The Conflict of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar

While Burma is a very diverse country, including in its borders at least 134 ethnic groups, not all of them are equally treated. Rohingya Muslims, who amount to around a million people in Myanmar alone, are one of the most persecuted ethnic minorities in the world according to the United Nations. They practice Islam and speak Rohingya, their origin is debated, as it is unknown whether they are indigenous to the Rakhine region in western Myanmar or they are actually a group of immigrants originating from Bangladesh that moved across the border during the British rule of said country. It’s in this debate where lies the precariousness of the situation of the Rohingya in Myanmar. While Muslim minorities have been present in the country since the eight century, historically they have settled in a different area than the region where the majority of Rohingya people are located now. Differences from the other Muslim minorities present in Myanmar don’t stop at the region where they mainly inhabit, their languages differ in origin, and while both people have lived in the same territory for generations, the Rohingya have their own historical narrative that they share in some aspects alone. However, while those other muslim minorities, the Thet and the Kamein people have been recognised by the Burmese government and have obtained citizenship, the Rohingya, on the other hand, have not. The reason why this is happening, and why it cannot be fixed easily, is that most Burmese people don’t consider them natural to their country because of their similarities with the Bengali. The tragedy is, as Aung San Suu Kyi pointed out, is that Rohangya do not consider any other country or land as their home. Burma is their home, and they cannot be persecuted because of their ethnic differences. Any government willing to call itself democratic by today’s standards cannot permit nor encourage the salvage racist discrimination that the Rohingya have been subjects of since before the mid-20th century. 

The issue of the Rohigya people, while very present inside Burma’s border for almost a century has in the last two years or so has taken a more central and important spot in international forums because of the country’s attempts to move forward from the military dictatorship that had ruled for almost half a century. With the current president, U Thein Sein, came promises of opening the country to the outside and formalising a democracy that had been tainted by a junta that has held the power for fifty years and a military elite that still is the most powerful force in the country. The efforts to modernise the country have been rewarded by the international community in the form of foreign investment within the country, the invitation to participate in international forums. The clearest of these examples is the trust the international community relied on the Burmese government when they offered them the chairmanship of ASEAN (Assembly of the Southeast Asian Nations) for 2014. Various humanitarian groups have since then condemned the actions of occidental democracies to welcome Myanmar so freely even though their efforts to help the Rohingya minority are still very few. Because the country’s citizenship law passed in 1982 did not recognise the Rohingya as a minority natural to the country they are still unable to acquire citizenship even though they have lived in the country for many generations. This leaves them stateless and defenceless and with many restrictions in movement, being relegated to force labor, defenceless to confiscation of property, forced eviction and demolition of their houses, unarmed in front of discriminatory taxation and with unsolvable limitations in health care, marriage, employment and education. Also worthy of mention is the restriction in the number of children that a Rohigya woman can bear, which must not surpass two. This is due to a rise in nationalism within the country that has also been present in other Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand and Sri Lanka amongst others. “The face of Buddhist terror” as Time magazine named him, is a Burmese monk named Ashin Wirathu. Natural to the city of Kyaukse, the “Burmese bin Laden” as he is called was imprisoned from 2003 to 2010 because of his hate speech that he now recites in the city of Mandalay, Burma’s second most larger city. In his speeches, he talks about the importance of nationalism to protect Burma from the supposed Islamic invasion that Muslims are planning. To quote Wirathu directly “Taking care of our own religion and race is more important than democracy,” which farther proves that the country will not be able to advance into a true democracy without solving this problem. Along with his buddhist extremist group, the 969 movement, he promotes the boycott Muslim products as well as Buddhist-Muslim intermarriage. These measures and the way the Rohingya are treated have resulted in the flee of around 86 thousand muslims in the last two years, counting only the ones that fled by boat, trying to seek refuge in neighbour countries. On top of the flee by boat that we have observed during the last two years, some estimated 200,000 Rohingya fled to bordering countries such as Bangladesh and Thailand from 1978 until 1991 and another group of 250,000 during that year. There are also an estimated 20 thousand living in the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees

