national races never ever think of hatred

7/31/2019 National Races Never Ever Think of Hatred

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/national-races-never-ever-think-of-hatred 1/6

National races never ever think of hatred

Written by Zay Wynn Naung

"I do not know because when you talk about the Rohingya, we are not quite sure who you are talking

about. As …I said there is a problem about who we are referring to.”

(Chairperson Daw Aung San Suu Kyi of National League for Democracy Party responded to the

question whether the Rohingyas should be regarded as Myanmar nationals).

In accordance to the above-mentioned answer of Auntie Suu, we need to simplify first „Who are the

Rohingyas?‟ Despite it is a highly controversial topic, it is undeniable that the word „Rohingya‟

appeared in the country in the 1950s. It should be reconsidered that if a certain race had inhabited in

the country aeons ago, then why were they recognized only in the 1950s?

Ancient indigenous ethnics

There is a Rakhine ethnic called Kaman who believes in Islam are living in Rakhine State since

ancient time. Historical records show Hindus also migrated into Myanmar in Wasali period. Itshould be clearly understood. Rohingyas are different from these people. The number of population

of Kaman and Hindus were not high and they have been living peacefully. However those who have

fully dominated Buthedaung and Maungdaw are not included in these ancient indigenous ethnics.

Who are the Rohingyas?

Historians remarked that the so-called Rohingyas infiltrated into Myanmar after the country had

http://eversion.news-eleven.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=728:national-races-never-ever-think-of-hatred-&catid=42:weekly-eleven-news&Itemid=109





fallen into the British colony. Rather than mass migration, they gradually permeated the country.

According to the existing law, the residents who descended from the races living in Myanmar before

1824 are regarded as the citizen. There was no usage of „Rohingya‟. Instead, they were commonly

known as the „Chittagonians‟ descendants from Mayu Frontier area (East Pakistan in the past, now

Chittagong of Bangladesh at present). This controversial issue is to be discussed by the researchers.

Who are the losers?

There are documentary evidences that local residents were displaced due to the mass infiltration of

migrants from Chittagong into Buthedaung and Maungdaw areas after Rakhine State fell into British

colony. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said recently that the Rohingya issue becomes larger due to porous

border area and illegal immigrants. While there has been a long history of accusing each other, the

lack of rule of law has resulted in the losses for indigenous Rakhine ethnics. National races must be

protected as they lost their rights. The real losers are Rakhine people. Who were resettled in

Buthedaung and Maungdaw areas in Rakhine State?

In reviewing 1942 issue or 1988 issue, unrests broke out in the areas where Rakhine people are in the

minority. They were the real losers. They had to migrate into the mainland and other countries.

Where was the starting point of the problem in recent unrest? The riots began in Buthedaung and

Maungdaw areas where many Rohingyas are in the majority, as well as in Sittwe and nearby villages

where about half of population is Rohingyas. Then who made arson attack? Bengalis burnt down

their own houses and abandoned the area where they are in the minority there. Fire spread to the

houses of Rakhine people. The losses from both sides are not much different in the official statistics.

However, arsonists must be disclosed.

Ref:

http://eversion.news-eleven.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=728:national-races-

never-ever-think-of-hatred-&catid=42:weekly-eleven-news&Itemid=109








Not a religious riot

This violence was not a religious riot mentioned by foreign media. Despite it was not allowed to

construct a mosque near the collapsed World Trade Center in the United States, there is a mosque

near the famous Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon. Hindu temples and Christian churches are

closely located near Buddhist monasteries in Myanmar. Religious festivals are joyously celebrated inthe country.

Abusive remarks might be made during the disputes among the national races. But they do not

loathe each other. Not only the national races but also various religions might suffer losses under the

brutal regime in different eras. However, the national ethnics did not create their problems.

Buddhists are living peacefully together with other disciplined religious members.



