The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Xenophobia as fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. Thus, one need not necessarily be a foreigner or newcomer to a territory to be a target of xenophobia. Even an indigenous people who are a minority that look or behave differently than the majority can be victims of xenophobia.
In recent years, xenophobia has become a powerful political factor in many parts of the world emboldening the far right, extremist and fascist forces. However, nowhere is it more acute than in Burma (officially called the Republic of the Union of Myanmar), a country in Southeast Asia that borders India and Bangladesh to its west, Thailand and Laos to its east and China to its north and northeast.
The Rakhine state (formerly called Arakan) is Burma's western-most state. Historically, the Arakan littoral of the Bay of Bengal, sandwiched between the Muslim-majority Bengal and the Buddhist-majority Burma, was an independent state. It had a typical frontier culture where Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus lived together. The territory was annexed by Bodaw Paya, a Burmese king in 1784 C.E. His savage forces massacred many of the conquered people of Arakan and forced hundreds of thousands of survivors to flee and take refuge inside East Bengal (today's Bangladesh), which was then administered by the East India Company. In 1824, Arakan was conquered by the East India Company, thus, putting an end to the brutal occupation by the Burman race, and encouraging resettlement of the refugee families.
For the most of its independent years since 1948 when Burma gained independence from Great Britain, contrary to the aspirations of the non-Burman people living along the frontier states that make up most of the religious and ethnic/racial minorities, the country has been ruled (irrespective of whether the government was military or civil) solely by people from the dominant Burman race. Their power is essentially rooted in Buddhist religio-racism that has permeated Burmese society for centuries. This racism is not limited to the racial supremacy complex alone, but also plays the card of ethnic racism of one against the other. Thus, we see the racism of the Burmans against the Karen and the Shan, the Karen against the Burmans, the Shan against the Wa, the Wa against the Shan, the Rakhine against the Rohingyas, the Mon against the Burmans, the Burmans against the Chinese, the Christians against the Buddhists, the Buddhists against the Muslims etc. This list is by no means comprehensive, but the bottom line is: the ruling power has always exploited this 'divide-and-rule' policy to turn people against each other and thereby increase its hold onto power in this artificially glued country of many races, ethnicities and religions.
For decades, the military regime's propaganda, therefore, encouraged a blind racist nationalism that was full of references to 'protecting the race' meaning that if Burmans do not oppress other nationalities, they will themselves be oppressed; 'national reconsolidation' meaning assimilation, and preventing 'disintegration of the Union' meaning that if the army falls then some kind of ethnic chaos would engulf the divided nation. Sadly, that toxic strategy to justify violence against others that are considered racially and/or religiously different has not changed the least under the new civil administration of Suu Kyi.
Race, religion and ethnicity have been exploited to justify genocidal crimes, brutal oppression and subjugation of non-Buddhists in Myanmar. As a result, the country has been engaged in rampant ethnic and religious strife, and its myriad ethnic groups have been involved in one of the world's longest-running guerilla wars to restore their fundamental rights.
In 2011, the military junta, which had ruled the country for half a century since 1962, was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a quasi-civilian government was installed under an ex-general Thein Sein. Aung San Suu Kyi (daughter of country's founding father Aung San), then touted - rather falsely - as a democracy icon, and some political prisoners were released ushering in hope of a new beginning of improved human rights and foreign relations for the country that had hitherto been looked down as a pariah state. The transition led to the easing of trade and other economic sanctions. In the landmark 2015 election, Suu Kyi's party won a majority in both houses of parliament. However, the Burmese military (Tatmadaw) remained a powerful force in politics.
Of all the minorities, the worst sufferers have been the Rohingya people who live in the Arakan state. They are vilified, maligned and persecuted. Denied of citizenship and each of the thirty rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, they became the target of elimination in a highly sinister national project that enjoys wide support from all sections of the Buddhist society inside Myanmar. The rationale behind such heinous crimes is the fear-mongering myth that if Muslims are not eliminated, Myanmar will become a Muslim country. Consider, for instance, the remarks of Maung Thway Chun, the editor of a newsweekly of hardline Buddhist ultra-nationalists. He told Joe Freeman, a journalist based in Rangoon: "[W]e don't want Muslims to swallow our country … Then this country will be a Muslim country. It is such a shame for us that the land we inherited from our former generations will be lost in our time."