(UNHCR) border camps at Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh. Here enters another problem for the Rohingya minority because their ethnic group has not been recognised as an Muslim minority by Islam either, leaving them completely “friendless”, the flee is due to the abhorring human rights violations that Rohingya suffer, left alone and with no other option. The two-child rule, a clear example of the mistreatment they have to suffer, is still imposed on Rohingya women and families leaves women who get pregnant but already have two children to either have an abortion, flee the country or give birth to a child that will have to live hidden for the rest of his life. The main issue with this is that Burmese law prohibits abortion except in case of the mother’s life being endangered, so many women are forced to undergo clandestine abortion procedures in horrible conditions, leading to the loss of life of many of them. 

These constant abuses continuously committed against a chosen minority cannot be tolerated by the international community. We cannot look the other way and ignore how racism reigns on this country that is at a turning point and can still develop promisingly. The international community has a responsibility towards the Rohingya people, to pressure the government to give them citizenship so that they can finally the human rights that they rightfully deserve. However driven by economic interests foreign countries might be, Myanmar can never evolve into a successful democratic country if these attacks continue which is why fixing the issues regarding the Rohingya people should be one of the government’s first concerns. 

References:

1. Akins, H. (2013) No place for Islam? Buddhist nationalism in Myanmar, Al Jazeera
2. Parnini, S. N. (2013). The Crisis of the Rohingya as a Muslim Minority in Myanmar and Bilateral Relations with Bangladesh. Journal Of Muslim Minority Affairs, 33(2), 281-297. doi:10.1080/13602004.2013.826453
3. Abdelkader, E. (2014). MYANMAR'S DEMOCRACY STRUGGLE: THE IMPACT OF COMMUNAL VIOLENCE UPON ROHINGYA WOMEN AND YOUTH. Pacific Rim Law & Policy Journal, 23(3), 511-542.
4. Aldama, Z. (2014) Myanmar's Buddhist-Rohingya ethnic divide, Al Jazeera
5. Gearan, A. (2013) Burma’s Thein Sein says military ‘will always have a special place’ in government, The Washington Post

Picture:

• Myanmar Refugees Recover In Aceh: IDI RAYEUK, EAST ACEH, INDONESIA - FEBRUARY 13: Rohingya boat people wash clothes at a refugee camp in a district of the town of Idi Rayeuk on February 13, 2009 in Aceh province on Sumatra island, Indonesia. Approximately 200 Rohingya Muslim refugees continue to receive treatment after being rescued from boats drifting at sea for up to three weeks. Reports indicate that approximately 1,200 people from the Myanmar region may have tried to gain entry to Thailand. The Indonesian Navy continues to search for any possible survivors, though it is not clear how many people are missing. (Photo by Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images). (2009).

Challenges in Myanmar economy

Since its transition from a dictatorship to a democratic system, Myanmar has been expected to carry out the necessary changes in order to become a real, efficient country within the international community. Although the series of reforms launched by the elected President Thein Sein, the country still included among the worst nations to do business. This essay explores the main problems that the government has to face if it wants to create a modern economic system suitable for a global market, especially if it wants to be reconnected to an international economy. Moreover, this text tries to depict the errors that can emerge in the case that the economy policies are the only target that the authorities focus on.

After the World War II, the infrastructures of Myanmar were devastated, given that one of the longest and most destructive battles took place in the country, formerly known as Burma. This fact has been an obstacle, since the military government didn’t carry out real measures to renew all factors that could create a prosperous atmosphere for developing solid institutions to look after society welfare. A captious vision of Communism –it is the military junta– has been proved trough History as a dangerous element of instability, even injustice for all mankind. We can remember the wealth acquired by Ceaucescu while people died of famine in the streets of Romania. His palace was decorated with the most sophisticated paintings and luxurious carpets from Orient as well as with sumptuous furniture and chandeliers. Stalin was another example of this misunderstanding of Communism, or maybe this attempt to gain power by using attractive ideas that covered doubtful interests. In his chef-oeuvre, The Gulag Archipielago, Solzhenitsyn reveals the reality of those who expressed any opposition of a supposed people’s regime.

