The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas: Ethnicity, Diversity and Media 9781529231373

Table of contents :
Front Cover
The Unheard Stories of The Rohingyas: Ethnicity, Diversity and Media
Copyright information
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
Foreword
Preface
1 The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis
Aim and methodology
The Rohingyas in history
The Rohingya disputes problematized
‘Today’ and the past: the intersections
The origins of civilization in Myanmar
The Mon kingdom (c 6th–11th century)
Pagan kingdom (849–c 1300)
Restrictions on free movement
Genocide has not abated
Organization of chapters
2 A Theoretical Understanding of Rohingyas and Rohingyas in the Media
Theories of Rohingya genesis
Refugees and their status
Kunz’s typology
Refugee status and colonialism
Identity crisis and exodus
Citizenship as identity
The Citizenship Law of 1982
Minority identity
Rohingya identity
Politicization of identity
Response of the world community
Media coverage of the Rohingya crisis
News framing
Refugee portrayal in the media
Conclusion
3 The Path to Refuge: Ethnicity, Politics, Religion, and Global Order
Ethnicity, politics, religion, and global order
Ethnicity
Politics
Religion
Global order
From citizens of Myanmar to statelessness in the world
Impact of the Burma Citizenship Law 1982
The exodus: historical evidence
Unwanted in Myanmar, mistreated in Bangladesh
Violence and exploitation in Myanmar and Bangladesh
Life in and out of the refugee camps
Geopolitics of the Rohingya crisis
Conclusion
4 Dispossession and Displacement: The Crisis and Media Influence
Conceptualizing displacement and dispossession
Displacement
Dispossession
Struggles of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh
Media representation of the refugee conditions
Media framing
The Rohingya crisis in the global media
Framing of refugees in the media
Framing of Rohingya refugees
Rohingya refugees in the Bangladeshi media
Crime and sickness among the Rohingya refugees
Rohingya refugees in the global media
Rohingyas as victims of statelessness, impoverishment, and inhuman treatment
Rohingya refugees as victims and disease carriers
International community and the media
Bangladesh’s media landscape
Media influence
Media coverage of refugee issues
News sources
Rohingyas and the media
Improving the role of the media
Conclusion
Data that can be depended upon
5 Final Destinations and Policy Implications
Voices of the unheard
Broken promises
Repatriation and international law
International support
Different tales to tell: narratives from different media houses
Contribution to knowledge
References
Index

Citation preview

THE UNHEARD STORIES OF THE ROHINGYAS E T HNI CI T Y, DI V E R SI T Y AND MEDIA AKM AHS AN UL L A H DIOTIM A CH AT TO RA J

THE UNHEARD STORIES OF THE ROHINGYAS Ethnicity, Diversity and Media AKM Ahsan Ullah and Diotima Chattoraj With a Foreword by Shahidul Haque

First published in Great Britain in 2023 by Bristol University Press University of Bristol 1–​9 Old Park Hill Bristol BS2 8BB UK t: +​44 (0)117 374 6645 e: bup-​[email protected] Details of international sales and distribution partners are available at bristoluniversitypress.co.uk © Bristol University Press 2023 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-​1-​5292-​3131-​1 hardcover ISBN 978-​1-​5292-​3136-​6 ePub ISBN 978-​1-​5292-​3137-​3 ePdf The right of AKM Ahsan Ullah and Diotima Chattoraj to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of Bristol University Press. Every reasonable effort has been made to obtain permission to reproduce copyrighted material. If, however, anyone knows of an oversight, please contact the publisher. The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those of the authors and not of the University of Bristol or Bristol University Press. The University of Bristol and Bristol University Press disclaim responsibility for any injury to persons or property resulting from any material published in this publication. Bristol University Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race, disability, age and sexuality. Cover design: Hayes Design and Advertising Front cover image: Shutterstock/Naeblys Bristol University Press use environmentally responsible print partners. Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY

Contents List of Abbreviations Foreword by Shahidul Haque Preface

iv v vii

1 2

1 24

3 4 5

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis A Theoretical Understanding of Rohingyas and Rohingyas in the Media The Path to Refuge: Ethnicity, Politics, Religion, and Global Order Dispossession and Displacement: The Crisis and Media Influence Final Destinations and Policy Implications

References Index

43 63 107 127 162

iii

List of Abbreviations EU HRW NGO NRC OHCHR UK UN UN-​OCHA UNESCO UNHCR US WWII

European Union Human Rights Watch nongovernmental organizations National Registration Card Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights United Kingdom United Nations United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees United States World War II

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Foreword Shahidul Haque North South University, Dhaka Former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh (2013–2019) The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority who have inhabited in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, for millennia. They have faced decades of violence, discrimination, and persecution. The United Nations referred to the Rohingyas as the most persecuted minority in the world. The long history of discriminatory and arbitrary laws, policies, and practises in Myanmar has resulted in their denial of citizenship in the country forcing to flee their home country since the late 1970s. As a result, their fundamental freedom and protections were violated, leaving them vulnerable to violence, and abuse. Nonetheless, their largest exodus began in August 2017 when a wave of violence erupted in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, causing more than a million people, half of whom were children, to flee to Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and other countries in the area. Even though the present refugee crisis has dominated global news for months, the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladeshi camps has received little attention in the local regional press. Instead, the media has carried on stories of Rohingya crimes in Arakan. The stories are sometimes written in such a way that the international community is unable to empathize with people in life-threatening situations. Narratives influence how the world perceives the Rohingya. Unfortunately, the Rakhine issue is frequently portrayed as a religious one. In fact, that the media could have helped raise awareness about the Rohingya refugee crisis by using their voices and showing various facets of their current dilemma. In most cases, local media has portrayed them as criminals, burdens, and security hazards. Myanmar’s media, on the other hand, fabricated information concerning Rohingya refugees, leaving world leaders and the international community cold unaware of realities. As a result, Bangladesh’s ongoing Rohingya crisis is causing a slew of economic, social, and political problems. By leveraging experiences from throughout the world, this book aims to ignite debates about the Rohingya refugee v

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situation at the local, regional, and global levels. Furthermore, in this book, the author-duo display a deeper knowledge of the reasons and drivers of identity-based politics among the stateless Rohingya. The authors suggest that the media have played a big role in spreading the narratives, which hampered the Rohingya’s ability to attract worldwide attention. The urgency of humanitarian crises tends to limit a deeper interest in the nuances of a conflict’s historical roots in today’s political atmosphere. The deterioration of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar’s Rakhine State is a prime example. Thus, the key argument is that historical research is required to comprehend the nature of the conflict as well as to preserve the potential of other historical perspectives. It is also linked to the ongoing discussion about collective representations of Rohingya who are “voiceless” and hence lack political agency. The authors iterated that it is Myanmar’s responsibility to offer Rohingya refugees with safe, voluntary, and permanent settlement in Myanmar. Given Myanmar’s lack of political will and progress toward achieving these criteria, there is a genuine risk that the refugee crisis may last for a long time. The authors suggest that the media should help creating a narrative which would assist Myanmar and Bangladesh in negotiating for the safe return of the Rohingya to their homeland. The authors have handled this complex issue brilliantly.

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Preface Several motivators drove us to embark on this book project, the most important of which was the existential gap between what has happened to the Rohingyas for decades and what the global media depicted. By throwing light on gross human rights violations perpetrated on the Rohingya population, international media attention could help to mobilize and shape the position of the international community. As media coverage grows, international pressures will mount to halt the causes of the Rohingya influx and launch humanitarian actions aimed at protecting the human rights of Rohingyas in Myanmar. Centuries of human rights violations against the Rohingyas have been disregarded and bitterly ignored by the world, regional, and local media. This has freed the Myanmar authorities to commit atrocities against the Rohingyas without being challenge, question, or protest. Despite the series of Rohingya influxes since the 1970s, the international community has largely kept silent. As a result, the media cannot escape accountability for the continued crimes. This has prompted us to investigate why this has happened to them. One prevalent criticism levelled at the media’s handling of the Rohingya crisis is that the story had been overlooked until lately. The outbreak of unrest in Myanmar’s Rakhine state occurred in 2016 and 2017, when a Rakhine (or Arakan) woman was raped and many Rohingya Muslims were murdered in retaliation. Following ethnic violence, around 90,000 individuals were displaced. In recent years, anti-​Muslim and anti-​Rohingya hate speech has proliferated in Myanmar, contributing to increasing Islamophobia. The situation raged on, and it became evident that hardline Buddhist monks in Myanmar were fuelling anti-​Rohingya (and anti-​Muslim) prejudice and hatred. In the midst of this violence, Time Magazine decided to draw attention to this Buddhist-​fuelled anti-​Muslim animosity by featuring Ashin Wirathu on its July 2013 cover. Wirathu, known as the ‘Buddhist Bin Laden’, is one of Myanmar’s most outspoken Buddhist leaders, asking for the annihilation of all Rohingyas in Myanmar. Before embarking on this project, we read hundreds of stories, columns, and books about the Rohingyas’ history and their days of sorrow in their vii

