THIS refers to your thought-provoking article titled "The Rohingya horror story continues" published on September 12. The Rohingya are an ethnic group, largely comprising Muslims, who predominantly live in the Western Myanmar province of Rakhine. They are century-old minority Muslims of Myanmar. The Myanmar government portrays them as outsiders who had intruded into the country illegally. But this small minority of people numbering probably less than 5.0 per cent, living in a country of 56 millions, is depicted as a demographic bomb threatening Buddhist lifestyle. If democracy is the rule of the majority, the protection of minorities against injustice and hegemony is not a matter of empathy of the majority. The Rohingya have not been leaving the country for economic reasons, but due to extreme persecution. Treatment of the Myanmar government is tantamount to racism in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country like Myanmar and must be fought relentlessly. There is no room for racism in the modern world. It would be both morally and ethically wrong to banish them to some other place where their chances to survive would be uncertain. Only Myanmar can solve the longstanding crisis of the Muslim minority Rohingya population. Let us hope that freedom-loving and democratic-minded opposition groups working outside Myanmar, influence the country to shun racism and bigotry.
Vinod C. Dixit
B-15 Jyotikalash Society,
Jodhpur Tekra,
- M. Road, Ahmedabad, India
dixitpatrakar@yahoo.in