Myanmar officials offer new ID cards to skeptical Rohingya

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Myanmar officials offer new ID cards to skeptical Rohingya

Will new 'green cards' lead to citizenship or push it further out of reach for the persecuted minority?

MYANMAR:-- Officials in Rakhine state last week began issuing new identity verification cards to Rohingya Muslims in 14 townships. Authorities say the move creates a path to citizenship for the embattled ethnic minority, yet many Rohingya fear it will instead drive them further away.

Khin Soe, an immigration officer in Sittwe, said the new identification cards have been issued following a decision by the government to reclaim a previous form of temporary identification for Rohingya — so-called ‘white cards’.

“We are issuing green cards and accepting application forms for verifying citizenship for those who want it. Then we will carry out the process according to the 1982 citizenship law,” Khin Soe told ucanews.com on Wednesday.

The Myanmar government revoked the white cards in February and set a deadline of May 31 for cardholders — predominantly stateless Muslims who identify their ethnicity as Rohingya — to turn them in as part of a national citizenship program.

Some 400,000 white cards have been collected as of the deadline, according to the government.

Read more: http://www.ucanews.com/news/myanmar-officials-offer-new-id-cards-to-skeptical-rohingya/73799

[Chao Lao Beach]

Surely this can only be good news ?

[timmyp]

I assume you're being sarcastic, Chao Lao? Unless the good news is to make it easier to send these folks to Bangladesh, that is.

They have to identify as Bengali to get the new card. Once they identify as Bengali, it will be harder to be recognized as Rohingya.

This is clearly a move to kick them out of Myanmar. It makes it easier for the government to claim that there is no such thing as Rohingya, that these people are all Bengalis who shouldn't have cross the border.

[Ulic]

I assume you're being sarcastic, Chao Lao? Unless the good news is to make it easier to send these folks to Bangladesh, that is.

They have to identify as Bengali to get the new card. Once they identify as Bengali, it will be harder to be recognized as Rohingya.

This is clearly a move to kick them out of Myanmar. It makes it easier for the government to claim that there is no such thing as Rohingya, that these people are all Bengalis who shouldn't have cross the border.

I am not sure if it will help or not, but to be clear, they are Bengali. Same language, same religion, genetics etc..

They may have come 1-2-3-10 generations ago but they are Bengali in origin. I may have been born in Singapore

but because neither of my parents had citizenship I have no claim on citizenship. Of course they should have a

path to citizenship. Not sure what it should be. Language is probably one requirement. I have not heard what the

Myanmar path with the green card is. We shall see.

[timmyp]

I assume you're being sarcastic, Chao Lao? Unless the good news is to make it easier to send these folks to Bangladesh, that is.

They have to identify as Bengali to get the new card. Once they identify as Bengali, it will be harder to be recognized as Rohingya.

This is clearly a move to kick them out of Myanmar. It makes it easier for the government to claim that there is no such thing as Rohingya, that these people are all Bengalis who shouldn't have cross the border.

I am not sure if it will help or not, but to be clear, they are Bengali. Same language, same religion, genetics etc..

They may have come 1-2-3-10 generations ago but they are Bengali in origin. I may have been born in Singapore

but because neither of my parents had citizenship I have no claim on citizenship. Of course they should have a

path to citizenship. Not sure what it should be. Language is probably one requirement. I have not heard what the

Myanmar path with the green card is. We shall see.

I am not an expert on the differences between these people. Wikipedia ranks their language as not being mutually intelligible with Bengali.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_people#Language

I can't help but think that you are lumping people together that are really different groups, like saying referring to all Turks as a single group. There are many groups of Turkic people, with different languages and cultures. The word could mean someone from Turkey, it could mean people from other areas in Central Asia.

I don't know at what point we say that a group of people has been in a region for x number of generations, so therefore they deserve citizenship. At what point does it become the majority unfairly kicking out a minority based on xenophobia? The Dominican Republic is currently trying to kick out over 100,000 Haitians who were born there who speak only Spanish and not Creole, Kenya is trying to send back thousands of Somalis who were born in Kenya there. Lots of this going on...

