Rohingya Muslims Remain Disenfranchised in Latest Myanmar Elections
Geneviève Nolet, Online Staff Writer
December 5, 2020
Mbazri, Wikimedia Commons
On Monday, November 9, Aung San Suu Kyi of the National League for Democracy (NLD) was reelected as State Chancellor in the second parliamentary election since the fall of the military junta in Myanmar. However, over a million people were left disenfranchised.
Between 1962 and 2011, Myanmar suffered under the grip of a repressive military government. The generals running the country were accused of human rights abuse, leading to international condemnation and sanctions. While the military began to disengage from politics in 2011, it still controls over a quarter of the seats in both houses of parliament. The country’s first parliamentary election took place in 2015 and was won by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former icon of democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi. While the civilian government has little power over military operations, it has been criticized for failing to speak out and take action against the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya Muslim people.
The Rohingya are an ethnic group, most of whom identify as Muslim, who have lived in the western state of Rakhine in Myanmar, a primarily Buddhist country, for centuries. They were denied Burmese citizenship and effectively left stateless under the 1982 Citizenship Law, which did not recognize them as one of Myanmar’s 135 ethnic groups. Since the 1970s, nearly a million Rohingya people have sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh due to government persecution and violence. Most of them are now living in overcrowded refugee camps where they rely on aid from the International Committee of the Red Cross to survive.
Those remaining in Myanmar continue to be victims of inhumane government-sponsored brutality including the razing of entire villages, indiscriminate killing, torture, arson and rape. In August 2018, the UN accused Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya Muslims, allegations that the government denied. The movements of the Rohingya are restricted; they live under strict curfews, are deprived of basic services such as healthcare, sanitation and education, and their access to food and livelihoods is limited. According to Human Rights Watch, the majority of Rohingya children, both in Bangladesh and Myanmar, don’t currently have access to education, and this issue has been exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These conditions are unacceptable. Not only does the Burmese government need to address these issues, but international aid organizations should do more to ensure that Rohingya children receive some form of education.
Due to the government’s refusal to recognize them as Burmese citizens, the Rohingya people were unable to vote in the latest federal election. At least six Rohingya who applied to run as election candidates were also barred from standing. Most of the polling stations in Rakhine were closed due to violent conflicts between ethnic rebels and government armed forces. Voting was also cancelled in other parts of the country affected by armed conflicts. This led to the disenfranchisement of over a million voters.
While Britain, the United States and the European Union commended the vote, they denounced the disenfranchisement of the Rohingya Muslims. Although the Government of Canada’s website doesn’t have information on the latest election, it details their response to the Rohingya crisis, which includes “$300 million of international assistance funding over three years to address humanitarian, development and peace and stabilization needs in Myanmar and Bangladesh.” Canada also sanctioned some of the people involved in the military response initiated in Rakhine in 2017, and has put into place an embargo on weapons.
Overall, the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people is a humanitarian crisis that should stay in the international news cycle. Countries need to address the ongoing genocide by bringing the perpetrators to court and ensuring that the Rohingya Muslims are able to return home without fearing for their safety. They should also pressure Myanmar into granting citizenship to Rohingya people as this would allow for their emancipation and their suffrage for the first time in decades.