Tun Khin is president of the Burma Rohingya Organization UK.
What a difference five years can make. In 2015, many of my fellow Rohingya people cheered as the party of the famed opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in Myanmar’s first democratic elections of the 21st century, bringing an end to decades of outright military rule. Euphoria reigned. We hoped not only for a new beginning for the country, but also for an end to the oppression against us.
Today, as Myanmar gears up for another general election on Nov. 8, the situation is starkly different. Three years ago, Aung San Suu Kyi, now the country’s de facto head of state, stood by as military leaders launched a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign that killed thousands of Rohingya and drove more than 700,000 across the border into Bangladesh, where they now languish in immense refugee camps. The roughly 500,000 who remain in the country have been effectively disenfranchised. They are denied access to Myanmar’s democracy simply because of who they are.
Our government is trying to portray this election as the next stage of Myanmar’s transition to democracy. Don’t be fooled. Real democracy will remain elusive in a country that cannot acknowledge its own role in the mass persecution of its own citizens.
It’s important to remember that the state-sponsored discrimination of the Rohingya in recent years departs from historical practice. Today’s xenophobic regime regards us as illegal immigrants — but Rohingya voted in Myanmar for decades and played an active part in politics until the military seized power in 1962. My grandfather served in parliament during that earlier period of democracy. We were citizens then and we remain citizens today — even if the authorities try to pretend otherwise.
In 1982, the generals imposed a law that took away our citizenship. With it, we lost access to basic rights, including freedom of movement and access to health care and education. This was followed by so-called “identity cards” for Rohingya, with constantly changing rules that gradually eroded our rights.
Even then, Rohingya still tried to participate in civil life. In 2010, three Rohingya won election to parliament; many others ran for office unsuccessfully.
That same year, though, the government invalidated our identity cards, removed our names from voter rolls, and placed insurmountable administrative hurdles in our way, blocking us from exercising our democratic rights. The government has used legal acrobatics to justify this exclusion, but there is no doubt that this is a blatant effort to erase our identity and rights.
Many Rohingya enthusiastically supported Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in 2015. But since taking office, she and the NLD have stood by as the military and its allies trampled on the rights of Muslims and spread anti-Muslim sentiment. Instead of standing up to military, the party has actively supported it, ignoring systemic discrimination.
The ruling party’s response to the 2017 genocide has been to blame victims and downplay the violations, despite the overwhelming evidence implicating the military in atrocity crimes. Many Rohingya remaining in Myanmar today live in an open-air prison where every aspect of their lives is controlled by the state.
It is important to stress that we are not concerned only about Rohingya rights. In an extremely worrying move, the Myanmar election commission is allowing the generals to decide whether people living in conflict-affected areas will be excluded from voting. The military is fighting conflicts against ethnic armed groups in several parts of the country. This potentially means that other minority communities — Shan, Karen, Kachin — could also be stripped of the vote at the military’s whim.
That same year, though, the government invalidated our identity cards, removed our names from voter rolls, and placed insurmountable administrative hurdles in our way, blocking us from exercising our democratic rights. The government has used legal acrobatics to justify this exclusion, but there is no doubt that this is a blatant effort to erase our identity and rights.
Many Rohingya enthusiastically supported Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) in 2015. But since taking office, she and the NLD have stood by as the military and its allies trampled on the rights of Muslims and spread anti-Muslim sentiment. Instead of standing up to military, the party has actively supported it, ignoring systemic discrimination.
The ruling party’s response to the 2017 genocide has been to blame victims and downplay the violations, despite the overwhelming evidence implicating the military in atrocity crimes. Many Rohingya remaining in Myanmar today live in an open-air prison where every aspect of their lives is controlled by the state.
It is important to stress that we are not concerned only about Rohingya rights. In an extremely worrying move, the Myanmar election commission is allowing the generals to decide whether people living in conflict-affected areas will be excluded from voting. The military is fighting conflicts against ethnic armed groups in several parts of the country. This potentially means that other minority communities — Shan, Karen, Kachin — could also be stripped of the vote at the military’s whim.
At the same time, the authorities continue to impose arbitrary Internet bans across two states, denying people access to the information they need to make an informed choice.
A fresh outbreak of the coronavirus complicates things further. Lockdown restrictions have particularly hampered smaller parties that lack the name recognition of Suu Kyi’s NLD. The government’s handling of the virus has been suspect at best. A government spokesperson has even claimed that Myanmar people’s superior “lifestyle and diet” protects them from the virus.
The United States and the rest of the international community should not fall for this charade. They should push the Myanmar government to ensure that democratic rights are protected, for Rohingya inside Myanmar and in Bangladesh, as well as for all those caught in areas of conflict or under threat of covid-19.
Democracies around the world can no longer stand by and watch Myanmar continue to erase Rohingya from our homes, our territory, our shared history and now from political life. As Americans prepare to vote, they are being reminded of how important free and fair elections are to the integrity of any democracy. They also know that one election cannot make up for broken institutions.
For my people, and other ethnic communities, military rule continues unabated. The approaching election in Myanmar highlights the civilian government’s complicity with the generals’ continuing abuse of power. We count on democratic countries around the world, including the United States, to stand with us in our struggle.
For my people, and other ethnic communities, military rule continues unabated. The approaching election in Myanmar highlights the civilian government’s complicity with the generals’ continuing abuse of power. We count on democratic countries around the world, including the United States, to stand with us in our struggle.
Read more:
- Christian Caryl: One of the world’s most vulnerable groups now finds itself confronting covid-19
- The Post’s View: Three years since their genocide began, the Rohingya remain desperate for help
- Maung Zarni: Why Myanmar’s genocide denial will come back to haunt it
- The Post’s View: For Myanmar, too much impunity and too little accountability
- António Guterres: The Rohingya are victims of ethnic cleansing. The world has failed them.
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