Bias reports

The reports of some foreign media were very awful. If the local media were accused of bias reporting

from the side of national ethnics, it can also be concluded that those of foreign media are partial to

Rohingyas. They presented their news with the accusations such as „genocide‟ and „religious riot‟.

They also accused Myanmar media of inciting the riot through online. If Myanmar media could notsend their reporters to the scenes and could not take record photos, the situation would be wrongly

illustrated, causing to disgrace Rakhine people and Myanmar.

Some foreign newspapers and exiled media presented out of proportion on the loss of so-called

Rohingyas. They should view the issue systematically. While the four reporters of the Eleven Media

Group were covering the violence in Rakhine, the reports of foreign media were totally different from

the actual happening in Rakhine State. They should go to the scene in person.

Which side did they stand for?

It was very curious about how foreign media stood behind Rohingyas. They first reported the army is

shooting at Rohingyas. Then they mentioned that about 1,000 persons have lost. When these reportscould not be confirmed, they continued reporting of „genocide‟ and asked for intervention of UN.

There reports were groundless. They even wrongly mentioned the Rakhine State is the land of

Rohingyas. They posted the photos of Rohingya refugees. The photos of burnt down Rakhine houses

were captioned as the destroyed houses of locals. Although the photos of Rohingyas who were are

holding kerosene containers, kerosene torches and various weapons were not posted; foreign media

mentioned the Rakhine people who are protecting their properties by holding bamboo weapons and

going on patrolling by motor bikes. If we did not have recorded photos, people across the world

would believe their reports.

Despite the United States earlier expressed their concerns about Rohingyas, the US and EU later

praised the handling of Myanmar government on the issue when they realized the real circumstance.

After Bangladesh issued their stance on Rohingyas, foreign countries have understood the attitude of Myanmar towards Rohingyas. There was an instance that these so-called Rohingyas were not

accepted and immediately driven out by Thailand.

Creating hatred?

Thomas Fuller of the New York Times wrote a news article from Thailand entitled „Crisis in

Myanmar Over Buddhist-Muslim Clash‟. His news title triggered for the trend of religious riot. He

also mentioned that „the Eleven Media Group, a publisher of one of the country‟s leading weekly

newspapers, displayed a string of hateful comments about Muslims from readers.‟

His next article was also entitled „Internet Unshackled, Burmese Aim Venom at Ethnic Minority‟.

The exiled media Irrawaddy where Myanmar journalists are working also criticized the Myanmar

online community.

The article of Nyein Chan Aye who is expressed by the Irrawaddy website as IT expert living in

Brisbane of Australia, criticized Myanmar society, “… In this circumstance, Myanmar society has

been restricted in the limited boundary of ideology for many years as a frog in the well. Then they

responded to the shocking violence with strong racial and religious believes. As their consciousness



was not enough to control their emotion, the results were not good.”

Are we not worth freedom of expression?

Foreign media and Myanmar journalists working in foreign-based media have portrayed that

Myanmar people should not be allowed to have freedom of expression.

Myanmar popular comedian Ko Zarganar who had been detained in prisons for many times due to

his political campaigns and is now visiting foreign countries recently wrote in the Guardian

Newspaper, “…I am concerned that the Burmese people are using their new freedom to express views

which incite racial hatred….And we Burmese must use freedom of expression to promote peace, not

conflict.”

Such kinds of portrayals are likely to be debatable.

The society who can use the Internet in Myanmar is a very few in amount. According to the statistics

in 2009, the amount is only 0.02 percent of the population. Even if there is a sudden increase, it

cannot be more than 2 percent or 3 percent. This percentage includes Myanmar users living abroad.Local users are very few especially in the regions and states. What I want to say is that the netizens

are only acting in sympathy with the ethnic people. Only a selected few from this online society have

used very harsh words towards people from different nationalities and religions. Even if there are

some instigators, they are very few. When many generations of people are facing difficulties and

hindrances, it is normal for them to lose their tempers if they have the chance. But they are only in

words. There is no one who will actually go into action. They cannot do it anyway. Some foreign

media have written as if they were true without considering the fact that the whole country does not

know what were going on. Even if there were some incitements, they would fail to materialize.

