In one of my previous blog posts, I published that 10 to 12 - is the
number of days that a news makes it to the front page of a newspaper. In light
to that publication, you may like to ask yourself, when is the last time you
heard about the Rohingyas in any of your regular newspapers? The chances are,
it’s been a while.
However, here at Daily Positive (D+) we are committed to continue to
highlight the injustice done by the Burmese army to the Rohingyas under the
leadership of Nobel Peace prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. As part of that two of
our volunteers, Abrar Ahmed and Naushad Talukder, recently visited the Rohingya
camp in Bangladesh and brought a fresh and current perspectives to the matter.
Abrar Ahmed and Naushad Talukder
If was asked, “How important it is for you to go back home in Burma?”,
every Rohingya individuals in the camp made it loud and clear that, they want
to go back. However, they are still very concern about their security and do
not believe the situation is conducive for their safe return. Apparent good life
in the camp, where foods are plentiful and life is secure, does not give them the
sense of freedom as life seems to have stopped.
This simple conversation with the Rohingyas reminded us of a famous
conversation from the hit movie Braveheart:
William Wallace: I am William Wallace. And I see a whole army
of my countrymen, here in defiance of tyranny! You have come to fight as free
men. And free man you are! What will you do without freedom? Will you fight?!
Young Soldier: No, we will run and live!
William Wallace: Yes!, Fight and you may die. Run and you will
live at least awhile. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be
willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance,
to come back here as young men and tell our enemies that they may take our
lives but they will never take our freedom!!!
The reason this conversation with the Rohingyas reminded us of the
above is because there is a renewed growing sense of uprising among the
Rohingyas. A strong desire to rise up against the ongoing hardship that has no
end in sight. However, what is stopping them is lack of true leaders and
leadership qualities required for international attentions. That is
increasingly making them feel “terrorism” is their only other option to make
their voice heard. Very recently we have seen terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka,
so close to the Rohingyas, and since then the threat of terrorism became more
real surrounding the Rohingyas. Similar concerns were echoed by the local law
enforcement authorities in Bangladesh while our volunteers visited the camp.
With so many young Rohingyas passing their lives sitting idle whole
day in the camp, it simply needs a semi-appealing trigger from the terrorist
groups to explode. Thus, in order to avoid any big catastrophe, the
international communities need to act very quickly. Burma needs to be held
accountable for this mess that they have created and international communities need
to make sure Burma accepts their nationals back without any further delay.
In the coming days I will share more about other observations that we
had recently, stay tuned and help the Rohingyas to return by spreading this
message.
