Myanmar Crisis – Parallels with Sri Lanka
By Shenali D Waduge
We are not surprised to hear about the crisis in Myanmar. When the US declared its pivot to Asia, we knew that a problem or problems would suddenly erupt in Asian countries. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, Myanmar has become a victim. The foot soldiers are the Bengali terrorists & the Guinea pigs are the Rohingyas and collateral damage are the Myanmar Buddhists & Hindus. The scenario is no different to the crisis that erupted in Sri Lanka. Both Rohingyas and LTTE have armed movements and are using bogus historical backing to seek a separate homeland. The West & UN are assisting because Myanmar & Sri Lanka are crucial to their geopolitical and corporate agendas while the destruction of Theravada Buddhism remains an unfulfilled historical objective.
Terrorists are not Freedom fighters
It has become fashionable to promote terrorists as freedom fighters. LTTE armed militants were also projected as representing the Tamil people, the same argument is now being used to justify the Bengali armed militant groups that are firing and attacking while pretending to be innocent Rohingyas. LTTE did the exact same. How and who could determine whether they were civilians or terrorists? The armed Bengali terrorists are plucking out fighters from among the Rohingyas just as LTTE plucked its fighters from the Vanni Tamils. None of the elite high class/caste Colombo Tamils or Tamils living overseas sacrificed their children and none of them stopped a single Tamil child being kidnapped and turned into a child soldier. LTTE created their cadres and child soldiers from these Vanni poor and low caste Tamils. Poverty stricken Rohingyas must be easy bait too. Another common feature is that both entities are international narcotic smugglers and this is one key reason why there are forces that wish to use these armed elements to safeguard the passage for smuggling. Kosovo Liberation Army that the West molly-cuddled were similarly used to smuggle narcotics through Europe! Kosovo independence enabled the setting up of a NATO base and continuity of the smuggling nexus. KLA have many similarities to the LTTE. Kosovars Muslims equalled Tamils and Sinhalese equalled Serbs while the same scenario will apply to Myanmar as well.
NATO treated the KLA as a legitimate representative of the Kosovar Albanians – just as the West is treating LTTE created TNA and soon Myanmar will see the emergence of a political party aligned to Rohingyas whom the West will back.
There have been links to LTTE and Rohingya terrorists too and arrests made in Thailand are evidence.
http://www.ssig.gov.my/blog/2009/06/17/rohingya-with-links-to-ltte-al-qaeda-arrested-in-thailand/
Bogus history & minority discrimination – stepping stone for separatism
Strangely while Rohingya name did not exist until its usage in the 1950s the term Ceylon Tamils emerged only after the 1911 census, prior to that all Tamils were known as Malabar Tamils or Indian Tamils because they found their origins in South India.
Of course Britain has to take the bulk of the blame. It was Britain that transported Muslims from then Bengal to Myanmar to work just as colonial rulers brought in South Indians to then Ceylon as cheap labor. If anyone should be taking descendants of those that were brought from overseas for Britains profit & advantage it should be Britain! Not stopping there, the policies of divide and rule, giving undue and unfair prominence to minorities completely ignoring the rights of the majority is how the colonials created the mentality of minorities believing that they could make any demands and the West would happily entertain them.
Myanmar Government continues to claim Rohingyas have no historical claim to Myanmar or Rakhine state and that they descend from present day Bangladesh and Bengal came under Islamic settlement only after 12th century. The same argument is used regarding Tamil Nadu being the origins of Tamils as the same ethnic group cannot evolve or originate from two separate countries. Moreover, many of the Northern Tamils have Sinhala birth names is evidence that Sinhalese were living very much in the North and would have married Tamils that had arrived from South India. The many Buddhist artifacts, archaeological sites proves beyond reasonable doubt of a Buddhist civilization in North and East Sri Lanka while the colonial records further establishes this. Other than the South Indian invader rule, where is the evidence of a Tamil civilization?
To hide these truths, tragically even in the academia have been roped in to put their names against a bogus history being peddled, obviously for handsome payments. The Rohingyas are now adopting the same tactic and soon we are likely to see plenty of false history emerging and it would be good for Myanmar to have their history properly documented and ensure that it cannot be tampered with even for payments. Unfortunately, there are some in Sri Lanka’s academic circles and intelligentsia who have readily become part of that bogus history writing.
