Suu Kyi’s Naypyidaw’s Address Should Frighten All People Concerned for the Rohingya
Over the last year and a half, I wrote two articles concerning the genocide in Burma and the election of the National League for Democracy (herein: NLD) after the November 2015 Burmese election for the Cornell International Affairs Observer. (1)Therein, I expressed doubt towards whether Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the NLD and the de facto leader of Burma, as acting state counselor, would enact the change that would put Burma on a path towards an inclusive and democratic society — and thus whether she would take measures to address and stop the genocide of the Rohingya. The conclusion I reached was a negative — that we could not expect Suu Kyi to be a proponent of justice for the Rohingya, and I criticized Suu Kyi for how she approached the military in light of the atrocities committed against the Rohingya by Burmese security forces. (2) In this paper, I will respond to Suu Kyi’s recently delivered speech on the crisis, and why I believe that the speech is a harbinger for worsening conditions for the Rohingya.
Suu Kyi’s speech delivered to the Naypyidaw, the capital city of Burma, on September 19th should frighten all of us. Suu Kyi’s speech was given in response to an exodus of 400,000 Rohingya from Burma following increased military crackdown that involved mass violence, murder, and rape against the Rohingya this past summer. (3) The 30 minute address was also given after Suu Kyi declined to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York last September, likely due to the fierce criticism the leader of Burma is receiving for her inaction and compliance in the genocide of the Rohingya. (4)
The speech was plagued with falsehoods and purposeful manipulation and misrepresentation of the humanitarian crisis the Rohingya are in, and a denial of the ongoing genocide. Suu Kyi lied when she said that ‘all people (in Rakhine, the state of Burma where the Rohingya live) have access to education and health care services; the reality, according to study done by Harvard University, is that “there is only one physician per 140,000 Rohingya, but in the parts of the Rakhine state dominated by the Rakhine, there is one doctor per 681 people. Acute malnutrition affects 26 percent of people in the Rohingya dominated areas of northern Rakhine state, whereas the figure is just 14 percent in Rakhine-dominated areas”. (5) Regarding education, many universities within Burma refuse to allow the Rohingya to enroll as students, so the assertion that all people in the Rakhine State have access to education is a flagrant lie. (6) Suu Kyi has emphatically declared that Burma “does not fear international scrutiny” while denying NGOs unrestricted access — if any access at all — to Burma due to “security reasons”. (7) Suu Kyi declared in her speech “we condemn all human rights violations and all unlawful violence”, falsely presupposing that the Rohingya were equally responsible for the violence in the Rakhine, and falsely presupposing that the Rohingya were not the sole and targeted victims of violence in the Rakhine State from the Burmese military forces. (8) Suu Kyi’s “all-violence-matters” approach comes after a military offensive from the Burmese military forced more than 400,000 Rohingya to flee into Bangladesh. (9) It also false to say that the Burmese government is condemning all violence — the state/government media have only attributed the violence in the Rakhine State to “extremist terrorists” without condemning violent Buddhist mobs or the violence perpetrated against the Rohingya by Burmese security forces. (10)
Suu Kyi’s “all-violence-matters” is to the Rohingya fight for justice as “All-lives-matter” is to Black Lives Matter in the United States: both are efforts to drown out the grievances of a marginalized and persecuted group, while hiding under the veneer for being concerned for all life, when in reality the marginalized and persecuted groups mean little to the dominant group promulgating “all-violence” or “all-lives” matter narratives. Suu Kyi says that she feels “deeply for all people [who suffer]” from the violence in the Rakhine State, yet she is unwillingly to directly speak against the violence the Rohingya have been incessantly subjected to for decades. The NLD will not waste anytime to circulate instances of violence committed against Buddhists; when a mob attacks a Rohingya, however, there is a deafening silence from the same party — the only noise coming from Suu Kyi who then decides to it is appropriate to group the targeted attacks against the Rohingya together with “all violence” in the Rakhine State.
Knowing this, we should be frightened by Suu Kyi’s speech. By giving such a speech, Suu Kyi signaled to the military that she is unwilling to directly challenge them or name their atrocities, giving the military clearance to continue to commit mass atrocities against the Rohingya with the assurance that they will not receive any condemnation from the de facto leader of Burma, and that she will even lie to cover up the nature of the circumstances the Rohingya are. Suu Kyi signaled to the Rohingya that she is not their ally, and will not even name the violence against them, much less name them, unless she is referring to the Rohingya in reference to militants in Burma. Suu Kyi cannot be conceived of as a proponent of justice when she looks into the face of a group of people facing genocide and tells them that “all violence” matters.
Suu Kyi’s willingness to lie and deny the genocide has made her one of the biggest threats to the welfare of the Rohingya people, and emphasizes the need to raise awareness and support for the organizations that have been able to reach the Rohingya and meet their physical and emotional needs, as their government refuses to do so. This November, during the week of the 13th, a coalition of student organizations (cultural, social, political, and religious) will come together for a week of action to raise awareness towards the genocide of the Rohingya. The week will consist of an educational display on the Arts Quad, a panel discussing the genocide of the Rohingya, an art exhibit, and donations will be collected that will be donated to an organization directly supporting and helping the Rohingya. Where Suu Kyi refuses to take action to help the Rohingya, the Cornell community has chosen not to and will do what it can to support the most persecuted group of people in the world.
1)Arce, Chris. “Will Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD Orchestrate the Reform Burma Needs?”Medium, Cornell International Affairs Society , 17 Mar. 2017, Arce, Chris. “Left Behind: Where is the Rohingya’s Place in Burma’s Democracy?”Medium, Cornell International Affairs Society , 17 Mar. 2017
2) Wright, Rebecca, et al. “Aung San Suu Kyi Breaks Silence on Rohingya, Sparks Storm of Criticism.” CNN, Cable News Network, 19 Sept. 201
3)Griffiths, James. “5 Dubious Claims Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi Made in Her Speech.” CNN, Cable News Network, 19 Sept. 2017.
4)Wildman, Sarah. “Aung San Suu Kyi’s Disappointing Speech about Myanmar’s Humanitarian Catastrophe.” Vox, Vox, 19 Sept. 2017
5) Cockett, Richard. “Aung San Suu Kyi Is in Power. So Why Is She Ignoring Her Country’s Most Vulnerable People?” Foreign Policy. Foreign Policy Magazine, 9 June 2016. Web.
6) Carroll, Joshua. “Myanmar’s Rohingya Deprived of Education.” Al Jazeera English, 4 Aug. 2014
7)Griffiths, James. “5 Dubious Claims Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi Made in Her Speech.” CNN, Cable News Network, 19 Sept. 2017
8) Slodkowski, Antoni. “Suu Kyi Breaks Silence Over Rohingya Exodus.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Sept. 2017,
9)“UN: Rohingya Exodus to Bangladesh Exceeds 400,000.” Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera, 16 Sept. 2017,
10) Holmes, Oliver. “Fact Check: Aung San Suu Kyi’s Speech on the Rohingya Crisis.”The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 20 Sept. 2017
