“If you have no sympathy for human pain, the name of human you cannot retain” -- Iranian poet Saadi Shirazi.
The Rohingya are the most persecuted and largest stateless minority in the world. Yet there is little outrage on their behalf, even from the UN.
There were many warnings since 2012 that the Rohingya were facing a “genocidal” situation in Myanmar. Many influential organisations and intellectuals also warned the world about this situation.
The scorched-earth policy of the Myanmar government was unleashed in the Rakhine state last month, with the excuse that the Rohingya do not belong there, when in fact, they have inhabited the area for centuries.
Since 1982, when they were stripped of their citizenship, the Rohingya have been subjected to killings, persecution, and forced displacement by its government, military, extremist Buddhists monks, and local Buddhist communities.
At the moment, more than one million Rohingya have fled Myanmar and another 1.1 million remain inside the country. As of September 8, the UN estimated that over a quarter of a million have fled to Bangladesh.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has failed to protect the Rohingya and to check this state sponsored killing and cleansing by the military in her country. As a result, there is growing pressure from the international community to take away her Nobel Peace Prize.
The pressure is coming from various places, including rights groups, influential personalities, and opinion-maker news outlets all over the world, even some who fought for her and for her Nobel prize.
People are questioning her leadership and many world leaders (barring the Indian leader) have joined the chorus to put pressure on her to rein in the military and stop the bloody campaign.
However, Suu Kyi does not even acknowledge that ethnic cleansing is going on; instead, she claims the reports are grossly exaggerated.
Her position as an icon of democracy is in tatters. People are questioning her ability and desire to uphold the rights of minorities in Myanmar. The following writing is increasingly seen on the “wall” -- today Aung San Suu Kyi must be the single most embarrassing name on the roster of the Nobel Peace Prize recipients.
“Why is she not doing something to stop the ethnic cleansing?” is the question everybody is asking.
I ask: “What can she do to stop it?”
In a nutshell, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi does not have any executive power and no ministry is answerable to her
The constitution of 2008Aung San Suu Kyi is the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won absolute majority in both the houses in the 2015 election under the constitution of Myanmar promulgated in 2008.
But according to a clause (articles 59 and 60) inserted into the constitution years ago with Suu Kyi in mind, a person with a spouse or children holding foreign citizenship is disqualified from being president.
She was aware of this clause before the election and after the election victory, there were many meetings with the military to drop the special clause but without success.
Again, changing the constitution requires more than 75% of the votes inside the parliament which is impossible as 25% of the seats are reserved for the military. Amending the constitution to allow Aung San Suu Kyi to be president and lowering the required vote to 70% before the election also failed.
Having failed to be president, Suu Kyi settled with the military to let her trusted friend and surrogate be president. A bill was enacted, after voting in the Higher and Lower Houses, to accommodate her in the presidential office.
Initially, her position was touted as prime minister although duties and roles were not specified. It already guaranteed Suu Kyi’s right to contact government ministries, departments, organisations, associations, and individuals, and made her accountable to the parliament.
She now seems to work across all areas of government, acting as a link between the executive and legislative branches. She also holds two ministry posts: Minister of foreign affairs and minister of the president’s office.
What is surprising is that she could do the same job as she is doing now while being the minister of the president’s office.
In a nutshell, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi does not have any executive power and no ministry is answerable to her. In fact, she is ruling through her proxy and long-time friend, the president and figurehead of the country.
It is like when Indian leader Sonia Gandhi controlled Prime Minister Mahmohan Singh’s government before it lost power in 2014. It is a rule by proxy.
Who calls the shots?According to Article 201 of the constitution, the most powerful body in Myanmar is the NDSC. This body is responsible for security and defense affairs and serves as the highest authority in the government of Myanmar -- the executive body.
The NDSC comprises 11 members, out of which six are appointed by the commander-in-chief of defense services. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is one of the members -- eighth in rank -- by virtue of her position as foreign minister. Nevertheless, the military calls the shots in NDSC and Suu Kyi has no executive power in it.
Furthermore, according to the constitution of Myanmar, the commander-in-chief of defense services appoints the ministers of defence, home affairs, and border affairs; and, currently, all of them are generals in armed forces.
These powerful ministries are therefore answerable to the commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
In other words, the deployment and operations of the police, border guards, and military are entirely under Min Aung Hlaing; Suu Kyi’s government has nothing to do with them.
And since the operations against the Rohingya are planned and executed by the military, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has no say in the matter.
The final answerComing back to my question. What can Suu Kyi do to stop the extreme violence against Rohingya in Rakhine, the answer, unfortunately, is: Nothing.
Blaming her for the atrocities is not correct, although she has a moral responsibility to at least accept that atrocities are going on.
Remember, she is no ordinary citizen of the world. As one of the most notable and admired people in the world, she owes the world an explanation.
But her response so far has been heart-breaking. Her prevailing silence is only broken from time to time with absurd claims. What is more surprising is that she seems unaware of the world’s indignation.
Since 2012, there have been many instances that proved that she shares the same deep-seated hatred of her co-religionists towards Muslims, though during her bad days Muslims were her biggest supporters before 2011.
Unfortunately, her actions and statements increasingly sound like Buddhist bigotry. Her love for power has seriously compromised her stature.
As fellow Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu pointed out to Aung San Suu Kyi: “The perceived requirements of political success do not justify silence in the face of horrible crimes.”
Now it’s time to tackle the elephant in the room: Myanmar’s military.
Major General Shahidul Haque, psc (Retired) is the former Defence Attaché to Myanmar from 2010 to 2013 and former Ambassador to Libya from 2014 to 2016.