The Solution for Rohingya Crisis

By

RAWISARA THONGCHANTRA

(Roong) 11-9

The Solution for Rohingya Crisis

Introduction

"When the military came, we fled from our home. I don't know if my husband is dead or

alive." (Wright, 2016). Rohingya is a small group of Burmese Muslims who once lived in the

Rakhine state of Myanmar, but since they had been abused by Burmese, many of them needed to

escape to other countries. Moreover, Myanmar's government doesn't accept them as Burmese

citizens. Therefore, they don't get any support and are now homeless. As refugees, they are living

poorly without basic needs and human rights. Many of them are also suffering because of

starvation and sickness as well. The purpose of this essay is to suggest the possible solutions for

the problem. Rohingya crisis has been a big international concern recently however, it can be

solved by 3 approaches: changing people's perspective, providing citizenship for refugees, and

cooperation between Asean countries.

Changing People's Perspective

Burmese should change their perspective over Rohingya. For centuries, Rohingya had

immigrated to Myanmar however, they have not recognized as citizens by a government until

now and even get hatred as illegal immigrants. According to the journal Persecution of the

Rohingya Muslims, "Rohingya is targeted by many authorities in Myanmar and also their

neighbors in Rakhine state. High-ranking government officials, military officers, Buddhist

monks, and local Rakhine have fostered and perpetuated anti-Rohingya sentiment. Their rhetoric

has dehumanized Rohingya, created a climate of ethnic hatred, and fueled violence targeted

against the group." (Marsh, Lindblom, Motala, & Munyan , 2015). It is shown that the rejection

of Rohingya as the compatriot in Myanmar can be found in any classes of Burmese people which

causes a large scale of violent act to Rohingya. However, if people can change their prospect and

accept Rohingya, the Rohingya will not need to move out of the country which means the

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problem will be solved from its origin. Also, as the idea of Anti-Muslim is spread all over the

world, there is no surprise that one cause of the crisis is because Rohingya being a Muslims but

in Myanmar, the idea of anti-Muslims doesn't come from the people themselves. States by a

former Minister for Planning and Finance of Myanmar, Kyaw Win; "Religious based

ethnonationalism is a mindset instilled by successive dictators in Myanmar." (Win, 2015). In the

other words, the hatred was rooted by the government for a long time and doesn't originally

cause from the disagreement between people. If Myanmar can abolish this idea and cultivate the

proper idea about Rohingya to the citizens, then Rohingya will be able to live peacefully in the

country. To conclude, Rohingya had been oppressed in Myanmar so, they needed to escape and

being stateless. However, the problem can be solved permanently if Burmese citizens change

their ideas and be open minded to Rohingya.

Providing Citizenship to Rohingya

Secondly, the Burmese government should remove 1982 Citizenship law and give

Rohingya a citizenship. In Myanmar, the law which called "1982 Citizenship law" is used to

determine who can legally be Burmese citizen. It was created in Gen Ne Win, the Burmese

dictator, era. As he refused Rohingya as Burmese, this law has limited Rohingya from being

Burmese citizen and made them suffered for centuries. According to 1982 Citizenship law of

Burma, Rohingya do not get a citizenship as Burmese citizen. "Nationals such as the Kachin,

Kayah, Karen, Chin, Burman, Mon, Rakhine or Shan and ethnic groups as have settled in any of

the territories included within the State as their permanent home from a period anterior to 1185

B.E., 1823 A.D. are Burma citizens." (Burma Citizenship Law, n.d.). The law states that to be a

Burmese citizen, people needs to have evidences of the existence of their parents before 1823

A.D. As the immigrants, Rohingya always moved and uneducated, so people might rarely keep

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their evidences. The Burmese government use this excuse to deny Rohingya's citizenship and

thus lead to fleeing out of Rohingya as they do not get protection and human rights. So, the

government should change the condition of the citizenship law to support and be fair to the

minority, such as Rohingya, in getting the citizenship. Moreover, there are many experts agree

with this argument as stated by Ian G. Robinson and Iffat S. in Rahman Oxford monitor of forced

migration, giving Rohingya citizenship is the only solution to solve the problem effectively.

"Despite the Rohingya's historical persecution in Burma, permanent Burmese citizenship is the

only practical long-term solution. Burma must amend or repeal its 1982 constitution to enable

that process." (Robinson & Rahman, 2012). Without citizenship, which is taken by 1982 law,

Rohingya can't join any political activities and has no voice to show their opinions or supplicates

their needs which eventually force them to escape from this inequality. In other words, without

citizenship; more Rohingya will flee out and the problem will become bigger every day so, the

only practical long- term solution is that; Rohingya must be protected and treated as a citizen.

