The Stateless ----- (Rohingyas)

Walking through the dense forest on the border of Bangladesh, Rahman had all the worries surging in his mind. Whether he would be able to sneak through the pickets of "nasaka" ( border security force of Burma). He had walked bare foot and in extreme hot and humid conditions to run away from his village. He was all alone as there was nobody left who could accompany him. His head was filled with the screams of women and children including his own. How could he forget the day when his village was first visited by the Rakhine people. The Buddhist who have gone blood thirsty for his blood and his fellow Rohingyas blood. They came with weapons and fuel. They got hold of his young cousin and raped her in front of the village. They gathered everyone in the main square and tied all the males with a rope.They pushed all of them in a line to an unknown place.

He was not among them as he was out of the village and returning. Before he could bump into the Rakhines, he was stopped by the screams. He hid himself in the heavy undergrowth and crawled near to the village. He was horrified at the sight. He was about to jump into the open to fight for his children when he saw the dead body of his wife. His children were nowhere to be found. He tried to see from behind the bush to locate them but it appeared that his young sons were counted among the male and taken away. In a spur of a moment he understood that he had lost everything and there was not much left to safe guard.

As he was among those in the village who have gone to school so he was better able to control his emotions and think with more sense. In a split second he understood that if he has to survive he has to run and cross the jungle into Bangladesh. Only then he could narrate all what was happening in his village and many more such places around it.

He knew that for this all to end he has to knock at the doors of the world and shake their conscience. Though he understood little of anything further. He had a very vague idea of what could be done next but he knew that only chance for survival was in running away.

Here he was bare footed in the jungle. Feeling thirsty and exhausted. The trauma of loss that he has born just and the shock of the sight had made him numb. As if he could feel and think nothing.

After many days of this ordeal he emerged out of the forest into the jute fields where he could see some people in the distance. He was so hungry and tired that he could barely walk. As he got near he understood from the words he listened that he had already reached Bangladesh.

He fainted with utter exhaustion. When he woke up he found himself in a tin roofed hut that barely had any walls. He could hear the buzz of flies mixing with a low murmur of talking, He got up , as he looked around there were many people under that roof. Their faces told their tales of agony and deprivation and fear with such eloquence that it was not difficult for him to understand in minute details how these people have arrived there and what they have passed through.

He lie down again as  he was tried and his body was aching. His mind was still at peace thinking that at last he has crossed the border away from the atrocities of the Rakhine and now he would have the chance to narrate the stories of his turmoil and get some recourse.

But this was not to be as the next day a few people came. They were Bangladesh officials along with there army men. They told them that all the Rohingyas have to go back as their country was not willing to take on the burden of refugees any more.

Rahman tried to argue with one of the official in broken language as much as he could speak. He tried to make him understand that what type of atrocities they were facing in Burma and how his wife was killed and children taken. But this has little impact. Angered by his incessant arguments the official slapped him. This was the time Rahman lost patience and hope both. Tears rolled from his eyes for the first time.

With his little education and further limited exposure  he believed that the world was a place where mostly people were ready to help others. He believed that  he would find justice if he only reached out.
He believed that humans were equal and they have same rights. He had dreamt of sending his children to school and making them educated men. He had dreamt of  small house with his family where he would pass his old days in peace sharing the stories of his great great grand father who lived here in the Arakan Kingdom with peace and harmony. He believed that majority of the humans speak the language of the humanity, but this all was shattered.



He looked around in tears, his fellow hut mates. Most of them with sunken eyes and frail bodies. Whose faces bore witness to the crimes against humanity they have seen.

With the tears blocking his view he realised they were "Rohingyas" the State less people. Who can be buried anywhere they are killed or die but have no land to live. He knew for most them it will be a journey of death either to go back or to go forward to Thailand or Malaysia.

For him the world has darkened and the sun had turned black. He thought of his only sister Gultaz.  She lived in a nearby village near the old site of Mrauk-U with her husband. This was an archaeological site in the Arakan State. Their distress and bad luck started when the Burmese Army set its eyes to make Mrauk-U a tourism site. Her husband was marshaled along with many other Rohingya males from the locality and the nearby villages and were forced to do labour without any compensation. They were barely fed and often beaten and tortured. There was no law for them and nor rights. Even the Army fed its dogs well which helped them sniff out the absconders and runners who would try to escape the trap of forced labour and bondage.

Gultaz husband could take no more and one day he took courage and ran away. Though the Army fed its dogs well but the luck favoured the hungry and beaten Rohingya who was able to run away and cross out of the border and ultimatley reach a refugee camp in Malaysia.