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own land, which prompted us to take on such a project. As we continued to consider writing, we began to approach respected publishers who might also be interested. It is about deciding on a path but also pondering about the one we did not take. Writing about another planet, inhabited by alternate versions of each one of us, felt like an idea that we were personally yearning to explore, since we were in our phase of questioning, having just finished a work put out by a reputable publisher. We were also in a waiting phase –​ waiting for our thoughts to take shape, waiting to see if we were capable of accomplishing one of our most cherished ambitions. This book was inspired by our lived experiences as long-​term migrants as well as our profession of teaching and researching on the subject of refugees and migration. Being migrants overseas often leaves us feeling voiceless and isolated. This writing serves as an attempt to bring a voice to the world’s most persecuted people. We read about some silent, helpless, and persecuted people along our research journey with refugees in the Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and North America. All of these elements worked together to plant the seeds for this book. So, the book is a mash-​up of real-​ world incidents that we were reading about in our work. We are continuously captivated by what, if, and would we rather types of weird quandaries and predicaments, and few are immune to our incisive questioning. These are the kinds of concern and challenge that also drive our writing interests –​leading characters through situations where they are confronted with wild, colossal quandaries. The seeds for this book were planted in our minds while we worked on another paper about Rohingya children and identity. This book chronicles the ethnic persecution of the Rohingyas in Myanmar, as well as their ethnic and national identity. It examines how the situation has evolved into a geopolitical clash between Bangladesh, China, India, and Myanmar. It delves deeper into the moral, anthropological, and public policy challenges surrounding the humanitarian response to the Rohingya crisis. The book examines the issue of citizenship for the Rohingyas by looking at historical documents and interviews that record the community’s status and identity as well as its former involvement in Myanmar’s government and politics. The changing geopolitical environment of state formation in South Asia as well as the difficult relationships between Myanmar and its neighbours –​Bangladesh, China, and India –​are central to our discussion. The book investigates the alliances and disagreements in South Asia and South-​East Asia that are based on economic and geopolitical gains, as well as their impact on the Rohingya problem. It also examines the inadequacy of these governments’ bilateral and multilateral discussions to appropriately address the suffering of the stateless Rohingya people. Much has been written about the cleansing operation carried out by Myanmar armed troops and vigilantes in 2017 which forced Rohingyas to viii

Preface

flee to other countries. The scholarly literature has mainly ignored how they have survived in the post-​2017 period. In the book, we contend that the Rohingya people of Myanmar are on the verge of extinction. More than a million of them left Myanmar over the border into Bangladesh, where they confront filthy conditions. Many have witnessed death, mutilation, and rape as well as entire villages and their homes being burned to ashes in Myanmar. The changing geopolitical environment of state formation in South Asia, as well as the difficult relationships between Myanmar and its neighbours –​ Bangladesh, China, and India –​have taken significant space in the book. It investigates the alliances and disagreements in South Asia and Southeast Asia that are based on economic and geopolitical gains. It also examines the failure of bilateral and multilateral diplomacy, as well as the media’s indifference to the Rohingya crisis. This book provides a thorough examination of both the causes of the Rohingya problem and its repercussions. We have critically engaged with identity politics on both sides of the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, as well as the classification of the Rohingyas as a ‘no man’s land’ population within the sociopolitical and ethnonationalist dynamics of the region’s colonial and postcolonial transition. We then question the role of the international community, the media, and humanitarian organizations before making detailed policy recommendations based on our own work with Rohingya refugees. In modern democracies, the expectation that the state should regulate hate speech has resulted in a vast volume of literature on hostile and extreme speech, focused primarily on nonstate actors’ use of social media. However, an overemphasis on regulating the risks of social media overlooks other crucial aspects contributing to the landscape of extreme speech that exists in countries such as Myanmar –​most notably, excessive hate speech by state officials and in state media. While the detrimental implications of extreme speech by nonstate actors in Myanmar on platforms such as Facebook are widely understood, the extreme speech in official statements in Myanmar is understudied. This book will be of significant importance to scholars and researchers interested in international studies, peace studies, human rights and conflict studies, sociology, ethnic studies, border studies, migration and diaspora studies, discrimination and exclusion studies, public policy, and Asian studies. Students, scholars, politicians, and nongovernmental organizations interested in migration studies, anthropology, political science, and international relations will also find the book useful. It will also be valuable for media professionals, nongovernmental organizations, think-​tanks, and policy makers as well as casual readers interested in the history of the Rohingya people’s persecution. ix

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We gratefully acknowledge those who contributed towards the book, without whom this collection would not have been possible. We sincerely thank our family and colleagues for their continued presence and invaluable guidance and feedback whenever required. In the midst of making this book a reality, we would like to extend our gratitude to Rebecca Tomlinson and Stephen Wenham of Bristol University Press. AKM Ahsan Ullah Diotima Chattoraj June 2023

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The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis The major goal of this book is to determine how compelling Myanmar’s narratives are in justifying human rights violations against the Rohingyas. We suggest that the media had a significant role in circulating narratives which harmed the Rohingyas’ capacity to draw international attention to their experience. In today’s political climate, the immediate nature of humanitarian crises tends to eclipse more in-​depth consideration of the complexities of conflicts and their historical roots. The deteriorating status of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state is a prime example. Due to a history of human rights violations, the Rohingyas have been portrayed as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, while local Islamic history and the emergence of Muslim nationalism on the margins of Muslim Bengal (East Pakistan/​Bangladesh) and Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) has only recently begun to inform international understanding of the regional conflict. We argue (following Onwuegbuzie and Leech, 2007) that historical research is necessary both to understand the nature of the conflict and to safeguard against the possibility of alternate historical perspectives. Historical research also informs the continuing debate over collective images of non-​Western victims who are ‘voiceless’ and hence lack political agency. The research discussed in this book aims to improve understanding of the causes and drivers of identity-​based politics in Myanmar’s Rohingya population. The ultimate goal of this study, which uses a mixed methods approach that includes a survey, key informant interviews, and short case studies of persecution, is to better understand the complex challenges of managing large-​scale refugee exodus to Bangladesh and how to best resolve these over the long term. By using stories from around the world regarding the Rohingyas, their refugee status, and the resulting crisis, this book aims to create discourse at the local, regional, and global levels. This is necessary because humanitarian agencies have been chastised for failing to listen to 1

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

refugees –​particularly Rohingya women, who are sometimes unable to leave their makeshift houses. A simple Google search is all that is required to locate news and information from any location at any time. People do not even need to visit online news outlets to keep up with current events. The feeds on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are continuously assaulted with new information and trends. Today’s fast-​paced world encourages people to read the news without fully understanding the nuances of the story. Because of the abundance of news and information available on the internet, less visible stories never reach a wider audience. Some news, however, is simply so vital that we should not allow it to be ignored; the situation of the Rohingya people is an example. While, at the time of writing, the situation of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladeshi camps has been dominating global headlines for weeks, the plight of these refugees has garnered little attention in the local press. Instead, the local media has focused on reports of atrocities committed by the Rohingyas in Arakan, and has described the refugees as criminals, burdens, and security risks in the majority of cases. These stories are written in such a way that the international community is unable to empathize with Rohingyas in life-​threatening situations. The Myanmar media has also framed the story of Rohingya refugees so that world leaders and the international community feel little sympathy for them. Narratives from the outside impact how the world perceives the Rohingyas too. For instance, when the Rakhine issue is looked at from the outside, it is often depicted (inaccurately) as a religious matter. Sadly, despite the fact that the Rohingya refugee crisis has captured the attention of people all over the world, the media’s representation of the Rohingya refugee crisis, like its portrayal of other refugees and asylum seekers, is rather disputed. Although the media has raised awareness about the Rohingya refugee crisis by showcasing the refugees’ voices and depicting various aspects of the current situation, the underlying problem remains unaddressed. As a result, the Rohingya refugee problem grows by the day, and the ongoing Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh continues to produce a host of economic, social, and political issues. We focus on media frames using Scheufele’s (1999) theory of frame-​ building. He elaborates on the factors that contribute to the formation of media frames. Our surveys and interviews reveal that in Bangladesh, India, and China, the media exploit the Rohingya issue as a human interest subject, but Indian newspapers are more likely to cover topics related to security and war. Stories dedicated to ‘human rights violations by the Myanmar army’, such as murder, rape, and the burning of Rohingyas’ homes, drew attention to the ‘emotional side of the issue’ (Williams et al, 2022: 107). The security frame portrayed the ‘Rohingya refugees as a threat to national security’, focusing on illegal border crossing and their links with extremist 2

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

groups (Dussich, 2018). Western media outlets hesitate to prioritize human rights issues due to the religious affiliation of the Rohingyas. It is Myanmar’s responsibility to provide safe, voluntary, and permanent resettlement for the Rohingya refugees. In light of the absence of political will in Myanmar and lack of progress toward meeting these criteria, there is a real possibility that the refugee crisis will be a protracted one. According to credible estimates, in a plausible repatriation scenario a substantial proportion of Rohingyas will remain in Bangladesh. However, Myanmar and Bangladesh are engaged in discussions on the repatriation of substantial numbers of Rohingya people to Myanmar. This brings new worries and problems, and so it is important that the media report on the Rohingya crisis in a factual and impartial manner. However, in terms of press freedom within Myanmar, the country ranks just 176 out of 180 according to the Press Freedom Index (Reporters Without Borders, 2022). The authorities continue to exert pressure on the media and even intervene personally to change editorial policy.

