rights of other minority groups, has not shown much empathy for the Rohingyas.

16. The Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami of Bangladesh, normally referred to as HUJI (B), had played an active role in the jihad against the Soviet and Afghan troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Its members studied in the Pakistani madrasas and fought as members of different Afghan mujahideen groups, after having been trained by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The HUJI (B) also recruited a number of Rohingya Muslims from the Arakan area of Myanmar and took them to Afghanistan for fighting against the Soviet and Afghan troops.

17. If there is an aggravation of the feelings of alienation of the Rohingyas there could be a danger of its being exploited by HUJI (B) to revive its activities in the areas across the Myanmar-Bangladesh border.

18. The Rakhine State has rich oil and gas resources and has attracted many oil/gas companies from China, India and other countries. The Chinese, who have already struck gas, have undertaken the construction of an oil/gas terminal port at Kyaukphyu, gas/oil pipelines from the port to Yunnan and a railway line connecting Yunnan with the Rakhine State.

19. From the point of view of Myanmar's economy, the Rakhine State is important and no Myanmar Government can afford instability there. The only saving grace is that the present incidents were started by the Buddhists and not by the Muslims. If the clashes continue and threaten to spread to areas outside the Rakhine State, the position of President Thein Sein, who has initiated a policy of political and economic reforms and reconciliation with Suu Kyi, may be weakened tempting the pro-China hardline elements in the Army to stage a comeback.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate, Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-Mail: seventyone2@gmail.com . Twitter: @SORBONNE75)

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13-June-2012
Rakhine State of Myanmar not yet Normal 
By B. Raman 
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers51%5Cpaper5066.html

Despite the proclamation of a state of emergency in the Rakhine State (old Arakan State) of Myanmar on the night of June 10, 2012, and the patrolling of the streets of the capital Sittwe and other Townships by the security forces, the Thein Sein Government has not yet been able to restore normalcy.

2. Incidents of sectarian violence between the Buddhists and the Bengali-speaking Rohingya Muslims continue to be reported. Though there are no reports of any new fatalities, incidents of arson with the Muslims allegedly setting fire to the houses of Buddhists are being reported. Muslims carrying small-arms have been patrolling the Muslim-inhabited areas of Townships to protect the Muslims from retaliatory attacks by the Buddhists. This reflects their lack of confidence in the ability of the security forces to protect them.

3. Representatives of the Rohingyas have accused the Thein Sein Government of imposing a news black-out in the State in order to prevent news of the real state of affairs from reaching the international community.

4. Despite their continuing support to the Thein Sein Government's policy of reforms, the US and the European Union countries are concerned over the inability of the security forces to restore law and order.

5. At a time when the situation continues to cause concern, the decision of the United Nations to withdraw all its staff numbering over 40 from the Rakhine State has come in for criticism from Western human rights organisations.

6. The Human Rights Watch of the US has alleged that the situation in the State was tending to get out of control and called for the despatch of international human rights observers to the State.

7. To the disappointment of the Rohingyas, Aung San Suu Kyi, who met the representatives of the agitated Muslim community in Yangon, has not chosen to visit the Rakhine State. Nor are there reports of her taking up vigorously with the authorities the measures required for putting an end to the sectarian violence.

8. She is going ahead with her European tour starting on June 14, covering Switzerland, Norway, the UK, Ireland and France. She seems confident of the stability and durability of the Government of Thein Sein and reportedly does not anticipate any threat to it from hardline pro-Beijing elements in the Army during her absence from the country.

9. In the past, whenever she was released from house arrest, she had avoided going abroad due to fears that the Army, which was then in power, might not allow her to return to the country. She does not appear to have any such fears this time. Since 1988, she went out of the country for the first time last month when she went to Bangkok.

10. She is not taking any of the senior leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) with her. They will stay behind in Myanmar during her absence. She is being accompanied to Europe only by two of the younger members of the NLD.

11. Western human rights organisations have been concerned over the continued refusal of the Bangladesh authorities to allow entry of Rohingya women and children fleeing from the violence in the Rakhine State. There are already about 300,000 Rohingyas in camps in the Cox's Bazaar area of Bangladesh for many years posing security problems to the Bangladesh authorities. They apparently do not want to add to their number.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate, Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-Mail: seventyone2@gmail.com . Twitter: @SORBONNE75