A letter for Saya U Aye Chan by (Aung Tin, Toronto) - Part (1)

Dear Saya U Aye Chan,

With due respect, allow me to ask some questions regarding Rohingya.

I'm in no way going to question you when Rohingyas or chittagonians settled in the land since I don’t have the capacity to judge, obviously. I hope the argument and counter argument will be done by knowledgeable people with mutual respect.

For me, as far as my vision can so, I really don’t see big different between the Ethnic Rights and basic Human Rights. Let me explain quickly before I get shot from everywhere for saying that.

I do respect the ethnic rights including self determination and I do believe they are inalienable.

When rights are ignored, when identities are threatened, people have no choice but to fight back to protect their rights and identities. Once their rights and identities are secured, once they feel they are not threatened by their fellow country men, once they witness equality applies for everyone; I don't think people will content to stay in their own limited cocoons. They will come out and they will communicate, share, absorb, adapt, may assimilate, who knows. The notion that all people came from one single father and mother is widely accepted. If it is true, we all are from the same parents after all.

Anyway, right now, we have to fight for the rights and identity. After that we are going to set up the wall to protect. It is going to take a very long way to put down the wall. It entirely depends on how much progress we can achieve in terms of trust.

Here are some of my questions for you, if I may. Let’s say they are Chittagonians . These people wanted to be called as Rohingya.
1. Do they have a right to change their name or not?

My argument is that the name Eskimo has historical context. When they didn't like to be called, the name changed. I think Siam changed to Thai too.
The second question is regarding claiming the ethnicity.
2. By looking at the demography in border areas, are there some kinds of widely acceptable guidelines to recognize as ethnic belonged to one country? If yes, please educate us and if no, what should be in the case of our country.
My argument is Rakhaine, Rohingya, Naga, Chin, Kachin, Shan, Wa, Padaung, Karen, Mon, Pashu and Salone etc. have been settling both sides of border areas such as Bangladesh, India, China and Thailand. Except for Rohingya and Pashu almost all others do not have the problem for claiming the ethnic rights in both countries, as far as I know.

Rakhaines who lived in Bangladesh for centuries do not have any problem to reclaim the ethnicity belonged to our land. I do suspect that Rohingya and Pashu are having the trouble to claim ethnicity in Burma because they are Muslims.

My third question is for you and the leaders of Rakhine in exile. As we all know, disagreements are everywhere in politics. People start the work where they agree upon and at the same time, people sort out the common ground from the disagreements. While they are working where they can; they learn, know, and share each other. In this way, they accommodate each other's concern, address properly and build the trust. So my question is;
3. Even though you both (Rakhaine and Rohingya) have the disagreement for the terminology of Rohingya, why can’t you start work where you both agree such as confronting the SPDC, sharing the knowledge, spreading the Democracy and Human Rights etc?

I dearly hope some of you are not thinking or planning to subdue the Rohingya if they don’t live by your term.
As far as I can cope, there are three concerned areas. I may be wrong.

The first one is to guarantee the basic Human Rights including culture and religion for Rohingya. The Rakhaines do not seem to have problem for accepting those.

The second one is self-determination stretched to secession or merger with Bangladesh if Rohingyas were given ethnic status.

If so, we have to look these as legitimate and credible concern or imaginative and artificial one in today’s world. Secession or merger was possible during the cold war due to the polarizing interest of the two biggest rival groups in mankind’s history. Now, secession or merger is interest of nobody including India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, ASEAN, US, EU, NATO etc. you name it. I don’t think it is credible to deny the rights of Rohingya for the concern of secession.

The third one is raised by some that the concern of creating an Islamic state.

Some people might had some dream sometimes ago, but it is non starter.

Aung Tin, Toronto.