Aim and methodology Since the late 1970s, Muslims belonging to the Rohingya ethnic group have been compelled to leave Myanmar due to the government’s anti-​Rohingya hostility. Rohingyas in Myanmar were predominantly residents of Rakhine state (previously known as Arakan), where they endured years of discrimination and violence at the hands of successive Myanmar administrations. They were denied citizenship under the Burma Citizenship Law 1982 and, as a result, they make up one of the world’s largest stateless populations. Racist attitudes toward the Rohingyas in the state of Rakhine impede objective coverage of the humanitarian crisis there. Furthermore, the persecution of the Rohingyas in 2017 resulted in about a million Rohingya people fleeing to different parts of the world, including Bangladesh, India, and Malaysia. World media is paying attention to this current refugee crisis, and this book attempts to spark debate on the Rohingya refugee issue at the local, regional, and global levels by utilizing stories from throughout the world. This book allows a deeper understanding of the causes and drivers of identity-​based politics among the Rohingya people. The goal of the book is to help readers better grasp the complicated challenges of handling large-​scale refugee exodus in Bangladesh, as well as how to best address the refugees’ situation in the long run. To that end, we employed a mixedmethod approach that promotes the systematic integration, or ‘mixing’, of quantitative and qualitative data within a single study or extended programme of inquiry (Patton, 2002; Bernard, 2006). Our research comprised a survey, key informant interviews, and a slew of brief case studies of persecution. This demonstrates clearly that the book relies on both primary and secondary 3

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sources of information. While the fieldwork (interviews and surveys) is still ongoing, we are in the midst of processing the data collected thus far. The interviews shed light on the appalling human rights abuses perpetrated by the Myanmar government, but the question of whether the media can help in times of crisis remains open. We examined secondary sources that deal with the history of the topic and cover major theories and concepts, and this included summaries of notable studies on the Rohingyas’ history and persecution. We adopted a systematic approach of gathering and summarizing earlier research to locate gaps in this scholarship. We chose academic research that established of a foundation and connection to prior knowledge. In our research, we prioritized the creation of new knowledge. Hence, we conducted a huge amount of relevant searches in order to gather evidence for an updated literature review. The importance of a thorough literature review cannot be overstated. Our study’s purpose, research question, and hypotheses based on a theoretical framework derived from previous studies on the subject.

The Rohingyas in history The term ‘Rohingya’ has gained prominence internationally since the early 1990s, following ‘the second exodus’ of a quarter of a million people from Rakhine in Myanmar to Bangladesh. In 1982, the Myanmar government denied citizenship to Rohingya people, claiming they were illegal immigrants. The outright denial of the right to citizenship to the Rohingyas through the changing of constitutional provisions has raised a fundamental question: how have the Rohingyas remained in Burma for hundreds of years as illegal immigrants under a military dictatorship? Because of the Rohingyas’ religious identity, this issue has received less recognition than it deserves. Most nongovernmental organization (NGOs), migration and refugee regimes, and governments seem to be concerned with their existing troubles in relation to the crisis, but not the roots of the crisis (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018, 2022). Anthropologists, historians, political scientists and analysts, and other researchers claim that the Myanmar government tends to disown the Rohingyas based on colour and religion, throwing out the historical realities of their lives (Uddin, 2020). In Rakhine state, the Rohingyas have experienced decades of systematic discrimination, statelessness, and targeted violence. For many years, such persecution has driven them to Bangladesh, with a substantial rises in numbers leaving Myanmar for Bangladesh following violent attacks in 1978, 1991–​92, and 2016 (Gluck, 2019). Nonetheless, August 2017 saw by far the largest and swiftest refugee flight into Bangladesh. Since then, an estimated one million Rohingya people have migrated to Bangladesh, including over 400,000 children. 4

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

The Rohingya refugee crisis is a complex issue that is deeply rooted in Myanmar’s historical setting. Scholars have differing perspectives on the origin of the name ‘Burma’. Nonetheless, when the country gained independence in 1947, the constitution of the same year gave the country’s official name as the Union of Burma. In 1989, the ruling military junta changed the official name to Union of Myanmar (Ullah, 2011; Ullah et al, 2022). And according to the 2008 constitution, Myanmar’s official name is the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. The province of Arakan, which became Rakhine state in 1974, is located on Myanmar’s western coast and bounded to the north by Chin state, to the east by Magway region, Bago region, and Ayeyarwady region, to the west by the Bay of Bengal, and to the northwest by the Chittagong district of Bangladesh. In short, it is located in Myanmar’s northwestern portion, near the southeastern border with Bangladesh. Rakhine state is divided from central Myanmar by the Rakhine Yoma, also known as the Arakan Mountains. Rakhine state has an area of approximately 14,200 kilometres (Islam, 1999). It is estimated that 59.7 per cent of the population in Myanmar is Buddhist, 35.6 per cent is Muslim Rohingya, and the remainder belong to other religious groups. Nonetheless, there is widespread agreement that the Rohingya Muslims are not the descendants of a single ethnic group, but rather many groups, such as Mughals, Arabs, and Bengalis (Alam, 2013). Therefore, the Rohingyas are the Muslim inhabitants of Arakan’s medieval territory. The bulk of the Rohingya people sought refuge in Bangladesh after being forced to flee Myanmar. Arakan’s territory is 36,762 square kilometres in size, and it has a population of over four million people. Its capital is Sittwe. The Rohingyas make up about 35 per cent of the state’s current population, with the rest predominantly Buddhist (Gray, 2023). Scholars agree that Muslims first settled in Araken before the state was even a century old (Euro-​Burma Office, 2009). Previously, some historians believed that Rohingya Muslims first settled in Arakan state around the seventh century. Before that, the connection between Chittagong and Arakan had been strained due to a variety of cultural, social, political, and historical factors. From 1575 to 1666, the Arakanese controlled Chittagong with tyranny (Scott, 2009). According to Charney’s (1999) estimates, that 60,000 Bengalis had settled in northern Arakan by the end of the 17th century. However, due to its geographical location, Arakan remained an independent state until 1784, when it was overrun by Burman King Bowdawpaya (Euro-​ Burma Office, 2009). Rakhine state, now one of Myanmar’s key states, covers a slim, hilly swath of land along the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, from the Naaf River to Cape Negaris. The Naaf River separates Bangladesh’s Chittagong district from Rakhine (Qanungo, 1988). Rakhine is regarded 5

