Md. Habibur Rahman :
The influx of Rohingya Refugees crises are one of the most humanitarian catatrophes in the world. Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Myanmar: Ethnic Conflict and Resolution is edited by Kudret Bülbül, Md. Nazmul Islam and Md. Sajid Khan. The recent coup in Myanmar and the detention of the democratic leaders is what makes this book relevant and timely. The things unfolding in Myanmar have surprised the whole world with its latest military coup and a subsequent emergency declaration in 2021. This edited book debates the current crisis of ethnic Rohingyas’ in Myanmar by discussing their history, policy, politics, and the most importantly, by focusing on Rohingya ethnic conflict and resolution.Furthermore, the role played by China, India, other international actors, and “big powers” have been described to offer a holistic understanding of the policy challenges and current issues in resolving the Rohingya crisis.
The book covers global politics as well as regional responses to Myanmar’s Rohingya crisis, ?focusing more on the regional policies and politics of South and South-East Asia including ?countries such as China, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Also, it evaluates whether actual activities of repatriation agreements are being officially prioritized by the Bangladesh and Myanmar governments. Moreover, this book discloses whether regional countries such as India and China are interested in the Rakhine State of Myanmar and are willing to resolve this humanitarian vulnerability or do they consider this issue to be beyond their foreign policy. Eventually, this book offers an account of a previously little known, yet much-discussed role of the media from Bangladesh and India, international actors, including western and Turkish approaches, contributions of INGOs and NGOs, the Myanmar government’s policy and politics, and Bangladesh’s response towards Rohingya. It contains detailed discussions on the Rohingya challenges in Bangladesh and how the Rohingya case could be verified under international law. It also pertains to issues such as human trafficking in reference to Rohingyas, and attempts to identify humanitarian-based solutions with special stories, experiences from the top activists and leaders from the Rohingya diaspora.
This edited book focuses on the Rohingya refugee crisis beyond history and politics within the framework of its sixteen chapters. This book is based on primary and secondary research containing descriptive, fact-finding and fieldwork data that had largely been drawn from the available literature. This book contains contributions of prominent scholars and academicians who are very well-known in the field of politics, refugees, ?migrations, media, international law and Rohingya crisis. Nevertheless, this book contends 16 (sixteen) chapters under two specific thematic areas such as policy and politics of Rohingya Crisis beyond the Refugees, Rohingya ethnic conflict and resolution. However, in the analytical section, the book places forth several thematic, theoretical and experimental discussions.
Prof. (Ass.) Dr. Ali Dadan and Abdur Rahman Fuad, assessedin the first chapter, how Islam came into the Arakan and its internal diffusion process. The authors explained some key assets of Muslim development and how it progressed in the Arakan region that predominantly reflected the glorious period of Arakanese Muslims. At the outset, Dr. Dandan and Fuad emphasizes the pre-Islamic history of Arakan, and discussed in general about the first Arakanese kingdom, founded in B.C. 2666.
Dr. Nebile Pelin Manti and Adv. Dilara Nur Cansu Islam, identifies the three legal themes, including genocide, forced migration and forced labor. They also assessed whether the Myanmar government and their security forces acted against the Rohingy an ethnic group in the Rakhine state. Theyevaluated any breaches under international law and discussed it in chapter two. In this case, the authors analyzed the ‘elements of genocide’ in the theoretical frame with contextual evidence from reports of international organizations, think tanks, and newspapers. The theoretical framework consisted of previous decisions given by ICTY, ICTR, ICC, and ICJ.
In chapter 3, Md. Sajid Khan and Nurefsan Ariçam focused on the refugees and human trafficking issue ?in South Asia with special reference to the Rohingya crisis of Myanmar. They use a descriptive approach to identify the Rohingya trafficking issue, which highlights the present laws, policies, and government efforts, intra- governmental and non-government organisations working to combat refugee ?trafficking in South Asia.
Asif Bin Ali aims ?to investigate the Myanmar government’s major policies and politics towards the Rohingya ethnic minority group between the period 2008-2020. In that respect, the author examines the intention and limitations of the Myanmar government’s policymaking process and analyzes the underlying factors driving Myanmar’s policy and politics, including institutional constraints. To achieve that understanding, the author takes a constructivist approach by following a qualitative methodology and conducts an analysis of textual data.
Sariful Islam analyses the political interests of the political parties -particularly parties in power in Bangladesh – in relation to hosting or not hosting Rohingyans in the fifth chapter of the book. With such analyses, the author problematizes the claim of the Bangladesh government’s response as pure “humanitarian.” Author argument holds that over a period of time with all three regimes (Ziaur Rahman (1978), Khaleda Zia (1991-1992) and Sheikh Hasina (2017) did not face ?much difficulty in responding positively to the Rohingya, as there was support – domestic and international – for such a policy. The author shows how the pursuit of power and political legitimacy appears to have played a part, in different ways, in their “humanitarian responses.”
Md. Nazmul Islam and Habibur Rahman focused on the ?Rohingya Muslim refugee crisis from the perspective of both the Bangladesh and Myanmar foreign policies. Here, both instrumentalism and primordialism theories were employed to identify the Rohingya ethnic minority crisis in Myanmaras discussed in the sixth chapter. This chapter also explores whether and how Myanmar and foreign countries are trying to ?achieve their own interests in the Rakhine State. The authors outlined the steps that Myanmar took to resolve the Rohingya catastrophe by analyzing the foreign policies of Bangladesh and Myanmar to ?address the region’s current humanitarian emergency.