Diaspora support
While Sri Lanka’s LTTE were able to create a powerful diaspora many whom went overseas following the July 83 UNP government sponsored riots and became the contributors to the LTTE kitty while also creating a powerful lobby and pressure groups many registered as humanitarian organizations, charities etc that enjoyed tax-free exemptions. The LTTE international nexus was so powerful that its annual profits were declared USD300m by Janes Intelligence. It was they who provided material support to the LTTE while engaging foreign parliamentarians making use of Tamil ghetto areas to pressurize foreign parliamentarians to speak on behalf of them in exchange for the Tamil votes. Money talks and foreign MPs walk became the sole reason why many a foreign MP stood on top of pro-LTTE stages that had gigantic cutouts of Prabakaran and some even delivered speeches.
The Rohingyas are having links to Al Qaeda & ISIS both of which have the political backing of the West and the manpower & money supplied by Western-satellite states. Therefore, Rohingyas would not require to create any diaspora in the nature of the LTTE Tamil Diaspora but a group of Rohingya refugees will certainly be groomed and be used to carry out a well-planned and well-funded smearing campaign against Myanmar. Already PR agencies and actor training organizations must be preparing the scripts and footage to use against the Myanmar Government. We have seen a plethora of fake news, false pictures circulating already. Soon the documentaries will come out like C4 funded by diaspora and would probably be used every time there is a UN/UNHRC session or some international forum that the Myanmar Government is attending. These are areas that the Myanmar Government should now itself prepare for.
They’ll be plenty of foreigners screaming ‘allow access to aid workers’ authors will jump to write books ‘counting the dead’ or someone might die to come out of the ‘cage’, there will be non-stop figures being quoted as ‘dead’ all without names, dead bodies or even skeletons. These are factors Myanmar Government should immediately address and for every allegation being made ask the envoys direct questions which Sri Lanka’s Government and envoys failed to do even in the best of diplomatic language. Even after a two weekly consultative sessions briefing envoys by the GOSL on the situation in the war front at no time did these envoys raise concerns but after the conflict they bring out a list of complaints of what the GOSL did not do! They’ll be plenty of foreign MPs giving figures of dead in their parliament as if they stood infront and personally counted the dead.
Therefore, our advice to Myanmar is – every time a UN envoy or diplomat makes an allegation – ask them proof and continue to demand the evidence. Do not accept their statements without drilling them for evidence to substantiate their claims. This is a must that the Myanmar government and officials must take serious note of.
Both had plenty of ‘fake’ refugees which is why they soon became known as economic migrants –
Geopolitical – Corporate – Neocon agenda
Both countries are important players in China’s Belt & Road initiative. While Sri Lanka is geopolitically advantageous for trade and maneuvering from East-West or West-East, Myanmar abounds in natural resources, gas, oil, jade. What the colonialists could not do during colonial rule the neocons are returning to complete! Look at the manner that immediately after regime change in Sri Lanka, the puppet government removed all restrictions for foreigners to purchase land and are opening arms to invite foreign businesses under any conditions they want while privatizing and selling of national assets and strategic areas are taking place completely ignoring public angst and opposition. Every Tom Dick Harry and yankee are allowed to enter Sri Lanka and dictate terms and given red carpet welcomes!
An article by Chris Kanthan further establishes this https://www.activistpost.com/2017/09/rohingya-genocide-links-corporatism-geopolitics-wahhabism.html
Media Lies
We cannot comment on Myanmar media but Sri Lanka’s media has definitely been anti-Buddhist, anti-national mainly because it is owned by non-Buddhists and families linked to the UNP or Indian-establishment. At no time throughout 30 years did the media ever call LTTE as terrorists and every strike was always reported as ‘alleged’ apart from a handful of writers many have opted to take a stand of simply reporting but not trying to protect the nation or its people from terror using the power of their pen. Immediately after the conflict the media went on a wave of sensationalism going beyond their mandate completely influencing ignorant viewers/readers.
Myanmar government must keep tab on the news (local & international) as the distortions will start piling. We like to make reference to how media SUBSTITUTED the word ‘EVIDENCE’ when the PoE referred to ALLEGATIONS”. A breakdown of this unethical conduct by media is given below. It is more than likely that the same media presently carrying out a tarnishing campaign against Myanmar and in particular the Buddhists will do the same.
