Buddhist world must rally around Myanmar
Roots of the world’s troubles lead to Britain :
Shenali WADUGE
Colonial apologists are unlikely to agree but in looking deeper to
understand the dynamics that continue to rip continents, regions and
nations apart, it is the policies adopted by the British in all of the
nations they conquered and ruled that are to be blamed. Myanmar is no
exception. Its land was demarcated to the advantage of the British, who
flooded Myanmar(Burma) with foreign labour giving rise to the question
of citizenship and controversy surrounds deaths of Burma’s leader Gen.
Aung San (father of Aung San Suu Kyi) as in the case of Congo’s martyr
Patrice Lumumba and UN chief Dag Hammarskjold and probably many more
foreign leaders.
Now using media at its disposal and organizations that work to uphold
the interest of the West, the entire agenda revolves round blaming
nations for the troubles the British created and the demands to re-enter
these countries to create the second-phase of troubles. In all cases
since Britain has escaped accountability for its crimes against humanity
and an International Truth Commission must be established to bring to
light these sordid truths.
Scenario faced by Third World
The ancient bastions are falling, countries are being broken up or
separated, people are coerced into treating friends as foes and arms are
generously supplied to ensure a handful profit, cultures and ancient
religions are being dehumanized all in pursuit of the re-entry of those
that inflicted barbaric rule under colonial presence. The neo-colonials
are returning to haunt the nations they plundered – Burma is the next
stop and Buddhists of the world cannot remain silent to Burma’s plight.
The Buddhist world must rally round Burma unequivocally.
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Shwedagon
Pagoda |
Burma’s history goes back to the 2nd century B.C. with the earliest
inhabitants – the Pyu who were all followers of Buddhism. The Burmese
resisted efforts by British, Dutch and Portuguese traders to establish
posts along the Bay of Bengal since 1612 resulting in three
Anglo-Burmese wars first of which was in 1824.
Burma was annexed to India in 1886 creating a separate colony in 1937
with the Burma Act. In separating India from Burma the British did as
they have done in all of its other territories – creating administrative
boundaries that would “create” future troubles.
Burma’s case was no different
Thus the Chin, Kachins and Naga tribes were divided between the two
nations of India and Burma (Chin Hills Regulation). This was made clear
when in 1941, Sir Robert Reid declared “they (the Chin, Kachin and Naga)
are not Indian in any sense of the word, neither in origin nor in
outlook, and it is a historical accident that they have been taken into
an Indian province”. Nevertheless, dividing of these people has created
political tensions between Indian and Burmese Governments. Even at
Independence the British did not define India’s and Burma’s boundary and
the 872mile boundary was only marked on March 10, 1967.
Then there is the 220km dividing Burma and Bangladesh. The Chittagong
Hill Tracts (hereafter CHT), an area of 13,295 square kilometres, is the
south eastern part of Bangladesh, bordering the Arakan and Chin States
of Burma, and Tripura and Mizoram States of India – originally this was
no so. The British annexed the CHT area in 1860 and created an
autonomous administrative district known as “The Chittagong Hill Tracts”
within the undivided British Bengal. British enacted the Regulation 1 of
the 1900 Act in order to protect the Jumma people from economic
exploitation of non indigenous people. The majority of Jummas in the CHT
are Buddhists. When the independent state of Bangladesh was created in
1971 the Mukti Bahini (Bangladesh liberation) force began to attack the
Jummas. In the late 1970s President Zia sponsored migration of Muslim
Bangladeshi settlers into the CHT. This programme was not made public
but sponsored migration is now acknowledged resulting in Bangladeshi
Muslims making up 1/3 of the CHT population.
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Gen. Aung
San |
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Aung San
Suu Kyi |
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Dag
Hammarskjold |
Al-Rabita, a Saudi government funded NGO, is the main Islamic
missionary organisation rooted in Wahhbism which is active in the
region, backed by the military, it is entrusted with the Islamisation of
the region.
In 1986, within a period of eight months 54 Buddhist temples have
been destroyed and 22 Hindu temples were burnt down by the Bangladesh
military. Since 1980s through 1990s there have been 13 major massacres
all targeting Jummas. That is because the Chittagong Hill Tracts were
once under Burma’s topography until Britain decided to change that to
its advantage under calculated annexations. Fears have foundations.
Similar historical “accidents” created by the British are many
It was the British that brought Muslims as labor from India
(Bangladesh) to Burma and it was on this ground that the Burmese deny
citizenship to Rohingyas who cannot show ancestry before 1823 as there
were no reference to Rohingyas in the census. The Rohingyas are
linguistically related to the Indo-Aryan peoples of India and Bangladesh
(as opposed to the mainly Sino-Tibetan languages of Burma).
Moreover, the term Rohingyas cannot be found in any historical source
in any language before the 1950s. The 500,000 Muslims in Burma in 1921
more than half were Indian Muslims. The Indian incursions to Burma were
all encouraged by Britain with the purpose intent of creating discord.
