Justice for Rohingya

It was Aug. 28, 2017. I received an email from my father, who lives in Bangladesh.

“You have stood up many times against Islamic State terrorism,” he wrote. “Why don’t you stand up against Burmese terrorism against the Rohingya?” I read the email but decided to ignore it. Three days later, my father called me: “Your mother and I just arrived at JFK Airport. We’re waiting for you in terminal eight.” My father said he had come to America to convince me to give a speech in front of White House to a group of Rohingya.

I dropped my parents off at home and then headed to Columbia University’s Gottesman Library to work on my doctoral dissertation. I was in a small reading room with a large LCD TV, watching CNN while working. Suddenly, a father, Abdul Hamid, appeared on the screen. He was crying while holding the lifeless body of his 40-day-old son, Abdul Masood. The infant’s only crime was that he was a son of a Rohingya. Tears fell from my eyes as I watched Abdul Hamid grieve while holding Masood to his chest. His story brought about images of the Holocaust: a sobbing father holding the lifeless body of his child. When I saw this on TV, tears trickled from my disbelieving eyes as I cried out loud, “Aung San Suu Kyi, you are not a Nobel laureate. You are monster. You are a disgusting blood sucker of Rohingya people. You are a female Hitler.”

At 11 p.m., I left Columbia University and went home. I had the idea that I would stop thinking about the lifeless face of Abdul Masood. There is no benefit in remembering the image of a dead infant, I thought — no benefit in remembering the tiny coffin his father had held.

I was wrong. When I got home around 11:30 p.m., my older son, Refath Albert, opened the door for me, and my younger one, Soborno Isaac, jumped into my arms. The images flooded back. Immediately I wondered who would open the door for Abdul Hamid. It was then that I decided to go to Washington, D.C., to give a speech for the Rohingya in front of the White House.

The United Nations has described Myanmar’s persecution of the Rohingya as an ethnic cleansing. The Rohingya are an indigenous ethnic nationality of Burma who have lived in Rakhine State (Arakan) since 3000 BCE. Arab merchants began conducting missionary activities in the eighth century, and subsequently many Rohingya converted to Islam. The Rohingya were represented in Burmese parliament until 1962, when military junta took control and began denying citizenship to the Rohingya. Currently, Myanmar law does not even recognize the Rohingya as one of its eight national ethnic groups, instead considering them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Rohingya are also barred from getting an education or a job and have little to no freedom of speech. The conditions faced by the Rohingya in Myanmar have been compared to what Jews experienced in Nazi Germany.

On Aug. 25, 2017, long-suffering Rohingya protested this barbaric discrimination. Their demonstrations were designed to call attention to the injustice, end the discrimination and bring about reform. Aung San Suu Kyi did not like that, so she unleashed terror upon the Rohingya. In the last 15 days, her military has killed over 3000 Rohingya, including 40-day-old Masood, and has caused over half a million Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina met with Rohingya Muslims at the Kutupalong Refugee Camp on Sept. 12 and said that her government would offer the refugees temporary shelter and aid until Burma takes them back. President Trump also extended $32 million in aid to Hasina for Rohingya. This money should be spent on educating Rohingya children about their own cultural philosophy . At the hands of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Rohingya have suffered political oppression, economic exploitation and social degradation, in part because many Rohingya are uneducated and don’t know Rohingya philosophy. Rohingya philosophy is a self-help philosophy; it includes reading books, having a maximum of two children per family, sending children to school and encouraging them fall to in love with math and science. Unless every child becomes educated, the Rohingya will always be misled and led astray.

We shouldn’t call this issue a Rohingya problem. We shouldn’t call it a Muslim problem. We should call it a human problem. I gave my speech not as a Muslim, and not as Bengali American. I gave my speech as a human being trying to solve a problem. I strongly believe that many issues faced by the Rohingya can be solved. Every Rohingya is a rightful Burmese citizen, and they must have equal voting rights. Aung San Suu Kyi should not use any excuse to deny these rights.

Still, the harsh reality is that the Rohingya are kept from voting simply because they are Muslim. Furthermore, a Rohingya may go to a job interview only to be told the day is wrong, the hour is late, or the hiring period has just ended. And even if a Rohingya persists, even if he manages to pass the test and get an interview, he will still be disqualified because he is a Rohingya Muslim. No person should be kept from voting or lose their job simply because they are a Rohingya Muslim. Grant Rohingya men and women Burmese citizenship. Allow Rohingya men and women to register to vote. Give Rohingya children access to school and higher education. Give them jobs, and stop firing them from government jobs. Treat them as human beings.

It is wrong to deny the Rohingya people a right to vote in their own country. It is deadly to prevent them from getting jobs. The time for justice has now come. Aung San Suu Kyi should stop reading Hitler and start bringing peace. Even if she were to simply hug a Muslim child, she would not only brighten the lives of every Rohingya but also inspire millions of Buddhist monks, whose hands are covered in the blood of Rohingya, to change their behavior. We seek and pray for peace in Burma. We seek order. We seek unity between Buddhist monks and Rohingya. But we will not accept the quiet that accompanies trampled rights, the order imposed by fear, or the unity that stifles protest. What Patrick Henry realized 400 years ago, Aung San Suu Kyi fails to understand in the 21st century: peace cannot be purchased at the cost of liberty.

I have not the slightest doubt that good men from every part of the world, from Trump to Hasina, from Soborno Isaac to Malala, will hang “Justice for Rohingya” posters and help claim freedom of all Rohingya. We all share this duty, and I believe that all of us will respond to it. Because every Rohingya must have the right to vote. Aung San Suu Kyi must give them that right. Every Rohingya must have the privileges of citizenship. Aung San Suu Kyi must give them those privileges.

However, exercising these privileges takes much more than just a legal right. It requires an educated mind and a healthy body. It requires a decent home, the chance to find a job and the opportunity to escape from a culture of poverty. Of course, the Rohingya currently cannot contribute to building a modern Myanmar because they are never taught to read or write. They don’t have access to an education, and their bodies are stunted from hunger. Their sicknesses go untended to and their lives are spent in hopeless poverty. So, Aung San Suu Kyi must give the Rohingya not only the right but also the opportunity to learn the Rohingya philosophy.

I want to see a Nobel laureate educate young Rohingya children about the Rohingya philosophy. I do not want a Nobel laureate who reads Hitler for inspiration and kills all Rohingya people, including the 40-day-old Masood.

As I delivered my speech in front of the greatest place in the world, the White House, I saw my father crying. For a second, I saw him as Abdul Hamid and myself as Abdul Masood — if only he were alive.

Rashidul Bari, a doctoral student at Columbia University, teaches mathematics at Bronx C. College. His email is rb3080@columbia.edu and website is Bari Science Lab

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