Letter of Concern to
Oxford University Press regarding Dr Jacques Leider and ORE Asian History
Series
We, the undersigned
group of scholars and rights campaigners, are disturbed by the fact that OUP’s
Oxford Research Encyclopedias (ORE) Asian History series has commissioned Dr
Jacques Leider, head of the Bangkok-based Ecole Française de l’ Extrême-Orient
(EFEO) and a well-known advisor to the Myanmar military’s Armed Forces
Historical Museum in Naypyidaw, to write a reference article on the subject of
the Rohingya people in the forthcoming series: the ORE Asian History (under
“Political”, see “Rohingya: Emergence and Vicissitudes of a Communal Muslim
Identity in Myanmar (Jacques Leider), forthcoming Jan–Mar 2018”, found 03
February 2018 at: http://asianhistory.oxfordre.com/page/forthcoming/
).
As you know, the
Tatmadaw (the official name of the Myanmar armed forces) has been credibly
accused of committing crimes under international law including crimes against
humanity and even the crime of all crimes, genocide, against the predominantly
Muslim Rohingya.
As you also know,
the Oxford University Press (OUP) has a very well-earned reputation for
fairness and authority in the fields in which they publish reference material.
Anything published by OUP online about the Rohingya and Myanmar will be given a
great deal of credibility by both scholars and the general public and carry a
great deal of weight in any ongoing disputes over the exact legal name of the
crimes against this world’s largest stateless population whose group identity
and historical presence is being erased officially and popularly in Myanmar.
We therefore draw
your attention to our following concerns regarding your selection of Dr Jacques
Leider to write a reference article for the ORE Asian History series:
(1) We find that
positions taken by Dr Leider in interviews with the press, in public talks and
in published articles raise serious questions about his objectivity regarding
the Rohingya and their history. His well-documented pattern of denials that the
Myanmar military-directed mass violence and scorched-earth military operations
against the Rohingya community – the subject of his ORE article – is challenged
by the growing body of legal analyses and human rights research reports which
point to the fact that Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingya as a group amounts
to international crimes including crimes against humanity and genocide.
(2) We believe that
televised appearances by Dr Leider with military and government officials
condoning state policies against the Rohingya give the appearance to the
viewing public that he validates views that underlie the Myanmar military's
ousting in 2017 of 680,000 people and the massacre of Rohingya for which the
military has recently admitted responsibility. A recent English-Burmese
bilingual book entitled “Talk on Rakhine Issue: Discussion on Finding
Solutions” published by the Ministry of Defence’s Myawaddy News Group in
Myanmar highlights the fact, in photos and text, that Dr Leider was the only
foreign expert to participate in the strategic discussion organized by this
official propaganda organ of the Myanmar MOD in the first month of what the
United Nations officially described as “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya. On 7
and 8 September 2017, Dr Leider was on stage seated with two ex-Lt-Colonels
named Than Aye and Ko Ko Hlaing (respectively, ex-officer-in-charge of the
strategic affairs unit and the ex-adviser to the former General and former
President Thein Sein 2010-15) in the Myanmar capital Naypyidaw at the said
invitation-only event billed as “Talk on Rakhine Issue: Discussion on Finding
Solutions”.
In the introduction
of the aforementioned book published by the Myanmar Military, the position of
Myanmar regarding the actions taken against the Rohingya – which have been
abundantly documented and assessed as egregious human rights violations by six
successive UN Special Rapporteurs on the human rights situation in Myanmar
since 1992 as well as by the world’s leading human rights monitors such as
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – is presented as a legitimate
course of action (that is, by the Myanmar military to defend the country
against Islam’s attempt to expand its demographic power base and dominate the
world; see supra at p. 4 “Talk on Rakhine Issues”, Ministry of Defence Myawaddy
News Group).
In these strategic
discussions, ex-Colonel Ko Ko Hlaing openly singled out Oxford University as a
very influential institution which hosted an international conference on the Rohingya
where knowledge about the Rohingya (history, identity and repression) was
discussed and disseminated. By this, he implied that Oxford University – and
other similarly influential entities – is somewhere that the Myanmar military
needs to try to make strategic inroads to promote its official denial both of
Rohingya identity and history, and of the state-directed terror and expulsion.
The audience was
mainly composed of officials from the Ministry of Defence. Myanmar’s official
and popular Islamophobia – whereby Muslims have been scapegoated in the same
way as the Jews were in the old Europe – is well-documented in scholarly and
human rights literature. These discussions took place at the time Leider’s host
organization (the Myanmar military) was responsible for the violent deaths of
“at least 6,700 Rohingya, in the most conservative estimations […] including at
least 730 children below the age of five years,” in the first month alone of
the military operations conducted in Northern Rakhine state of Myanmar (i.e.
from 25 August to 24 September 2017), according to the findings from a limited
survey carried out by the international humanitarian NGO Médecins Sans
Frontières (MSF) among the survivors of this wave of ethnic cleansing who are
now in refugee camps in Chittagong, Bangladesh (see “Myanmar-Bangladesh: MSF
surveys estimate that at least 6,700 Rohingya were killed during the attacks in
Myanmar” http://www.msf.org/en/article/myanmarbangladesh-msf-surveys-estimate-least-6700-rohingya-were-killed-during-attacks
).
