The shameful hypocrisy
The hypocrisy of Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is astounding. Her complicity in the face of horrific state violence against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority is surely redefining her place in history.
The Nobel Peace laureate, who for decades fought against the junta that kept her under house arrest and terrorized her country, who spoke so eloquently of the power of nonviolence and of the importance of multi-ethnic unity to Myanmar’s future, apparently does not stand by the words that built her reputation as a great humanitarian – or perhaps does so only in so far as they pertain to the Buddhist majority.
The United Nations has called Myanmar’s Rohingyas the world’s “most persecuted” minority. Baselessly vilified as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, they have long been unfairly denied citizenship and otherwise made subject to myriad discriminations.
Yet in recent years their plight has significantly worsened as violent attacks from government and other nationalist factions have deepened their poverty and forced many into squalid internment camps. Hundreds of thousands have fled to Bangladesh, another country that does not want them.
The current wave of military violence began in August, after a group of Rohingya farmers took up arms against state security forces. By all credible accounts the government crackdown that followed has been grossly disproportionate and highly indiscriminate. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warns that we are seeing something approaching ethnic cleansing. Many others, citing satellite footage of scorched villages in Rakhine state and countless accounts of rape and the mass murder of civilians, insist that bar has already been met. Some 160,000 Rohingyas have fled the country in the two weeks since the violence began.
About the mounting international condemnations, Suu Kyi will say only that they reflect an “iceberg of misinformation” being propagated by “terrorists.” The evidence against this claim is overwhelming. Plus, if there’s nothing to hide, why have the ministries under Suu Kyi’s control worked so hard to keep independent monitors out of the country?
So what can be done? At home, some have argued that the Trudeau government should revoke Suu Kyi’s honorary Canadian citizenship, one of six ever awarded, in response to her profound moral failure. Others have called for her Nobel Peace Prize to be rescinded. But such moves would be distractions from the real challenge at hand. There will be plenty of time to rewrite Suu Kyi’s place in history. More urgent by far is that we do all we can to protect the Muslim minority now under siege.
To that end, the Trudeau government has taken important steps, pledging $1 million in humanitarian aid for Rakhine state and strongly condemning the persecution of Rohingyas. The prime minister says Ottawa continues to apply pressure on Suu Kyi. He is right to use Canada’s strong relationship with the leader to try to push her to show some of the courage and humanity that led to her many awards. But personal diplomacy can accomplish only so much.
Suu Kyi alone cannot end the violence. Although she was elected in a landslide, her power extends only so far; many parts of the Myanmarese state are still controlled by the military. The challenge for Ottawa and the international community will be to find a way to exert real pressure on the still-powerful remnants of Myanmar’s erstwhile junta.
Suu Kyi’s complicity in the ongoing atrocities in her country has left her once-totemic reputation in ruins. But symbols of our disapproval will do little to help those in need. We should be using every tool at our disposal, including our close ties with Suu Kyi, to aid the embattled Rohingyas and push Myanmar’s military to end its brutal campaign.