The Democracy Icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been fighting long for human rights and had always put people’s right ahead of her family. In November 2015, she presided the National League for Democracy (NLD) during Mynmar’s first ever open-contest elections. She has stood tall with her Burmese fellow citizens through persecution, mass massacre and being made homeless regardless of whatever religion they follow. Her silence on Rohingya situation has attracted huge amount of criticism on her.
On 25 August, Rohingya fighters initiated an attack on police posts in Rakhine, the state of Myanmar on western coast. This assault triggered an endless military crackdown.
During the transition of government to becoming a democratic state, Over millions of Rohingya people have been persecuted, massacred and made homeless besides being concentrated in the state of Rakhine. Around 300,000 Rohingya has fled to Bangladesh and are seeking refuge from the atrocities their clan members had suffered from.
The Chairman of National Human Rights Comission (NHRC), Kazi Reazul Hoque, has labeled Rohingya human rights violation situation as akin to the genocide. During a press conference in Cox’s Bazar, he said, “This genocide needs to be tried at international court if needed.”
Furthermore, he added, “The killing, arson, torture and rape of Rohingya people by the Myanmar military and border guards is an unprecedented incident in the history of the world.”
What has been surprising is that Aung San Suu Kyi is supporting government and has shown total silence over Rohingya violence. She holds the office of ‘state counsellor’ but her position is to no avail to those suffering in the region. She has simply raised her voice in denial of existence of the problem labeled as ‘ethnic cleansing’, ‘mass rape’ and massacre of thousands. However, she made a claim that ‘fake news’ is rotating globally for ‘promoting the interest of the terrorists.’
On 5th September, the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, talked over a phone call to Aung San Suu Kyi and she reported that,
‘We make sure that all the people in our country are entitled to protection of their rights as well as, the rights to, not just political but social and humanitarian defence.’
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel laureate, expressed in his letter the truth to Aung San Suu Kyi that ‘it is incongruous for a symbol of righteousnesss to lead such a country.’ Moreover, he criticized over her nullified use of her power by stating that, ‘If the political price of your ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is surely too steep.’
The Guardian analysis of Aung San Suu Kyi’s position as one holding powerful position and authority in government as well as one labeled as human rights activists really puts her in tough situation. In Freedom from Fear, she wrote. ‘It is not power that corrupts but fear’. At another point she wrote, ‘Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it.’