(3) Dr Leider’s
insistence (see “History Behind Rakhine State Conflict” https://www.irrawaddy.com/from-the-archive/history-behind-rakhine-state-conflict.html,
“The Frictions in the Rakhine State Are
Less About Islamophobia Than Rohingya-Phobia” https://thewire.in/182611/frictions-rakhine-state-less-islamophobia-rohingya-phobia/,
and “The Truth About Myanmar’s Rohingya Issue” https://thediplomat.com/2016/03/the-truth-about-myanmars-rohingya-issue/
) that Rohingya identity – not Rakhine or the majority Burmese – be critically
scrutinized as a political identity born out of political and communal conflict
indicates a bias against Rohingya claims of their long documented history of
settled existence in Rakhine state. This pronounced bias (in addition to his
evident relations with the Myanmar military) should have raised doubts about
his appropriateness to write a reference article about the Rohingya. We
perceive in Dr Leider’s writings and public statements an unconcealed bias
against Muslim Rohingyas, which results in his dismissal or wilful ignorance of
irrefutable (and easily accessible) evidence that effectively undermines his
thesis which is that the Rohingya, unlike other “genuinely ethnic identities”,
were manufactured by Muslim fighters or Mujahideens in the post-independence
period of the 1950’s. For instance, Dr Leider labels it a “delusion” that the
Government of the Union of Burma recognized the Rohingya as a constitutive
ethnic group of the Union following the surrender of the separatist Mujahideen
in July 1961. The irrefutable fact is this: as late as 1964, the Government of
Burma officially included the Rohingya as an ethnic group of Burma in its
official Burmese language “Encyclopaedia Myanmar” (V. 9). In addition, the
Rohingya were granted a slot on the country’s sole broadcasting station known
as the Burma Broadcasting Service (BBS) as an indigenous language programme,
broadcast three times per week, alongside other indigenous languages such as
Shan, Lahu, etc., until the 3rd year (1964) of the military rule of General Ne
Win.
The readily
accessible official documentation supports the Rohingya’s collective claim that
they were officially recognized as an ethnic group of the Union of Burma, from
which follows the conclusion that it is the State of Myanmar that has embarked
on the project of erasing Rohingya ethnic identity, their history and presence
which predates the formation of the post-colonial state of the Union of Burma
in 1948. Dr Leider’s choice to ignore these primary and official sources
regarding Rohingya ethnic identity and nationality further reinforces Myanmar’s
institutionalized propaganda and Fake News that the Rohingya do not exist as an
ethnic nationality, while lending a veneer of objective scholarly authority. We
observe, further, that there is an alarming parallel between Myanmar’s
de-nationalization and identity destruction and the German de-nationalization
of the Jewish population under Nazi rule.
(4) Genocide denial
is a crime in countries such as Germany. Although there is no UK or
international law against which the denial of state-directed crimes against
humanity, including genocide, of the Rohingya can be judged, the consensus is
emerging among the world’s leading institutions and scholars in the field of
genocide studies – from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Yale University
Human Rights Law Clinic, the University of Washington Law School, the Queen
Mary University of London International State Crimes Initiative to the
Russell-Sartre-inspired Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on Myanmar – that Myanmar is
responsible for genocide. Even the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has
expressly stated that he is “not ruling out” that genocide is being committed
against the Rohingya. Yet, despite the well-publicized findings by
world-renowned research institutes and scholars of genocide, Dr Leider
dismisses them. He also fails to acknowledge that Myanmar’s majoritarian racism
among the country’s Buddhists is violent. He characterises Buddhist racism
towards the Rohingya as merely “strong sentiment”.
We do not deny that
Dr Leider, like anyone else, has a right to comment on the Rohingya or any
other topic, but when someone takes such a strong position against the
historicity of one group's claims regarding ethnicity/identity (and only one
group's in a context of conflict between two or more groups), it seems unfair
that they should be commissioned for a project to write an article on the
ethnic group in question that seeks to present itself as a fair and unbiased
reference source. The ORE is certainly not an appropriate vehicle in which to
publish such views. Indeed, OUP should have nothing to do with them.
We note also that
OUP appears only to have commissioned an article on the Rohingya and not on the
Rakhine Buddhist community whose ethnic claims, we understand, are no stronger
than those of the Rohingya. It is hard to interpret this as other than OUP’s
taking a stand in favour of the Myanmar military and against the Rohingya for
reasons unclear and that OUP supports, at least indirectly, the current ethnic cleansing
which Dr Leider's writings and media appearances are used to deny.
