This went relatively unreported last week, but Oxford has
rescinded the honors given to Aung San Suu Kyi, de facto ruler of Myanmar. The City of London is reportedly considering following suit.
The fall from grace has been depressing to watch. The Nobel Peace Prize winner (1991) fought for decades against the military junta in Burma, living under house arrest. Her party won overwhelmingly in the 1990 elections, but the vote was nullified by the military.
Fast forward to 2015, and the military this time abided by the results, allowing Suu Kyi's party to take control of the government, but had modified the constitution such that Aung San Suu Kyi herself would not be allowed to hold the Presidency. Kind of a dick move, but in the grander scheme of things, that's a pretty big win for democracy, right?
Weeeeeel.....the first signs of trouble were when Suu Kyi essentially stated, "Fuck those guys, I'm running the show regardless of what my title is."
And true to her word, although Htin Kyaw assumed the Presidency, it's been made clear that he has little independency or political capital of his own, and Suu Kyi makes all the decisions. Kyaw even created a new position of "State Counsellor" that functions akin to a Prime Minister, just for her. Not a terribly democratic way to run things.
The bigger problem has been in the last year or so, as the Rohingya (a Burmese ethnic minority who also happens to be Muslim) have been pouring across the borders into Bangladesh and Thailand, claiming that the military had been killing them and burning their villages to the ground. Independent observers and satellite imagery seem to confirm this. Despite Burmese law recognizing 135 different ethnic groups, the Rohingya are not among them (despite having a historical presence dating back to the 8th century and the precolonial kingdom of Arakan), and are denied Burmese citizenship. Indeed, the Burmese government has stopped using the term Rohingya and instead insists that they are Bengali illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
To be fair, the Rohingya have suffered discrimination and occasional attacks for decades, though the attacks were usually unorganized and led by Buddhist monks (btw, if you're burning villages and attacking people as a Buddhist monk, UR DOIN IT WRONG). Now though, the attacks seem to be coming from the military and are far more organized.
And the civilian government led by 'Shadow President' Aung San Suu Kyi? Complete denial of any problem, and a total blind eye to what's going on.
There's a whole lot of people around the world now regretting all the laud and honors they bestowed on Suu Kyi the last couple of decades, as well as Southeast Asia-focused NGOs privately distraught that someone put forward as a leading campaigner for democracy and human rights in the region has turned her back on both so quickly.
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Topic: RedKing's East Asian Politics Megathread (Read 84705 times)