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| Bengali-Muslim plague on Burma-Bangladesh border. |
A full 42% of Myanmar’s Rakhine state, bordering Bangladesh, is ethnically South Asian and speaks a variant of Bangla. The districts of Sittwe and Muangdaw are nearly 95% so, and their persecution in a xenophobic and oppressive Myanmar is well known.
They are not welcome there and are considered foreign. Many thousands have fled and have sought refuge in neighbouring countries. Others have been murdered or driven out of their homes.
It’s incorrect, in fact, to say the precedence has been set by Crimea. The use of referendums as a means to redraw borders is really nothing new, and it could be argued that every other means of map-making is inherently undemocratic and imperial.
In 1995, Quebec nearly separated from Canada following a referendum. South Sudan split from Sudan after a referendum in 2011. Scottish people will vote later this year to decide if Scotland should become an independent country and leave the United Kingdom.
Closer to home, in a referendum held on 6 July 1947, the district of Sylhet opted to separate from the state of Assam and join East Pakistan. So the precedence of sub-national entities as small as districts seceding already exists.
The Federation of Russia, instead of absorbing ethnically-Russian Crimeans, which is something they could have done as well, opted to support the secession of Crimea and its admission into the Russian federation, lending considerable weight to the belief that a people living on a territory belong to it, and it to them.
So a solution to the Rohingya issue and the consequential refugee problem that has become taxing for an already over-crowded Bangladesh, can be sought in a referendum to separate Sittwe and Muangdaw from Rakhine state and join them to Chittagong division.
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| Burma's seditious Bengali-Muslims (so-called Rohingyas) raising Bangladeshi flag in Maungdaw. |
The king of Mrauk U also ceded some
territory to Bengal and remained a vassal of the Sultanate until 1531. After
Arakan became fully independent of Bengali authority, parts of it fell prey to
Mogh and Portuguese pirates so in 1665, Mughal subhedar Shaista Khan annexed
the territory around Chittagong, originally an Arakan possession, releasing
thousands of Bengali peasants who had been held captive by the Arakanese.
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| Rapid breeding is an Islamic tool to colonize Buddhist land. (Imam Hussein, 4 wives, and 30 children in Maungdaw) |
The problem, of course, is that the Myanmar government has attempted to pre-empt anything of the sort by a) denying the Rohingya citizenship and democratic franchise, and b) by passing a law that makes it illegal for Muslims, only Muslims, in Rakhine state to have more than two children.
By attempting to alter demographic realities, the Myanmar government has proven sympathetic to the genocidal intentions of non-Rohingya Rakhines, in fact, it is virtually an accomplice in the ethnic-cleansing that is underway. The citizenship issue also pushes the Rohingya further into the margins; making theirs a voice no one in Myanmar, perhaps even the world, cares to hear.
The averting of a humanitarian crisis should not be held hostage to the prejudices of a national government, especially when there are international organisations and indeed international measures that can be used to apply pressure on it. It behoves the international community to attempt a solution to this crisis, and in the absence of a more conciliatory attitude in Rakhine, the only one might be a referendum.
But before one can be conducted the Rohingyas must be restored their full-citizen status, or in the very least be acknowledged as rightful inhabitants of the land they live on, and have done so for hundreds of years. This is a moral obligation and not generosity on the part of Myanmar.
Bangladesh, like Russia, should not be indifferent to the plight of a kindred people living across international boundaries, and while, like Crimeans, they should have the option of forming an independent country between Bangladesh and Myanmar, unfeasible as that might be, its incorporation into Bangladesh should not be taken off the table if such an opportunity ever presents itself.
(Blogger’s
notes: Much-talk-about war between Burma and Bangladesh is getting closer
and closer to reality as Bangladeshi Islamists’ long standing pipe-dream of forming
the Islamic republic of North Arakan will eventually become the official policy
and achievable plan of Bangladeshi ruling elite like Zafar Sobhan. No wonder our Burmese Army has
been desperately seeking a nuclear weapon last 20 years?)
(Zafar Sobhan, The Dhaka Tribune’s Editor: MA in English Literature, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada;
JD, School of Law, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California.
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| Bengali-Muslim illegals from Bangladesh caught all over Burma (2013). |
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| Explosive military-buildup intensifies on Burma-Bangladesh border. |
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| Burma with 60 millions Buddhist is 5 times larger than Bangladesh with 180 millions Muslims. |
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| Editor Zafar Sobhan |
Transactional Attorney; Securitization
and Private Equity; Pro Bono Attorney and Consultant, public interest legal
organizations; Teacher, inner-city high schools; universities. Member, New York
State Bar;
Editorial Board, Daily Star. Zafar
Sobhan is Opinions Editor of The Daily Star, a national English-language daily.
In addition, he writes a weekly column and edits Forum, a monthly focusing on
economics, politics and policy.
Sobhan is also involved with a number
of organizations aimed at youth empowerment and participation in civic, social
and political affairs. He is also a member of the New York State Bar and a
licensed New York City public school teacher.
Sobhan received his BA in English
literature from Pomona College, his MA in English literature from the
University of British Columbia, and his JD from Pepperdine University. In addition,
he was a 2009 Yale World Fellow.
Zafar is the editor of the Dhaka Tribune, a daily newspaper launched earlier this year. The Tribune has already made its mark as the fastest growing English language newspaper in the history of Bangladesh. Prior to this, Zafar spent seven years as a senior editor at The Daily Star and four years as editor of Forum, a monthly magazine focusing on politics and economics.
He has also worked as a corporate attorney in Manhattan and a New York City public school teacher. In addition, Zafar is Bangladesh’s first columnist to be syndicated outside the country, and has written for the Guardian, TIME, YaleGlobal, Vice, and Outlook, among other publications. He was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2005.)
Zafar is the editor of the Dhaka Tribune, a daily newspaper launched earlier this year. The Tribune has already made its mark as the fastest growing English language newspaper in the history of Bangladesh. Prior to this, Zafar spent seven years as a senior editor at The Daily Star and four years as editor of Forum, a monthly magazine focusing on politics and economics.
He has also worked as a corporate attorney in Manhattan and a New York City public school teacher. In addition, Zafar is Bangladesh’s first columnist to be syndicated outside the country, and has written for the Guardian, TIME, YaleGlobal, Vice, and Outlook, among other publications. He was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2005.)
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| Influential Yale World Fellows (Class of 2009). Zafar Sobhan is at third from left of front row. |
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| News report of Burma summoning Bangladeshi Ambassador and warning him over Dhaka Tribune article. |
1942 Islamic Genocide of indigenous Yakhine-Buddhists in Northern Arakan
NURESIA: Islamist Sharia Nation Covering Bangladesh and Arakan