Gultaz was left all alone and at the mercy of the Rakhine Buddhists and the Army. She witnessed so much that she almost lost her mind. Her nerves could take no more. Dead bodies of tortured Rohingyas , molested woman who would find refuge in death alone and charred children who died in flames before they could experience any of the charms of life.

She had a child and she had to save herself and her child. One day she also escaped and the luck favoured her also. She could not recount the journey through the forest, the hunger and fatigue. Yet she crossed into Bangladesh like her brother Rahman., athough knowing nothing about him. She did not stop in the refugee shelters in Bangladesh but she had to buy her way through a boat voyage to Thailand.  The story of this voyage and how it was paid better be remained untold. Or atleast she tried to forget it and swore never to narrate it to any one.

From Thailand she had to go to Malaysia where she was told she would be able to find her husband. When she reached the refugee camp in Malaysia , it was like she had toiled for centuries. There was nothing that was pure any more and nothing was sacred. She could feel herself as a living dead or she would prefer herself to be seen as undead. Not dead till now!! Yes she was not dead in her body but her soul had been badly beaten and had it not been for her child she would have ended her life already.

When she reached Malaysia the camp was a bare hutment with thatched roofs. Food was provided and  clothes were given but the conditions were not good. Necessities were provided but respect was scanty and in short supply. She would stare into the sky through the holes of her hut and see its blue colour and wondered why it was still blue and had not changed to black.

Still the blue sky would remind her of her village and her life with her family; husband and her child.

She held a promise in her heart that when she will get the identity and the homeland back she will educate her child and lead a happy life; settled in her village for the next generations, without having to run and cross borders again. She hoped that she will never have to buy her way on another boat voyage to freedom.

As she gazes into the far sky even now and look for the silver lining as a promise of that day when she will have a home and a home land. She will not be "state less " any more and will have a proud identity of her own. As the proud and courageous Rohingya People who lived for generations in the Arakan Kingdom.


FACTS:

The Burmese authorities stripped the Rohingya of their Burmese citizenship in 1982, arguing that they are Bangladeshi. But the Bangladeshi government also does not accept the Rohingya as their citizens. So the Rohingya community is stateless, with no government that accepts them.

Melanie Teff, Refugees International noted this in her blog on Alert Net."The Rohingya have no rights in Burma, and their lives are made impossible by such practices as forced labor, displacement and systematic physical assault and rape. They are not allowed to marry or travel to other villages unless they pay prohibitively high taxes." 

Read more on this at : ALERT NET BLOG on ROHINGYA


A report by Amnesty International states:

“Declaring a state of emergency is not a license to commit human rights violations,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International’s Myanmar Researcher.


“It is the duty of security forces to defend the rights of everyone – without exception or discrimination – from abuses by others, while abiding by human rights standards themselves.”

The Myanmar government declared a state of emergency in Rakhine State on 10 June, following an outbreak of communal violence the previous week among the Buddhist Rakhine, Muslim Rakhine, and Muslim Rohingya communities. It remains in effect in several areas.

Since then, Myanmar’s Border Security Force (nasaka), army, and police have conducted massive sweeps in areas that are heavily populated by Rohingyas. Hundreds of mostly men and boys have been detained, with nearly all held incommunicado, and some subjected to ill-treatment.

While the restoration of order, security, and the protection of human rights is necessary, most arrests appear to have been arbitrary and discriminatory, violating the rights to liberty and to freedom from discrimination on grounds of religion.


Another report says:

On 3 June, a large group of local Rakhine Buddhists killed 10 Muslims in Taung Gouk township in Rakhine State, who were returning by bus to their homes in Yangon.


Myanmar’s National Human Rights Commission said on 11 July that at least 78 people have been killed since the violence began, but unofficial estimates exceed 100.

Between 50,000 and 90,000 people – with lower figures coming from the government and higher ones from UN agencies– are estimated to have been displaced.

Are you doing something??

Some days back I realised that I have crossed 40. ( Though I had been pending this realisation for a long time only with a hope that I will stay younger)

My estimates of my likelihood of staying alive and kicking are very optimistic and I presumed it would be at least 65 years to 70 that I can pull along. I understand that this is no impressive a figure as there are many who live to the ripe age of 8o and plus. But given my family history I would stick to my estimates.

Given that I have crossed 40 now so that meant that I am left with less than what I have passed already. Now that's quite a disturbing thing because once I look back it all appears to be a very small time.

This has been my dilemma for quite some time now and whenever I try to go to sleep this thought haunts me that I am left with even a lesser time than what I have already spent. And when I look back I see many things that I believe I would like to do before I die.

