I’m sorry. I might not know enough to answer these questions. I was hoping someone else would.
Myanmar’s military: The power Aung San Suu Kyi can’t control
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She has no power or authority over anything that is currently happening in Burma/Myanmar. The military has made sure of that.
She has been re-elected since the army prevented her election back in the 90s, yet still has no governing capacity in her own country, which she was elected President of twice.
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Can she speak out against the atrocities or is she a hostage in her own country?
She is under indefinite house arrest and constitutionally banned from being President. She was re-elected while still banned from that position.
She was released from house arrest in 2010, was she not?
Her current position as State Counsellor, a step above president, is meant to circumvent the constitutional stipulation barring the election of presidents with dual- or non-citizen family.
From things I’ve read I’ve gotten the impression that speaking out in defense of the Rohingya would be seen by the military as provocative, and, without power to back up her words, possibly endangering to herself. At the least, the military would just ignore her and she would be perceived by the electorate as ineffectual and weak.
Speaking out in the defense of the Rohingya would be a political suicide. The overwhelming majority of the Myanmar people support the military in that political context, something that I frequently come across when reading blogs of expats living in the country.
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Well, that is wonderful! I live under a rock and was unaware.
That being said this “Counsellor” business I do find very suspicious, and will definitely be looking up how much authority she actually has, because I am a terrible pessimist!
That’s what I think. The military is still the real power in Myanmar, and she only serves at their discretion.
No human being is perfect. We might want to project the perfect person on to this ‘woman’, ‘buddhist’ ‘asian’ and attractive, vulnerable head of state. She is however not perfect (sukkha) but another human being with all the faults we have (dukkha). She is a politician- not a role I would recommend a Buddhist trying for nibbana to take on, especially in a developing country. No one can also keep the five precepts completely pure, without being an arahanth. If a greater good presents itself (her staying in power, vs them toppling her again and the military will attack the Rohingiya regardless) she may feign ignorance. She is swayed by her circumstances, I believe and will strive for the least destructive route out of the current circumstances. I however unfortunately don’t believe she will escape this without her stature being diminished.
with karuna,
I read quite a bit about the current political situation in Myanmar. Admittedly, all these texts were written by Russian expats and could be subjective, but ar least one of them is a pretty well-informed person with a solid educational background in the Oriental Studies. The real situation is far from being that one-dimensional. On the one hand, the military still has immense power and influence on the political process in Myanmar. On the other hand, Aung San Suu Kyi also has some real power and influence in the country that cannot be ignored. In fact, almost all areas of internal politics that have nothing to do with the military conflicts are now dominated by her people either exclusively or to a very large extent. It doesn’t mean she can ignore the military or do something that runs completely against their expectations, but she is also anything but their puppet. In fact, her sitation now is rather complicated, as she has to maintain the balance between the interests of her voters, her party, the military, the Chinese and, although this is somewhat less important for her, of the West. The military also has to broker deals with Aung San Suu Kyi and maintain the balance of interests in all political areas outside of the Rakhine military operation and, which enjoys almost unanimous support among the Myanmar people - so much so that even the ‘traditional’ Muslim communities support it.
The results of the Myanmar military operation can only be described as disastrous for the Rohingya people and very negative for dozens of thousand of the Rakhine people, but as a politician Aung San Suu Kyi really had no choice in that situation. Any criticism of that operation would deal great damage to her reputation among the Myanmar voters and would completely destroy the fragile balance of interests existing between the political forces in Myanmar, China, and India. Whether her stance on the violence in the Rakhine state is an ethical thing is a different question altogether (I personally am not sure it is), but considered from the purely realpolitikal point of view - and there hardly is any other point of view in the East and South Asian politics today, it makes a lot of sense.
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Here are two new links relating to the topic.
The first one is an informative video by @dougsmith talking about Buddhist fundamentalism. He discusses the current persecution of Muslim Rohingya by Buddhists in Myanmar, and also mentions the anti-bhikkhuni ordination views that many conservative Buddhists hold.
The second link is a New York Times article reporting on the most current atrocities committed against the Rohingya.
I’ll leave you with this quote from the article, which in addition to the one about the baby being thrown into the fire, gave me shivers and made my heart drop…
Some influential Buddhist monks said the Rohingya were the reincarnation of snakes and insects and should be exterminated, like vermin.
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‘It would be good if I too died’: Rape as weapon of war against Rohingya
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Myanmar, Bangladesh sign deal to repatriate Rohingya but details scarce
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Rohingya crisis: ‘It’s not genocide,’ say Myanmar’s hardline monks
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Bangladesh-Myanmar agreement on Rohingya refugees revealed
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MSF estimates more than 6,700 Rohingya killed in Myanmar
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The truth is not as one sided as western media tries to make it look. Asian media reports the problem in a much more nuanced and accurate way. For example the recent slaugher by the Myanmar army. Muslim members of the guerilla group that started the attack said it was clear they will get defeated and that their leader should have killed them himself rather than launch such an attack whose only purpose was to help paint the immage of Myanmar army being too brutal and try to gain bad press reports for them in the west.
We also have to keep in mind Myanmar is a country with 1000$ pib per capita, a country poorer than Kenya and many other african countries. Living in a poor country myself (a country still 11 times richer than Myanmar), I know better than others what difference there is in terms of level of civilization of people between poor countries and the rich ones. So we should not expect western levels of behavior from an african country like Myanmar. Rather, we should compare it to Rwanda or other places as poor as themselves. If we do that, we will see they are actually much better than most other countries standing at the same level of pib per capita when it comes to enthnic related violence and level of civilization.
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Myanmar and Rohingya: the history of ever
The decades pass, but certain things never change: religious divisions, ethnic minorities, routes of communication … Oil. Or gas.
It is clear that the actors are not always the same, but the stage undergoes few changes: it is enough to see what happens in the past to understand the present and to anticipate the future.
Source: https://informacaoincorrecta.blogspot.com.br/2018/01/myanmar-e-rohingya-historia-de-sempre.html
(in portuguese)