Therefore, the citizenship law must be fixed with a fair prospect. As expressed, with 1982

Citizenship law which is now using in Myanmar; Rohingya has no chance to get citizenship, a

tool to access basic human rights. So it should be repealed and the government should also give

Rohingya a citizenship.

Cooperation between Asean Countries

Asean countries should concern more about the Rohingya crisis and unite together to

solve the problem. As Myanmar refused to talk about Rohingya crisis in 2014 and Asean would

not be involved in the member states' domestic problem, Rohingya crisis hadn't been concerned

by Asean for a while. However, after 130 Rohingyas had been killed on October 9, 2014, the

situation went deeper that Rohingya crisis brought up in the Asean conference again.

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Nevertheless, the crisis is still ongoing without an utmost effort of Asean to solve the problem.

According to Syed Munir Khasru (2017), Rohingya crisis also affects to other countries such as

Bangladesh, Thailand, and Indonesia after many refugees try to escape to their countries.

Therefore, the problem is no longer only Myanmar's problem but instead, it needs to be

described as a region's problem. At first, Rohingya crisis was started from Myanmar as a

disagreement between different ethics in the country, however after it had become harder to

genocide, many people escaped to other countries including Asean countries. Therefore, Asean

should concern more about the problem and cooperate to find out the solution as fast as possible.

Besides, suggested by Joshua Kurlantzick, Asean can use European model as a solution of the

problem. European countries once experienced a similar situation with Rohingya crisis. Their

solution for the problem is they divided up the number of the Refugees according to each

countries' prosperity such as unemployment and etc. For Asean, they might also do the same

thing but consider to different factors that appropriate to the region's condition (Kurlantzick,

2015). As Asean does not have a strong plan to solve the problem, there is no sign of the solution

of the crisis yet, however, if they have a plan to do so, there are some examples such as Europe

Model which had been successful on a larger scale of number of people. So, if Asean concerns

more and wants to unite to solve the problem, they will definitely find the solution for Rohingya

crisis. In conclusion, right now, Asean has no concern about Rohingya crisis. However, if they

have more concern and stronger cooperation to solve the problem, Rohingya crisis will be solved

better than the present situation.

Conclusion

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In conclusion, Rohingya crisis should be solved by 3 approaches: changing people

perspective, providing citizenship for refugees, and cooperation between Asean countries.

Supported by the journal called Persecution of the Rohingya Muslims, Burmese people should be

fostered to accept Rohingya as their friends and learn to live with them peacefully. Also, stated

by Ian G. Robinson and Iffat S. in Rahman Oxford monitor of forced migration, the government

should repeal their present citizenship law and introduce citizenship to Rohingya for them to be

protected by the law and be equal to other Burmese citizens. Finally, according to the article,

Asean countries should give a hand to solve this problem. Today, many countries keep an eye on

Rohingya crisis. As now, many of Rohingyas are enduring with inequality and dehumanization

from being stateless people. Therefore, the problem must be solved as fast as possible, either by

solution provided or any other solutions to free them from this situation.

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References

Burma Citizenship Law (n.d.). Retrieved Febrary 24, 2017 from www.ilo.org:

http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/87413/99608/F111836952/MMR874

13.pdf

Khasru, S. M. (2017). ASEAN and the Rohingya Crisis. Retrieved February 9, 2017 from

www.project-syndicate.org: https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/myanmar-

rohingya-asean-by-syed-munir-khasru-2017-02

Kurlantzick, J. (2015). The long read: how to permanently solve the Rohingya migrant crisis.

Retrieved February 9, 2017 from www.thenational.ae: http://www.thenational.ae/arts-

lifestyle/the-review/the-long-read-how-to-permanently-solve-the-rohingya-migrant-crisis

Marsh, E., Lindblom, A., Motala, T., & Munyan , K. (2015). Persecution of the Rohingya

Muslims. Retrieved January 4, 2017 from www.fortifyrights.org:

http://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Yale_Persecution_of_the_Rohingya_October_20

15.pdf

Robinson, I. G., & Rahman, I. S. (2012). The Unknown Fate of the Stateless Rohingya. Oxford

monitor of forced migration, Vol. 2, Issue 2, pp. 16-20.

Win, K. (2015). The root cause of Rohingya persecution. Retrieved January 18, 2017 from

http://www.newmandala.org/the-root-cause-of-rohingya-persecution/

Wright, R. (2016). 'They will kill us': The Rohingya refugees fleeing torture and rape in

Myanmar. Retrieved January 5, 2017 from www.cnn.com:

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/24/asia/myanmar-rohingya-refugees-bangladesh/

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