July 5, 2016

Myanmar can draw inspiration from Mandela as it seeks to heal internal rifts

Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and the new Myanmar government have cautioned the international community against using “emotive terms” that could make the tensions in Rakhine state more difficult to address.

They are talking about references to the minority Muslim population that has lived for generations in the predominantly Buddhist country’s Rakhine state as “Rohingya”.

The term matters, because it symbolises recognition of a community that has long been oppressed. Denying anyone’s identity is a serious form of discrimination and neither the international community nor the government of Myanmar should compromise when it comes to recognising fundamental rights of this nature. (Courtesy of theguardian.com)

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