Of course, in the case of Rohnigya, there is the added dimension of violence from the Buddhists. They certainly deserve protection from that.

> I have not heard what the

>Myanmar path with the green card is. We shall see.

I think we can be pretty sure that it's to kick them out of the country. If they register as Bengali (which you say they are), rest assured the gov won't be creating a path to citizenship for Bengalis.

Edited June 18, 2015 by timmyp

[Tomtomtom69]

I assume you're being sarcastic, Chao Lao? Unless the good news is to make it easier to send these folks to Bangladesh, that is.

They have to identify as Bengali to get the new card. Once they identify as Bengali, it will be harder to be recognized as Rohingya.

This is clearly a move to kick them out of Myanmar. It makes it easier for the government to claim that there is no such thing as Rohingya, that these people are all Bengalis who shouldn't have cross the border.

I am not sure if it will help or not, but to be clear, they are Bengali. Same language, same religion, genetics etc..

They may have come 1-2-3-10 generations ago but they are Bengali in origin. I may have been born in Singapore

but because neither of my parents had citizenship I have no claim on citizenship. Of course they should have a

path to citizenship. Not sure what it should be. Language is probably one requirement. I have not heard what the

Myanmar path with the green card is. We shall see.

I am not an expert on the differences between these people. Wikipedia ranks their language as not being mutually intelligible with Bengali.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohingya_people#Language

I can't help but think that you are lumping people together that are really different groups, like saying referring to all Turks as a single group. There are many groups of Turkic people, with different languages and cultures. The word could mean someone from Turkey, it could mean people from other areas in Central Asia.

I don't know at what point we say that a group of people has been in a region for x number of generations, so therefore they deserve citizenship. At what point does it become the majority unfairly kicking out a minority based on xenophobia? The Dominican Republic is currently trying to kick out over 100,000 Haitians who were born there who speak only Spanish and not Creole, Kenya is trying to send back thousands of Somalis who were born in Kenya there. Lots of this going on...

Of course, in the case of Rohnigya, there is the added dimension of violence from the Buddhists. They certainly deserve protection from that.

> I have not heard what the

>Myanmar path with the green card is. We shall see.

I think we can be pretty sure that it's to kick them out of the country. If they register as Bengali (which you say they are), rest assured the gov won't be creating a path to citizenship for Bengalis.

It's interesting how this topic always draws full condemnation from westerners but from my dealings with Burmese, I haven't met a single individual who had anything good to say about the Rohingyas/Bengalis. The Burmese (especially the Buddhist ones) don't want them in their country and most certainly don't see them as Burmese.

My view is that as a sovereign country, they need to figure out themselves how they want to handle the situation. Their country, their rules.

Similarly, the sentiment in Thailand is few Thais want them either (as refugees). I have read some pretty strong anti-Rohingya comments (in Thai, on Thai social media) about NOT wanting to take them in.

It's a very sad situation but doesn't have an easy solution.

But what is very clear is that these people have much more in common culturally, physically, ethnically, and in terms of religion with Bangladesh than with Myanmar. These people are of South Asian ethnic origin, not East Asian. Whether they ultimately belong to Myanmar even if they have settled on that land for generations is up to the Myanmar government to determine. I'm not sure if the general anti-Rohingya sentiment is more of a religious than an ethnic one, my feeling is it's more of a religious one and maybe to a minor extent ethnic one. But generally speaking the Burmese are pretty accepting of people of Indian origin these days, as long as they're Hindu, Sikh, Christian or Buddhist.

[timmyp]

It's interesting how this topic always draws full condemnation from westerners but from my dealings with Burmese, I haven't met a single individual who had anything good to say about the Rohingyas/Bengalis. The Burmese (especially the Buddhist ones) don't want them in their country and most certainly don't see them as Burmese.

