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Re: QUERY> Burma crisis, Buddhist crisis
by Ven. Pandita
Dear Magnus, You have seemingly concluded that as regards the Rohingya issue, whatever dissenting voices of the Buddhist public in Burma have been "silenced or forced underground, if it continues at all" by the state machinery. I think this conclusion does not reflect the ground reality. Why?
Now, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (from now on DASSK) has declared that her government would implement the recommendations of Kofi Annan commission as quickly as they can. Those recommendations are freely available on the web, both in original English version and Burmese translation. However, I doubt if even 0.1% of DASSK's supporters has bothered to read those critically important suggestions carefully. For those people, Kofi Annan's suggestions are good enough if they are acceptable to DASSK. They are the people, we should remember, who came out to show support when DASSK gave a live televised address in English on the Rohingya crisis even though the majority of the audience could not understand her English.
How about DASSK's dissenters? They are only ultra-nationalists including the military, who would read those recommendations only for the sake of objecting to any suggested favor for the Rohingyas.
How about other ethnic tribes fighting for their rights against the Burmese military? I should note that over the past years, the Rohingya leadership has attempted again and again to join the armed struggle of other tribes but consistently rejected. The last rejection came from KIA (the Kachin armed group), who are predominantly Christian.
In short, the Rohingyas as an ethnic group have very few sympathizers among the non-Muslim Burmese people. If there are any silenced voices, these are of Muslims, not of others.
Ven. Pandita (Burma)
Postgraduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist Studies,
University of Kelaniya,
Sri Lanka