I had  a dream of my funeral and it was not a very pleasant episode. I kept on thinking and building on the thought as my mind was struck on it. So it kept on going. I found out that I would be shrouded in a white cloth that will be very modest and will have no brand on it. It will  be the plain variety that everybody gets in the market and nothing special about it. Despite of my dislike to this ordinariness I have to stay on this course as there are no varieties of Shrouds available in the market and second at that time nobody will ask me. Even if some one does ask me I will not be able to respond.

I visualised that it will be a big crowd of the mourners but when I tried to visualise a bit closely I could find out many of my great acquaintances not present as they would have pressing meetings and indispensable businesses to attend to. However many of them have shown kindness and sent in Bouquets and flowers to be placed on my grave.

I thought people will be crying at the great loss that the world and the humanity will face when I am gone. But I am seeing nothing of that sort. Rather those who are present are busy on there iphones, Blackberries or chatting with each other and looking at their watches impatiently.

I expected people will be talking about the great service that I have rendered to the humanity by the ground breaking charitable work in the field of education and facilities for the disabled. But I realised they are not; because unfortunately I have died now instead of another 20 or so years later and I was unable to start on all the plans that I had in this field. Alas these people do not know my plans and also they have nothing to see on this count.

I expected people to talk about the great books that I have written. But again these books were in my plans only yet I never thought of devoting time to those at this part of my life.

Really this funeral is turning out to be an embarrassment. It is not close to what I had been expecting.

Further my sons have gotten my grave dug in the community grave yard, it is an ordinary grave without any temperature control or other amenities.

The tomb stone gives out my  name and also a list of all those social and economic positions that I held so dearly in my life. But the grave yard is full of Tomb stones, nobody in my funeral is giving any attention to all those lists that people have inscribed on their stones. What a shame !!, I presume they will at least read my list of achievements. Although I do not remember doing the same at other funerals... I am trying to remember what I had read on other tomb stones in my life. I remember nothing.

And now they have started to place me in the grave. I am trying to cry after remembering all those who I loved but didn't have enough time to tell them so. I could see the faces of my children saddened by the loss. I want to tell them how much I yearned to play with them but I never did that in my life. At this moment I want to give them one last justification that I was too busy to give them time !!

I thought about the money that will be left in many of the banks that I have my accounts in. I wanted to donate something to certain causes that I thought I believed in. But now nobody is ready to present my own cheque books in front of me where I can write cheques as per my wishes.

My wife who I wanted to tell how much I have enjoyed the company and the care. But I remember always not finding proper moment to do that. I wanted to thank my ageing mother for all the sacrifice she has done for me. But I always found that to be a low priority under the burden of pressing commitments.

Though I always had  a list of to do things ready and my organisers and calenders told me what I had to do. But I realise now that the things on my list were different. Unfortunately none of those things I am thinking about now. They were about meetings, dinners, investments. None  of these are required any more. Even the meetings that were on the list when I died; all have proceeded but without me. Some have been delayed till my funeral but will be held again with some one else in my place.

What an agony, this all has played out to be just opposite to what I have expected it to be. All the life I spent meant so little to the world and now at the twilight of this all I find myself one amongst the billions that are either living or dead . I am leaving without making any difference; What difference could I have made? But I am leaving unsung, as people do not find anything extra ordinary about me and my life to talk about after my day of funeral.

Do they not see my cars, may bank balance and my degrees. But I know they see poeple with even bigger , expensive cars, more money and better degrees and ranks. They really do not care.

I have spent my life on the very ordinary and mundane to earn and collect for myself and my family.

They would have remembered me if I had earned and collected for the humanity and done at least half of what I have been planning. I had been postponing till the next day thinking that life will give me a lot more time. But the life doesn't.!!

Though this is a train of thought which I cannot escape even if I try to. But this is the reality also.

If I die today I would not leave behind a legacy any better than other billions and will soon be forgotten.

Are you doing something better to leave behind a lasting memory?? 

Khan Academy

Of Pseudo religious scholars and hypocrites, this was the title that I thought I will write about today.

I have seen the clips that are making rounds at the YouTube showing the anchors who are becoming the so called face of Islam in our society.

What I wanted was to write something about them and to expose them further. I almost embedded a video from YouTube in this blog so that I can make my point. But just about that I stopped and thought once again what I want to do with my time; the next thirty minutes or so which I will invest in writing this blog.

This changed my intentions and I am not in any mood to waste my time on such hypocrites any further. Rather I am driven to something else. A great Pakistani Student that was asked to deliver the commencement address at the initiation of 2012 academic year at the MIT.