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as one of Myanmar’s poorest states, with residents facing violations of basic human rights (Aung, 1967; Chowdhury, 1996, 2017). During the colonial period, divisions began to appear between Burmans and other minority ethnic groups in Arakan. During World War II (WWII; 1939–​45), the Burmans collaborated with the Japanese, the Kachin, and the Karen, whereas the Rohingyas supported the British. As a result, when the British retreated in 1942, following defeat at the hands of the Japanese in Burma (Human Rights Watch –​HRW, 2013; Ullah, 2011). According to Daniel Murphy (2013), the British divided Burma on and religious grounds. Later on, after General Ne Win and his Burma Socialist Programme Party took control of the country in 1962, Rohingya people in Myanmar were denied a slew of civil, political, economic, and social liberties (Rahman, 2010; Ullah, 2011). Suleyman Shah established the first Islamic state in Arakan in 1430. Between 1430 and 1784, Arakan state had 48 rulers, among them Mango Shah, Muhammad Shah, Shah Jalal, Hussain Shah, and Salim Shah. Muslims in Myanmar had significantly better financial and social conditions at that time compared to their present conditions. They were the owners of a large amount of agricultural land and many businesses. For example, in Yangon, they held 60–​70 per cent of the real estate (Driss, 2016). There are differing views on the origin of the term ‘Rohingya’. For example, Ba Maw (1958) claims that the Burmese government first acknowledged the existence of the Rohingyas in the 1950s. In 1959, Sao Shwe Thaike, the first president of Burma, ordered that Muslims living in Arakan be recognized as ancestors of the Burmese indigenous groups (Buchanan, 1992, 1999; Ullah, 2014; Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018). Aye Chan (2005), on the other hand, claims that the word ‘Rohingya’ was coined in the 1950s by literate Bengali people of Arakan, and Buchanan (1999) claims that the Rohingyas have a long history of habitation in Arakan. Another school of thought holds that the official Burma Broadcasting Service began broadcasting radio programmes in Rohingya around the 1960s and that numerous magazines and textbooks in Burma began adopting the term ‘Rohingya’ in the late 1970s (Green, 2015). U Nu, Burma’s first post-​independence prime minister, granted Rohingyas citizenship and voting rights, and issued them with identity cards (Moore, 2015). Furthermore, during his term, several Rohingya people were appointed to various civil positions. However, according to Rogers (2013), many Myanmarese believe that Rohingyas unlawfully entered Myanmar from Bangladesh in the 19th century. Also, some Burmese historians, and the government of Myanmar, believe that the Rohingyas’ forefathers were Bengali Muslims and that the Rohingya people arrived in Arakan state from Bengal during the British colonial era (Bahar, 1981). According to the Minority Rights Group International, there are primarily two distinct Muslim groups in Rakhine state: the Kamans, or Myanmar 6

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

Muslims, and the Rohingyas. The Kaman people speak Rakhine or Burmese, and their customs and traditions are comparable to those of Myanmar’s Buddhist populace. Meanwhile, the government of Myanmar has granted them Burmese citizenship (Minority Rights Group International, 2008). This implies that language largely determined the Kaman people’s citizenship. The language of the Rohingya community, on the other hand, is Rohingya, or Ruaingga, which is akin to the Chittagonian language of Bangladesh. Additionally, the Rohingya people’s physical appearance is similar to that of Chittagong residents. During the early years, this ethnic factor unified the locals and refugees (Chattoraj, 2022). However, there has been a substantial shift in this picture. In fact, the response of the government has changed over time. The Rohingya language is distinct from the other languages spoken in Rakhine and Myanmar. Several words from Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Bama, and English have made their way into their language. However, their language is not written down, and the majority of Rohingya people are illiterate. As the majority of them live on the western shore of Rakhine state, their freedom of movement in Myanmar is restricted. For example, if they want to travel to various parts of Rakhine state and other parts of Myanmar, they must obtain permission from the government of Myanmar (Integrated Regional Information Networks, 2012). Both the Myanmar government and the majority Buddhist ‘Rakhines’ in Rakhine state reject the term ‘Rohingya’. This term originated in the 1950s as a collective political identity for the ethnic group. Although the etymological origin of the name is debated, the most frequently recognized opinion is that it comes from Rohang, which stems from the Rohingya dialect word Arakan, and ga or gya, meaning ‘from’. Thus, the Rohingya ethnic minority group asserts its ties to a land that was previously part of the historic Arakan district by identifying as Rohingya. The Rohingya community is thought to have been established in the early ninth century when several Arab and Persian traders of the Islamic faith sought refuge in Arakan after their ship capsized near the island of Ramree. But within its borders, Myanmar recognizes 135 ethnic groups. Indeed, Aung San Suu Kyi, untik her arrest in 2021, was the head of Myanmar’s first democratically elected government since 1962, has cautioned the US ambassador against using the word ‘Rohingya’ to characterize the country’s persecuted Muslim population, which have resided in Myanmar for generations. Her government, like the previous military-​led one, would not refer to the Rohingyas as such because they are not citizens (Paddock, 2016). It seems clear that the Myanmar government purposely forbids reference to the Rohingya people using this name. Moreover, Aung San Suu Kyi has opted to defend the army’s activities, deny human rights breaches, and bar human rights investigators from entering the nation. Later, a large number of Muslim troops, traders, fortune seekers, enslaved people, and others from Bengal and other parts of India began to 7

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

settle permanently in Arakan. The Muslim population grew as a result of intermarriage with locals. It is apparent that Bangladesh and the current Rakhine state of Myanmar have a long history of social and cultural contacts, with the major causes being geographical proximity as well as historical entanglements. From 1550 to 1666, Chittagong was under Arakanese domination, while Tripura was also its protectorate in the 16th century (Mohajan, 2018). During this time, the Arakanese Maghs and Portuguese Harmads or Firingis would execute joint piracy raids in several regions of Bengal, particularly the coastal districts, carrying out lootings and abductions that seriously disrupted the socioeconomic lives of the Bengali populace (Chan, 2012). These attacks did not spare European traders either. However, in 1666, the Mughal subedar (Provincial governar) of Bangla, Shaista Khan, took Chittagong from the Arakanese and integrated it into the Mughal Empire. The British East India Company obtained the right to take tax from the Nawab Mīr Qasīm in the provinces of Chittagong, Medinipur, Bardhaman, and others in 1760, and the company then tried to exert its influence in the region. As periodic Magh raids hampered their efforts, the company attempted to establish relations with the kingdom of Arakan. The company’s executives also implemented a programme of punishing Arakanese communities on Chittagong’s southern coast, with the goal of impeding the Maghs and developing the southern regions. However, due to the chaos and turmoil that prevailed in Arakan, connections between the two parties could not progress far. In this context, the Burmese King Bodawpaya seized Arakan in 1785 by deposing the then king Thamada and incorporating it as a province of Myanmar. Between 1785 and 1794, more than two thirds of the Arakanese population, including Rohingya Muslims and Buddhist Maghs, fled Arakan to escape the Burmese king’s torture and tyranny. They generally sought refuge in the present-​day districts of Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban. As many as 40,000 Arakanese refugees landed in Chittagong between 1797 and 1798. The British overlords selected Captain Hiram Cox as a commissioner and supervisor to rehabilitate these immigrants (Harvey, 1967). He permitted the refugees to live in various areas of Chittagong, including the hill tracts. The area of Cox’s Bazar is still named after this British diplomat. The British East India Company attempted to enhance revenue and output by relocating Arakanese refugees, primarily Buddhist Rakhines, to uncultivated lands in Chittagong, Bandarban, Barishal, Patuakhali, and elsewhere. Despite their different cultural origins, they gradually assimilated into the Bangladeshi mentality. Following the First Anglo-​Burmese War (1824–​26), the position of the Arakanese refugees improved, once the provinces of Arakan and Tenasserim were ceded to Britain in the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826. The British East India Company took control of 8

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

Myanmar’s lower provinces after the Second Anglo-​Burmese War (1852–​53). And, on the conclusion of the Third Anglo-​Burmese War (1885–​87), the entire country of Myanmar was ruled by the British (Gravers, 1999). These political developments had a significant impact on the region’s population and migration flows. The British enacted favourable legislation that allowed them to rehabilitate many people from Chittagong in Arakan by giving them fallow lands. The refugees were also permitted to return to Arakan if that was their wish, and the British provided certain incentives to encourage their return. Because of the chances created by the British for unfettered trade and commerce throughout the British-​controlled regions, a sizable part of the Arakanese populace living in Chittagong began to do business in Arakan. Following the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, commercial paddy farming became possible and was undertaken in Myanmar with zeal due to its great profitability. Related to this, mass migration from Bengal to Burma began in the 1880s, primarily in a spontaneous way and partly supported by the British Indian government. The latter allowed the free movement of workers in order to convert fallow lands to paddy production, alleviate population pressure in Bengal, and tackle the country’s unemployment crisis. However, the situation began to deteriorate during WWII when British soldiers departed following the Japanese military’s conquest of Burma. During this time, the sectarian Maghs began killing Rohingyas and deporting them to Bengal (Kumar, 2016). Then, in the northern parts of Arakan, there were horrific communal riots between the Buddhist Maghs and the Muslim Rohingyas, effectively dividing Arakan into two populations based on religion. In these circumstances, the Rohingyas backed the British and carried out pro-​British activities. And by enacting a ‘divide and rule’ policy, the British promised the Rohingyas a separate homeland. Many Rohingya people joined the British forces and worked as spies against the Japanese occupiers. When this link was uncovered, the Japanese troops, aided by Burmese nationalist forces, invaded Arakan in 1942 and carried out extensive massacres, dubbed the ‘1942 massacre’ or ‘genocide’. At this point, over 100,000 Rohingya had been slaughtered, and 500,000 had sought sanctuary in British-​controlled India, notably Chittagong, as well as Malay, Saudi Arabia, and Iran (Southwick, 2018). Since 1942, over 1.2 million Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Southeast Asia, Saudi Arabia, and nations in the Persian Gulf region to escape the constant torture and repression in Arakan (Ullah, 2011). At the end of WWII, British rule in Burma was restored. However, the British did not follow through on their promise to establish a separate homeland for the Rohingya people. Even Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, violated their cause when, in 1947, he refused to include northern Arakan in the new state after being approached by officials from 9

