Sheryar Mirza

Rohingya Muslims are Sunni Muslims in the majority-Buddhist country of Myanmar. Governmental dispute in Myanmar has excommunicated them since the country’s birth. They are not even recognized as citizens in which their numbers are over 1 million. The government has labeled them as Bengali in origin and have, in turn, made the Rohingya of Rakhine one of the world’s largest stateless factions. Megan Specia of The New York Times also explains how a law passed in 1982 by the Myanmar government has denied them citizenship, restricted them to the two-child limit, and has limited health care facilities, schools, and infrastructure buildup for centuries. Other attacks against the Buddhist majority have also led to revenge attacks on the Rakhine state as a whole. In 2013, a Human Rights Watch Report said violence in Rakhine has led to forcible relocation of the state’s Muslims. World leaders remain quiet on the issue, rather than take charge of the preposterous situation at hand. In recent events, over 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled the poorest part of Myanmar, Rakhine. An “ethnic cleansing” forced by Rakhine security forces has led to an exodus into the country of Bangladesh. Myanmar, on top of that, has cut humanitarian aid to the state, leaving the Rohingya to limited access to food and water. Criticism and outrage has been on the rise on the silence of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner and de facto leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi. Fellow Nobel Prize winners Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa have called out the fellow Nobel winner to show initiative and do something about the carnage occurring in the country. While she does not control the military of the country, and while it may hurt her political standing, there is a moral obligation for her to at least comment on the events. Avoided meetings, cancelling trip to the UN General Assembly, and diversion of information have led to considerations of revoking her Nobel Prize. The South Asian community is distraught by these events and exodus. Silence by world leaders, politicians, humanitarians, even Nobel Peace Prize winners make us question: how long will the silent treatment work?