I am talking about Sal Khan the founder of Khan Academy. The way Khan Academy introduces itself on its website I am copying that here:

"A free world-class education for anyone anywhere.


The Khan Academy is an organization on a mission. We're a not-for-profit with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education for anyone anywhere.
All of the site's resources are available to anyone. It doesn't matter if you are a student, teacher, home-schooler, principal, adult returning to the classroom after 20 years, or a friendly alien just trying to get a leg up in earthly biology. The Khan Academy's materials and resources are available to you completely free of charge. "

For those who would like to visit the site here's the link:  Khan Academy

They say about themselves : " With over 3,300 videos on everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and hundreds of skills to practice, we're on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace. "
 
They have delivered 172,434,855 lessons already , no mean feat.
 
I heard Salman Khan on the You tube delivering the address to MIT students and faculty. He said that when he started this it was only for his cousins that he created a few lessons. But that gave him an idea and he expanded it to cover more lessons on many more topics and subjects. While he was doing this he understood that he has already hit a gold mine. If he wanted he could have made millions or more with this idea. But he chose otherwise. He chose to share the knowledge with others and specially with those who cannot afford. He made all the content available to the whole world. 
 
With more than 170 million lessons delivered worldwide I think he has already made a great difference.  If you require you can learn on many topics including Maths, Stats, Biology etc and also when you are struggling with your young ones to make them understand basic topics , you can find immense help at the Khan Academy. Just click on the lesson and you will see a short crisp lesson delivered on your computer screen.
 
We can learn from him and contribute in our own humble ways to the good of the society and the world.
 
Please see the link of the address that Khan delivered at MIT University:
 

Effective People, Open Minds, Right Priorities

I am reading the Seven Habits of Highy Effective People by Stephen Covey. I am reading it again. It talks about positive things. At one point he says ; To paraphrase Peter Drucker, effective people are not problem-minded; they're opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems. They think preventively.

What is the problem with us in Pakistan. We waste a lot of time and we do not take account of our productivity. This has led to our down fall. Our major pass time is basically just wasting time. We are always in a crisis mode and as a nation we move from one crisis to other.  There is no thinking on a preventive level.

Open mindedness is totally absent and our education system and the values at home and in the social circle make us slaves of closed mind set. This close mind set has been evoked and enhanced by the vested interest of the political feudal elite and the religious mafia. Adding to this misery are the civil and non civil state actors. 

As muslims we should have been the most open minded people. When we were close to the core teachings of Islam we were the inventors and the discoverers. We  were the ones that questioned the old established beliefs and brought down the age old  orders of apartheid and tyranny.

We have to be open minded to opportunities.

We have to start dreaming. In a sense that unless we have the dreams we will not endeavour  and there will be no change at the personal or national level.

In the book there was mention of  aresearch; One of the main things his research showed was that almost all of the world-class athletes and other peak performers are visualizers. They see it; they feel it; they experience it before they actually do it. They Begin with the End in Mind.

In the end I want to close by noting a quote by Goethe, again that I read in the same book; Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least --

The Chronicles of Narnia

 I looked up the writer of the Narnia series of novels and movies on the net. He is C S Lewis. I looked for C S Lewis on the wiki pedia.

This is  a series of Novels and then there are Movies based on those novels.

C S Lewis is the writer of the Narnia series of novels. he was a convert Christian and he used these novels to portray the christian parallels in a sort of a fairy tale for children. This is no conspiracy theory and I am only copying exactly from Wiki Pedia.

The Point I want to make is that what is running on the screens even in the fairy tale movies and cartoons for children has a lot more to it.





We must be able to understand and only then there can be any meaningful respose.I am copying one para out of the Wiki pedia page on "The Chronicles of Narnia" by C S Lewis. This is as follows:


"Christian parallels

Specific Christian parallels may be found in the entries for individual books and

characters.

C.S. Lewis was an adult convert to Christianity and had previously authored some

works on Christian apologetics and fiction with Christian themes. However, he

did not originally set out to incorporate Christian theological conceptsinto his

Narnia stories; it is something that occurred as he wrote them. As he wrote in

Of Other Worlds:

Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say

something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an

instrument, then collected information about child psychology and decided what

age group I’d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and

hammered out 'allegories' to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn’t

write in that way. It all began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a

queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn't anything Christian

about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord.