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

the Rohingya Muslim League. Following Burma’s independence from the British Raj in January 1948, the government, led by Prime Minister U Nu, established the Burma Territorial Force, 99 per cent of which was Magh infantry. They established a reign of terror in Arakan’s north. Hundreds of Muslim men, women, and children were killed by machine-​gun fire. In addition, hundreds of academics, village elders, and religious leaders were slaughtered like animals. Almost all Muslim communities were destroyed (Gibson et al, 2016). The Burma Territorial Force massacre caused a refugee migration into what was then East Pakistan. Following General Ne Win’s military takeover of Burma in 1962, all constitutional rights of the Rohingyas, including citizenship, were revoked. Approximately 20,000 Rohingya fled to Cox’s Bazar by crossing the border during the subsequent eviction effort. After consultations with the Pakistani government, the Burmese junta agreed to accept the refugees. The military junta banned various Rohingya sociocultural organizations in 1964 (Ahmed, 2019). The Burma Broadcasting Service stopped broadcasting programmes in the Rohingya language in October 1965. Since 1966, all private newspapers have been banned. After Burmese military soldiers raped Rohingya women and pushed the Maghs to attack the Rohingyas in 1966, there was another exodus of Rohingya people from Arakan to Cox’s Bazar. Thus, a series of inflows of Rohingyas into Bangladesh took place in 1961, 1977–​78, 1992–​93, 2012, and 2017. When Bangladesh gained independence, a huge number of Rohingyas returned in 1973 and 1974, fleeing further persecution by the Maghs. When the Bangladesh government issued a serious warning, the Burmese administration was forced to accept and rehabilitate them in Arakan villages. The military regime of Yangon initiated operation Naga Min or ‘King Dragon’ in 1978, only a few years later. During this operation, around 10,000 Rohingyas were slaughtered, and approximately 250,000 refugees fled to Bangladesh. Approximately 40,000 Rohingya women, children, and elderly were killed during the voyage. The refugees were housed in 13 refugee camps located in Cox’s Bazar, Bandarban, and surrounding locations. Following an agreement struck with the Bangladesh government in 1979, the Burmese government took these refugees back under a programme dubbed ‘Operation Golden Eagle’. After rejecting the results of the country’s legislative elections in 1989, Myanmar’s military government targeted the Rohingyas once more in 1990. As a result, during 1991–​92, 270,000 Rohingya refugees were forced to flee Myanmar. Despite the fact that the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a bilateral agreement on the return of refugees on 28 April 1992, the process moved at a glacial pace. Additional Rohingya influxes occurred in 1996–​97, and the repatriation process was nearly halted in 2005. In June 10

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

2012, rioting between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhist Rakhines erupted in Rakhine state. As a result, 200 Rohingya people were slaughtered, and over 110,000 people fled to Bangladesh. Similar barbaric acts were inflicted on the Rohingya minority in 2016. The military then initiated ‘clearance operations’ against the Rohingyas after the assassination of 12 Myanmar security personnel by Rohingya militants on 25 August 2017. Approximately 10,000 Rohingyas are said to have been killed by the Myanmar military during this operation, while many more were injured or became victims of torture and rape (International Development Committee, 2018). Over three hundred villages were burned to the ground, and about a million were forced to flee to Bangladesh (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018). Despite the fact that the Myanmar and Bangladesh governments signed a bilateral agreement for refugee repatriation in November 2017, there has been little progress. This has resulted in one of the biggest problems in Bangladesh’s history. Because the Myanmar government refuses to grant citizenship to the Rohingyas, the majority of them now lack legal identification and are thus rendered stateless. Myanmar’s 1948 citizenship law was already exclusionary, and the military regime that took control in 1962 enacted a new law that denied the Rohingyas full citizenship. Until recently, the Rohingyas could register as temporary residents using identification cards known as ‘white cards’, which the junta started providing to Muslims in the 1990s. The white cards granted limited privileges but were not accepted as proof of citizenship and only enabled the Rohingyas to stay in Myanmar for a limited time. In 2014, the Myanmar government conducted a national census backed by the United Nations (UN), and this would have been the first time individuals were permitted to identify as Rohingya. However, Buddhist nationalists threatened to boycott the census, and the government ordered the Rohingyas to register as ‘Bengali’. Under pressure from Buddhist nationalists who had challenged the Rohingyas’ right to vote in a 2015 constitutional referendum, then President Thein Sein invalidated the temporary white cards in February 2015, effectively robbing Rohingyas of their voting rights. In August 2018, Bangladesh’s foreign minister visited Rakhine state to check progress on building shelters and houses for the Rohingyas. However, the issue of awarding the Rohingyas citizenship in Myanmar, which is critical to ensuring their safe and dignified return and existence there, has remained elusive. Given the circumstances, it is understandable that the Rohingyas would be unwilling to return freely. In truth, it appears that Myanmar’s actions and pledges were only a smokescreen. Myanmar appears to have used this approach to defend itself from external pressures, such as international embargoes. How persuasive are Myanmar’s narratives in justifying human rights violations? We contend that the media had an important role in disseminating 11

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

the narratives, which harmed the ability of the Rohingyas to gain international attention. In today’s environment, the immediacy of humanitarian crises tends to limit a deeper interest in the nuances of conflicts’ historical roots. The deteriorating situation of Myanmar’s Rakhine state’s Rohingya Muslim minority is a prime example. In spite of being portrayed as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the international community has only recently been made aware of the rise of Muslim nationalism in Muslim Bengal (East Pakistan/​Bangladesh) and Buddhist Burma (Myanmar). We suggest that historical research is essential for doing both that and protecting the viability of competing interpretations of the conflict’s history. This research helps us understand the causes and drivers of identity-​based politics in Myanmar’s Rohingya population. The goal of this research is to better understand the complex challenges of handling large-​scale refugee exodus in Bangladesh, as well as how to best address them in the long run. Through the use of tales from around the world regarding the Rohingyas, their refugee status, and the crisis that has resulted, this book tries to create dialogues at the local, regional, and global levels. Humanitarian agencies have been chastised for failing to listen to refugees, particularly Rohingya women, who are sometimes unable to leave their makeshift dwellings. People no longer need to frequent online news outlets to keep up with current events. The feeds on Facebook and Twitter are continuously overwhelmed with new information and trends. Today’s fast-​paced world encourages people to read the news without fully understanding the nuances of the story. Because of the abundance of news and information available on the internet, some stories never reach a wider audience. Some news, though, is simply too crucial to ignore, such as the suffering of Myanmar’s Rohingyas, dubbed the world’s most persecuted minority. While the situation has dominated headlines throughout the world for weeks, the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladeshi camps has received little attention in the local press. Instead, the media have concentrated on reports of what bad things were committed by the Rohingyas in Arakan. The stories are crafted in such a way that the international society fails to feel pity for the life-​threatening situation. Narratives shape the world’s perceptions of the Rohingyas. When we bring up the Rakhine issue, it is portrayed from the outside as a religious issue. This, however, is not the case. Although the media may play an important role in raising awareness about the Rohingya refugee issue by featuring the voices of Rohingyas as well as depicting various facets of the current crisis, this problem must be resolved as soon as feasible. Despite the fact that the Rohingya refugee crisis caught the attention of people from all over the world, the media’s portrayal of the Rohingya refugee crisis, like the media’s portrayal of other refugees and asylum seekers, is rather contentious. In the majority of cases, local media has characterized them as criminals, burdens, and security concerns. The 12

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

Myanmar media, on the other hand, constructed the Rohingya refugee news in such a way that world leaders and the international community felt no sympathy for them. As a result, the Rohingya refugee crisis worsens by the day, and the ongoing crisis causes a slew of economic, social, and political issues in Bangladesh.