False concepts create false and turbulent societies and countries. Within an international community, it deters foreign relations because an unstable country cannot allow other nations to trust them, particularly when the balance of powers doesn’t exist and capitalism seems to be the only option for real development. That was the situation in Myanmar for more than 40 years. Repressive actions of an autarchy regime dominated the arena; a closed and obscure nation was the best definition for that period of the “socialist republic” of Myanmar. The unique support that could be available for the country was the aid of other communist regimes that the country was surrounded by. China became a good partner for the country. As you can see in this table, the growth of the trade between China and Myanmar through the years is significant:

Although this commercial aid, Myanmar’s GDP has been an enormous challenge for achieving a real state of welfare. After the transition to a democratic path in 2010, the country is willing to become an effective economy, even though its policies are proved to be insufficient. The current President, Thein Sein, has developed a range of measures to connect Myanmar to the global market by the empowerment of the main economic areas such as agriculture, construction, and tourism. The World Bank, an organisation whose aim consists in working for a world free of poverty, has also monitored the country, giving this overview of the measures implemented by the government: “Since 2011, the government has embarked on an ambitious economic, political and governance reform program. It has begun a series of reforms to remove economic distortions, such as floating the currency, new fiscal regulations to rationalize personal income tax and reduce consumption tax, liberalizing the telecommunications sector, reforms aimed at developing the private sector and stimulating direct foreign investments, a review of the financial sector, promotion of access to finance, and creating an environment conducive to job creation.”

GDP has therefore grown considerably during the last past three years. Nevertheless, experts have doubts about the clearness of the official statistics that the governments provide to the international analysts. As The Economist stated in its article “Reality Check”, published on January 4^th 2014, even though officially the GDP grew by 6’5% in 2012, the reliability of these analysis is almost inexistent, for the “statistical net is so poor that it is almost impossible to know what the real growth rate is”. Plus, reality doesn’t support this supposed growth: Myanmar is considered one of the poorest countries in Asia, ranking 149 among 186 nations rated in the 2013 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme. Since the democratisation of the country, many observers have been too optimistic about the future of the country. By the years, all these hopes are crawling up among false mirages. Economy areas such energy, that was expected to be the main economic resource, are now under doubts, given that the consummation is low compared to its Asian neighbours. The same occurs in many other sectors like tourism or construction. Although the boarders are now opened to visitors and foreign investment, the country is not succeeding in becoming an attractive destination for all those who want to pursue an economic activity nor a leisure one.

Economy must be supported by a solid civil society. Liberalism has shown that it is only possible when a major part of society is prepared to. Education, democratic and meritocratic values as well as freedom of speech and other civil rights must be assumed in order to create a context where Myanmar can show all its potential to the world. If the country itself is not capable to assume this inescapable task, economy will be subject to the variations of climate, wars, and internal conflicts. Capitalism without humanistic values is condemned to defeat. The example of China as one of the most powerful countries in economic terms must be erase. China is growing monstrously by damaging all genre of resources that our planet can provide. The US invented the Fordism, and China adopted the idea without any restrictions. The same happened with Communism.  This mixture of a growing economy lacking any idea but GDP is a major threat that Myanmar must avoid. The new government has therefore to restructure not only the democratic and economic institutions but also the social entities in favour of sustainable development in all areas.

Reference List:

1.      Maung Aung Myoe (2007) Sino-Myanmar Relations since 1988, Asia Research Institute Working Paper Series no.86

2.      U Myint (2009) Myanmar Economy, a comparative view, Asia Paper, December 2009

To what extent are foreign efforts achieving the goals set in the Roadmap for democracy by General Khin Nyunt?

Íñigo Cabo Taboada de Zúñiga

1. Abstract

The aim of this essay is to analyze the effectiveness of international influences to promote the creation of a modern democracy in Myanmar. First of all, there is a short historical background essential to understand how Myanmar has reached this stage and a description of the current state of affairs regarding the democratic change. After that there is an analysis of the major international role players and to what extent they are helping or impeding this change. Finally, to establish the success of the external influences we will analyze whether the goals set in the Roadmap for democracy have been accomplished or not.

