IS AUNG SAN SUU KYI AN ISLAMOPHOBE? | Video Documentary
Aung
San Suu Kyi, the current de-facto leader of Myanmar was born into a Bamar
nationalist family. Her father General Aung San was the founder of Modern-day
Myanmar Military. During the independence struggle, he fought along and was
influenced by Burmese Muslim leaders such as U Razak and U Raschid and founder
of Modern-day Myanmar Military General Aung San whose struggle for Independence
was influenced by prominent Burmese Muslim leaders such as U Razak, U Raschid.
Following
his assassination, she has followed her mother Daw Khin Kyi living and studying
abroad. While at St Hugh’s, Oxford, she has fallen in love with her fellow
Pakistani Muslim Tariq Hyder in 1966, which ended in “an unhappy love affair”.
On
her return to Myanmar, she cofounded National League for Democracy (NLD) along
with many in 1988. One of them was retired Muslim naval officer Maung Thaw Ka.
In
the 1990 General Elections, she fielded four Rohingya Muslims – Abul Faiz,
Mohammed Hussain, U Chit Maung and Mv. Nur Alam – from Maungdaw and Buthidaung
townships under the banner of her NLD party.
She
was finally released from the 15 years of house-arrest in 2010. She stepped
into politics in 2012.
She
came out a different person.
Here
is her metamorphism.
1:- Failed
to field Muslim Candidates
She
rejected to put Muslim candidates during the General Elections in 2015 fearing
loss of Buddhist nationalist supports. For the first time in the country’s
history, no Rohingya and Myanmar Muslims are in the Parliaments and the State
Assemblies.
2:- Handpicked
an Islamophobic Minister
She
selected and promoted former Brigadier-general Thura Aung Ko to her Minister of
Religious Affairs and culture. He openly stated that Muslims can never become
“full citizens” and called Islam “an extremist religion”.
3:- Appointed
a Bigoted Spokesperson
She
knowingly appointed retired major Zaw Htay, one of the Myanmar’s most prominent
racists, as the Director general of her office. He flamed and spread hate and
violence resulted in the 2012 campaign against Rohingya and claimed “[Muslims]
terrorists coming from Bangladesh”.
4:- Assigned
a Junta-era Liar
She
selected former diplomat Kyaw Tint Swe, a defender of Junta’s dire human rights
records, as the minister of her State Counsellor office. He lied to the world
at the UN, “Muslim terrorists carried out simultaneous attacks… to invoke fear
among the inhabitants, to incite violence and to attract international
attention.”
5:- Picked
a Racist Personal Lawyer
She
chose Nyan Win, a racist and sociopath, as her party spokesperson and personal
lawyer. He said, “There’re no facial features like Bengalis in our Myanmar,
nowhere in the country. They are not from Myanmar. They are foreigners.”
6:- Betrayed
her position Architect
As
her legal advisor and the only constitutional expert, U Ko Ni, the most prominent
Muslim legal mind created her “State Counsellor” position when the constitution
barred her becoming president. It took weeks for her to speak up after he was
assassinated by ex-military men at Yangon International Airport on broad
daylight.
He
was “the greatest enemy [that the military] fear, not because he was a Muslim,
but of course, that coloured their values, because he was the one strongly
pushing for constitutional charge.”
7:- ‘A
Poster Girl for the Army’
Despite
the primary source of Islamophobia, she shields and admires Myanmar Military.
In August 2018, she said, “Our relationship with the army is not that bad. [The
three military men, generals] are all rather sweet.” “People call me a poster
girl for the army. I am very fond of the army,” she told BBC in 2013.
8:- Designation
as ‘Terrorist Organisation’
Her
office declared ARSA militant group as ‘Terrorist Organisation’ on the day it
attacked Myanmar Police outposts on August 25, 2017. The designation purely
indicates Islamophobia as there are dozens of Buddhist and Christian armed
groups fighting for decades those are never labeled as such.
9:- Blaming
Muslims instead of Military
Instead
of condemning the military’s gravest crimes which the U.N. described “an
ongoing genocide”, she blamed Rohingya Muslims claiming that “There’s a lot of
hostility there. Muslims [are] killing Muslims. It is not a matter of ethnic
cleansing.”