The Rohingya disputes problematized The local situation and the complex structure of the Bangladesh–​Myanmar border help explain in part why the Bangladeshi government has, thus, far, been unwilling to put in place a framework for protecting refugees. For the last decade, the country’s political stability has largely been unpredictable. Following the bitterly contested 2014 national election, which ended in a stalemate, Bangladesh witnessed political unrest in 2015 due to a standoff between the two main parties (the ruling party and the opposition). The country’s economy has been affected by strikes around the country. There is an apparent disregard for humanitarian issues in regard to economics. The latest data compiled by the Bangladesh Ministry of Finance suggests that the additional refugees will have little influence on the country’s economy or national budget (Miazee and Kallol, 2017). Issues such as domestic problems and issues of national interest were anticipated to be at the forefront of people’s minds ahead of the 2018 elections. Also, with drug trafficking along the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar one of the key ways amphetamines enter the country (Ganguly and Miliate, 2015; Islam, 2022b), the refugees have been blamed for an increase in criminal activity, including the trafficking of narcotics but also hazardous waste, and environmental degradation (Al Imran and Mian, 2014). Since they have been portrayed as a security challenge, the Rohingyas are seen as a threat to national security as well as the country’s legal and judicial system. This is evident from the argument put forward by Ullah et al (2020) that any kind of migration could pose a security threat to any state and, therefore, to any individual. Recent years have seen an increase in threats to national security, partly due to the proliferation of the security agenda throughout policy and the rapid growth of international migration (Ullah et al, 2020; Islam, 2022a). The myriad issues facing refugees in Bangladesh can be attributed to the country’s absence of a national policy framework and any legally mandated structures to deal with refugees. To begin with, arbitrary and subjective decision-​making took place. In accordance with a government executive order, the Rohingyas were allowed to register and be granted refugee status, and they were urged to assist international agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other organizations within the UN, as well as outside of the UN, in providing aid for the victims of this global crisis (Petrasek, 1997; Mohammad, 2012). 13

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

Despite this, the administration started negotiations with Myanmar’s government and took part in the repatriation of Rohingya Muslims, though neither measure helped much (HRW, 1993). Many governments, agencies, and human rights groups have labelled the actions of the military in Myanmar against the Rohingya minority in Rakhine as ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’. However, the international community seems to have been reluctant to take any significant action to combat these crimes against humanity. Admittedly, humanitarian aid has been provided by the international community and donor organizations. However, a populous and resource-​poor country like Bangladesh cannot bear the brunt of one million refugees indefinitely. The government now has no choice but to mobilize worldwide public opinion in support of the repatriation of refugees, with recognition of their citizenship and promise of a safe future as well as the prosecution of those responsible for the atrocities committed against them. There is no doubt that the presence of over one million Rohingya people poses a massive burden to the country’s economy and society. However, the Bangladesh administration has faced the situation with courage, and the case has now reached the International Criminal Court. Despite the fact that various countries and organizations throughout the Western world, along with the UN, the European Union (EU), and the Commonwealth, have stood by Bangladesh on this issue, the country is in an uneasy position because regional powers such as India, China, and Japan continue to provide tacit support to Myanmar for geopolitical and strategic reasons. In August 2022, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while conversing with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, said that the millions of Rohingya refugees living in overcrowded Bangladeshi camps must return to their homes in Myanmar. However, the current situation in Myanmar is still not conducive for return. And as Bachelet stated in Dhaka, ‘repatriation must always be conducted in a voluntary and dignified manner, only when safe and sustainable conditions exist in Myanmar’ (quoted in Al Jazeera, 2022a). Five years after Bangladesh experienced the huge refugee influx in August 2017, and with the country becoming increasingly impatient with its vast refugee population, Bachelet said she was concerned about ‘increasing anti-​Rohingya rhetoric’ and scapegoating of the community (quoted in Al Jazeera, 2022a). She added that many refugees were concerned about their safety due to the activity of armed groups and criminal gangs. One of the major issues in the camps is security, and this is followed by killings, kidnappings, and police dragnets targeting drug trafficking networks. Therefore, the environment in Bangladesh is becoming increasingly hostile toward the Rohingya refugees. Earlier in August 2022, during a visit by China’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi, Bangladesh sought cooperation from China to repatriate Rohingyas 14

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

to Myanmar (Al Jazeera, 2022a). Other ethnic populations, such as the Maghs and the Rakhines, are living in peace and harmony in Myanmar with full constitutional and citizenship rights. Given this scenario, why can’t the Rohingyas in Myanmar live peacefully and in receipt of all their rights? Myanmar and its people should accept the historical reality of the Rohingya Muslims living in Arakan/​Rakhine state for generations. Only then can an honourable solution to this centuries-​old dilemma be expected (Ahmed, 2019).

‘Today’ and the past: the intersections To recap, since the 1970s, a series of crackdowns led by Myanmar’s Buddhist majority has pushed Rohingya people to migrate to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, India, Thailand, and Malaysia (Shams, 2017). However, in 2017, Rohingyas were subjected to a military crackdown, which has been described as a textbook example of ethnic cleansing (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018) and a crime against humanity, forcing Rohingyas to migrate to neighbouring Bangladesh in search of safety (Khaliq, 2019; UNCHR, 2020). As mentioned earlier, this was not the first time Rohingya refugees have entered Bangladesh. The question now is: why are world leaders and people from numerous other countries viewing the 2017 Rohingya refugee crisis as genocide? Genocide, according to Article 2 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, encompasses acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. (Lupel, 2013: 25) Because of continued torture, murder, rape, and forcible displacement from their own land, Rohingyas began to flee to Bangladesh and other nations. As the recent Rohingya refugee crisis has become a prominent issue of human rights violations, experts, scholars, and global leaders from all over the world have begun to express concerns about it. However, it is critical to hear Rohingya refugees’ voices, which have been missed in a variety of ways. ‘A striking aspect of the current Rohingya humanitarian problem is the international community’s reluctance to include the affected population 15

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

in even the most cursory decision-​making processes’ (Olney, 2019: 28). This absence is sad ‘because individuals who experience the brunt of conflict frequently have the most sophisticated and practical solutions’ (Olney, 2019: 33). The popular belief is that Muslims began to come to Arakan in the eighth century. Later, they developed a distinct Arakanese Muslim population via a constant process of expansion in the 15th and 16th centuries (Grundy-​ Warr and Wong, 1997). Several people believe that these Muslims are the descendants of Moorish, Arab, and Persian traders who arrived in Arakan between the 9th and 15th centuries for permanent settlement, while others believe that other groups of immigrants arrived in Arakan state from Afghanistan, Persia, Turkey, northern India, and the Arabian Peninsula and formed a distinct Muslim community (Ahmed, 2010). Later, during the 12th and 13th centuries, a huge number of migrants arrived in Arakan state and merged with the existing communities. Furthermore, Muslim immigrants began returning to Arakan in the 15th century and remained there until 1784, when the Burmese monarch Bodawpaya seized Arakan (International Federation for Human Rights, 2000). The government of Myanmar, on the other hand, has reaffirmed the notion that Bengali immigrants who came to Bangladesh’s Chittagong district in the 15th and 16th centuries are the forebears of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya. The first Muslim immigrants were allowed to settle in Myanmar either under the Mrauk U dynasty (1430–​1785) or when the Mughals captured Bengal in 1575 and fled to Rakhine state (Rosenblat, 2015). Others think that the collapse of the Mrauk U Rakhine empire included various portions of Bangladesh as well as Rakhine state and that this is one of the sources of the current Rakhine nationalism (Varshney, 2007). With the assistance of the sultan of Bengal’s armies, Rakhine King Narameikhla (Solaiman Shah) built this empire, which became an independent kingdom in 1430 (Yunus, 1994).