2. Background

To understand the complex transition that is still happening in Myanmar towards democracy it is necessary to have basic historical coordinates about the countries modern history. It would not be until the end of the 19th century when Myanmar was occupied by the British after three wars caused by the clash of the borders between Burma and British colonies. They introduced far-reaching reforms concerning the civil administration and the economy, which would later turn against them because the nationalist movements mainly took place in the universities in the 1920's instigated by Buddhist leaders.

After the Japanese invasion during World War Two, the Myanmarese finally won their long sought independence and created a democratic government that only lasted for fourteen years before there was a military coup headed by Ne Win. He would start a period of various military dictatorships that would last from 1962 to 2010 (The Economist, 2014).The civil unrest caused by a continued economic downturn in 1988 was ended in a blood bath but it started a very slow movement towards democracy that still carries on today represented by the Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. The military junta has stepped down from power but they still hold very important positions in the government, for example in both the upper and the lower house 25% of seats are reserved for representatives of the military. Currently the country is one of the most undeveloped nations in the world and it is the fifth worst country in Asia in the Human Development Index (United Nations Development Programme, 2014).

3. Political transition

From 2002 the military government deeming necessary a change towards a liberalization of the country started a series of measures like lifting the house arrest that had been imposed to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and in 2003 General Khin Nyunt published a document named Roadmap to Discipline-flourishing Democracy which was a seven step process to reduce the military influence in the country. The program consists on the following phases:

·         First Phase - To reassemble the National Convention, which had been suspended since 1996.

·         Second Phase - To implement step by step the requisite tasks for the founding of a democratic system when the National Convention has been successfully concluded.

·         Third Phase - To draw up a draft constitution based on the general concepts and detailed principles advocated by the National Convention.

·         Fourth Phase - To hold a national referendum in order to endorse the draft constitution.

·         Fifth Phase - To hold free and fair elections for the formation of the required national legislative bodies (Hluttaw).

·         Sixth Phase - To convene the meeting of elected representative to the Hluttaw.

·         Seventh Phase - The leaders, government and authoritative bodies elected by the Hluttaw to continue with the task of constructing a new democratic state.

As of 2014, Myanmar has made significant advances towards its goal, for example Aung San Suu Kyi after being arrested for many years now holds a seat in Parliament. Many other political prisoners have been released and civil liberties and free speech has also been strengthened. To exemplify this, there are political gatherings of opposition parties unthinkable a few years ago. Multinational coroporations like Coca Cola have started to become a common sight in local shops and foreign investors are becoming more attracted to this relatively virgin land that is experimenting economic growth.

On the other hand a quarter of its 664 members of the parliament are members of the military as required by law, making it very hard for the opposition to pass any law that reduces the military influence in the government, creating therefore a paradox because the only ones that have the power to reduce the military influence are precisely the ones taking advantage of it. Another crucial fact is that the only opposition leader with enough power to become a solid presidential candidate, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been banned for the presidency because her children have British nationality which is unconstitutional for a president. Therefore, this measure greatly weakens any sort of unified struggle for change because the political groups are greatly divided among local and ethnic leaders. The pressure on this leader is great and close followers of her have been tortured and assassinated.

Other problems that prevent Myanmar to become a modern democratic nation are ethnic conflicts that rip apart the country and even though the economy is growing steadily, it is still far behind many of its neighbors. The economic freedom in the country is merely a utopia and religious conflicts and radicalization is increasing worryingly.

4. Foreign interests

When it comes to Myanmar there are two global superpowers that are playing a decisive role in the way that this wave of changes is heading. These countries are the two opposing forces that rule the international relations sphere, the US and China (Sun, 2014). Even though they have different specific interests regarding the outcome of the reforms, they both are equally concerned about having an ally in the historically decisive region of South East Asia.

