1 - The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

Summary

The major goal of this book is to determine how compelling Myanmar's narratives are in justifying human rights violations against the Rohingyas. We suggest that the media had a significant role in circulating narratives which harmed the Rohingyas’ capacity to draw international attention to their experience. In today's political climate, the immediate nature of humanitarian crises tends to eclipse more in-depth consideration of the complexities of conflicts and their historical roots. The deteriorating status of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state is a prime example. Due to a history of human rights violations, the Rohingyas have been portrayed as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, while local Islamic history and the emergence of Muslim nationalism on the margins of Muslim Bengal (East Pakistan/Bangladesh) and Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) has only recently begun to inform international understanding of the regional conflict. We argue (following Onwuegbuzie and Leech, 2007) that historical research is necessary both to understand the nature of the conflict and to safeguard against the possibility of alternate historical perspectives. Historical research also informs the continuing debate over collective images of non-Western victims who are ‘voiceless’ and hence lack political agency.

The research discussed in this book aims to improve understanding of the causes and drivers of identity-based politics in Myanmar's Rohingya population. The ultimate goal of this study, which uses a mixed methods approach that includes a survey, key informant interviews, and short case studies of persecution, is to better understand the complex challenges of managing large-scale refugee exodus to Bangladesh and how to best resolve these over the long term. By using stories from around the world regarding the Rohingyas, their refugee status, and the resulting crisis, this book aims to create discourse at the local, regional, and global levels. This is necessary because humanitarian agencies have been chastised for failing to listen to refugees – particularly Rohingya women, who are sometimes unable to leave their makeshift houses.

A simple Google search is all that is required to locate news and information from any location at any time. People do not even need to visit online news outlets to keep up with current events. The feeds on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are continuously assaulted with new information and trends.