The origins of civilization in Myanmar Although some pro-​colonial historians in Burma have argued that the ancient civilizations of Burma could not be dated back further than 500 CE, the current study has revealed that civilization was discovered in Burma’s Ayeyarwady valley 3,500 years ago. Cultivating crops and rearing cattle were the primary occupations of Ayeyarwady valley residents (Godrej, 2009). Later, in the fourth century, the civilizations of Burma’s Ayeyarwady valley acquired South India’s Theravada form of Buddhism, and this moment might be characterized as significant for the civilization. Myanmar was one of the earliest Southeast Asian countries to accept Buddhism, and it became a prominent centre for Theravada Buddhism practice. Several Burma chiefs promoted Theravada Buddhism, which is now the prevalent 16

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

religion among Myanmar’s Shan, Rakhine, Mon, and other ethnic groups. Approximately 80 per cent of Burmese people are now Buddhist, and this includes many monks. According to another theory, the earliest civilization in Burma came into being in Upper Burma (which comprises the central and northern part of Burma) around 11,000 years ago. It is believed that their way of life was similar to that of the Paleolithic and early Neolithic societies, whose main vocations were foraging, hunting, and fishing. According to Lae Phyu Pya Myo Myint, ‘they were named as ‘anayathu’, which means a person from the north of Myanmar, and so the discoveries encouraged the identification of the people as northerners and their relics as ‘Anyathian’ (Phyu, Oo, Moe, Aung and Kham, 2017). They are thought to have lived in northern Myanmar, bordering China and Thailand, some 10,000 years ago (Myint, 2017). According to the Pyu, in order to truly grasp Burmese culture, we must travel back to Burma’s early history. Between the first century BCE and the ninth century CE, Pyu speakers or Tibeto-​Burman speakers formed multiple kingdoms in various sections of Myanmar, primarily for trade reasons (Moore, 2009). For example, they constructed city-​kingdoms at Mongamo, Binnaka, Halingyi, and Shri Kshetra in order to take advantage of the enlarged trade route between India and China that ran through northern Myanmar and the Chindwin River basin to the west. The Pyu people could easily travel from Ayeyarwady to Shri Kshetra, the capital city of modern Burma, and various areas of Southeast Asian countries along that route. Furthermore, the route gave the Pyu people an excellent opportunity to establish commercial links with regions of India and China. However, for a variety of reasons, Indian ideals, beliefs, customs, and religious practices had a profound impact on Burma’s early urban age. ‘Although the Burmese began to dwell in cities before the advent of Indian concepts,’ Vahed (2005: 136) explains, ‘these foreign ideas were critical in creating great capital cities of worldwide and cosmological significance.’ Adoption of Indian city design notions included a belief in the efficacy of the global axis, which connects the centre-​most point of a properly planned Mandala city with the city of the Gods above (Tavatimsa heaven) in order to ensure prosperity across the kingdom (Vahed, 2005). Nonetheless, farming and trading were the primary occupations of the Pyu people. On the other hand, the majority of them were Buddhist and devout, as evidenced by the various religious structures of the time. Despite the fact that the Pyu people used to practice a variety of religious traditions such as Hinduism, Tantrayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, Vaishnavism, and Mahayana Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism eventually became the most popular religion in Pyu state and is still the country’s major religion today (Vahed, 2005). In the seventh century, the Pyu capital was relocated to Halingyi. 17

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

The Mon kingdom (c 6th–​11th century) The Mon people were among Myanmar’s earliest residents, and they built the Hanthawaddy kingdom, also known as the Mon kingdom. The Mon people originated in the northern reaches of the Mekong, Salween, and Ayeyarwaddy rivers. The majority began their lives in Lower Burma and Lower Thailand. According to U Ye Sein, a former Myanmar member, the Mon people began residing in the southern part of Burma, maybe in Malaya, and the Mon of the Thanlwin valley eventually relocated to the valleys of Sittaung and Ayeyarwaddy even before the Christian Era began (Gravers, 2007). They were initially known as Raman, but eventually became better known as Mon (Aung, 2017). The Mon people were one of Myanmar’s most prominent civilizations during the 9th and 11th centuries, as well as between the 13th and 16th centuries. Several Mon kingdoms were linked to regions of China and the ancient Cambodian kingdom of Funan. They have historically had close ties with Sri Lanka and India. The Mon people spoke a language known as Monic, which descended from the Mon-​Khmer group of Austro-​Asian languages. However, many Mon people speak the Burmese language in addition to the Monic language, and the majority of Mon people practice Theravada Buddhism. The Mon kingdom flourished for a long time until its liberation was lost, and Burman rule was firmly entrenched after 1757. When the Burman monarch, U Aung Zeya, took over, he began slaughtering thousands of Mon people, burning down and destroying their homes. Furthermore, the new Burmese king attempted to destroy Mon literature in any way he could and made the use of the Mon language illegal in the state (Seekins, 1983). As a result, many Mon people fled their homeland. Some argue that when the British landed in Burma in 1852, they promised the Mon people that they would re-​establish their Mon kingdom, and as a result some Mon people joined the British in their struggle against the Burmans and a large number returned to their nation following the British triumph in Burma, hoping to reclaim their kingdom. Unfortunately, the British rulers betrayed the Mon people by breaking their commitment to re-​establish the Mon kingdom, and by the end of the Third Anglo-​Burmese War, the British had invaded Burma.

Pagan kingdom (849–​c 1300) The period from the 8th century to the 13th century in South Asian history was noteworthy for a variety of reasons, including the flourishing of Southeast Asia’s major faiths and the establishment of various political, social, and economic institutions. Moreover, other prominent Southeast Asian states, including the Pagan kingdom, were created during this period. 18

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

Following its foundation in 849 CE, the Pagan kingdom experienced substantial progress in a variety of fields over the next two centuries. Because central Burma remained independent at the time, the rulers of the Pagan kingdom were able to accelerate its growth by importing labour from neighbouring areas and constructing various social, political, and economic organizations through their supreme power (Aung-​Thwin, 1985). The Pagan kingdom, however, was not fully devoid of turmoil, as the citizens were affected by a variety of religious and cultural ideals. The greatest task for the Pagan state’s ancient rulers was to unite disparate cultures. It was an era marked by Burman military control, Pyu traditions, Mon culture, and Theravadin spirit (McGiffert, 1909). To claim that Pagan was an ethnic Burman civilization at the time is to speak exclusively of the ruling elite; to call it Mon, is to ignore political and military realities; to call it Pyu, is to overstate the endurance of that tradition; and to name it Theravadin is to oversimplify the religious atmosphere. All of these factors combined to form 11th-​and early 12th-​century Pagan (Aung-​Thwin, 1985). Followers of Supernaturalism, Hinduism and Brahmanism, Mahayana Buddhism, Messianism, and Omniscience made up the majority of the Pagan kingdom’s inhabitants. The Pagan kingdom began to crumble in the mid-​13th century as the king failed to maintain the people’s devotion and lacked military servicemen for a variety of causes. Later, the Battle of Pagan in 1287 and the Mongol takeover of the Pagan kingdom in 1289 ensured the Pagan kingdom’s demise (Aung, 2017). Nonetheless, Pagan was unquestionably one of Burma’s key states because it established Burman dominance in Myanmar, which is still prominent today. As a result, the conflict between these two groups is becoming increasingly inescapable. Rohingya Muslims are under pressure since their population is small, and they have been ignored for hundreds of years (Susetyo et al, 2013). The Rohingya ethnic conflict is founded on discrimination based on ethnic and religious differences. The state of Myanmar does not recognize the ethnicity of the Rohingyas, and they are denied citizenship. Myanmar eliminated the Rohingya from the list of eight main ethnicities –​namely Burman, Kachin, Karen, Karenni, Chin, Mon, Arakan, and Shan –​ as evidenced in the Myanmar citizenship regulations (Burma Citizenship Law 1982). The Rohingyas are a foreign and illegal community that is not recognized as one of Burma’s 135 official ethnicities. As a result, the vast majority of them are not eligible for national identity cards. The Rohingya humanitarian disaster has been described as a significant violation of human rights and a crime against humanity (HRW, 2012). The neglect of Rohingya Muslims’ human rights can be explained as follows: first, they are not recognized as Myanmar citizens (they are stateless); second, they face discriminatory and racist treatment economically, socially, and politically; 19

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

and, third, they are subjected to various tortures and human rights violations (Yuliatiningsih, 2013). Myanmar President Thein Sein effectively expelled this ethnic group by declaring in an international forum that ‘Rohingya are not our people, and we have no duty to protect them’. President Thein Sein desired that the Rohingyas be managed by the UNHCR or resettled in a third country. Furthermore, the president described the Rohingyas in Rakhine as a ‘threat to national security’. And, of course, Sein’s statement has had a negative influence on the Rohingyas (Susanti, 2014). When considering human rights atrocities against the Rohingyas, it is critical to understand Nay-​Sat-​Kut-​Kwey Ye, also known as NaSaKa. They play a significant part in the misery of the Rohingya people. NaSaKa is made up of police, military intelligence, antiriot forces (known as Lon Htein), customs officers, immigration officers, and labourers who operate in northern Arakan on Myanmar’s border with Bangladesh. NaSaKa has jurisdiction to make decisions regarding special regulations for Rohingya people, which essentially differentiate Rohingya people from other ethnic groups in northern Arakan. Forced labour, restrictions on freedom contained in special regulations, and even rape and sexual violence are examples of human rights violations committed by NaSaKa (Irish Centre for Human Rights, 2010). Susanti (2014, pp 7–​9) provides some examples of the actions taken by the Myanmar government against the Rohingyas: • Military operations in 1948; • Burma Territorial Force (BTF) Operations in 1949–​1950; • Military operations (Second Chin Emergency Regimen) in March 1951–​1952; • Mayu Operation in 1952–​1953; • Mone-​Thone Operation in October 1954; • Military and immigration operations in January 1955; • Joint military police operations in 1955–​1958; • Captain Htin Kyaw operation in 1959; • Shwe Kyi operation in October 1966; • Kyi Gan operation in October–​December 1966; • Ngazinka operation in 1967–​1969; • Myat Mon operation in February 1969–​1971; • Major Aung Than operation in 1973; • Sabe operation in February 1974–​1979; • Nagamin operation in February 1978–​1980; • Swe Hintha operation in August 1978–​1980; • Galone Operation in 1979; • Pyi Thaya operation in 1991–​1992; • Na-​Sa-​Ka operation in 1992 until now. 20