The United States has three main reasons to influence in Burma: security, democracy and economic power. First and foremost, the geopolitical location of Burma between two important members of the BRICS, India and China, is critical regarding the military strategy of the US. Due to the sanctions that have been applied to Burma by western powers it has reached an alliance with China, creating yet another setback for American geopolitics in the region. But with the Obama administration these balance of power is moving towards the US in its efforts to encircle China with American allies (Kuok, 2014), therefore its support for democracy as the opposition leader is more favorable towards western powers than the previous leader. Finally, economic power is important in the sense that the more democratic Myanmar becomes, the more open to American corporations it will be. The way America has helped the opposition is mainly through international sanctions the previous years and the public support of their leaders with visits from the President and the Secretary of the State to Myanmar.

China has various interests in Myanmar that can be summarized in four points:

• ·         Due to the fact of Myanmar being a neighbor of China, the Chinese government (Sun, 2012).
• ·         A number of oil and gas pipelines run through Burmese territory and many of them cross the regions with ethnic conflicts so it is vital for China that the region is peaceful in order not to disrupt its energy policy.
• ·         China wants to protect its investments in the country in mineral resources and infrastructure
• ·         The Chinese government does not want the US to have a close ally so close to its borders

As we can see, Chinese interests do not have any interest whatsoever in a change of regime because they have dealing successfully with the military junta for an extended period of time and a change of government to a weaker more democratic one with interests aligned with western powers it is very prejudicial for their international policy. Even though this change of regime is bad for Chinese interests, the government has understood that is inevitable and it has supported the military made (Alistair, 2013) Roadmap to democracy to ensure that the military still enjoy sufficient power to maintain the previously good relationships with China. Therefore it still maintains strong military and economic ties to slow down the government loose of grip (Beech, 2014).

To summarize, we have seen why and how are the US and China shaping Myanmar internal policies to benefit their own international standings in the South East Asian region. Obama’s strategy has been effective in the short term because it has reduced China’s power and it has increased democracy, but it faces serious issues on the long run because the reforms are very slow and the military control seems unchangeable because of the Constitution and China’s support. There are several measures that the US can take to further strengthen the change like supporting the government economically in exchange of democratic reforms and support other leaders than Aung San Suu Kyi, because it too symbolical and it wouldn’t allow a moderate transition. As far as China is concerned, it needs to act now to counteract these latest successful American measures, for example by reaching to ethnic an d local parties that hold tremendous power in the country so they do not solely depend on the support of the dying military groups.

References

·         Alistair, D. (2013). Chinese Perceptions and Interests in a transitional Myanmar. Singapore: East Asian Institute.

·         Beech, H. (2014). Burma's Backward Steps. Time, 36-39.

·         Haacke, J. (2012). Myanmar: now a site for Sino-US geopolitical competitition? London: London School of Economics.

·         Kuok, L. (2014). Promoting Peace in Myanmar. Center for Strategic & International Studies.

·         Sun, Y. (2012). China and the Changing Myanmar. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 51-77.

·         Sun, Y. (2014). Myanmar in US-China Relations. Stimson.

·         The Economist. (2014). The Economist Intelligence Unit. Obtenido de http://country.eiu.com/myanmar

·         United Nations Development Programme. (2014). 2014 Human Development Report. Obtenido de http://hdr.undp.org/en

Teresa Luque Romero: The causes that have made the Myanmar's cyclone a maze with no exit: A disaster converted in a nightmare.

The causes that have made the Myanmar’s cyclone a maze with no exit: A disaster converted in a nightmare.

Degradation, corruption, politic interests… induced a natural disaster to be converted in a humanitarian tragedy much more serious that what it should have been.

On the night of 2-3 May 2008, Myanmar, known before as Burma, was devastated by the cyclone Nargis, a natural phenomenon without precedents. The most shocking disaster in Asia since the tsunami in 2004 . The results of this cyclone were disastrous with 22.000 deaths and 40.000 disappearances. Nargis was the most powerful cyclone to strike Myanmar within living memory.

The Minister of humanitarian help and settlements in that time, Maung Maung Swe declared in a news conference that the worst part of it was not the cyclone it self but the huge wave that was produced as a consequence of it "The wave reached 3.5 meters high, spread and inundated half of the houses in low-lying villages " "They could not escape anywhere ". So as a result, the coastal areas of low-lying Ayeyarwady (formerly Irrawady) Division were the hardest hit.