For most westerners, it is difficult to imagine this dreadful side of Buddhist fascism - known as Myanmarism- that has defined the country in recent decades. Myanmarism is a toxic apartheid ideology in which race and religion, much like Nazism, defines identity and legitimacy of the people in Myanmar. The non-Buddhists who are viewed as outsiders or intruders by the Buddhist majority have no place or legitimacy; they are made the targets of elimination to make the land pure for the Buddhists and free of the non-Buddhists.
Myanmar's 2014 census counted the population to be 51 million people. As of 2018, the population is about 55 million. Rohingyas were not counted in that census and were not allowed to field their candidates in the 2015 election. Based on the estimates of international NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and rights groups, it is, however, believed that the Rohingyas numbered at least two million, thus, making up 4 per cent of the total population inside Myanmar or about 40 per cent of population in the Rakhine state.
Since the so-called democratic transition that began in 2011, thousands of Muslims, especially Rohingyas living in the Rakhine state, have been killed in targeted programmes by both the government security forces and armed Rakhine Buddhists. Thousands of Rohingya females were raped by Buddhists. The latest of such criminal activities in 2016 and 2017 were recognised by the world community, including the UN, as genocide that forced the exodus of nearly a million rohingyas to Bangladesh. Before the latest crisis hit them, some 140,000 Rohingyas were already internally displaced and living in concentration camps inside Arakan. Since 2017, tens of thousands are living along the no-man's land, bordering Bangladesh.
Genocidal crimes require hate provocateurs to prepare the ground for such a 'final solution' of the targeted group. In the context of Myanmar, this evil task was jointly carried out by the various propaganda outlets (including the Facebook) at the disposal of the central and local (Rakhine) state governments, Buddhist monks (e.g., Wirathu and his fascist 969 Movement), ultra-nationalist politicians and intellectuals (especially Rakhine) like Aye Chan, (late) Aye Kyaw, KhinMaung Saw and others. Thanks to their willful distortion, the Rohingyas whose existence in the Arakan predates that of the Rakhine Buddhist community were portrayed as outsiders or infiltrators to Arakan and as a virus that needed to be eradicated.
There is no doubt that xenophobia against the Muslims, especially the Rohingyas, provided the necessary backdrop for their "final solution" (genocide) in 2016-17. Without those hate provocateurs we may have been spared of this latest human tragedy. As we have seen with the Nazi hate provocateur Julius Streicher preparing and mobilising the Germans to bring about the Jewish Holocaust in Germany, so is the case with the Buddhist fascist ideologues like Aye Kyaw, Khin Maung Saw and Aye Chan steering the wheel of xenophobia against the Rohingyas.
Can xenophobia be defeated or tackled? This writer likes to believe that with proper upbringing, education and enactment and strict enforcement of laws, it can surely be tackled to minimise its harmful effects. However, xenophobia cannot be defeated easily without understanding its underlying causes, the roles the society, politics and economics play. The second step will involve challenging the ultra-nationalist views concerning xenophobia. The third step will involve accepting xenophobia as a crime against humanity and thereby stopping it at any cost both at local and international level. Harsh punishments must be meted out to the preachers and practitioners of xenophobia. Lastly, the latter groups must learn from history that xenophobia has not benefited any nation.
One can hope that one day the Buddhist hate provocateurs like Wirathu, Aye Chan, KhinMaung Saw and others would be tried in the International Criminal Court for inciting genocide against the Rohingyas. Surely, they know and understand what they are doing and the consequences thereof.
Dr. Habib Siddiqui is the author of 15 books and numerous articles on world affairs. [email protected].
