Bangladeshis accuse Myanmar of attempting to overwrite history

As hundreds of thousands fled violence in Myanmar, a statement by the country’s powerful military chief further shocked the world with an attempt at concocting a revisionist history.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 18 Sept 2017, 06:52 PM
Updated : 18 Sept 2017, 09:17 PM

Amid the reports of slaughter, rape and arson emerging out of northern Rakhine State, described as ethnic cleansing by the UN, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing shared a post on Facebook.

Ruling the vast nation under the guise of a democratic government, he asked the people to unite against ‘Bengali extremists’ and any recognition for Rohingyas who, he claimed, were never an ethnic group in Myanmar.

For Bangladesh, already suffering the stress of over 400,000 new refugees from Myanmar, the attack on history felt like a tad too much.

The response united politicians of archrivals Awami League and BNP, academics, former army officials and security experts.

General Hlaing’s remark, a reminder of Myanmar’s military stance, was “a message” for all minority groups within its borders, a campaign that aims to divide its people with false information and create a new narrative.

The word Rohingya simply means ‘inhabitant of Rohang’, which was the early Muslim name for the Arakan kingdom.

They are among the five distinct communities of Muslims living in the region - Roayingya, Jamboyika, Kamanchi, Zerbadi and Dinnet, according to Banglapedia.

Professor Md Akhtaruzzaman, the Vice Chancellor of Dhaka University, researched the origin of the now stateless Muslims of Myanmar.

Photo: mostafigur rahman

Their ancestors have been in the region since as far back as the 9th century, a matter supported by the Arakan Rohingya National Organisation. 

“Arab-Persian traders would marry Burmese natives, giving rise to the community whose blood has also mixed with that of Bengalis,” said the professor.

“There are ancient coins bearing Arabic scripts found in Arakan. So the claim that Rohingyas are all Bengali has no historic basis,” he added.

Before King Bodawpaya of Burma annexed Arakan in 1785, 16 Muslim monarchs ruled Arakan from 1404 to 1622.   

Akhtaruzzaman brought up the 17th century Bengali poet Alaol who was a court poet in medieval Arakan to explain the exchange of people and their settlements.

“The great poet Alaol was from Fatwabad in Faridpur district. He was a court poet in Arakan. People from West Bengal also travelled there. This is the story behind the Rohingyas.”

The British conquest of Arakan in 1825 and its incorporation with British India along with Burma led to more exchanges, and there are records of Indians travelling as far as Yangon.

Photo: mostafigur rahman

Banglapedia states that communal tension between the Arakanese Buddhist Maghs and the Muslim Rohingyas in the 1940s and especially after the independence of Burma in 1948, resulted in a massive exodus of Rohingyas to Chittagong.

The Rohingyas had citizenship after Burmese independence, but when General Ne Win overthrew the democratic government, subsequently establishing sectarian policies, it made the conflict even more severe.

In 1982, Gen Ne Win’s new nationality law declared the Rohingyas, whose representatives once held government offices, floating nationals without rights to property, political inclusion and free movement.

Myanmar’s junta that went on to rule the country for decades have since been trying to label the Rohingya as Bengalis.

With that as context, the statement by Myanmar army’s present commander-in-chief comes off as admission of its ongoing brutalities in Rakhine, said Delwar Hossain, the Director of the Genocide Studies Centre in Dhaka University.

The brutal military campaign targeting Rakhine’s Rohingyas was being “incited from the highest tiers of state power”, he said.

“It is a project to push our other groups from the state structure. They are providing false information to create a divide among the people.”

 

'Myanmar must take Rohingyas back'

Bangladeshi politicians have urged Myanmar to accept the historic truth and take back the Rohingya by recognising them as citizens. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently made a similar appeal in parliament.

Ruling Awami League Presidium Member Md Abdur Razzaque described the Myanmar army chief's statement as 'extremely wrong'.

"Many of the Rohingyas have representation in Myanmar government. So they are surely residents of Myanmar. But the army chief and many others in Myanmar are not recognising them. It's an extreme wrong (done to them)."

Mahbubur Rahman, a member of the BNP's National Standing Committee, said Myanmar had no scope of rejecting the Rohingya ethic group in Rakhaine State.

Rahman, a former army chief of Bangladesh, said Myanmar General Hlaing's comments on the Rohingya were 'confusing and surprising'.

"I think it's a denial and travesty of history. Crimes against humanity are being committed in Myanmar. There is an attempt to wipe out an ethnic group. It can't be allowed to continue," he said.

The BNP leader is of the view that Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi should be engaged in efforts to resolve the ongoing crisis and build a global opinion in an echo of a earlier appeal by Prime Minister Hasina.

Photo: mostafigur rahman

GM Quader, Co-chairman of the Jatiya Party, the Opposition in Parliament, said General Hlaing's comments were 'utterly illogical, confusing and unfortunate'.

"He said the Rohingya were never an ethnic group in Myanmar despite the fact that they have lived in the country for five to seven centuries," Quader said.

He hoped Myanmar will move to find a political solution to the crisis.

Like politicians, former diplomats and many others have condemned the remarks of the Myanmar army chief on the Rohingya people.

Former ambassador Humayun Kabir told bdnews24.com "Just because somebody says something doesn't make it true. Rohingyas were once citizens of Myanmar once and they have been stripped of it."

"Rohingyas took part in Myanmar's freedom struggle and retained citizenship after independence. But the rulers are depriving them of citizenship for some facilities, cheap politics."

Kabir, a vice president of think thank Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, called for implementation of recommendations by the Kofi Annan commission.

The Myanmar government formed the commission headed by the former UN chief after it drew condemnation for a military operation against the Rohingya following attacks on security forces in October last year.

The crackdown pushed some 67,000 Rohingyas into Bangladesh.

Hours after the commission submitted its report, Rohingya insurgents attacked 30 police posts and an army base on Aug 25 this year. It triggered the latest wave of violence against the civilian population in Rakhine State and a fresh mass exodus of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh.

Photo: Reuters

Giving citizenship to the Rohingya Muslims and taking them back from Bangladesh after ‘joint verification’ are some of the key recommendations of the Kofi Annan commission.

Transparency International Bangladesh or TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman pointed out that despite the victory of Suu Kyi's party in election, the army is in control of Myanmar.

"The world doesn't expect something better than this from a top official of an autocratic government. He (General Hlaing) has shown ignorance in his speech," he said.

Mujahidul Islam Selim, the President of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, said the government should respond to the Myanmar army chief's comments.

Photo: Reuters

Institute of Conflict, Law and Development Studies Executive Director Abdur Rashid termed General Hlaing's remarks 'burning lies'.

"It is the army that has created the issue over citizenship in Myanmar," the retired major general said.

"The international community is saying that the army is committing crimes against humanity in Myanmar. He can't shrug off the responsibilities as the chief of that army. That's why he is creating the speech bubbles of distorted history," he added.   

[Reporting by Moinul Hoque Chowdhury, Masum Billah, Faysal Atik, Tabarul Haque, Salahuddin Wahed Pritom and Kazi Mobarak Hossain; writing by Samin Sababa and Osham-ul-Sufian Talukder; editing by Biswadip Das]