Guest contributor

Pacifist Farooq

In August, the world witnessed Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resign and flee to India, putting her colleagues in government in hot water for the mistreatment of Bangladeshi students. Members of Hasina’s Awami League party also fled the country, although some were reportedly arrested and killed in reprisal for the way they mistreated anti-government protesters.

Hasina destroyed her party and damaged the image of her late father, the independence hero of Bangladesh Sheik Mujibur Rahman. After Hasina fled Dhaka, protestors destroyed and set fire to the historic residence and museum dedicated to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Road No. 32 in Dhanmondi, an upscale residential area of the capital. 

A video shared to social media shows a man urinating on the head of a Sheikh Mujibur Rahman statue. Over one thousand sculptures and murals of the independence hero were either vandalized or uprooted in 59 districts from August 5-14. People who once supported Sheikh Hasina joined in to topple statues meant to commemorate her father.

Sheikh Hasina ruled Bangladesh for the last 15 years and over 20 in total. A student-led mass uprising against her increasingly authoritarian rule sent a shockwave not seen since Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned and fled Colombo in July 2022.

While watching the fall of Sheikh Hasina, I prayed that the fate of Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing would not be the same. When the Spring revolution succeeds, will he flee to China or Russia? How would his military regime end? No one can predict any outcome like Bangladesh’s in Myanmar.

The appointment of Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner known for his humanitarian work, as a leader of the interim government brings hope in the hearts of both Bangladeshi and the one million Rohingya refugees living in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

As a Rohingya, I’m quite hopeful for Yunus. I still remember when we were fleeing Myanmar in 2018, he strongly condemned “the ethnic cleansing and genocide“ against Rohingya and put “100 percent of the blame” on Myanmar State Counsellor – and fellow Nobel laureate – Aung San Suu Kyi for the Rohingya plight and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party’s failure in leadership.

Yunus has prioritized the Rohingya issue and knows many of our leaders. Upon his appointment as interim leader of Bangladesh, he promised to support the Rohingya in his first policy speech, despite having lots of issues in reforming the government in Dhaka.

On August 16, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres wrote to Yunus to “ensure the well-being of Rohingya refugees” giving special attention to the deteriorating situation in Myanmar since the 2021 military coup.

Bangladesh shares a 168 mile (271 km) long border with Myanmar. Since the renewal of fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and the military in Rakhine State in November, around 8,000 Rohingya have sought refuge from the violence across the border. But many have been pushed back by the Border Guard Bangladesh.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are reportedly waiting to cross the Naf River and take refuge in the camps near Cox’s Bazar, which already hosts over one million who fled a genocide perpetrated by the military against us.

Bangladesh is far and wide the most affected country by the Myanmar crisis. Therefore, Dhaka should be bold and wise in its relationship with Naypyidaw.

The irony is that the Sheikh Hasina Awami League government’s foreign policy was full of miscalculations. When the Myanmar military was dramatically losing territory to anti-coup forces across the country, Bangladesh kept assisting the Myanmar military by safely repatriating its soldiers who fled the AA offensive to seek sanctuary in Bangladesh.

Isn’t it ironic that the same troops who carried out the military’s genocide against the Rohingya also fled into Bangladesh for refuge?

Nearly 500 members of the military and its border guard forces were safely returned to Myanmar, which allowed them to regroup and kill more innocent Myanmar civilians. In doing this, Bangladesh strengthened and supported the military.

Dhaka, for years, was so strict with its foreign policy—friendship to all, malice to none—that it could not save its own people. For example, around 1,000 Bangladeshi civilians have been reportedly killed near the Bangladesh-India border by India’s Border Security Force (BSF) from 2001-12, according to human rights groups. This is known in Bangladesh as “border killings.”

During my time living in Bangladesh, I have observed Dhaka is quite neutral. It doesn’t interfere in the internal affairs of any country. But the case with Myanmar should be different, as it hosts a large number of Rohingya from Myanmar. On the other hand, pro-democracy forces and ethnic resistance groups have taken control of over half of the country, with the Myanmar military losing northern Rakhine to the AA, including Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships—home to the majority of Rohingya.

Taking account of Myanmar’s negative impact on Bangladesh and the major advancement of anti-coup forces in the country, I hope Yunus may take the initiative to cooperate with Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), which is the only entity that accepts Rohingya as citizens.

In a letter written on August 16, revolutionary forces and civil society organizations urged the interim government of Bangladesh to cooperate with the NUG and other resistance groups. They are hopeful that Yunus will support democracy and human rights in Myanmar, as the anti-government protest leaders put their faith in him, we will do the same.

Given his background as a humanitarian and social justice advocate, I believe Yunus will place pressure on the Myanmar military to secure the existence of the Rohingya in Rakhine. I also believe he will seek global intervention and strengthen ties with international organizations such as the U.N., the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to push for a solution, including the repatriation and recognition of Rohingya rights.

To conclude, I would like to appeal to Yunus to use his global stature and international networks as a moral imperative to put an end to the Min Aung Hlaing military regime, which would end the suffering of the people of Myanmar, including the Rohingya.

Pacifist Farooq is a Rohingya refugee, poet, and teacher living in the world’s largest refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

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