R Krishna Das
The landslide victory of National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar has paved the way for the party to form the government. But will Suu Kyi trudge down the road marked for reforms following the historic mandate have opened up a debate in the international forum.
For the Nobel Laureate, handling of the Rohingya crisis will be a litmus test as the NLD leader has faced severe criticism over treatment of the Muslim minority group. If she takes the reforms path, it will go against the military that is directly involved in the Rohingya crisis.
She needs to remember Benazir Bhutto, once Pakistan’s hope for peace and prosperity.
Benazir Bhutto, daughter of Zulfikar Bhutto, has cherished dreams to change and she sought to bring reforms in Pakistan, which after Zia’s stratocracy era, had weakened Pakistan seriously. It was further consolidated by Pervez Musharraf.
Benazir believed in reforms, equality, economic prosperity, developments and she also dreamed together to lift up Pakistan and she, like any moderate person, believed that Pakistan and India could together join hands and rise for the better future of Pakistan and India.
She was also a secularist and if she had been alive, she would have gotten rid of the name “Islamic Republic”. However she was too inexperienced and too weak to do something towards Pervez Musharraf and the military. She was assassinated in 2008.
Literally, Suu Kyi doesn’t want to become the second Bhutto. Because same as Pakistan, the Burmese Armed Forces is the holder of power and they oppose anything reforms that threaten the army. Any attempt to alienate the army from Burma would put her to death-kneel like Bhutto’s fate.
Suu Kyi knew that her power was limited. Her father was a fan of unity and prosperity among Burma and still a famous Burmese figure. Later the army used agents and assassinated him. A sequence that resembles Bhutto’s!
In fact, the current holder of power is not her, nor Htin Kyaw, but it is Min Aung Hlaing, the Chief leader of Burmese army. Min and his boys are against the Rohingya. But to fulfil their mission, they have to contain Suu Kyi while using the democratic face to justify. The 2008 Constitution was the evidence. Suu Kyi is just a State Councillor. Kyaw is just a puppet President. Min owns all power to spend for his army.
Suu Kyi is aware that if she can’t cooperate with the army she will be like Bhutto.
Myanmar excluded more than 1.1 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh from voting on Sunday, including hundreds of thousands who fled from persecution at the hands of the Myanmar military in the Buddhist-majority country.
The Rohingya endured decades of abuse and trauma in Myanmar, beginning in the 1970s when hundreds of thousands sought refuge in Bangladesh.
Between 1989 and 1991, an additional 250,000 fled when a military crackdown followed a popular uprising and Burma was renamed Myanmar.
The latest Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh resumed in August 2017 following a military crackdown on the ethnic minority group in the country.
