RAKHINE State has been the tragic counterpoint to all the progress made in Myanmar over the past five years. The numbers are well known: more than 200 dead in communal violence; 140,000 initially displaced, of whom only 20,000 have been able to leave IDP camps; approximately 1 million stateless. Both Buddhist and Muslim communities remain desperately poor, with Rakhine State by some measures the most impoverished in the country. They are also deeply divided, with few immediate prospects for reconciliation.
But amid all the complexity – governance, nationalism, poverty, religion, migration, international relations and, more recently, ethnic insurgency – too much attention has been given to the issue of ethnic identity. The Rohingya/Bengali argument has sucked the air out of more worthy and important discussions on the future of the state. In many ways it reflects the equally unhelpful Burma vs Myanmar debate of years gone by.
For media organisations that value impartiality but also respect a person’s right to self-identify – a form of freedom of expression, something that we inherently hold dear – the issue of nomenclature is also a quandary. Because of the meaning invested in both terms, adopting one as a default will be perceived as choosing a side, of placing one community’s views above those of the other. (Courtesy of frontiermyanmar.net)
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