Democratic Burmese Youths

A Comment on Analysis of Burma Politics for the First 6 Months of 2007

After returning from Japan last week, I was copied a translated copy of a Burmese essay dealing with last six months of Burma's politics as the author U Win Naing saw it. The piece was apparently circulated among students and/or faculties of various western institutions. I want to share below what I had written there on the topic of danger of xenophobia, as it pervades Burma .

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Thanks to Aung Bar Say for translating U Win Naing's thoughtful article. It has many good points. One thing for all those who care about Burma is to realize that racism runs very deep in Burma/Myanmar, something that has been exploited by military regimes to put one community against another while solidifying its nasty grip over the entire land from one end to another. Racism and xenophobia are curses to a nation, esp. when it is a hybrid/'artificial' nation - made up of some 140 races/ethnicity, etc. Unless the people in Burma realize that racism and xenophobia are bad, and is unacceptable - from any angle - moral, ethical, political, social, economic - there is no way to defeat these monsters. Democracy alone cannot keep Burma together, but it is the respect for human dignity, away from racism and xenophobia, which must take precedence to keep Burma together.

When a Burman will respect another minority, say, a Rohingya, Karen, Mon, Shan, Rakhaing, etc. at equal level in spite of differences of religion, ethnicity, language, etc., without trying to impose his racist and exclusionary Myanmarism, and the same respect is reciprocated by a minority to others, including the majority Burman race, only then there is hope for sustainability of Union of Burma. Otherwise, democracy would only be a hogwash! Mere replacement of military with a racist, democratic force that does not care about minorities is no solution. It will tear the society apart, each trying to secede and impose its Draconian measures against its own minorities. What a disaster! It would be like going from a lion to a hungry tiger!

Is the Democratic Movement, and its leadership willing to embrace such republicanism, giving same rights of citizenship, energizing all minorities to feel like an inclusive, necessary element of the society? Are they willing to shun racism against minorities and any other race, religion, ethnicity? If the answer is yes, we have hope.

Instead, what has sadly happened with Burma is that while these so-called Democracy leaders talk about democracy, they are not willing to give citizenship rights to some minorities, behaving like a person who is afraid of being infected by a TB infected patient, while he himself is a worse case. It is pure hypocrisy! Are they any better than the current SPDC thugs that rule Burma?

Funny thing is that the author of the controversial 1982 Citizenship Act that has effectively made millions 'stateless' within Burma has no problem claiming citizenship in the USA while he has not been here in this country for half a century. He became a naturalized citizen in the USA. But this racist and xenophobic academic requires proof of citizenship from inhabitants of Burma to pre-1822 era, a clear way of discriminating minorities like the Rohingya and many other smaller groups, while the same litmus test is not applied to him or his ancestry on the basis of religion. How comical, and what a waste of talent! Unless hypocrites like these, who are oddly viewed very positively by some 'Democracy' and yet racist-at-heart leaders, recount their immoral, untenable, unethical and hypocritical stand on Citizenship, setting themselves at par with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there is little hope for Burma and all the talks around Constitutional Reform. These racist academics, the brain behind xenophobia in Burma, need to be exposed and reprimanded for the harm that they have caused for Federalism in Burma. Why are they shy about speaking out against 1982 Citizenship Act? In their silence, don't we smell compliance and agreement? While they want democracy, they truly want tyranny of the majority over the minority. Pure and simple!

Last week, there was a Tokyo Conference that was hosted by Arakan-Burma Research Institue that dealt with the subject of xenophobia and problems with democratic development in Burma. You may like to read the declaration from the conference in the link: http://www.newagebd.com/2007/jul/24/oped.html

Best regards,

Dr. Habib Siddiqui