Riots did result in 1930 because British firms were employing Indians in
Burma.
Then in 1938 still under British rule came the anti-Muslim riots
because of the favoritism which led to a campaign called Burma for
Burmese Only. Now the argument is – if the British brought these
Rohingyas into Burma to create dissent it is Britain that must provide
citizenship to all these Rohingyas in Britain for making their life hell
as well as for Burma too. Why do the mainstream media and international
human rights organizations refrain from making these realities known?
A hallmark of British rule throughout its colonies was selective
economic prosperity that has inculcated a breed of colonial servants
ever ready to function as sepoys (servants of a foreign occupier working
against indigenous people).
There are many citizens of post-independent colonies particularly in
the Indian sub – continent who mentally prefer to live under white rule
still and that explains why they are directly and indirectly involved in
destabilizing operations promoted and funded by the West, and publicly
advocate re- colonization efforts by the latter.
It comes as no surprise that both Western nations and USA based
Christian evangelical organizations continue to supply funds and arms to
various ethnic groups e.g. Karen tribes and Middle Eastern oil rich
nations e.g. Saudi Arabia, support Rohingya Muslims in Arakan State in a
variety of ways making these nations virtually ungovernable. Just like
how CIA funds the American Society for a Free Asia that gives arms,
military training, financial assistance and even air support to Tibet
dissidents and training in the US.
Can we blame China’s caution when declassified US documents reveal
that millions of US public funds have been given to Dalai Lama
personally through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)?
Similarly, Burma’s opposition is supported through the US embassy in
Yangon and assistance given through the Centre for Applied Non-Violence
Action and Strategies that prides itself in overthrowing popular
independent governments of non-aligned states.
International media
Burma can pride itself as the only nation that refused to be
subservient and servile to its colonial master when it refused to become
a member of the British Commonwealth in 1947 as well as refused economic
handouts by World Bank – the response to this was to use the
international media to subject Burma to a dirty game of denigration,
shaming and demonizing the country’s leaders and depicting nothing but
brutality and the marketing of the slogan “democracy” – we saw the
democracy that the West gave Iraq, Libya, Kosovo and Egypt!
The angst against Aung San Suu Kyi is her proximity and close
relations with the British and other former colonial countries,
including USA, and her image as an embodiment of unashamed subservience
to foreign corporate commands when Burma has been battling to be the
master of its own country. When President Obama made his first overseas
trip to Burma and called Aung San Suu Kyi his “personal hero” there is
little left for others to imagine where Burma will head and in which
direction, and it is unlikely to be any different to India under Sonia
Gandhi.
It is amidst these controversies that speculation has been raised by
the BBC investigation itself as to the complicity of Britain in the
murder of Gen. Aung San, father of Aung San Suu Kyi in view of the close
links between the convicted assassins, the chief Conspirator U Saw
(leading Burmese politician and protégé of British colonial
authorities), and British officials who engineered a raid on the Burmese
Army Ordnance Depot in Rangoon, and then handed over the weapons stolen
i.e. Sten Guns and ammunition, to the would be assassins. This has been
established by research conducted by BBC on declassified information
released by the British Government.
How many other conspiracy theories are there involving the West in
the deaths of Third World leaders - this means the killers are still at
large or have died without being held to account for their crimes and an
International Tribunal on Truth and Justice must be established to
unearth the evidence and reveal the truth.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list
It is distressing to note of the role of the international news media
i.e. Western news agencies and press, and their unabashed agents in the
local media scene, being engaged in deliberate distortion, fabrication
and slanting of news stories and incidents taking place in third world
countries with a view to advancing the interests of Western imperial
agendas. This gives a totally wrong picture to the readers and creates
further tensions amongst communities.
Not many people are actually aware that Rohingyas are originally from
Bangladesh and it is the Bangladeshi Government that must take
responsibility of them. However, the manner in which the British
purposely carried Muslim labor into Burma to change the demographics of
the country requires that Britain take sole responsibility. If Rohingyas
are unhappy in Burma in view of the Burmese not wishing to accept them
as indigenous people, then it is up to the British Government to admit
their wrongs, apologise to the Burmese Govt. and people, and then offer
Rohingiyas scope for immigration to the UK.
Far above all these remedies what is long overdue is the need for an
International Truth Commission that would bring to light all of the
calculated manipulations committed in British colonies by the British
East India Company and later by the British Colonial authorities and to
finally award redress and compensation including an apology for the
atrocities that resulted and continue to take place as a result.
In the current context, Sri Lanka as a fellow Theravada Buddhist
nation needs to stand by Burma together hand in hand in its hour of need
and must give leadership to rally all other Buddhist nations and
Buddhist communities to offer their support for a nation that is soon
targeted for either regime change or balkanization in view of Burma’s
border links to China. The collapse of Buddhist Burma may trigger a
domino effect in what is left of the remaining Buddhist nations in Asia.
In times of trouble not long ago, Sri Lanka was in need of friends
and we knew the difficulties that friends had to come to our aid – we
should not cover any longer.
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