Lewis, an expert on the subject of allegory and the author of The Allegory of

Love, maintained that the books were not allegory, and preferred to call the

Christian aspects of them "suppositional". This indicates Lewis' view of Narnia

as a fictional parallel universe. As Lewis wrote in a letter to a Mrs Hook in

December 1958:

If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair

[a character in The Pilgrim's Progress] represents despair, he would be an

allegorical figure. In reality, however, he is an invention giving an imaginary

answer to the question, 'What might Christ become like if there really were a

world like Narnia, and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that

world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all.

Although Lewis did not consider them allegorical, and did not set out to

incorporate Christian themes in Wardrobe, he was not hesitant to point them out

after the fact. In one of his last letters, written in March 1961, Lewis writes:

Since Narnia is a world of Talking Beasts, I thought He [Christ] would become a

Talking Beast there, as He became a man here. I pictured Him becoming a lion

there because (a) the lion is supposed to be the king of beasts; (b) Christ is

called "The Lion of Judah" in the Bible; (c) I'd been having strange dreams

about lions when I began writing the work. The whole series works out like this.


The Magician's Nephew tells the Creation and how evil entered Narnia.

The Lion etc the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Prince Caspian restoration of the true religion after corruption.

The Horse and His Boy the calling and conversion of a heathen.

The Voyage of the "Dawn Treader" the spiritual life (especially in Reepicheep).

The Silver Chair the continuing war with the powers of darkness

The Last Battle the coming of the Antichrist (the Ape), the end of the world and

the Last Judgement.



With the release of the 2005 film there was renewed interest in the Christian

parallels found in the books. Some find them distasteful, while noting that they

are easy to miss if you are not familiar with Christianity. Alan Jacobs,

author of The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis, implies that

through these Christian aspects, Lewis becomes "a pawn in America's culture

wars". Some Christians see the Chronicles as excellent tools for Christian

evangelism.

The Plight of Rohingya People

I read this in Wickipedia and would like to reproduce it with out any change;

According to Amnesty International, the Muslim Rohingya people have continued to suffer from human rights violations under the Burmese Buddhist junta since 1978, and many have fled to neighboring Bangladesh as a result:

"The Rohingyas’ freedom of movement is severely restricted and the vast majority of them have effectively been denied Burma citizenship. They are also subjected to various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation; land confiscation; forced eviction and house destruction; and financial restrictions on marriage. Rohingyas continue to be used as forced labourers on roads and at military camps, although the amount of forced labour in northern Rakhine State has decreased over the last decade."

"In 1978 over 200,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh, following the ‘Nagamin’ (‘Dragon King’) operation of the Myanmar army. Officially this campaign aimed at "scrutinising each individual living in the state, designating citizens and foreigners in accordance with the law and taking actions against foreigners who have filtered into the country illegally." This military campaign directly targeted civilians, and resulted in widespread killings, rape and destruction of mosques and further religious persecution."

"During 1991-92 a new wave of over a quarter of a million Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh. They reported widespread forced labour, as well as summary executions, torture, and rape. Rohingyas were forced to work without pay by the Burmese army on infrastructure and economic projects, often under harsh conditions. Many other human rights violations occurred in the context of forced labour of Rohingya civilians by the security forces."

As of 2005, the UNHCR had been assisting with the repatriation of Rohingya from Bangladesh, but allegations of human rights abuses in the refugee camps have threatened this effort.[38]



Despite earlier efforts by the UN, the vast majority of Rohingya refugees have remained in Bangladesh, unable to return because of the negative attitude of the ruling regime in Myanmar. Now they are facing problems in Bangladesh as well where they do not receive support from the government any longer.[39] In February 2009, many Rohingya refugees were rescued by Acehnese sailors in the Strait of Malacca, after 21 days at sea.[40]



Over the years thousands of Rohingya also have fled to Thailand. There are roughly 111,000 refugees housed in 9 camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. There have been charges that groups of them have been shipped and towed out to open sea from Thailand, and left there. In February 2009 there was evidence of the Thai army towing a boatload of 190 Rohingya refugees out to sea. A group of refugees rescued by Indonesian authorities also in February 2009 told harrowing stories of being captured and beaten by the Thai military, and then abandoned at open sea. By the end of February there were reports that of a group of 5 boats were towed out to open sea, of which 4 boats sank in a storm, and 1 boat washed up on the shore. February 12, 2009 Thailand's prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said there were "some instances" in which Rohingya people were pushed out to sea.



"There are attempts, I think, to let these people drift to other shores. [...] when these practices do occur, it is done on the understanding that there is enough food and water supplied. [...] It's not clear whose work it is [...] but if I have the evidence who exactly did this I will bring them to account."