In one of his final acts in a significant five-year term as President of Myanmar, Thein Sein lifted the state of emergency in Rakhine, a troubled western province bordering Bangladesh. The region has a long history of sectarian violence between Myanmar’s majority Burman Buddhist community and minority Rohinga Muslims. The last major flare-up was in 2012, which caused the imposition of the emergency.
The United Nations believes that around 25,000 Rohingya Muslims have left refugee centres and returned to the original places of abode. But 120,000 displaced people still remain in the camps.
Mr. Thein Sein has presided over Myanmar’s momentous transition from a military dictatorship since 1962 towards democracy. On Wednesday, a mainly civilian government, inspired by Aung San Suu Kyi, is slated to be sworn in.
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Asked to react to the lifting of emergency in Rakhine, a spokesman for Ms. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), Zaw Myint Muang, rather brusquely told
Peter Popham, a foreign correspondent who claims to have visited Myanmar many times under cover, says in an article: “It is true that she [Ms. Suu Kyi] has never made a clear statement in support of the Rohingas.”
Last week, Mr. Popham caused a stir by releasing extracts from his just published book,
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Mr. Popham goes on to clarify, though: “There is nothing in Suu Kyi’s earlier life to lead one to think that she might be bigoted”. Indeed, he says her “first serious boyfriend” at Oxford University was a Pakistani.
There are an estimated 1.1 million Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, many of them stateless, residing in Rakhine. They complain of being denied citizenship and a state policy of discrimination against them. Myanmar denies an attitude of apartheid against Rohingyas but refuses to accept them as an ethnic minority and instead labels them as ‘Bengalis’.
There was no Rohingya candidate in the November elections. They were also denied voting rights. Even the NLD did not nominate a Muslim to fight the elections, fearing that it will lose support among Burman Buddhists.
However, now that she’s about to enter government, the question arises: will the real Suu Kyi now emerge?
More recently, BBC pressed her again on “targeting of Muslims”. She replied: “It is not going to be easy because prejudice is not removed easily and hatred is not going to be removed easily, but we can work at it together”. She also gave an assurance: “I will protect everybody in this country, because that would be the duty of the government”.
The NLD won 75 per cent of seats in the union Parliament in elections held in Novemberto earn the right to run the central administration, and is likely to run ministries other than the ministries those of home, defence and border affairs, which will continue to be in the hands of the armed forces.
The military also refused to suspend or overturn a law enacted to thwart Ms. Suu Kyi from becoming President. Therefore, her trusted friend from childhood and economist, Htin Kyaw will officially be head of government and state, while she calls the shots.
Meanwhile, the Minister-nominee for Religion and Cultural Affairs, Thura U Aung Ko, indicated that the reported allocation of four Cabinet portfolios to Ms. Suu Kyi may only be temporary. He was quoted by The Myanmar Times on Tuesday as saying: “It will be difficult for Daw Suu to take control of the four ministries for a long time.” Diplomats in Yangon tend to agree.
The new administration will be sworn in at the Parliament building in the noticeably deserted capital of Naypyitaw, 200 miles north of Yangon. About the oath-taking, too, there was, according to Western diplomatic sources, a dispute over what form it will take. It remains to be seen whether a dinner is hosted by the President on Wednesday evening for outgoing as well as incoming Ministers, which would at least signal conviviality between the military and the NLD.
( Ashis Ray is a London-based journalist, currently in Myanmar. )