The Nobel Peace prize is generally awarded in recognition of achievements; or as inspiration to help mobilize international pressure to support human rights activists in countries where reform is urgently needed. President Obama's Peace prize in 2009 was for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen diplomacy and cooperation between peoples" and for fostering "a new climate" in international relations, especially in reaching out to the Muslim world.
Beyond the notable speech in Cairo, President Obama has done little more than to gradually withdraw troops from Iraq and soon, Afghanistan. The Nobel Peace prize has again lost a little of its luster, somewhat tarnished by the award to Kissinger and Le Duc Tho in 1973. Le Duc Tho had the integrity to refuse the prize as his North Vietnamese troops were still moving south and peace did not come until 1975.
So with the latest Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, hopefully, the symbol of the Peace Prize becomes more meaningful. Leader of the Democracy movement in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi has for many years represented peaceful resistance to oppression. In her acceptance speech she said the award was for "a free, secure and just society" and international acknowledgement that "the oppressed and the isolated in Burma were also a part of the world."
Aware that she had a huge task ahead in Myanmar with the still present iron hand of military oppression, she became the focus of the hopes of the people of Myanmar for democracy and freedom. After all, Nobel Peace Laureates bear with them a responsibility to be international moral brokers for a world in need of leaders, and it is with profound disappointment that Aung San Suu Kyi has not lived up to early expectations. Her silence on the plight of the Muslim Rohingya people in the Arakan province in Myanmar is inexplicable in light of her previous moral stands against oppression. At a time when human rights are being so blatantly and cruelly abused, her moral authority is surely of high enough standing that she could risk supporting an unpopular cause.
For it is politics that seems to be dictating her silence and the risk of alienating many of her political allies whose support she needs in the next election.
According to Maung Zami, a Burma expert and visiting fellow at the London School of Economics, "Aung San Suu Kyi has absolutely nothing to gain by opening her mouth on this. She is no longer a political dissident trying to stick to her principles. She's a politician and her eyes are fixed on the prize, which is the 2015 majority Buddhist vote."
If this is indeed true, then the tragedy of the 800,000 Rohingya people is even greater. The persecuted Rohingya people are outcasts in a Buddhist society and there is a widespread belief, in government and even among some pro-democracy groups, that they are "illegal immigrants from Bangladesh." A 1982 law excluded them from being recognized as an official minority and they have never been granted citizenship. Described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, the recent upsurge in violence has led to a humanitarian crisis as thousands of refugees are fleeing the security forces and the local Buddhists and seeking refuge over the border in Bangladesh.
The government of Bangladesh however, is refusing these stateless refugees access to humanitarian aid. As reported by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there is widespread famine in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh. In spite of reports from Human Rights Watch, United Nations and prominent aid organizations, the Rohingya people continue to suffer terribly on both sides of the border, in Arakan state in Burma and in the Cox's Bazaar area in Bangladesh.
International response has been slow and the perception in the Muslim world is that the West is turning a blind eye. However, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is responding with leadership from Turkey and the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Burma is calling for an independent international investigation into the crisis. Questions are being asked in the British Parliament and in the US Congress, but no amount of paper and words can bring immediate relief to the Rohingya people. Only action from within Burma can stop the continuing human rights abuses and the ethnic cleansing that is being carried out in the name of the Buddhist state.
Aung San Suu Kyi has the moral authority to call on the generals to stop the human tragedy taking place. The specious argument that these people are not Burmese citizens calls to mind the bumper sticker familiar in the US immigration debate, "No human being is illegal." Whether born in Burma or not, whether they speak a Bangladeshi dialect or not, whether they are Muslim or Christian or Buddhist, the Rohingya people deserve the world's compassion and protection from oppression and persecution.
As in the US where illegal immigration is an issue, the Burmese government must acknowledge that even illegal immigrants have basic human rights. If they are not welcomed and integrated they should be treated in a way that respects human dignity, due process and the rule of law. Burma has come a long way but if the Nobel Peace Prize is to continue to be relevant today, then Aung San Suu Kyi should speak out for all people in her country and work for a genuine peace process with all ethnic minorities, so that Burma/Myanmar can truly become free.
There remains something deeply flawed in the Buddhist nation, with its ancient traditions of peace and non-aggression, if anti-Muslim rhetoric is encouraged as a way of diverting attention from the generals' abuses of power. Perhaps the Nobel Committee should look again at its criteria for awarding the Peace Prize and reconsider its recent decisions. The prize should be awarded for the attainment of peace and freedom, for the real achievement of an end to sectarian violence, not just talking about it, hoping for it and wishing it were true. That will not feed or shelter a destitute and persecuted Rohingya family tonight. They need a champion now, to speak up now on their behalf against all persecution no matter who is the oppressor and who the oppressed.
