What started as a movement for an identity and a separate state has now become a crisis catching world’s attention. In less than a month, more than 27,000 people are seeking asylum in the neighboring state of Bangladesh and around 20,000 in no man’s land.
International communities like the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation have been putting pressure on Myanmar. OIC have requested the UN Human Rights commission and security council to look into the matter. OIC has also called upon its members to take steps to curb the existing crisis.
Indonesia has shown concerns about the situation in the Rakhine State. Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has been sent to have a peace talk to end the what UN-sanctioned advisory commission calls it a three-fold crisis
( human rights, development, and security)
The term Rohingya has been derived from the term Roohinga popular during the British rule. Most of them migrated to the region in search of better prospects and others were brought to work on agricultural fields. Currently, these people have been denied citizenship and also denied to be identified as Rohingya by the Myanmar government. Basically, they are stateless. The main objection of the Myanmar government is against the term Rohingya because according to them they do not represent any ethnic group. The next step after accepting them as an ethnic group would automatically be granting them their own state. Most of the states in Myanmar are formed according to the ethnic groups.
The reasons why Myanmar is hesitant is mostly due to security reasons and son of the soil politics. There has been a popular concept in the contemporary politics where the people belonging to the particular region has the rights to rule it, it is not a modern concept Kautilya has discussed it and many other ancients political analyst. These people
( Rohingya ) are considered as outsiders and hence they are disenfranchised.
Second for security reasons, granting them a separate statehood with a Muslim majority so close another Muslim neighboring country is seen as a major threat perception fearing radicalization. Especially with rising radical groups in Bangladesh.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi currently is on his visit to Myanmar and is likely to discuss on the existing crisis. However, the main focus of the visit is the infrastructure projects between the two nations.