Heroes may not ignore the suffering of others

WE HAVE more than enough problems on our doorstep without having to worry about how Myanmar deals with its ethnic groups. Yet our sense of global humanity evokes strong feelings and responsibilities towards our fellow human beings.

As we go about our daily business, can we switch off to the reality of what human beings are doing to each other on our planet? John Donne reminds us that “no man is an island unto himself” and we are all an integrated part of this cosmic reality.

So what is happening in Myanmar to the Rohingya Muslims or what is still happening in Palestine is not only about Muslims. It is about the powerless oppressed and the mighty oppressors.

Had the world not reacted to South Africa’s plight we might still be fighting apartheid.

So who do we look to as saviours of truth? Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa were world icons of peace and, to a lesser degree, others followed. Aung San Suu Kyi sacrificed her family and the better part of her life to the fight for freedom in her country, a freedom one would assume was for all the people of Myanmar.

When great personalities are bestowed with global praise and honoured with the Nobel Peace Prize, the highest award one can achieve, we expect them to be truthful to the cause of human rights beyond the boundaries of race, religion, nationality or ethnicity.

In this respect, Aung San Suu Kyi is a great disappointment to the cause of human rights in the world today. Can she not feel the pain of people other than her own?

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, in an open letter, wrote to her, challenging her on her silence over the gross human rights violations of the Rohingya people thus: “If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is surely too steep. Speak up!”

In light of having bestowed the Gandhi Peace prize on her, Ela Gandhi, the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, tries to explain her silence as a possible cause of her political gagging thus: “Is it not also true that when in any office a person does not have the power to speak as an individual but as a collective and therefore sometimes their hands are tied and lips sealed?”

After much careful thought, however, she has now added her name to the growing voices of opposition. Whatever the dilemma, the fact remains that the genocide of a people who are historically an integral part of a nation is taking place in full global view.

Systematically marginalised in education, health and political power, the Rohingya Muslims have been dismissed and dehumanised as a troublesome ethnic group.

We witness on television hapless men, women and children carrying their aged parents in baskets across rivers in search of a new homeland, leaving behind their burning villages and the sense that Myanmar is no longer their home.

One sees a certain resignation in the mass exodus.

It seems to me that the battle for recognition by the Goliaths of that society has made them become almost fatalistic in acceptance of their lot – like sheep waiting in line for their kurbani slaughter, they accept their fate as if some higher order willed it.

Again, the story is one of might over right. When this happens, the battle for justice comes to the fore.

The question now being asked is whether the Nobel Peace Prize should be revoked from recipients who have not lived up to expectations. Once an award has been made, it might be very difficult to withdraw it from someone given the prize for his or her actions or accomplishments at a given time.

Instead, what appears to be gathering momentum is reaction from other peace prize winners, such as Malala Yousafzai, the brave young girl who fought the Taliban for girls to have the right to be educated. She has urged Aung San Suu Kyi to stand up for justice.

Canada is perhaps the most vociferous of the Western countries in its expression of shock and disdain for the complicit role Aung Sang Sui Kyi is playing in the nationwide ethnic cleansing of Myanmar’s Muslims.

The country is taking the lead in calling for a world coalition to stop the savagery against a million people. The Canadians have resolved to withdraw the honorary Canadian citizenship from her and lobby for the withdrawal of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Will the Gandhi Trust follow suit in withdrawing its award from Aung San Sui Kyi? What would Gandhi have done? When David is pitted against Goliath, where does one’s sympathy lie?

Not because I am anti this and pro that, but on account of my inner voice that says justice knows no prejudice or loyalty, I will sing the song by Bob Dylan that resonated well with our struggle during apartheid: How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man, how many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand, Yes ‘n how many times can a man turn his head and pretend that he just doesn’t see… the answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.

Rajab is a columnist and the interim chair of the Democracy Development Programme