Public Comment

In flip/flop movements, the arc of the universe seems to be bending towards and away from social justice.

Much like the other unsung hero, Nelson Mandela, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has languished in jail for decades only to emerge from the shadows helping her party win the November election by a landslide. Unfortunately, the rise of democracy has been accompanied by a racist and xenophobic demagoguery against the Rohingya (Muslim) minority.  

According to a Yale study the appalling abuse of more than one million Rohingya may amount to genocide whose conclusions are reinforced by a United Nations report to the Security Council which accuses Myanmar “of committing crimes against humanity under international criminal law.” Aung San Suu Kyi is unable or unwilling to oppose the popular Buddhist sentiment of oppressing the Rohingya. Her willingness to sacrifice principle for political expediency, is deeply disappointing. 

Sadly, our own Nobel Peace Prize winner, President Obama, continues to remain silent in the wake of the Rohingya genocide of 67 concentration camps where the unfortunate Muslims languish. 

The global and UN response has been hugely disappointing and the plight of the Rohingya has been ignored by most Muslim countries. The few unsung heroes are aid groups like Save the Children, Fortify Watch, Doctors without Borders and Human Rights Watch. In a cringing capitulation, the US embassy in Myanmar, scrupulously avoids all references to the World’s forgotten stateless people.