| by B.Raman
( October
25, 2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Myanmar Government headed by
President Thein Sein is rushing Army reinforcements to the Rakhine State
following a fresh outbreak of clashes
between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in different townships of the Rakhine
State since October 21,2012.
So far,
two Rohingya Muslims and one Buddhist have been killed in the clashes and about
1000 houses, mostly belonging to Rohingya Muslims, have allegedly been burnt
down, thereby forcing the Muslim residents of these houses to shift to boats.
 |
Unfortunately, there is no political leader ---not even Aung San Suu Kyi---- with any influence over the Buddhist monks and students of the Rakhine State who can persuade them to tone down their anti-Rohingya rhetoric and refrain from acts that could further exacerbate the situation.
The fresh
anti-Muslim campaign has assumed new disturbing features. Buddhist monks have
revived their opposition to the Government accepting humanitarian assistance
for the Rohingya Muslim displaced persons from the OIC member-countries.
Following bitter opposition from the monks, the Government of Thein Sein has
reversed its decision to allow the OIC to set up a branch in Yangon. It has now
stated that it will allow the OIC to have only a temporary set-up in Yangon to
supervise the distribution of humanitarian relief to the internally displaced
Muslims and Buddhists in the Rakhine State. The monks are opposing even this
and have been insisting there is no need for any humanitarian assistance from
the OIC countries.
Buddhist
students, who took out a procession ( 800) in Sittwe, the capital of the
Rakhine State, on October 24,2012, have demanded the introduction of an anti-Muslim apartheid policy in the
local educational institutions. They have been saying that they will not sit in
the same classes and stay in the same hostels as Rohingya Muslim students and
have been demanding separate classes and separate hostels for the Rohingya
Muslims. The Buddhist students, who participated in the procession, denounced
the Rohingya Muslims as Bengali terrorists.
The
Commission set up by the Government to enquire into the causes for the violence
since May has not made much headway in its enquiries due to non-cooperation
from both the communities.
The anti-Government
anger of the Muslims of the Rakhine State has started affecting Muslims of
sub-continental origin living in Yangon and other cities of Myanmar outside the
Rakhine State. Apart from expressing solidarity with the Rohingya Muslims of
the Rakhine State, they have been accusing the Government of Thein Sein of
failing to give assurances regarding the security of the Muslims living in
other parts of Myanmar during the Eid festival on October 26,2012. Muslim
groups in Yangon have called for the non-observance of Eid on the ground that
the Government has failed to give satisfactory guarantees for their security
during the festival.
The
Government of President Thein Sein is finding itself in a dilemma. It is under
growing pressure from the OIC as well as the Western countries to pay attention
to the human rights and security of the Rohingya Muslims. At the same time, the
anti-Rohingya demands of the monks and
the Buddhist students have public support, even among Buddhist soldiers of the
Army.
Till now,
the Buddhist soldiers of the security forces have remained disciplined and have
been complying with the orders of the Government to enforce law and order and
to protect the Rohingya Muslims. But will they continue to do so? That is a
question that has been troubling the Government.
Unfortunately,
there is no political leader ---not even Aung San Suu Kyi---- with any
influence over the Buddhist monks and students of the Rakhine State who can
persuade them to tone down their anti-Rohingya rhetoric and refrain from acts
that could further exacerbate the situation. Aung San Suu Kyi continues to
maintain a discreet silence on the plight of the Rohingya Muslims lest she lose
the support of the Buddhists.
The
unabated anti-Buddhist anger among the Rohingya Muslims could add to the radicalisation
of the Muslim community in the affected region with unpredictable fall-out on
the regional law and order situation.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For
China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com
Twitter @SORBONNE75)
 The Myanmar Government headed by President Thein Sein is rushing Army...){kind=link}