Matthew Smith, a researcher at New York-based Human Rights Watch, said it was difficult for ordinary citizens to be objective because there was a widespread belief that all Rohingya are "illegal immigrants from Bangladesh", including at the highest levels of government.
"Young bloggers seeking the truth and attempting to approach the issue objectively should be applauded," he said.
"Sometimes the protection of human rights depends on courageous voices willing to stand up despite great social pressure, and this is one of those times."
Dr Azeem Ibrahim is the Executive Chairman of The Scotland Institute and a Fellow and Member of the Board of Directors at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. He obtained his PhD from Cambridge and served as an International Security Research Fellow at Harvard and World Fellow at Yale.
Follow Azeem Ibrahim on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@AzeemIbrahim
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Will you keep your silence till you won 2015 election? You've just said today in the US that you don't want to condemn any party just because you don't want to stir the situation up from bad to worse. Should the Kachins then suffer these atrocities while you're waiting patiently the information you needed in your office? How about initiating or supporting to let an international human rights group to investigate the human rights abuse by the Burmese Army? Even the general population are showing sympathy for the Kachin people in this case and yet you are wonderfully silent in your own world.
In case if you are forgetting where you are standing, let me remind you with a quote from one of your fellow Nobel laureates.
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” – Desmond Tutu
But, until the give Reagan the Nobel Peace Prize (retroactively) for winning the Cold War without firing a single shot ... that little Norwegian commission is worthless !!!
Don't blindly shout and accuse "human rights abuse & humanitarian crisis of minority ethnic group" over this issue. In this conflict, both Rakhine and Rohingya have been equally responsible for the village arsons, killings, assults and other damages inflicted upon one another. There are also equal if not less numbers of displaced Rakhine refugees due to these clashes.
It is very hard to say who started all this and who is behind it in this country where military regime (now military-back government) - being highly politically deceptive and have practiced countless cunning tricks for decades - could well be the culprit behind all this chaos at the Rakhine border. Anyone of us who had endured decades under this regime can spot the smoke a mile away. Burma is more complex than your run of the mills daily affairs.
And don't even start with Aung San Suu Kyi. Do you think a woman of her wisdom, compassion and resolute would knowingly neglect the "plight" of rohingyas, has she been convinced that they are truly and unjustly mistreated and abused in this whole farce? She who'd braved and stand up for her people over two decades for justice and freedom would now back away from her responsibility just because of a would be slice of political gain?
Loose that know-it-all attitude about human rights and abuse story of Rohingyas in Burma. And don't insult Aung San Suu Kyi when you have been nothing all
For several decades the Western media has been artificially and systematically cultivating a positive image of the Buddhist religious establishment in order to use it as a leverage against China through the Tibet issue.
The Western media successfully created an image of the Buddhist monks as the “most peaceful humans on earth.”
This artificial narrative assisted the Western imperialist regimes in fostering anti-China sentiments within their own societies and abroad.
It is an established fact that after the 9/11 events the US and its surrogates launched an all-out war against Muslims and Islam.
One of the main domains of the US led war of terror upon Muslims is the media front. Even prior to 9/11, Islam was constantly portrayed as a violent religion, however, after 9/11 efforts in demonizing Islam increased significantly.
For example, minutes after the Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Behring Breivik launched his atrocious attack on July 22, 2011, Western media and pundits immediately linked the attacks to Muslims by formulating the usual “Islamic terrorism” narrative.
Later when it became clear that it was one of their who perpetrated the attack, this news story was soft peddled and no apology was issued to Muslims.
I think according your name, you may also be Muslim, right? But, whatever your religion, it is ok. Before you write down something, you should study deeply first. Now your writing and your thinking is seemed to just overall and they are not professional. Our leader already commented in Bengali's issue. She commented that our country need to be set up good enough "Rules of Law". This is the answer for Bengali's issues. I thought that you also feel pain for Bengali people because you also Muslim. Your thinking is just one sided and it is not worth with PhD level.
So, for my opinion, you should degrade your PhD level to your school. You are not worth with PhD level. So sorry to say like that. But it is true that you are not enough thinker to be PhD student.
Even there are many so-called Rohingya in Saudi and UAE and they have been stating there for many years (more than 40 , 50 years ) , they never become citizens of that countries .
Arab Muslim countries dont even give PR to expatriates , even to the children who were born there .
What a shameful claim of Muslims World for the Bengali (so-called Rohingya) ?
You do not need to be super intelligence It is just matter of common sense if Rohingya has been living since 13 century. There are only 800,000 Rohingya populations in Myanmar
smallest ethnic population group. So if you use some mathematic model based on
800,000 populations and calculate it into reverse fashion and it will not go back to more than 100 years. Wake up!!
It is a none sense and biased article after all.