Finally, it needs to
be stressed that there is something more consequential than our objection per
se to OUP’s commissioning a reference article by Dr Leider on the target of the
Myanmar military's repression. That is the question whether Western educational
institutions of worldwide influence should allow themselves, wittingly or not,
to be used as a platform by illiberal regimes through academics and scholars
whom the regimes view as supporters of their views (and hence as, in effect,
their proxies for propaganda). The well-reported cases of Cambridge University
Press and China, or the LSE and the Ghaddafi regime, spring to mind.
It is worth quoting
the recent words of Ruth Barnett, a Jewish Kindertransport survivor in Britain:
“‘Never Again’ is
unlikely to be achieved in our lifetime but it is we who need to make an
effective input towards making it happen. Each and every one of us can do
something. It is essential to learn to contain our own violent impulses so that
we can talk and negotiate instead of exacerbating and increasing the violence
of others.
“Perhaps the most
poisonous factor is the toleration and cover-up of denial. Denial opens the
door for others to commit crimes against humanity, as we clearly see others
getting away with it. We need to enthuse and stimulate curiosity and an
insistence to expose the truth.
“We live with so
much denial that many people can no longer distinguish between misinformation,
disinformation and truth."
(Ruth Barnett, 27
January 2018, "I Survived The Holocaust. Merely Remembering It Is No
Longer Good Enough", RightsInfo.org, https://rightsinfo.org/why-remembering-the-holocaust-isnt-enough/
We sincerely urge
OUP to reconsider your editorial decision to commission Dr Leider to write a
reference article on the subject of the Rohingya. We ask that if this article
goes ahead, it includes a clear disclaimer that Dr Leider is not a distant
observer and that the article should be considered as an opinion piece, not as
an unbiased reference source, regarding a controversial subject which has
already been documented by MSF to have caused the deaths of over 6,700 Rohingya
in the first month of Myanmar’s 2017 military attack and the flight of 680,000
refugees over several months.
1. Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor and a founding member of the Institute
for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University, USA
2. Nursyahbani
Katjasungkana, National Coordinator of Indonesia Legal Aid Association for
Women, Indonesia
3. Rainer Schulze,
Professor Emeritus of Modern European History, University of Essex, and
Founding Editor of the journal “The Holocaust in History and Memory,” UK
4. Noam Chomsky,
American linguist, philosopher and activist (Institute Professor, MIT), USA
5. Mofidul Hoque,
author and activist, Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Justice,
Liberation War Museum, Bangladesh
6. Tapan Bose,
filmmaker, human rights defender, India
7. Richard Falk,
Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton University, USA
8. Barbara
Harrell-Bond, OBE Emerita Professor and Founding Director of The Refugee
Studies Centre, University of Oxford 1982–1996, UK
9. Barbara
Harriss-White, Emeritus Professor of Development Studies, Oxford University,
Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, UK
10. Ritu Dewan, Vice
President, Indian Society of Labour Economics; Director Centre for Development
Research and Action; Executive Director, Centre for Study of Society and
Secularism; President, Indian Association for Women's Studies (2014-17)
11. Prof. Gregory
Stanton, Founding Chairman, Genocide Watch & George Mason University.
Arlington, Virginia, USA
12. Johan Galtung,
Founder, Peace Studies
13. Youk Chhang,
Chairman, Genocide Documentation Center of Camboda/The Sleuk Rith Institute,
Cambodia
14. Abdul Malik
Mujahid, Chair Emeritus Parliament of the World's Religions
15. Karen Jungblut,
Director of Global Initiatives, USC Shoah Foundation, USA
16. María do Mar
Castro Varela, Professor of Pedagogy and Social Work and activist, Alice
Salomon University, Berlin, Germany
17. C Abrar,
Professor of International Relations, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
