Dubai: De facto.
Two words which seem to have become the basis for a lot of decisions that Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi seems to operate by.
By definition, de facto means in fact, whether by right or not. And that’s exactly what the Rohingya crisis has become — a fact, whether by right or not.
It’s a fact that children are being beheaded, women are being raped and hundreds of thousands have been rendered homeless.
UN figures
The United Nations’ statistics have corroborated this as evidence for the nearly 146,000 who have been forced to cross the border in just 12 days. That’s also a fact.
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As is the fact that 233,000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh since last October — a country whose politicians have clearly said that they are not welcome.
But Suu Kyi thinks that reports of children being beheaded and women being raped is fake news.
She blamed “terrorists” for “a huge iceberg of misinformation” on the crisis in Rakhine.
Terrorist. A person who uses unlawful violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.
By that definition, Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, you are no better than a terrorist. When you fail as a leader to lead your people out of darkness and towards light, you are a terrorist.
When you choose to remain silent instead of speaking up against widespread injustice, you are a terrorist.
Denial
When you choose to live in denial and look the other way even as children are being beheaded, women raped and countless uprooted, you are a terrorist.
A Nobel laureate in 1991. A terrorist in 2017.
The past few days have seen millions of people, from across the world, collectively urge the Nobel Committee to revoke your title.
I say that’s an exercise in futility. Clearly, you don’t care about the title.
It’s a tiny speck in the wide universe of your political ambitions, for which you can kill or allow killings.
Most of the world, including me, rooted for you when you earned the honour in 1991.
You were a woman who had spent years in jail as a political prisoner, a woman who went on to beat all odds to become the leader of a secular Myanmar.
You were the unifier, a champion of democracy.
Today, you are none of the above. And 26 years on since your big moment, that’s also a fact.
