Rohingya — the Palestinians of Asia
Those familiar with Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians are aware of the Myanmarese authorities’ despicable attempts at copying Tel Aviv’s policies
Are the Myanmarese generals learning the art of collective oppression from the Israelis? This is hardly a far-fetched question, considering that Israel had quite an eventful history of cooperating with past South American military dictatorships, while working closely with South Africa’s past apartheid government.
It is no surprise that Palestinians find numerous similarities between South Africa’s apartheid regime and Israel’s unmistakable apartheid practices. But the Myanmarese-Israeli connection is rarely discussed. In Tablet magazine, Joe Freeman, wrote the article: ‘In Israel’s earliest days, the place its leaders felt compelled to visit was Burma.’
High-profile Israeli visitors, who began making their pilgrimage to Myanmar decades ago, included Shimon Peres, Moshe Dayan, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir. At the time, the Myanmarese government was convinced that “Israel was the quintessential example of the egalitarian social and economic order that he wished to establish”.
The truth, however, lies in how both countries treated, and continue to treat, their minorities. Following the ethnic cleansing of the original inhabitants of Palestine, Israel immediately went on to fashion an alternative and particularly biased narrative about how it was established, and to deny Palestinians any historical link to their homeland. The Myanmarese did just that too.
The myth that the 1962 military coup in Myanmar, then Burma, (when Ne Win took the reins of power from Israel’s best friend in Asia, U Nu) ended the cooperation between both countries, was just that — a myth. While the new dictator had less interest in Israel than his predecessor, military and intelligence cooperation never truly ceased. This is why Israel has historically served as a conduit between the West and the least reputable regimes.
While Myanmar is being congratulated for its latest ‘democratic’ elections, much of that sinful history and equally dismal reality is being swept under the rug. As well-wishers continued to praise Myanmar’s elections in early November as fair and transparent, Myanmarese authorities arrested five men and declared that “a sixth is still on the run” for simply printing a calendar that referred to the Rohingya minority by their actual name — Rohingya.
The opening up of Myanmarese politics in recent years spelled the doom for the Rohingya, because the burgeoning ‘freedom of speech’ within the region empowered Buddhist nationalist factions that promoted genocide against the defenceless Rohingya. This incitement resulted in the killing of hundreds, the burning of entire villages and the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the Rohingya Muslims in jungles and refugee camps. Hundreds perished at sea as they tried to seek salvation in countries that had no sympathy for poor, stateless people. A 2014 Printing and Publishing Law was established specifically to silence dissent and to criminalise any recognition of the Rohingya, thus abolishing their collective rights altogether.
Dominance of the military
Those familiar with the onslaught of the Israeli government on Palestinian memory, can fully understand the despicable similarities between the Myanmarese attempts at copying existing Israeli policies. The sweeping, although predictable victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD), under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, is unlikely to change the scenario much as far as the dominance of the military goes. Even if the revered democracy icon has, in fact, some serious influence over the country’s affairs, she has proven spineless in defending the rights of the Rohingya and other persecuted minorities, including Christians.
Not only did the elections disempower and further alienate the Rohingya, but it has also empowered political groups that have openly sought the ‘mass annihilation’ of the defenceless minority community. They include the Arakan National Party (ANP), which has incited and enacted violent pogroms against the Rohingya for years.
The question is then, why is there all this excitement about Myanmarese democracy? The answer is rather simple: The rivalry between China and the United States, and their respective allies, has reached a point where the massive amount of untapped wealth of oil and natural gas in Myanmar can no longer be ignored. With Myanmar climbing among the world’s top five countries in terms of proven oiland-gas reserves, terms such as ‘genocide’, ‘military junta’ and ‘human rights violations’ are deliberately and largely omitted from the new discourse.
Indeed, Myanmar is setting the stage to be another Israel, in its ability to label itself democratic, despite every proof to the contrary; in its continued oppression of its minorities and in attempting to whitewash its history — and rebrand its grim reality.