Ang mga Muslim na Rohingya sa Myanmar

Sa kabila ng pagbuo noong 2016 ng isang bagong demokratikong inihalal na pamahalaan sa Myanmar (Burma) na pinamumunuan ng Nobel Peace Prize na papuri na si Aung San Suu Kyi ng National League for Democracy, ang sitwasyon ay nanatiling kakila-kilabot para sa pinag-uusig na Muslim na minorya na minorya bilang Rohingya. Bilang indikasyon ng pangako nito sa paghahanap ng solusyon sa mga isyu, hinirang ng gobyerno noong Agosto 2016 ang dating kalihim ng pangkalahatang kalihim ng UN na si Kofi Annan na manguna sa isang Advisory Commission upang magsagawa ng mga pagtatasa at magbigay ng mga rekomendasyon.

• 

• 

Sino ang mga Rohingya?

Karaniwang ginagamit ang salitang Rohingya, lalo na sa international media, upang sumangguni sa isang pamayanan ng mga Muslim na karaniwang konsentrado sa dalawang hilagang bayan ng estado ng Rakhine (Arakan) ng Myanmar, bagaman maaari rin silang matagpuan na residente sa ibang bahagi ng estado at ang bansa pati na rin sa mga kampo ng mga refugee sa Bangladesh. Tinatayang ang Rohingya ay bumubuo ng halos isang-katlo ng populasyon sa estado ng Rakhine, kasama ang Rakhine Buddhists na bumubuo ng isang makabuluhang proporsyon ng natitirang dalawang-katlo.

Ang paggamit ng salitang Rohingya ay lubos na napagtatalunan sa Myanmar. Pinapanatili ng mga namumuno sa pulitikal na Rohingya na ang kanila ay isang natatanging pamayanang etniko, kultura, at lingguwistika na nasusubaybayan ang ninuno nito hanggang sa huling bahagi ng ika-7 siglo. Gayunpaman, ang mas malawak na populasyon ng Buddhist sa pangkalahatan ay tinanggihan ang terminong Rohingya, tinutukoy ang mga ito sa halip bilang Bengali, at itinuturing na ang pamayanan ay higit sa lahat na binubuo ng mga iligal na imigrante mula sa kasalukuyang panahon ng Bangladesh. Sa sensus ng 2014 - ang unang isinasagawa sa 30 taon - ang gobyerno ng Myanmar ay gumawa ng isang desisyon sa ika-11 na oras na huwag ipakilala ang mga nais na kilalanin ang sarili bilang Rohingya at bibilangin lamang ang mga tumanggap sa pag-uuri ng Bengali. Ang hakbang na ito ay bilang tugon sa isang bantaang boycott ng census ng mga Buddhist ng Rakhine.Sa proseso, tumanggi ang gobyerno sa naunang pangako nito na sumunod sa mga pamantayan sa census internasyonal.

As with the rest of Myanmar’s postindependence borderlands that were historically multiethnic and politically fluid, Rakhine state had also suffered from decades of centre-periphery imbalances. On the one hand, Buddhist Rakhines had long felt oppressed by the Burmans, the country’s largest ethnic group, and on the other hand, they perceived the Muslim population to be a palpable threat to their cultural identity. Within the Myanmar context, race and ethnicity were rigid constructs that determined legal, political, and social relations. The debate surrounding the Rohingya terminology had, as such, paralyzed meaningful government recognition of the predicament of the Rohingya community.

Statelessness.

Almost all Rohingya in Myanmar were stateless. They were unable to obtain “citizenship by birth” in Myanmar because the 1982 Citizenship Law did not include the Rohingya on the list of 135 recognized national ethnic groups. The law had historically been arbitrarily applied in relation to those, such as the Rohingya, who did not fall strictly within the list of recognized ethnic nationalities. The legal status of a large majority of Rohingya was rendered even more precarious when Pres. Thein Sein unexpectedly announced in February 2015 the expiry of “white cards,” a form of temporary identity documentation held by many within the Rohingya community.

Intercommunal Violence and Displacement.

Two waves of intercommunal violence between Buddhist and Muslim communities in Rakhine state in June and October 2012 led to the displacement of approximately 140,000 people—the large majority of whom were Rohingya—to camps around the state capital (Sittwe) and surrounding townships. According to government figures, the conflicts resulted in 192 deaths, 265 injuries, and the destruction of 8,614 homes, with the impact disproportionately borne by Muslim communities. Human Rights Watch, as well as other nongovernmental organizations, claimed that the October 2012 violence was a coordinated campaign targeting the Rohingya.

Legislative Restrictions.

Following the 2012 violence, other developments, including a series of proposed legislative measures (some of which were passed by Myanmar’s parliament), resulted in further restrictions on the limited rights of the Rohingya. Although those developments had a nationwide application, they were understood to affect mostly the Rohingya community.

In September 2014 an amendment to the 2010 Political Parties Registration Law came into force; the legislation effectively disallowed the Rohingya to form and be members of political parties. Less than six months later, the Constitutional Tribunal delivered an opinion that prevented noncitizens from voting in any national referendum. The legal implication of the decision, formalized in June 2015 with amendments to the election laws, was that Rohingya, who were considered noncitizens, would not be allowed to vote in the 2015 general elections, even if they had cast their ballots during the 1960, 1990, and 2010 elections. The development also represented a final and absolute curtailment of the political rights of the Rohingya.

In November 2014 a package of draft laws popularly termed “laws on safeguarding race and religion” was submitted in the parliament for debate. The bills, which were initially proposed in 2013, were to an extent premised on anxieties over Myanmar’s being surrounded by highly populated countries, a factor that was believed to potentially affect the country’s demographics; on fears that Buddhist women were being coerced or tricked into marriages by and with non-Buddhist men; and on stereotypical views that Muslim families were polygamous and that consequently many children were being born. The bills were conceived as a necessary measure to protect Buddhist women and to address the perceived high population growth rate in Rakhine state.

Between May and July 2015, two of the four bills that permitted the state to regulate birth spacing and family planning, as well as to police the practice of religion within multireligious families, were passed by the parliament. The Population Control Healthcare Bill, which was aimed at Muslim women, could potentially be used to force women to space their births at least three years apart.