They Are Not Myanmar,Do You Know About That Maung Zarni?

Dear Maung Zarni,

 I would not like spending my time on writing or responding to Myanmar people and Bengali concern so-called Rohingya’s issue. I feel like I am being fooled by those Bengali Muslim who call themselves Rohingya as the name that they made up has never appeared and never found in the Arakan or world history before Burma's independence. Many historians and record books that based on Arakan history have already pointed out that there were very little Muslims living in  Maung-Daw and Bothidaung district around 1960, just 20 years before I was born. I was born in Pa-Ne-Chaung Island, 40 minutes drive by boat from Site-Tway, the capital city of Arakan or Rakhine state, Myanmar and have never heard the name so-called Rohingya through my time in Arakan. We do have some Muslim villages in my island and I have so many good Muslim friends as well. However, they have never mentioned that they were Rohingyas who settled Arakan thousands years ago or a shipwrecked Arab trader as so called-Roingya claimed. However, they simply admit or being proud to be Bengali Muslims and we have been living there together for many years peacefully.

As I have mentioned in some comments before, the issue that so-called Rohingya brought to us today is not about creating peaceful community in Arakan and Myanmar or neither human rights issue but simply having an intention to establish Islamic state in Myanmar. My dear Maung Zarni, your accusation of Arakanese being racist is not acceptable and simply insulting not only Arakanse but people of the whole Myanmar.  It seems to me that you have a strong wish for so-called Rohingya to be recognized as one of Myanmar ethics but you do not seem to be ware of the point that Arakanese and Burmese people are making. You should realize that not just those Bengali are being oppressed or poor in Arakan and denied basic human right but vast majority of other native people such as Mro, Khami, Thet, Dainak, chaung thar, Marama and so on are facing the same problem. You might be aware that Arakan is the second poorest state in Myanmar. Our new Mr.Thein Sein government is trying their best but has just a little impact on the situation. There are on going land confiscation and unemployment and no potential plans that would create jobs for coming young generations in Arakan. Many Arakanese are leaving their land in order to find good life, to support their poor families and becoming slaves of Singapore, Thai and Malaysia. I wonder why this so-called Rohingya, mutual and educated Bengalis are not making a single point of it if they love Arakan or do they just think so-called Rohingya are the only human beings who live in Arakan? This is very funny attitude of these immigrant Bengalis, attempting to discriminate Arakanese, the owner of Arakan. Thompon(2001) has said that beliefs and values are a basic part of racism; that is, racism is an ideology. I, therefore, would like to encourage you to learn to see who the racists are.

 Dear Maung Zarni, you might have heard of that a group of Muslim risked their life and crossed the sea to find good life in other countries some years ago but was being arrested by Thai polices. We, Arakanese, were deeply concerned by Thai police’s behavior because they pushed them back to the sea. However, what made me really sad was so-called Rohingya appeared suddenly and took advantage of people in need. They sealed them as Rohingya and took international attention on human right issue. In addition, this is a slap by so-called Rohingyas to Bengali Muslims and taking advantages of Myanmar people as Myanmar is struggling for instability of politic.   

I, therefore, strongly condemn those Bengali who lived outside Myanmar and keep fooling international communities with their fake and false of history of Arakan for their racism. Arakan and his people were civilized more than 5000 years and was a blessed and peaceful country. Buddha, himself, came to Arakan and world first Mahamuni image was casted by the requested of our king Sanda-Thuriya.

“The great outstanding feature in the history of Arakan is the account of Buddha's sojourn in this country and of his supervision over the casting of his image. The story of his seven day's visit with five hundred Rahandas--- his lengthly discourse pregnant with prophesy delivered on the top of the hill opposite the town of Kyauktaw-- His Journey into the city of Dynnyawaddi at the request of King Sanda Thurya--- the casting of the image by men and gods, have been very clearly set fourth by the able researches of the late Dr. Forchammer and need hardly be mentioned again in the present sketch. The Mahamuni tradition is the oldest of the kind we have. It permeates the whole religious history of Arakan and the images that at present sanctify a thousand temples and pagodas in this country are the replicas of the first great and only faithful copy of the Master.” “                                                                                                                                                                      (J.B.R.S Vol. 6, Part3. 1916)

Racism has never practiced in Arakan. You can look at our Arakanese history of Mrauk-Oo, the forth dynasty of Arakan kingdom  from the time king Saw Mwan who built the city in 1430 A.D to the last king Tha-Ma-Da-Rar-Zar arrested by Burmese king Bodaw U Wine in AD1784. There were many foreigners who served for Mrauk-Oo golden place such as Portuguese, Kaman, Bengalis, Siamese and so on. Some of our kings even hired Samurais to protect them from assassination. Furthermore, you may see there are many Mosques ( Muslims’ temple) in Site-Twe, Arakan and doing their regular prayer every days using loud speakers. We, Arakanese, never complained about their religious activities even though these are on going ear-disturbing for the people who do not believe in Islam. Therefore, your accusation of both Burmese and Arakanese being racist is rootless.

My dear Maung Zarni, I respect your attitude of anti-racism and we need to discourage those who misguiding to treat human in a undignified way. However, I would to add that you are simply missing the point. We are defending ourselves and protecting our country from intruders so-called Rohingya who have been insulting our history and using our Muslims’ brothers for their evil intention of establishing an Islamic state in Myanmar. This is not simply a human right issue and we are not encouraging racism in our country but this is responsibility of each and all communities in Burma to do in order to avoid from having potential bleeding ground in near future. I, therefore, would like to ask international communities, Maung Zarni and our Muslim brothers and sisters to participate with the process of terminating the word Rohingya from our world.