Plus de 100 000 Rohingyas cloîtrés dans l’état de l’Arakan

par j.james | Juil 6, 2016 | Myanmar

These are strange times in Myanmar and it is rather difficult to explain why.
The country is at a glorious moment in its history. After more than half a century of largely despotic rule, there is an elected government that is supported by a massive majority of the people.
At the helm of that government is a leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is genuinely loved and respected not only by the people of Myanmar but also by most of the world.

Another doddery analyst said there was a 75 percent chance the military would prevent last November’s election being held. The whole reform process and transition to democracy was called “a fairy tale”.

Well, here we are and the griping naysayers got it wrong. The historic elections went ahead and allowed the people of Myanmar to freely choose their government and new leader.

As the United States assistant secretary of state Danny Russel said, “The five years of opening and reform set the stage for Myanmar to emerge from five decades of repression and military rule, and for its citizens to build unity, dignity, opportunity and prosperity.”
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Suu Kyi & Muslim Minority Rohingya

par j.james | Juin 21, 2016 | Myanmar

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi & Rohingya

par j.james | Juin 18, 2016 | Myanmar

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As Myanmar’s new government gets down to business, one thing is increasingly clear – there won’t be much to look forward to for the country’s 1 million or so Rohingya people.
The West has rejoiced at the election of a new government dominated by the National League for Democracy and headed, in effect, by the party’s leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. But for the Muslims of western Rakhine State Myanmar’s new era is already turning out to be a disappointment. There is almost certainly worse to come.The Rohingya have endured decades of harassment, marginalisation and ethnic cleansing at the hands of Myanmar’s old military regimes (and the local Rakhine people), amounting, some argue, to genocide. Everyone knew that Myanmar’s new leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has also been ambivalent toward their plight. She has refused to even call them by their own name, for fear of offending the country’s often-Islamophobic Buddhist majority in the run-up to last November’s general election, which she won by a landslide. But surely Myanmar’s first civilian government since the 1960s would be better than the murderous, kleptocratic rule of the generals?  [/su_column] [/su_row]
May be not. First came the news, in mid-May, that Myanmar’s foreign ministry – now headed by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi – had asked the American embassy not to use the term “Rohingya” on the spurious grounds that it was “controversial” and “not supportive in solving the problem that is happening in Rakhine State”. The request was utterly disingenuous. The Rakhine people might indeed prefer to call the Rohingya “Bengalis” – implying that they are illegal immigrants from what is now Bangladesh – but this is an essential part of the exclusion of the Rohingya from the mainstream of Myanmar life that constitutes the problem in the first place.
Prompted by the visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi returned to the theme on May 22, saying that her government would be firm about not using “emotive terms” like “Rohingya” or “Bengali”. Yet, as has been pointed out, she has never asked anyone – chauvinist Buddhist monks, soldiers or legislators – to refrain from using the term “Bengali”.

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Daw Suu & John Kerry at Yangon

par j.james | Juin 18, 2016 | Myanmar

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These are strange times in Myanmar and it is rather difficult to explain why.
The country is at a glorious moment in its history. After more than half a century of largely despotic rule, there is an elected government that is supported by a massive majority of the people.
At the helm of that government is a leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is genuinely loved and respected not only by the people of Myanmar but also by most of the world.
  [/su_column] [/su_row] International organizations and companies are flocking here to establish new ties or restore lapsed ones, as they invest in modern infrastructure, open offices, and build factories and hotels. Yet there persists that strange and perplexing mood that, if not exactly pessimistic, is imbued with a sense of trepidation and almost, one might say, an expectation of disappointment.
Why is that? And why are so many people complaining that the political transition is not going as well as they’d hoped? They grumble in vague generalities about a lack of direction, a lack of capacity and administrative competence, a sense that the overture is too long and that it’s time for the real show to begin.
Their grumbling is annoying and dangerous, but perhaps they can be excused because they have been disappointed so often in the past, most notably in 1948, 1960 and 1990.
Perhaps another reason, aside from their understandable but wildly over-optimistic expectations, is that the real message, the clarion call of the reformation’s success, has not been getting out. Continue Reading ….