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By GAN
Shortread: Opinions December 12, 2024
It would be an understatement to say Bangladesh has been preoccupied with forcing the Burmese/ Myanmar government to resettle Muslims from refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, its south-eastern district. Over many decades, Bangladesh has put its diplomatic shoulder to the successive regimes in Myanmar to take the refugees from its southern camps, both through public channels and international fora as well as through bilateral interactions. Especially in tandem with agencies of the United Nations, its consistent policy approach is working with the government in Nay Pyi Taw (previously Yangon) to provide “safe” conditions for the Bengali-speaking Muslim people. Despite these long, arduous and sustained efforts, the so-called returns never eventuated. Even worse, there were further exoduses in 2012 and 2017.
Even after the 2021 coup by the State Administrative Council, this diplomatic policy posture of Bangladesh to Myanmar in relation to creating peaceful conditions in northern parts of Arakan, especially in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships. Bangladesh and international communities focused on building houses and finding livelihood opportunities to make lives on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border highly attractive to those living inside camps in Cox’s Bazar. Even in recent years, despite the alleged genocide of Muslim people by the Myanmar Armed forces, there was an attempt to work with the SAC to commence talking about the possible resettlement of the refugees.
From Illusion to Reality
Why is the same approach being taken even though it has been proven to be ineffective, and even counterproductive? There have been many versions of public gestures or prescriptions all within the same policy posture of forcing Myanmar State to take the large population from the camps. Once it was about creating a set of concentrated and protected compounds as if a type of gated community would be socially and economically conducive for longer-term peace in this region. Of late, there is the concept of safe zones potentially with involvement from external stakeholders. This gesture of Bangladesh has been criticised as a meaningless tactic of Dhaka in playing realpolitik with its Western “friends”.
Any diplomatic gestures publicly expressed without any genuine involvement of the Arakanese communities is an empty policy posture. The successive gestures in relation to the Muslim refugee issues have been gestures without meaningful engagement of the Arakanese communities. They neglected any views of the Arakanese people with extreme biases. They considered the historical, cultural and social grievances with undue disdain. They regarded the Arakanese as a mere subset of the broader national agenda of xenophobia and narrow nationalism. These international gestures that Bangladesh hitherto promoted had failed to consider the centrality of Arakanese in finding a peaceful and cohesive Arakan for all communities can enjoy a peaceful welcome.
Yet, the only public gesture of late coming from Bangladesh that could have a small resemblance to any positive outcomes could be achieved. The recent ministerial statement from its Foreign Affairs Adviser acknowledged the need for the involvement of the Arakan Army in any arrangement related to refugee issues. However novel this public gesture maybe, this however, does not yet signal any changes in its policy gesture. This is not simply a state policy issue, as it is a deeply rooted and multifaced complex issue with a deeply vested set of players, especially among Muslim leaders based in Bangladesh and various overseas countries. The Bangladeshi Foreign Adviser’s prescription of “fostering” leadership of the Muslim community shows the same policy gesture that followed a rather simplified and limited approach of the previous kind, rather than a more enlightened one.
What Need to be Done
It has still failed to recognise the United League of Arakan (ULA), the political wing of the AA, for its efforts in creating social cohesion in the areas it is now administering. This new approach signals under the ULA, the Arakanese people are experiencing a departure from the archivism of ethnonationalist bends that plague Myanmar. The ULA’s policies and practices are ensuring all communities in Arakan enjoy the same privileges. The ULA has been actively working to create a genuine sense of inclusion for Muslim communities in its administration.
While such a social cohesion approach is being implemented, the military successes of the AA in all parts of Arakan have heightened its political importance significantly. Yet the policy posture of Bangladesh, along with the international communities, remains the same. At worst, it has even included the overture of playing to further politicization and manipulation of the social schism that ignited the current flame of ethnonyms and communal hatred. Bangladesh could end up stroking the smoke of deception through its support for so-called leadership among Muslim activists and advocates outside of Arakan. Furthermore, there are other gestures not conducive to a friendlier connection with communities in Arakan—including Muslims in Buthedaung and Maungdaw—such gestures as blocking the flows of humanitarian assistant materials and medicines, labelling these flows as informal trade. More positive gestures from Bangladesh are still needed to indicate there is a new policy posture in Dhaka with a genuine intent for long-lasting solutions in its neighbourhood.
The Arakanese people and their political leadership, in the form of the ULA, have already demonstrated the pathway for long-lasting peace in Arakan. Now the ball is in the court of those wanting to see genuine peace in Arakan to work with them in following their leads in finding the real political settlement so that all communities can enjoy peace, away from the daily fear of their immediate neighbours. Only peace is through a social inclusion approach inside Arakan, not a grand gesture on those outside.
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