Myanmar’s “de facto leader” Aung San Suu Kyi recently warned the United
States to not refer to the Rohingya ethnic minority as “Rohingya,” in an
attempt to deny them the dignity and human rights she and her party posed as
renowned defenders of.
For those critically examining and long-following political developments
in Myanmar and their wider geopolitical implications for Southeast Asia,
Asia, and the world, Aung San Suu Kyi and her “National League for Democracy”
(NLD) political front, along with a vast array of Western-funded NGOs’
turning against Myanmar’s Rohingya population after predicating their ascent
into power upon “human rights” and “democracy” is no surprise.
For those receiving their news from establishment media networks in the US
and Europe, Suu Kyi refusing to recognize the Rohingya, many of whom have
lived in Myanmar for generations, may seem puzzling, even disappointing, or
more disturbingly, an opportunity for excuses.
However, it was warned before recent elections – hailed by the Western
media as “historic” – that not only would Suu Kyi fail to deliver on the
utopian promises her party represented, and not only would her coming to
power begin a process of recolonization by the British Empire’s successors in
London and on Wall Street, but that it would also herald increasing
persecution, violence, and eventually genocide against the Rohingya minority
already long-targeted by Suu Kyi’s staunchest supporters.
As early as March 2015 in a previous article titled, “Myanmar: Meet Aung San Suu Kyi’s Saffron Mobs,” the
true nature of Suu Kyi’s support base was revealed with the “saffron” robed
monks often the centerpiece of Suu Kyi and the NLD’s street demonstrations
exposed as ultra-violent, genocidal, and very much Western-backed.
Not only did this backing
including funding and organizational support, but it also included
substantial public relations efforts across the Western media to cover up the
true nature of their actions and motivations.
More recently, as Suu Kyi
assumed power by proxy through a hand-picked “president” Suu Kyi openly pledged to “rule above,” it was warned
that the stalwart support of Suu Kyi’s “saffron” mobs would be rewarded by
giving them an increasingly free hand to target and eliminate Myanmar’s
Rohingya people.
In the article titled, “Myanmar’s New Dictator: Aung San Suu Kyi,” it was
explicitly stated that:
With the diminished role of
the military in government and Suu Kyi’s self-serving and selective adherence
to the rule of law, her supporters likely anticipate a free hand in
actualizing their genocidal ambitions versus not only the Rohingya, but all
of their political and sociocultural enemies.
Not only is the prospect of wider violence a concern for the people of
Myanmar, but the rise of political order in Myanmar unwilling or incapable of
stemming genocide spells chaos for its neighbors, particularly Thailand.
Suu Kyi Warns Against Recognizing Rohingya
Considering this, it should hardly come as a surprise then, when the New
York Times reported recently in their article, “Aung San Suu Kyi Asks U.S. Not to Refer to ‘Rohingya’,”
that:
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the
leader of Myanmar’s first democratically elected government since 1962,
embraced that view last week when she advised the United States ambassador
against using the term “Rohingya” to describe the persecuted Muslim
population that has lived in Myanmar for generations.
Her government, like the previous military-led one, will not call the
Rohingya people by that name because it does not recognize them as citizens,
said her spokesman, U Kyaw Zay Ya, a Foreign Ministry official.
New York Times’ screed, however, is predictably inaccurate. The “previous
military-led one,” had in fact, attempted to grant the Rohingya additional
rights, including the right to vote, and only backed down as a matter of
concession when confronted by Suu Kyi’s violent street mobs.
Australia’s ABC News would report in a February 2015 article titled, “Myanmar scraps temporary ID cards amid protests targeting
ethnic minorities without citizenship,” that (emphasis added):
Myanmar’s government says identity cards for people without full
citizenship, including Muslim Rohingya, will expire within weeks.
The scrapping of ID cards snatches away voting rights handed to them just
a day earlier (Tuesday), after Myanmar nationalists protested against the
move.
The Rohingya, along with hundreds of thousands of people in mainly ethnic
minority border areas, who hold the documents ostensibly as part of a process
of applying for citizenship, will see their ID cards expire at the end of
March, according to a statement from the office of president Thein Sein.
Those “nationalists” who protested the move to grant the Rohingya voting
rights were Suu Kyi’s “saffron” street front as revealed in another early
2015 ABC News article titled, “Myanmar monk who called UN envoy a whore ‘could hurt
Buddhism’.” It reported that:
A Myanmar Buddhist monk who called a UN human rights envoy a “whore”
has violated his monastic code and could damage his religion, another
prominent monk says, but he is unlikely to face censure.
Ashin Wirathu denounced Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on human
rights in Myanmar, in a speech in Yangon on Friday, after she questioned
draft laws that critics said discriminate against women and non-Buddhists.
Wirathu, also known as the “Buddhist Bin Laden,” led Aung San Suu Kyi’s
“Saffron Revolution” in 2007 and his followers regularly fill the ranks of
street mobs organized in support of her NLD party to this day.
The US is Coddling a
Racist Dictator
As the US condemns the
government in Damascus for using armed force against torrents of
foreign-backed terrorists spilling over its borders – essentially an invasion
– it is silent, even apologetic in regards to Suu Kyi’s serial and
increasingly egregious offenses against ethnic minorities in Myanmar. The US
is also silent in regards to Suu Kyi’s illegal seizure of power, having
openly declared herself “above” the nation’s president, and with the New York
Times itself describing her as “the country’s de facto leader.”The
explanation for this is well-documented and straight forward. Suu Kyi, her
political front, and the numerous NGOs helping to underpin both, are the
financial, political, and geostrategic creations and perpetuations of the US
and British governments, a decades-long project of undermining and
overthrowing Myanmar’s political order, and replacing it with a client regime
more “friendly” to special interests in London and on Wall Street.Notions of
“democracy” and “human rights” are now clearly facades this agenda was
couched behind, cynically used against the previous military-led
government to protect the rise of the West’s proxies, and then conveniently
discarded once those proxies came to power.
Documentation and reporting on violations of human rights by Suu Kyi’s
political front and its various supporters across the country will continue,
quietly, and only be sensationalized if and when Suu Kyi and the NLD misstep
regarding Western interests in the Southeast Asian state.
Currently, anti-Chinese protests are erupting at a mine operated in
cooperation with Chinese business interests. Suu Kyi’s failure to close down
the mine and give the US-funded protests the final word in the dispute, for
example, would be cause to “leak” information regarding the true nature of
Suu Kyi’s rise to power and the genocidal aspirations of her political front.
The predicted disillusionment of Suu Kyi’s supporters worldwide will
continue – those who genuinely uphold the principles of defending human
rights and representative governance cannot reconcile the fact that Suu Kyi
and her NLD clearly represent neither.
For Myanmar’s neighbors,
preparations for wider persecution of the Ronhingya should be made. As the
violence and injustice escalate, refugees will increase, placing a burden on
neighboring states, particularly Thailand. It is important for these states
to focus on the cause rather than the consequences of this predictable
tragedy, and focus on the foreign-funded, hypocritical nature of the NLD
regime. Failure to confront and confound Western aspirations in Myanmar will
invite similar scenarios to unfold elsewhere across Southeast Asia.
Tony Cartalucci,
Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online
magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
This
work was published at the New Eastern
Outlook and is reprinted with permission.