There’ll be plenty of NGOs & Human Rights organizations jumping to get a piece of the cake. Conflicts are always a lucrative business and zero conflicts means no jobs for them, so you know why there will always be some sort of conflict and these peace angels will be shedding plenty of tears crying for the ‘victims’, spending lots of time compiling reports and preparing documentaries, releasing statements, speaking as panelists and if lucky some may even be called ‘comrades’ of the terrorists and land themselves a role of envoy in a UN humanitarian mission! We’ve seen it all happening in Sri Lanka and we will not be in the least surprised if the same recipe is used for Myanmar. There may be a little variance the Church was heavily involved with the LTTE while it is most likely that Islamic NGOs funded by the West’s satellite Islamic countries will play a bigger role in Myanmar.
The bias and hypocrisy is visible in the manner that despite over 200 UN Resolutions against Israel nothing happens, while nothing is done against all of the US/UK & NATO illegal invasions, regime change, internal interference, covert operations, sponsoring and funding terrorism, while it is also baffling why the Muslim world are up in arms with Myanmar over Rohingyas but complete silence against Saudi bombing of Yemen leading to virtual starvation and malnutrition of its populace.
Targeting Buddhism
We can recall how Buddhist monks were often referred to as terrorists compared to Al Qaeda and ISIS and the many articles written denigrating Buddhists and bashing Buddhism which is nothing to be surprised about as it is all part of the Abrahamic religions to destroy Dharmic faiths in particular a scientifically proven one when the faith & ritual based religions are being regularly questioned by awakened followers. Both Western Christian & Islamic invaders particularly targeted Buddhist sites, artefacts and killed Buddhists and Buddhist monks. History is witness – destruction of the Nalanda library, Buddhists killed in Maldives, all former majority-Buddhist countries either Islamized or Christianized inspite of Buddhism being the only philosophy to have spread throughout the world among so many divergent communities without having to use a single sword or forced conversion.
Take lessons from Sri Lanka’s mistakes
- Immediately arrest anyone going against Myanmar’s laws and file charges against them without delay. Log the reasons for the arrest and charges officially and issue letter to all foreign embassies informing them that they can see the transparency with which Myanmar is taking action against people who are going against country laws. Sri Lanka’s mistake was not to denazify the LTTE & take action against the LTTE cadres who were arrested, and the TNA the LTTE proxy in Parliament as well as investigate all those who were directly/indirectly supporting the LTTE whether they were local / foreign etc. Therefore, Myanmar must appoint a Commission to look into these terror links immediately & take legal action against them.
- We will not be surprised if the new UNSG appoints a personal panel to appraise him of the Myanmar situation. Watch out as this is likely to become the foundation for successive UNHRC Resolutions following oral statements by UNHRC head that would aim directly at changing Myanmar’s constitution, internal legal systems, education and subtly target to ruin the Buddhist history and heritage of Myanmar, already attempts by infamous and notorious civil society organizations that have been well-funded to brain-wash minds of people and create a bunch of western worshipping locals is rolled out. That plan has succeeded in Sri Lanka but it is likely to take a lot more homework in Myanmar.
- We are very happy to see that Myanmar is taking a bolder role in refusing to allow every UN envoy or their puppets to enter, a mistake Sri Lanka continues to make and has resulted in unnecessary interference in the internal affairs of Sri Lanka to the level of even dictating to the government of what they want done or undone. It is something Myanmar should continue to be aware of and not allow to happen. Meddlesome envoys are only carrying out orders aligned to a diabolical agenda.
- A silver lining comes in both India, China and even Russia realizing that the enemies are now encircling Asia and none of these countries wish to have an unstable Asia amidst the predicted Asia’s Century. For India, though they played a bully to Sri Lanka believing themselves to be superior to Sri Lanka and attempting to give more prominence to Hinduism over Buddhism, in the context of Myanmar and the Islamic involvement, India will now realize that its own turf is now under threat and India are no fools to decide what India’s priorities are. In the case of China rolling out its revived Silk Route (maritime and land) China does not wish to have any Islamic terrorist group causing trouble which invariably would justify the interference or even invasion of Western forces for which they are now nicely preparing the scenario using the same media that happily lied to enable the illegal R2P invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and a host of other countries.
