Mahbubar Rahman :
“I do repent; but heaven hath pleas’d it so. To punish me with this, and this with me. That I must be their scourge and minister. I will bestow him, and will answer well. The death I gave him. So again good night. I must be cruel only to be kind. Thus bad begins and worse remains behind”
–Hamlet, William Shakespeare.
The above lines from the Shakespearian drama may sound like beating about the bush while referring to a persistent problem centering on Rohingya influx on Bangladesh territory that has stuck like a thorn in throat and pain in the neck in collective Bangladeshi psyche over last couple of years.
Displaced Rohingya people entered the Bangladesh territory in Ukhiya, Teknaf and other surrounding areas after they fall victim of persecution, torment and genocide by rogue Myanmar army in their homeland of Rakhine State where they lived for hundreds of years. Rakhine State being bordering with Bangladesh territory at Teknaf, Rohingyas considered Bangladesh territory as their safe home and entered in caravans in thousands and thousands. With daily influx in thousands, total number of Rohingyas at Ukhia and Teknaf now exceeded eleven lacs over last couple of years. Meanwhile, within a couple of years about one lac new born Rohingya babies have added to number eleven lacs originally entered as statistics suggest.
On purely humanitarian ground, Bangladesh had to open the border to receive displaced Rohingyas and gave them shelters in different camps at Ukhiya and Teknaf and its adjoining areas, with its own resources and resources subsequently poured in from the international agencies including UNHCR. With a large population in a small territory of 56 thousand square mile; an additional eleven lacs of Rohingya is, indeed, a big burden for Bangladesh.
Despite its limitations, Bangladesh, by the kind efforts of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, had to extend its hands of helps to Rohingyas on purely humanitarian ground which has been widely acclaimed by foreign countries who pledged to side with Bangladesh in dealing the problem towards finding plausible ways and means for quick repatriation of Rohingyas to their homeland. After months of negotiations with Myanmar government through diplomatic channel and, of late, with the Chinese co-operation; at last the Myanmar government have, after playing many tricks and cajoling to delay the process of repatriation, agreed to take Rohingyas back phase by phase only to begin with a very meagre in numbers of even not exceeding 3000 in one phase.
Accordingly dates were fixed twice for repatriation and the last one being on August 22, 2019. As has been viewed by the courtesy of TV network, a caravan of buses and other vehicles was laid on the street to transport Rohingyas to border en route to their homeland. Alas! All the buses returned empty with no Rohingyas agreeing to be repatriated with the plea that Myanmar government should, first of all, guarantee adequate safety and security after they are repatriated to their own land. First phase of repatriation having ended in fiasco, with utter disappointment, government spokesmen including the honourable Foreign Minister expressed their mild anger and said that the level of comforts that the Rohingyas are happily enjoying in the refugee camps are to be, henceforth, reduced to certain level so that Rohingyas will feel interested to go back to their homeland where they are rooted and lived for hundred years in generations. It is no denying the facts that Rohingyas are now better-off in the refugee camps where succor and helps for living are flowing by the efforts of Bangladesh government, NGOs and UNHCR uninterruptedly.
With better-off living condition in the camp, there is no valid reason for them to go back to their homeland where, according to them, their safety & security and guarantees of living in peace is still murky and hangs in limbo. In a big rally held in Ukhiya on August 25— the second anniversary of mass Rohingya influx into Bangladesh, Rohingyas declared in clear term that they with not go back to Rakhine unless Myanmar government stands guarantee to give them citizenship with compensations. Their demand would be more forceful if all eleven lacs Rohingyas would go back to Rakhine and deal in their problems with Myanmar government under U.N. supervision without using Bangladesh territory anymore and making Bangladesh a scapegoat for no fault of Bangladesh. Therefore, with that pretext they are not to go back and instead indulging in the spree of outnumbering the local Bangladeshi population of Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf with equally in the frenzy of destroying ecology in the area by cutting trees and changing the physical feature of land at random.
Already outnumbered local population have expressed their deep anger and indignation and, on occasions, enter into violent confrontation with Rohingyas, who have crouched like persistent pain on neck on local population who are, for all intents and purposes, Bangladesh citizen contrary to Rohingyas who are Myanmar nationals for ages. Expressing his remark on recent reluctance and unwillingness of Rohingyas to be repatriated as per agreement between two countries—Bangladesh and Myanmar, honourable Foreign Minister has said that the Myanmar government has both material and moral obligation to take back their citizens with building enough confidence in them through persuasion and motivation before the Rohingyas go back.
Honorable foreign minister’s expectation in all good faith that Myanmar will take the initiative of confidence-building of Rohingyas to go back home sounds ridiculous in a sense in a state of situation where Rohingyas were driven out with all poisons of hatred from their homeland by rogue Myanmar army with active support of Myanmar’s embedded Buddhist monks who look down at Rohingya and treat them no better than vermin with their psychopathic ugly and racist mind-set; will initiate confidence-building in Rohingyas psyche for smooth transition of going back home. It is further learned that by constituting a Commission, where foreign nationals will also join to convince the Myanmar army, to creating situation in Rakhine State conducive to the requirement of safe return of Rohingyas.
Long two years have already passed since Rohingyas have entered the Bangladesh territory and with years of negotiations and dialogues not a single Rohingyas has been repatriated so far. In the meantime, a segment of Rohingya population is reported to have been involved in drug trafficking and other criminal activities posing upon threat to peace of the region. It is not known how many more years or ages will take to send back Rohingyas after Myanmar convince them to go back to their sweet home (!!) with ‘honor’ and ‘dignity’ — two phases that are often heard from TV talk-show enthusiasts. The answer to this question cannot be found by viewing the overall emergent situation through the lenses of optimism. There is no reason to believe that Myanmar will take back Rohingyas ever so easily before doomsday unless they are forced to do that by the pressure of their powerful mentors in the international arena. It is not likely that Myanmar’s most trusted and powerful mentors in the region will ever create such pressure on Myanmar to take back Rohingyas for business and strategic reasons. Bangladesh has shown enough compassion to Rohingyas on humanitarian ground. Enough is enough.
It is now the time for Rohingyas to either go back to their own country or go back to other countries whose governments shower unrelenting lip-services with unbound sympathies for Rohingya, but have not so far expressed their willingness to take Rohingyas in good numbers in their respective countries. Bangladesh cannot afford to take the gargantuan load of already a mammoth size of Rohingyas anymore which is in increasing trend day by day in arithmetical progression with new births of Rohingya babies by unending procreation process, thereby outnumbering local population in awful and frightening proportion. With deep anguish and indignation, local people are of opinion that Rohingyas with the given comforts in the refugee camps and with slowly consolidating their position in local people’s land will never go back to their homeland unless they are forced to leave through legal means and clear tripartite negotiations and dialogues with the UN presence. Situation being such which warrants Bangladesh to safeguard its own interest and safety and security first, otherwise likely to be disarrayed and destabilised by such colossal numbers of Rohingya presence in the area for infinite time, the sooner Rohingyas are repatriated, the better it is for Bangladesh.
After all, as an old adage suggests: ‘Aapni bachle baaper naam’ (self-preservation is the first law of nature) Bangladesh has been kind and compassionate to Rohingya so long. Should the situation warrants, Bangladesh must be tougher in dealing in the problem as the honourable foreign minister has recently hinted about. Therefore, again borrowing a line from a Shakespearian drama I must emphasize, at this point, that Bangladesh ‘must be cruel only to be kind’.
(Mahbubar Rahman is a former civil servant)
