The following article is copied from
Htet San Wordpress post. It reflects most of Myanmar people.
=================
This post is entitled to all the medias who are responsible for the
news they are creating which are recently concerned with the latest news
with Rohingya people in my country.
My name is Htet San, a born and raised artist from Burma (Myanmar).
It’s been a world known fact that my country was suppressed by Juntas
for decades and only recently, the people from Burma and the country
itself are starting to get brighter hopes for their future, the hopes
arising from the positive reforms of the country. I am one of those
majority with high expectations who want to see my native land shines
with the hopeful smiles of the people again.
Even though Burma does not have a fully functional democracy yet,
there’s never a racist problem among the people living in there. We have
our own freedom of choice for religion and different people with many
different religions, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and many others,
are living inside the country very peacefully.
Recently, riots between the Rohingya people and our ethnic group,
Arakanese are happening in the North West part of the country. There are
scandals created by outsiders and some countries that “Rohingyas” as
one of our ethnics groups and nationality but in fact, they are merely
the descendants and refugees of Bengali. Our historians have proved
historically on that topic and if any scholar is in doubt, they would be
happy to explain with facts.
Many countries accuse Burma of not respecting human rights for
Rohingyas but it’s only Burma who let them stay in our ground for many
decades. But, demanding to give away a national territory and an ethnic
identity is the matter beyond humanitarian concerns that a nation has to
consider for its own people. I want to ask all the human rights
activists, developed countries and medias who are forcing Burma to do
such giveaways. What will your countries do in that case? Will you even
let them stay in your ground? Why are you all pushing to accept more
burdens to a small country which has very limited resources for its own
people ?
Rohingya people are currently burning down many of our villages and
killing our ethnics people. Majority of the locals became homeless in
addition to their already harsh lives.
What is the responsibility of a nation when it’s national security is threatened?
Burma is not declaring a war against any race or religion . It’s true
Rohingyas are muslims. But, the concept of the respond act is not
fighting against the Islamic community and Muslims. Burmese government
is just protecting our ethnics groups from Rohingya’s violent attacks.
But, some of the medias don’t see this concept as exciting enough.
Starting from BBC, VOA, RFA, DVB, even Reuters and New York Times,
whenever I read the news, the headlines about this incident is titled as
“Buddhists Vs Muslims” or “Burmese Vs Muslims”. Some medias even stated
initially that “ Rohingya’s abuse as Burma’s attack”. People in Burma
already stated publicly that this is not the case against religion. Even
the Musilm Associations in Burma announced that they agree Rohingya’s
actions as violent attacks. We have statements ready to prove.
But, are our voices not loud enough or just plainly neglected?
Foreign medias keep spreading propaganda about Burma having religious
conflicts within the region and making statements against the truth
that can worsen the country’s situation right now. It’s like all the
major medias are trying to shift the attention of the Islamic community
around the world to Burma and pushing a major religion war to happen
inside the country.
Is it intentional or ignorance?
I understand the fact that picking up the controversial ideas would
make a news piece interesting but what if that idea doesn’t tell the
truth and gonna make things worse? Isn’t the medias’ responsibility to
investigate the facts properly before announcing a news to the world?
Or, being able to grab more attention and increased rating is the modern
value of journalism?
Medias have a great power to shape the world. What if what you wrote
would cost more wars and ruin more lives? Will you write the same thing
if your little son or daughter, your beloved husband/wife or your
elderly father and mother is in the war zone? I highly doubt if any of
those writers who wrote recent news about Burma that I mentioned above
had a real life experience living in Burma. If you have never been in
someone’s shoes, be careful in your guessing games. Sitting comfortably
in your chair writing made-up stories about recent news without proper
knowledge and experience will not make you realize the real truth like
Rohingyas burnt their own houses first before they burn Arakans’ to
manipulate the media about them being abused.
I don’t think the primary intention of people who study journalism is
to create more wars and kill more people with your pen. Please be
careful.
I am deeply very sorry about all the lives that cost from both sides
of this riot. Like Rohingyas, there are also lakhs of burmese refugees
living in the borderline of Thailand-Burma. But, have you ever heard
such an issue of Burmese refugees’ abusive action towards the host
country? I understand that Rohingyas are also human beings and wish no
further harm would be involved to them. We oppose to Genocide but, like
every country in the world, Burma also has principles to those who broke
the laws.
I read an opinion piece on Aljazeera article today. It’s very amusing
to see how the writer judged on Burma based on peoples’ angry comments
on Facebook that makes me want to question him. How would you react
first if your mother was stabbed on her back? How did the whole world
react first when World Trade Center crashed down? The sudden furious
state of mind in respond to the news of their relatives and friends’
getting hurt doesn’t mean Burmese as racists and Burma as a racist
country. At least, we are not invading other countries and declaring a
war. We are protecting our people. If you are not familiar with the law
of religion freedom in Burma , welcome to our country.
The author also stated Islamophobia and the fear of “the other” in
Burmese. This does not really make sense, especially the latter part
but just to let you know,I am free from both disorders. In fact, I have
a lot of Muslim friends in which one of them is my best friend who is
one of the kindest and intellectual people I have ever known. Plus, I
love eating Biryani and Muslims food. My country, Burma, is open to any
religion and we have respect to people with different religions.
Burmese are very peaceful people who are able to smile everyday even
under the harsh authority of Military Juntas in the past. If you have
ever been to Burma, you will know what I mean.
This is all I want to say. I know my voice is small and might not be able to influence any of the current events happening.
But, I believe that I am representing many of the Burmese voices. We
hope our leaders would make an effective resolution towards this current
affair.
We all Burmese people want peace and want the country to be able to
proceed the positive reforms it has been waiting for so long. So, I
would like to request all medias one thing, please support us or if you
can’t do this, please don’t exaggerate the wrong facts and murder the
hope of millions of people.
Again, this recent riot is NOT about the religions and races. We are
just defending from violence which is what every country would do if
their nationalities are harmed. Burma is NOT a racist country.
Thank you for reading til the end.
Htet San