10:-
‘Rape is rife’ to ‘Fake Rape’
In
May 23, 2011, she said, “Rape is rife. Rape is used as a weapon in my country
by armed forces against those who only want to live in peace, [and] who only
want to assert their basic human rights.”
In December
2016, her office outrageously stated that well-documented rape and sexual
violence committed by Myanmar Military against hundreds of Rohingya Muslim
women and girls; were ‘Fake Rape’.
11:-
Imprisonment for investigating ‘Rohingya Muslim Massacre’
Her
government imprisoned two Reuters journalists for investigating into the
killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys under the Official Secrets Act. They
were released after more than 500 days of imprisonment while the families of
massacre are denied justice.
12:-
‘The Face of Buddhist Terror’
She
released the arrest warrant against Wirathu – ‘The Face of Buddhist Terror’ for
insulting her. However, she failed to take actions against his poisonous hate
speech against Rohingya and Myanmar Muslims, spread of Islamophobia, fuelling
of fear and intolerance, and incitement of deadly violence and riots against
Muslims.
13:-
Denial of Rohingya Muslim Self-Identity
She
‘advised the US ambassador against using the term ‘Rohingya’ in May 2016. By
doing so, she follows the footsteps of Myanmar’s famous Islamophobes. “The
first is that spoken by the Mohammedans, who have been long settled in Arakan,
and who call themselves Rooinga, or Natives of Arakan.” Francis Buchanan,
December 26, 1799.
14:-
‘No one told me I was going to be interviewed by a Muslim’
She
was heard angrily saying in March 2016, “No one told me I was going to be
interviewed by a Muslim” after BBC’s Mishal Husain raised on her silence over
the persecution of Rohingya Muslims.
15:-
Cosying up to the Hindu Nationalist Leader
On
the visit of India’s PM Modi to Myanmar, she thanked India which sees the
erosion of Democratic values and the rise of Hindu Nationalism, “for taking a
strong stand on the [Muslim] terror threat that Myanmar faced recently”.
16:-
Reading from the same book of Military and Buddhist Nationalists
At
the heights of Islamophobia in Myanmar in 2012 which uprooted over 1400,000
Rohingya Muslims from their ancestral homes across Rakhine State, she said,
“Burma claims that a lot of [Rohingya] Muslims who are now in Burma are
actually people who have come over illegally from Bangladesh.” It is in total
contrast to the country’s First Prime Minister U Nu’s speech broadcasted on BBS
in September 1954 – “The people living in Northern Arakan are our national
brethren. They are called Rohingyas. They are on the same par in the status of
nationality. They are one ethnic people living within the Union of Burma.”
17:-
From ‘Darling of the West’ to the Europe’s Far-Right
On
her visit to Hungary in June 2019, she met Viktor Orbán, one of Europe’s
Far-Right figures known for his ‘xenophobic attitudes, fear and hatred’. Both
stated that, “the emergence of the issue of co-existence with continuously
growing Muslim populations” is “one of the greatest challenges” for both Asia
and Europe.
Since
Aung San Suu Kyi swore as ‘a politician’ on May 2, 2012, Rohingya Muslim
Population in Myanmar has dropped from 1.33 million to 484,000.
*120,000
Rohingya Muslims are still confined inside IDP Camps since June 2012
*165,000
Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar (June 2012 – October 2015)
*87,000
Rohingya Muslims became refugees in Bangladesh (October 2016 – January 2017)
*750,000
Rohingya Muslims were expelled into Bangladesh (August 2017 – October 2018)
*Over
33,000 children lost at least one parent and over 7,700 lost both parents
(ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights APHR)
*Over
390 Rohingya villages were destroyed (UN Fact-Finding Mission)
*Thousands
arbitrarily detained (independent sources)
*Impunity
on extra-judicial killings
*Denial
of access to Independent investigation, international media, humanitarian aid
*Endemic
healthcare crisis
*Enforced
Ethnic Reclassification and National Verification
*Further
restriction on Freedom of Movement
*Complete
ban on further education
*Partial
to complete closure of mosques in Rakhine
*The
frightening rise of Islamophobia across Myanmar
You
may say “prizes come, prizes go”. You may seek supports of Far-right. You may
defend your “father’s army”.
However,
every word you utter, every promise you make, every action you take, every
solidarity you show and every living-kindness you practise, will certainly
impact millions of lives like you once did.
“Dear
Suu Kyi, we are all a same human being, please act like one.”