Around 21,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh over the past two months, as Burmese forces launched what one UN official says is ‘getting very close to what we would all agree are crimes against humanity’ [aka ‘clearance operations’ or religious cleansing].
TIME reports from the Bangladesh border, where the full horror is only just emerging, [include] very graphic and very disturbing photos and video clips [and tales about] about rape and sexual violence, and even bodies of little kids being uncovered…
Amid the unfolding crisis, one voice has been largely absent — Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won a landslide victory in elections in November 2015.
(TIME, December 12, 2016)
With all due respect to TIME, the full horror of this genocide emerged in Myanmar (aka Burma) years ago.
In fact, I wrote many commentaries, dating back to 2012, in which I sounded plaintive alarms about it. What’s more, I duly denounced Aung San Suu Kyi’s deafening silence in the face of this unfolding genocide. Sadly, commentators far more influential than I, to say nothing of influential politicians, couldn’t have cared less.
In any event, here are excerpts from just three of my forlorn commentaries.
____________________
- From “Obama’s Historic Trip to Myanmar: Too Soon?” November 12, 2012:
Nothing demonstrates the extent to which she has been co-opted quite like Suu Kyi’s deafening silence about the ongoing religious cleansing of minority Muslims by majority Buddhists. Especially given that the UN has called Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims ‘the world’s most persecuted people.’
Yet, when challenged to explain her silence, the Buddhist Suu Kyi demurred, saying self-righteously that she was not taking sides to preserve her impartiality as repairer of the breach. But just imagine how much worse the religious cleansing of minority Muslims by majority Hindus in India would have been if the Hindu Gandhi had not been so vocal in condemning it?
- From “Aung San Suu Kyi Becoming Democratic Mascot of Myanmar’s Military Dictatorship,” March 28, 2013:
I wonder what my critics have to say about the images of Suu Kyi that went viral yesterday. For they show her sitting quite comfortably, as a solitary female fixture, among hundreds of military men as they presided over the hallmark of all dictatorships, the annual military parade.
There can be no denying that these images provide clear vindication of my informed cynicism.
- From “Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi Courting Totalitarian Power at the Expense of Democratic Principles,” September 14, 2015:
It’s arguable that Nelson Mandela of South Africa was the only political leader who commanded more universal admiration and respect over the past 50 years than Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar.
Of course, they seemed bonded by an uncompromising commitment to democratic principles, which they honored by spending 27 and 15 years as political prisoners, respectively.
Except that, after talking the talk, Mandela began walking the walk from the day he was finally released in 1990. By contrast, Suu Kyi seemed to be walking pursuant to a Faustian bargain with her military jailers from the day she was finally released in 2010. …
Just imagine how disheartening it would’ve been if Mandela began preparing South Africa for its first democratic elections by presiding over the ethnic cleansing of whites – not just from his African National Congress party, but from the entire country.
Alas, Western powers remain all too willing to indulge Suu Kyi’s betrayal of the democratic principles she once championed. Nothing demonstrates this quite like Washington denouncing Myanmar’s generals for executing a putsch within their ruling party, while uttering nary a word about Suu Kyi purging Muslims from her opposition party.
___________________
That said, I am even less hopeful for Myanmar’s Rohingya today than I was four years ago. Not least because I’m all too mindful that similar reports about the genocide against Sudan’s Darfurians did nothing to ease their plight.
Remember Darfur … ?
___________________
- From “Save Darfur Rally: Full of Sound and Fury Signifying Nothing!” May 2, 2006:
My conscience moves me to do whatever I can to help alleviate the suffering of people throughout the world, especially across Africa and the Caribbean. Occasionally, this requires lending my feet and voice to marches and rallies – as was the case yesterday.
These events aim to persuade the government to use its unparalleled power to help poor, powerless, and oppressed peoples. Which brings me to the people of Darfur. Regular readers know that, despite my participation, I have little regard for conscience-soothing rallies to ‘save’ people who have been suffering the ravages of genocide for more than three years…
Even if America were to deploy the necessary forces to stop the killing today, I would understand if the long-suffering people of Darfur greeted that move by saying – as I wrote – “Thanks for Caring America, But You’re Already a Genocide Too Late,” March 14, 2006.
I wondered how rallying in Washington could possibly help people in Darfur? And I lamented that neither the sublime admonitions of Eli Wiesel nor the celebrated entreaties of George Clooney would prevent a single person in Darfur from being slaughtered.
___________________
Alas, I was right. Because reports are that, in the ten years since “Save Darfur” became a cause celebre, Arab Janjaweed militias (“devils on horseback”) have slaughtered hundreds of thousands of black Darfurians and consigned even more to squalid refugee camps, where they remain to this day. This, despite the fact that the Bush administration declared this slaughter a genocide as early as 2004.
Frankly, the Rohingya seem fated to a similar demise, only with less world attention and even less concern. What is particularly disheartening about this genocide, though, is that those perpetrating it are not ISIS-styled militias but Buddhist monks. Which constrains one to wonder why Buddhists worldwide are not denouncing these monks for defiling Buddhism; you know, the way Muslims worldwide are denouncing jihadists for defiling Islam.
Incidentally, former President George W. Bush must regret hailing Russian President Vladimir Putin as a man with a good soul. But President Obama shows no regret for hailing Suu Kyi as Myanmar’s Nelson Mandela.
After all, he greeted her with unbridled adulation at the White House just months ago, despite her record of deafening silence in the face of this genocide against the Rohingya.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken them?
You promised the meek shall inherit the earth.
But, at this rate, none will be left to do so …
Related commentaries:
Rohingya genocide…
Darfur genocide…
Nobel laureate…
Legacy Note: With over 5,600 posts spanning 20 years, I am easily the most prolific blogger on the most eclectic array of topics on the web. That makes The iPINIONS Journal an unparalleled archive of informed political and cultural commentary. Visit the ARCHIVES section in the sidebar or search by topic. You won’t find a more consistent, independent voice on world affairs.