Lets start by explaining that Myanmar has been governed by a military dictatorship since 2 March 1962 when the civilian government, which started in 1948, was overthrown and military rule began. The government has been under direct or indirect control by the military since then. The government based its actions in the combination of the soviet- style nationalisation and central planning.  In this way, Burma became one of the world’s most oppressive systems in the world.

This dictatorship caused numerous protests. One of the most important of them was the one carried out in 15 August 2007 by the Buddhist monks in Rangoon when five huge columns of monks (one of them with more tan a kilometre of length) went over the centre of the city and Shwedagon Temple, the most important temple of this deeply Buddhist country. As a witness of the sixth day of the protest declared “People joined together their arms around the monks, applauding and cheering them” (el Confidencial , 2007).

In terms of international relations, as it happens in North Korea nowadays, the rulers of Burma would not welcome international intervention in any aspect of life and policy of the country because it would be a threat to the military government. But on the other hand the role of the international community could not afford to leave Burma alone.

After Cyclone Nargis devastated the country, the international community was quick to offer sympathy and support, within a week; twenty-four countries had pledged financial support totalling US$30 million. However, the world was shocked because of the decision of the military government witch initially refused to accept humanitarian assistance, which shows the obvious lack of concern for cyclone victims and its blatant disregard for world opinion. It was not until 6 May, after the international pressure, that the regime decided to accept some external help but with very restrictive conditions as they were highly concerned about a possible foreign armed intervention and also a possible external interference in their internal commandment.

It is not known why the regime’s response was so slow but it was probably due, at least in part, to Maypyidaws preoccupation with its constitutional referendum, scheduled for 10 May. The government decided to go ahead with it in the less cyclone-affected areas of the country and postponed it two weeks in the most damage ones. This is way they did not want international intervention to interfere in the country refusing to accept aid donations and not allowing foreign aid workers into the country, which caused the greatest concern in the world. It was also made clear that only “ friend” countries with their NGOs were going to be allowed to enter in Myanmar, in this way, the naval vessels loaded with aid supply sent by the United Nations, Britain and France were denied permission to land in Myanmar or to deliver supplies by helicopter.

As a result, on 12 May, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon declared his “deep concern and immense frustration at the unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis” other world leaders expressed similar sentiments, for example UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In contradiction with this, members of the dictatorship were trying to make people believe that the worst part of the problem was resolved, for example the 7 May when Senior General Than Shwe stated that the situation was returning to normal, even when thousands of victims were still waiting for some help and bodies were still lying in the streets.

As a result of the visit of Ban Ki-moon to the country the same month and the work coordinated by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign aid workers began to have more liberty to enter the country and to supply more of their help. Even so, the control of the Myanmar government was still really strict.

So as a conclusion, we can see that sometimes politics are more based in self-interests than in what the society really needs even tough this is an extreme case. Firstly it is necessary to emphasize that they should have had preparedness to preventing human health in case of cyclones and tsunamis, but on that way, Myanmar was a undeveloped country so the absence of this emergency preparedness resulted in death happen immediately during the impact phase. But the most important thing in this case is that they did not take the measures to deal whit the disaster after it happened. It is known that in countries affected by disasters local governments often have to take the initiative to make certain policy changes or implement programs and training, in alignment of being prepared as a community. But as we have seen before, this was not the position Myanmar government took versus the Nargis Cyclone. And as a result the life of thousands of people was truncated.

REFERENCE LIST:

Yawnghwe, H. (1997). Breaking from history: Repression and protest in Burma. Harvard International Review, 19(4), p.36.

SELTH, A. (2008). Even Paranoids Have Enemies: Cyclone Nargis and Myanmar's Fears of Invasion. Contemporary Southeast Asia: A Journal Of International & Strategic Affairs, 30(3), p. 379-402.

Seekins, D. M. (2009). State, Society and Natural Disaster: Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (Burma). Asian Journal Of Social Science, 37(5), p. 717-737.

Lateef, F. (2009). Cyclone Nargis and Myanmar: A wake up call. Journal Of Emergencies, Trauma & Shock, 2(2