Aung San Suu Kyi shares responsibility for Rohingya’s misery

TheJakartaPost
Kornelius Purba (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta
Wed, August 31, 2022

Looking for safety: Scores of Rohingya refugees, including women and children, were stranded in the waters off Aceh on Dec. 27, 2021. (The Jakarta Post/Amnesty International Indonesia

In a recent discussion to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the genocidal acts against the Rohingya minority by Myanmar’s military, civil society groups and Myanmar’s government in exile, the National Unity Government (NUG) urged Indonesia and ASEAN to take tougher actions against the Myanmar junta for the safety of the Rohingya people.

But it should be clear from the very beginning that what is happening in Myanmar should not be blamed solely on the military, but the whole nation. The NUG should stop pretending that it knows nothing about who should take the blame for the killings of the Rohingya people. To a certain degree Aung San Suu Kyi played a part in the gross crimes against the Rohingya, especially with her refusal to defend the basic rights of the Muslim minority, who are by law citizens of Buddhist majority Myanmar.

There have been plans shared among ASEAN member states, championed by Malaysia, to recognize the NUG as the official representative of Myanmar. Until now the regional grouping has not recognized the junta. ASEAN has played its part to help restore democracy in Myanmar, despite all its shortcomings. But the NUG has opted to wait and see, if not doubt the capacity and commitment of ASEAN.

ASEAN has played its part to help restore democracy in Myanmar, despite all its shortcomings. But the NUG has opted to wait and see, if not doubt the capacity and commitment of ASEAN. 

The government in exile, as well the world, know how three years ago Suu Kyi volunteered herself to come to the Myanmar military’s defense at the International Court of Justice that charged the Army general Min Aung Hlaing with genocidal acts. 

“If war crimes have been committed by members of Myanmar’s Defense Services, they will be prosecuted through our military justice system, by Myanmar’s Constitution,” Suu Kyi told the court in her 30-minute defense argument in December 2019. She also said the government protected the rights of the Rohingya people, including access to education and birth certificates, unlike many human rights groups had claimed. 

Since then, Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has lost international credibility.

But what has Suu Kyi received from the military in return? Hlaing toppled her democratically elected government in February 2021 and killed thousands of her supporters. She has been locked in an undisclosed place and sentenced to years of imprisonment for various graft cases following trials. Her credibility is questionable and she may spend the rest of her life in military prison. 

ASEAN has suspended the junta from any of the group’s official activities until it implements the five-point consensus Hlaing agreed upon in Jakarta last year in April. The consensus mandates, among others, immediate end to violence, dialogue among all parties concerned and provisions of ASEAN’s humanitarian assistance.

 The army general, however, has not only broken his pledge but also flexed muscles by killing, jailing and executing pro-democracy activists to cling to power. 

The NUG has persistently demanded ASEAN to do more for the people of Myanmar, including the minority Muslims, whose supreme leader Suu Kyi played a role in the massacre of the Rohingya people five years ago. On Aug. 25, 2017, the military launched their campaign against the minority group, forcing nearly a million people to seek safety in neighboring Bangladesh. Many others risked their lives as they crossed the sea and were stranded in Aceh. 

The military’s crimes against humanity had begun long before the 2017 mass killings and tortures. Since winning the election that allowed her party to govern in 2015, we have never heard Suu Kyi try to stop the military-sponsored ethnic cleansing. Even when BBC presenter Mishal Husain asked her about this matter in an interview in 2016, Suu Kyi lost her temper. 

With the support of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Gambia took the Rohingya case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing the military of committing genocide in the Rakhine State. The Court rejected Myanmar’s demand to drop the case because evidence was so abundant that it was impossible not to charge those responsible for the barbaric acts. 

As part of the Suu Kyi regime, the NUG should remember that they are also responsible, at least by omission, for letting the killings, tortures and expulsions of the Rohingya people to happen. Now, the NUG has demanded Indonesia to act, but forgetting the fact that Suu Kyi had refused to pay an introductory visit to Indonesia and Malaysia as other new ASEAN leaders did. Suu Kyi suspected that the two predominantly Muslim nations were supporters of the Muslim Rohingya. 

As the next ASEAN chair, Indonesia is highly expected to use its influence and leadership to push the Myanmar junta leader to uphold the five-point consensus. But we should never forget the military is not the only party responsible for the gross crimes against the Rohingya people. The whole nation of Myanmar should accept the guilt. 

As reported by The Jakarta Post last week, an advisor of the NUG, Aung Kway Moe called on Indonesia to take bolder action against the military in Naypyidaw as part of its efforts to aid the Rohingya people, noting that the situation had progressed past the point where the usual “note of concern” would suffice. 

“The Indonesian government needs to do more to solve this problem, which is also [part of] ASEAN’s moral obligations. Indonesia needs to take the lead in ensuring we are on top of our agendas on [all] levels,” said Kway Moe.

Rather than demanding Indonesia to do more for Myanmar, the NUG should come up with a clear road map on what it will do to ensure that the Rohingya people and other minority groups are allowed to return home safely and their rights and obligations as citizens of Myanmar are protected. *** The writer is a senior editor of The Jakarta Post.

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