The situation was not as serious as the one in the United States after 9/11 when there were suspicions

and hatred against people from different religions. The comments of the minority were nothing

compared to the treatments to the people from different religions. They were treated suspiciously

and repeatedly at the check points of the airports and treated based on suspicious features. Even on

the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attack, the removing of strong comments on the Facebook page of

the New York Times were seen. Even then, the comment “If 9/11 hadn‟t happened then “2 million”

Muslims wouldn‟t of been killed” by Derek Cole is still there. This is happening in a well recognized

democratic country.

Regarding the immigrant issue, it can be observed that how the United States is handling the illegal

immigrants from Mexico. In Europe, there are over 5 million stateless people. It is questionable to

the European nations and the governments that always talk about democracy that how they are

treating the stateless people. Controversies are still there about the people who are denied to be

recognized as their nationalities in Latvia and Estonia, as well as the stateless Romani people livingacross Europe, especially in Italy and why they are reluctant to acknowledge them.

Assuming that the Myanmar people are misusing the freedom of expression and are full of hatred

based on a few comments of the online users is a big joke for the 60 million who have been oppressed

for many years.

National races never ever think of hatred



There might be some incitements, but most of them are not filled with hatred. The ethnic people are

also not filled with malice.

These cases did not base on the malice of the Rakhine people. If such kind of hatred were to exist,

cities with 90 Rakhine people and 10 Bengalis would be burnt into ashes. If you look at the fact that

the violent riots did not happen in most areas full of Rakhine people, it is obvious that there were nogenocides like the Rohingyas claimed to the foreign media. The Rakhine nationals only took some

counter-attacks when they could not stand anymore.

Not only the Rakhine people, but also other ethnic nationalities are not in the condition to feel hatred

for they cannot even protect their own races. For 50 years without fully realizing the union, the

ethnic nationalities have to live without any protections. They have to leave their own lands. They

have to migrate into the mainland and other countries.

The ratio of the people has changed over the years. This is not only happening in the Rakhine State.

This can also be seen in Kachin State and Shan State (North). There is the risk of becoming the 23rd

province (or 34th territory) of a neighboring country. In Shan State, there are some areas without full

sovereignty of the nation. Please come and show compassion for the ethnic nationalities in KachinState and Shan State (North).

They had to surrender their lands to others. Then they themselves had to live as refugees in foreign

countries. Mon and Kayin ethics are the convincing evidences for this problem. While some Kayin

refugees are residing in Thailand, some Kayin, Chin and Mon ethnics are migrating to other

countries. Our national brethrens have no time to create hatred among each other as they are losing

their homes. The problems of Kayin refugee can be witnessed at Maela refugee camps in Thailand.

They cannot enjoy the rights of citizenship. Myanmar is just stepping into the path of development.

Therefore, we should concentrate on bringing our nationals abroad back home, rather than accepting

foreign refugees who are fighting with local ethnics. It does not mean negligence of

humanitarianism. Those who sympathize with Rohingyas should accommodate them in their

countries.

Therefore, we want to invite Thomas Fuller of the New York Times, who is pouring the venom of

racial hatred on Myanmar and its people, to witness the lives of Myanmar ethnics and to visit

Rakhine State, if possible. Facebook and Internet users are not making incitements to racial hatred,

but are preventing from extinction of national ethnics. Those who cannot ignore the problem of

helpless people are participating in the issue. In fact, Rakhine people are not in a situation to create

hatred.

National races who remain faithful to the land for thousands of year could not demand the loss of

their rights over 50 years. However, illegal migrants are bursting out and some foreign sources are

beseeching on behalf of them for their unreasonable rights by exaggerating the recent issue. Well! Ihave no idea what to say more.

national races never ever think of hatred

Documents