By Abhishek Kaushal
Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD) won nine out of the nineteen seats in the national and regional parliaments. This is primarily because the party failed to win votes in regions devastated by ethnic violence such as Mon, which was once a stronghold for the party.
Language barriers didnt help the partys cause in districts of Shan state, where the government is still trying hard to appease armed rebel groups like ‘The North Alliance. The North Alliance (TNA), which consists of four rebellious groups namely-The Arakan Army, Kachin Independence Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Party and Taang National Liberation Army have been at war with the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) since their inception in November last year.
The beginnings of a civil war
On May 2012 in Western Myanmar, three Muslim men were falsely accused of raping and murdering a Buddhist woman. This resulted in a bloodbath when 10 Muslim men were brutally killed in the Toungop region of Rakhine on the grounds of revenge. What happened next was carefully hidden from the outside world.
Termed as “illegal immigrants from Bangladesh” or “Bengalis”, Rohingya Muslims have been deprived of their basic rights as citizens of Myanmar right from the very beginning. During the crisis of 2012, the community’s voting rights were revoked temporarily, which further hampered their very existence in the eyes of the government of Myanmar.
Since the outbreak of the violence, nearly 130,000 Rohingya Muslims have been forced to leave their homes and live in camps, often surviving in inhumane living conditions. Others who fled the country have settled in Bangladesh’s Cox Bazar district, pledging never to go back.
The reticent leadership
Prominent leaders of Myanmar, who generally belong to the Buddhist faith, have chosen to adopt a silent stance when it comes to this civil violence. In an interview conducted by BBC, Noble laureate Aung San Suu Kyi stated that the violence erupting between the two communities was similar to any normal dispute between two religious groups which often results in casualties on both sides. However, the fact of the matter remains that it is almost always the Rohingya Muslims that are on the receiving end of all this action.
Aung San Suu Kyis failure to take action has been questioned by more than a dozen Nobel laureates, and her inability to address this issue has won her a great deal of criticism from leaders all around the world.
The raging economic crisis
This unrest with regards to the ethnic violence in the Western part of the Myanmar hasnt managed to stay hidden from the rest of the world, including foreign investors from the Western countries. This situation has hampered the economic dynamics of Myanmar in more ways than one. The World Bank predicted a drop in the economic growth of Burma by 200 basis points. Companies such as Coca-Cola and Caterpillar are in an ethical dilemma over whether to continue with the $612 Million investments that they promised in 2012, as part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) commitments.
What next?
Recent UN investigation reports have confirmed that Rohingya Muslims are being persecuted in the state of Myanmar. Rohingya Muslims have described horrific rapes, massacres and atrocities at the hands of the Burmese forces. In the light of these atrocities, Aung San Suu Kyi has been forced to take proper action, which is why she has promised to initiate the formation of an unbiased international investigating committee that will look into the violence being committed against the Rohingya Muslims. Burmese credibility has definitely taken a hit with the rumours of this tumultuous crisis doing the rounds. There is no doubt that the resolving of this crisis is a challenging and tricky task, even for a Nobel laureate like Aung San Suu Kyi.
Featured Image Source: The Huffington Post