18. John H. Weiss,
Associate Professor of History, Cornell University, USA
19. Khin Mai Aung,
Burmese American civil rights lawyer and writer, New York, USA
20. Maung Zarni,
Burmese human rights activist and scholar, Genocide Documentation Center of
Cambodia/The Sleuk Rith Institute
21. Harn Yawnghwe,
Executive Director, Associates to Develop Democratic Burma Inc./Euro-Burma
Office, Canada
2. Bilal Raschid,
Past President of Burmese Muslim Association
23. Swagato Sarkar,
DPhil (Oxford), Associate Professor, O.P. Jindal Global University, India
24. Sumeet Mhaskar,
DPhil (Oxford), O.P. Jindal Global University, India
25. Prof. Donesh
Mohan, Academic, India
26. Dr. Peggy Mohan,
Author, India
27. Prof. Ranabir
Samaddar, Academic, India
28. Rita Manchanda,
Feminist writer, India
29. Samsul Islam,
Author, India
30. Neelima Sharma,
Theatre activist, India
31. Jawed Naqvi,
journalist, India
32. Seema Mustafa,
journalist, India
33. Ashok Agrwaal,
lawyer, India
34. Dr. Walid Salem,
Al Quds University & the Director of The Centre for Democracy and Community
Development, East Jerusalem, Palestine
35. Jun Nishikawa,
PhD, professor emeritus, Waseda University, Japan
36. Dr Ravi P
Bhatia, an educationist and peace researcher & Retired professor, Delhi
University, India
37. Gill H.
boehringer, Honorary Senior Research Fellow, Macquarie University School of
Law, Sydney , Australia
38. Paul Copeland, C
M, (Recipient, Order of Canada), Lawyer, Toronto, Canada
39. U Kyaw Win,
Professor Emeritus, Orange Coast College, California, USA
40. Professor
Michael W. Charney, Academic, UK
41. Dr Amit
Upadhyay, Assistant professor, TISS Hyderabad, India
42. Dr. Nicola Suyin
Pocock, United Nations University International Institute of Global Health,
Malaysia
43. Rezaur Rahman
Lenin,Academic Activist, Adjuct Faculty, Eastern University Bangladesh &
Executive Director, Law Life Culture, Bangladesh
44. Natalie Brinham,
ESRC PhD scholar, Queen Mary University of London School of Law, UK
45. Niranjan Sahoo,
PhD, Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, India
46. Prof. Dr.
Célestin Tagou, Prof. of PS, IR P&D Studies, Dean of the Faculty of Social
Sciences and International Relations, Protestant University of Central Africa,
Executive Secretariat of the Network of Protestant Universities of Africa
47. Dr. Tilman
Evers, Germany
48. Jørgen Johansen,
Deputy Editor of Journal of Resistance Studies, Sweden
49. Sarah Tobias,
philanthropist & activist, Canada
50. Miki Lanza,
Movimento Nonviolento c/o Centro Studi Sereno Regis, Torino, Italy
51. Oskar Butcher,
human rights activist and scholar, Germany
52. Professor
Emeritus George Kent, University of Hawai'i and Deputy Editor, World Nutrition,
USA
53. Sebastian Eck,
Galtung-Institut, Switzerland
54. Robert J.
Burrowes Ph.D., co-founder 'The People's Charter to Create a Nonviolent World',
Australia
55. Shadi Sadr,
Executive Director of Justice for Iran, UK
56. Tasnim Nazeer,
Award-winning journalist and Universal Peace Federation Ambassador for Peace,
UK
57. Emir Ramic,
Academic, Ph.D., Chairman of the Institute for Research of Genocide, Canada
58. Nadeem Haque,
P.Eng. - Director of the Institute of Higher Reasoning (IHR), Canada
59. Diana de la Rúa
Eugenio, President of Asociación Respuesta para la Paz -ARP-, member NGO of
OAS, President of International Peace Research Association Foundation -IPRA
Foundation, Argentina
60. Dr. Syeda Hamid,
Academic and Author, India
61. Dr. Siddiq
Wahid, Historian and Educationist, India
62. Dr. Syed Ahmed
Haroon, Psychiatrist, Pakistan
63. Anis Haroon,
Poet, Pakistan
64. Sushil Pyakurel,
Adviser to President of Nepal
65. Porf. Noor Ahmad
Baba, Academic, India
66. Anand
Patwardhan, Filmmaker, India
67. Rodolphe Prom,
President, Destination Justice, Cambodia
68. Doreen Chen,
Co-Director, Destination Justice, Cambodia
69. Syed Zainul
Abedin, Painter, Poet, Journalist, Bangladesh
70. Dr. Navsharan
Singh, Researcher and author, India
71. Leo fernandez,
IT Specialist, India
72. Feroz Medhi,
Filmmaker social activist, Canada
73. John Packer,
Associate Professor of Law and Director, Human Rights Research and Education
Centre, University of Ottawa, Canada
74. Fathima, MA
Women's Studies Student, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India
75. Rana Jawad,
University of Bath, UK
76. Prof. Dr. Sami
A. Al-Arian Director and Public Affairs Professor, Center for Islam and Global
Affairs İslam ve Küresel İlişkiler Merkezi, Turkey
77. Penny Green,
Professor of Law and Globalisation and Director of the International State
Crime Initiative, Queen Mary University of London, UK
78. Karen Busby,
Professor of Law & Director, Centre for Human Rights Research, University
of Manitoba
79. Lyal S. Sunga,
Visiting Professor in International Relations and Global Politics, The American
University of Rome, Italy
80. Dr. Christina
Szurlej, Assistant Professor, St. Thomas University (Canada)
81. Matthew Smith,
Chief Executive Officer, Fortify Rights