Prof. (Assoc.) Md. Ishtiaq Ahmed Talukder has identified the understanding of the modern-day refugee crisis in Bangladesh, especially the economic impact of the Rohingya refugees on Bangladesh in the seventh chapter. Therefore, the author tried to understand whether the refugees are a blessing or curse to Bangladesh.
Prof. Dr. Vedat Isikhan and Md. Sajid Khan explore how with each passing year, the Indian ?government and non-government ?organizations have changed their plans to deal with the Rohingya refugee crisis in chapter eight. The authors employed a descriptive study to understand the various aspects and factors behind the current policies and real politics of the Indian Government towards Rohingya and Myanmar. In that case, they revealed the role of I/NGOs in supporting Rohingya refugees in India. Additionally, the authors explore the recent coup and the succeeding challenges for both the Indian government and the Myanmar government in resolving the Rohingya refugee crisis. The author also assesses how the recent coup in 2021will jeopardize India’s strategies and geopolitics for handling Rohingya issues. They also highlightthe kind of challenges ?and problems faced by the government and the Rohingya refugees in India.
Faisal Mahmood, Md. Nazmul Islam and Md. Sajid Khan examines the deriving factors that pushed China to be a peace settler in the region and tries to ?find out their key interests linked tothe crisis in chapter nine. In this chapter, the authors argue that China’s prime motive is to achieve its strategic and economic goals associated with both Myanmar and Bangladesh rather than to resolve the ?Rohingya crisis.
It has been sated that Turkey is a ‘Humanitarian Actor’ in the “Assistance to Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh and Myanmar” chapter by Nurefsan Ariçam, Md. Nazmul Islam, Lutfun Nahar ? and Esra Eymen Cansu.
Mobassera Jahan Fatima ? and Prof. (Assoc.) Dr. Aytül Tamer Torun addresses how Rohingyas are represented to ?the people of Bangladesh by the Bangladeshi newspapers in chapter eleven. ?For this purpose, the authors main aim was to find an in-depth analysis of the Rohingya refugees’ representation in the top five Bangladeshi media outlets (both Bengali and English). They conducted this using the content analysis method in the context of the historical relationship between Myanmar and Bangladesh. Accordingly, through their content analysis, the authors identified the top five common themes of the newspapers: humanitarian crisis, the atrocity of the Myanmar army, labeling as the affected as ‘Rohingyas’ instead of ‘Refugees,’ diplomatic negotiation for a reasonable solution, and repatriation of Rohingyas.
Kanika Walia and Prof. Dr. Serdar ztürk explored the media reporting of the Rohingya issue in the Indian mass media in chapter twelve. The study is based on the thematic ?analysis of two major Indian ?news media outlets. The authors employed the descriptive study for analyzing the various set of themes related to the Rohingya refugees reported from August 2017 to December 2019. The ?chapter also explores the media ?discourses about India’s position in relation to the Rohingya situation and how it helps in developing public opinions.
Gershon Dagba and Israel Nyaburi Nyadera, examines how the international community (particularly thewestern countries)?are responding to the situation in chapter thirteen. Are the efforts and commitment to end the brutality against the Rohingyas enough What actions are being taken so far and are there any gaps ?that can be filled to achieve a ?quicker and more sustainable resolution to the problem These are the questions that theeauthors sought to address. In this way, the authors structured this chapter by examining the genealogy of the Rohingya crisis and responses from Western countries where they ?illustrate how Western countries could channel their ?efforts through the ASEAN framework to contain and moderate the violence being committed against the Rohingyas.
Aghna Shujat, Md. Sajid Khan and Md. Nazmul Islam, statethestrategies of non-governmental organizations for encouraging social cohesion of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in chapter fourteen. To ?achieve a better ?understanding of INGOs and NGOs strategic policy towards Rohingya refugees, the authors?focus on a systematic literature review on social cohesion. Considering social cohesion as a multidimensional concept, the authors analyzed the INGOs and ?NGOs’ work and activities ?towards Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
Sanjida Parveen and Dr. Mehebub Sahana examine the relationship between forced migration, resultant identity crises and humanitarian solutions for the Rohingya crises in chapter fifteen. In this chapter, authors argued why Rohingya’s had been deprived of their identities of not just being Muslims but also human beings. The authors clarify a historical demographic assessment of Rohingya through the relation of the nation-state and its borders, their exclusions, and the magnitude of ill-treatment due to migration to neighboring countries.
The final chapter evaluated the Stories ?from the Spectacle ?of Rohingyas.” Basically, this bookis an editorial desk-based analysis, which explored the problems and difficulties that Rohingya refugees are facing in their host country. Editors usedthis chapter to conduct a thematic analysis aimed at finding out the ?current problems of the Rohingya’s crisis as well as identify the regional and international ?responses to the conflict. Furthermore, the chapter explores both short and long term solutions of the Rohingya conflict and possible resolution. The editors also identified the future of the Rohingya people and Rohingya refugees in general around the world. Editors used semi-structured interviews?to get reliable data, where in Rohingya leaders and activists were picked for interview using the purposive sampling method when proceeding with this study.
This is a study of the Rohingyas’ historical, political, ethnic, and policy crises, spanning from the perspectives of South Asian to ?South East Asian countries and from regional politics to international politics. Looking at the current ?situations of the Rohingya, this edited book is suited to historians, political scientists, sociologists, and ?anthropologists, as well as more general readers, policymakers, academicians, and journalists.
( Habibur Rahman is a writer and columnist. He is also a co-author of chapter six of this book. It’s his second article from Springer. He can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected])