My view is that as a sovereign country, they need to figure out themselves how they want to handle the situation. Their country, their rules.

Similarly, the sentiment in Thailand is few Thais want them either (as refugees). I have read some pretty strong anti-Rohingya comments (in Thai, on Thai social media) about NOT wanting to take them in.

It's a very sad situation but doesn't have an easy solution.

But what is very clear is that these people have much more in common culturally, physically, ethnically, and in terms of religion with Bangladesh than with Myanmar. These people are of South Asian ethnic origin, not East Asian. Whether they ultimately belong to Myanmar even if they have settled on that land for generations is up to the Myanmar government to determine. I'm not sure if the general anti-Rohingya sentiment is more of a religious than an ethnic one, my feeling is it's more of a religious one and maybe to a minor extent ethnic one. But generally speaking the Burmese are pretty accepting of people of Indian origin these days, as long as they're Hindu, Sikh, Christian or Buddhist.

You make very valid points and observations.

>My view is that as a sovereign country, they need to figure out themselves how they want to handle the situation.

It's definitely the international community's business now how they choose to deal with the problem, because refugees are spilling over the border.

But in principle, I agree with you that sovereign nations have the right to handle problems within their borders as they see fit.

Rohingya certainly seem to have more in common with those in Bangladesh than any of the groups in Myanmar, but that doesn't mean they should be shipped to Bangladesh either. You didn't say that, but I assume you're saying that due to this similarity, it's not so outrageous that people suggest that they be sent to Bangladesh. In contrast, there are many groups of people that wind up on the "wrong" side of the border, and it is not realistic or fair to send them a neighboring country simply because they are more similar to those in other countries.

There is strong prejudice against South Asians all over the world, it seems these Rohingya folks are really at the bottom of that totem pole.

[simple1]

It's interesting how this topic always draws full condemnation from westerners but from my dealings with Burmese, I haven't met a single individual who had anything good to say about the Rohingyas/Bengalis. The Burmese (especially the Buddhist ones) don't want them in their country and most certainly don't see them as Burmese.

My view is that as a sovereign country, they need to figure out themselves how they want to handle the situation. Their country, their rules.

Similarly, the sentiment in Thailand is few Thais want them either (as refugees). I have read some pretty strong anti-Rohingya comments (in Thai, on Thai social media) about NOT wanting to take them in.

It's a very sad situation but doesn't have an easy solution.

But what is very clear is that these people have much more in common culturally, physically, ethnically, and in terms of religion with Bangladesh than with Myanmar. These people are of South Asian ethnic origin, not East Asian. Whether they ultimately belong to Myanmar even if they have settled on that land for generations is up to the Myanmar government to determine. I'm not sure if the general anti-Rohingya sentiment is more of a religious than an ethnic one, my feeling is it's more of a religious one and maybe to a minor extent ethnic one. But generally speaking the Burmese are pretty accepting of people of Indian origin these days, as long as they're Hindu, Sikh, Christian or Buddhist.

You make very valid points and observations.

>My view is that as a sovereign country, they need to figure out themselves how they want to handle the situation.

It's definitely the international community's business now how they choose to deal with the problem, because refugees are spilling over the border.

But in principle, I agree with you that sovereign nations have the right to handle problems within their borders as they see fit.

Rohingya certainly seem to have more in common with those in Bangladesh than any of the groups in Myanmar, but that doesn't mean they should be shipped to Bangladesh either. You didn't say that, but I assume you're saying that due to this similarity, it's not so outrageous that people suggest that they be sent to Bangladesh. In contrast, there are many groups of people that wind up on the "wrong" side of the border, and it is not realistic or fair to send them a neighboring country simply because they are more similar to those in other countries.

There is strong prejudice against South Asians all over the world, it seems these Rohingya folks are really at the bottom of that totem pole.

How can the Rohingya be 'shipped' to Bangladesh as the Bangladeshi government doesn't want them. In any case ethnic cleansing is internationally recognised as a crime against humanity.