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

Restrictions on free movement The Myanmar government continues to restrict the freedom of movement of Rohingya people and arbitrarily detains anyone who attempts to leave their villages without official permission (Ullah, 2011), and as a result, they fail to access health treatment, livelihoods, or means of subsistence. Moving from one village to another without permission is considered a breach of the 1949 Residents of Burma Registration Act, which carries a maximum term of two years in prison. For attempting to travel between townships or outside of Rakhine state, Rohingya people are routinely arrested and prosecuted. In addition, Fortify Rights revealed how Myanmar authorities beat, extort, and unjustly imprison Rohingyas at checkpoints and while traveling in Rakhine state. Myanmar authorities continue to impose discriminatory restrictions on the right to freedom of movement for Rohingyas through a series of decades-​old directives. Myanmar continues to deny the presence of Rohingyas in Rakhine state, as well as their right to a nationality. Fortify Rights produced a 102-​page report titled ‘Tools of Genocide’ in September 2019, showing how Myanmar authorities pushed and compelled Rohingyas to acquire National Verification Cards, which effectively identify them as ‘foreigners’ and deny them full citizenship rights. The practice continues.

Genocide has not abated Genocide is a crime involving the infliction of conditions of life meant to bring about the physical destruction of a group. This refers to techniques of destruction that do not instantly kill members of a group, but ultimately seek the group’s obliteration. The conditions must be deliberately imposed, but the group does not have to be destroyed in whole or in part for it to be a forbidden act. Examples of this crime given by international criminal tribunals include condemning a group to a subsistence diet, denying access to essential medical care, and systematically evicting people from their homes. Forcing members of the group to undergo ‘excessive work or physical exertion’ is also included in the act of genocide (Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948). Fortify Rights documented recent violations, including forced labour and restrictions on the right to freedom of movement, as part of a larger context of genocidal acts committed by Myanmar authorities against Rohingya people, including killings, rape, sexual violence, burning and razing homes and villages, and denying Rohingyas access to food and shelter. At the time of writing, five years have passed since the Myanmar military began a sweeping campaign of massacre, rape, and arson in northern Rakhine state on 25 August 2017. However, the Rohingyas are still awaiting justice 21

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

and protection of their rights. In Myanmar, no one has been held accountable for the defamation of humanity and acts of genocide committed against the Rohingya population. This five-​year anniversary should be prompting concerned governments to take concrete action to hold the Myanmar military to account and secure justice and safety for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and across the region (HRW, 2022).

Organization of chapters The four remaining chapters that make up this book are outlined here. Chapter 2, ‘Theoretical understanding of Rohingyas and Rohingyas in the media’, deals with theoretical perspectives. The Rohingyas, as an ethnoreligious minority people in Myanmar, have been subjected to systematic state oppression. Images and accounts of rickety vessels crowded with Rohingyas floating in the Andaman Sea have dominated worldwide media coverage. Punitive state policies force them to live in prison-​like colonies or flee to other Asian countries. This did not occur suddenly; rather, there is historical precedent. For the purpose of connecting empirical study, theory, and history, this chapter analyzes the issue through a variety of theoretical lenses. An argument over how various historical events influence the theoretical continuum is analyzed in this chapter. This chapter also explores the history of human rights and the plight of the Rohingya people through qualitative narrative research of various media outlets. Chapter 3 is entitled ‘The path to refuge: ethnicity, politics, religion and global order’. This chapter debates whether the Rohingyas fled a genocide or an ethnic cleansing drive. The argument hinges on whether the Rohingyas were compelled to escape their homeland as a result of genocide or an ethnic cleansing effort. Evidence of attempts to exterminate the Rohingya population because of its ethnic and religious identity are rife. This chapter charts the journey to the Rohingyas’ refuge and explains how the world turned a blind eye to the problem and allowed it to deteriorate to its current state. To that end, we demonstrate how the intersections of ethnicity, religion, politics, and the global order and media play roles in reshaping the crisis. In May 2015, a politician aroused anger when he said ‘kill and bury’ all Rohingyas (Kreibich et al, 2017). The audience applauded and reiterated the statement. Such emotions and open hostility against the Rohingyas are the result of Rakhine’s long history of ethnoreligious clashes. When Myanmar obtained independence, its administration chose to support the Buddhist majority in Rakhine, going against the Muslim majority. The government began to admit Rakhine Muslims as Burmese citizens in the 1950s, but subsequent governments have refused to recognize them as such. As a result,

22

The Rohingya Human Rights Crisis

a Muslim independence movement was formed with the goal of establishing an autonomous Muslim state. Chapter 4, ‘Dispossession and displacement’, explores the various frames used in Bangladeshi, Myanmarese, and international media to describe the Rohingya refugee crisis. This chapter explores why and how the political economy and the ideology of media influence the way the Rohingya refugee crisis is framed in the media and how multiple distorted identities of Rohingya refugees are constructed through media. Additionally, this chapter analyzes a variety of social, political, economic, cultural, racial, religious, and geopolitical elements that influence how the Rohingya refugee issue is framed in the media and how their identity is constructed through the media. Finally, this chapter discusses the aforementioned topics in order to provide a broad overview of the media’s role in representing the Rohingya refugee crisis and whether this role is escalating or intensifying the crisis. Finally, Chapter 5, ‘The final destinations and policy implications’, presents significant findings and overarching conclusions offered in the preceding chapters. Based on our findings, we make some recommendations for how new generations of Rohingyas should cope with their future and how the world should interact with the Rohingya people and their return and resettlement. What role the media plays in this circumstance, and how vital this will be, is highlighted as well. The chapter compiles a few key proposals from host nations, the Myanmar government, and migration, refugee, and humanitarian regimes. We also compile and analyze the narratives offered by the Myanmar government vis-​à-​vis the credibility of regional and international media outlets to test the reality on the ground. We develop policy recommendations aimed at resolving the problem and consider their implications.

23

2

A Theoretical Understanding of Rohingyas and Rohingyas in the Media The previous chapter offered a historical understanding of the Rohingya population being deprived of their rights. Life in Myanmar for the Rohingyas in recent decades has been increasingly marked by systematic deprivation and human rights violations, with official state policies restricting their ability to marry, travel, have children, get medical treatment, attend schools, and more. This chapter presents a comprehensive theory of refugees that emphasizes the importance of endogenous factors, such as political and religious motivations, in the context of refugee issues globally and for the Rohingyas in particular. We show how media framing had an impact on the Rohingyas in terms of the severity of the crisis. Since it provides an alternative to the ‘objectivity and bias paradigm’, media framing is crucial to understanding the broader implications of mass communication (Kupchik and Bray, 2008; Zaini and Rahman, 2017). When conflict in Myanmar’s Rohingya region erupts between Muslim minority and Buddhist majority, framing goes beyond simple positive or negative connotations and encompasses complex emotional responses and cognitive dimensions, such as beliefs and attitudes (Tankard, 2001).

Theories of Rohingya genesis While multiple issues plague the global community right now, the plight of the world’s refugees is a pressing concern. It took some time for the problem to be present in people’s consciousness, but the plight of refugees has been on the minds of people everywhere in recent decades (Gordenker, 1987). According to Alexander Betts and Gil Loescher (2011: 1), migrants are ‘at the centre of world politics’. Many of the major problems of international relations are entwined with the origins, effects, and reactions to human 24

A theoretical understanding

migration (Ullah et al, 2022). While forced migration studies have largely ignored lessons from international relations, experts in the latter field have largely ignored the study of refugees (Kolukirik, 2009). The Marxist explanation for migration is fundamentally economic, which is why one of Marxism's central tenets, labour exploitation, has become so prominent. In order to accelerate industrialization, the German government hired a large number of migrant workers. Nonetheless, during the 1970s economic crisis, the government supported the (often forced) return of these migrants (Yin, 2021). Marx posited that the institutions of mass media are in the hands of the ruling classes. Through the medium of these establishments, the populace is brainwashed into thinking that capitalism is beneficial for all (Sallach, 1974). The purpose of the mass media is to further the political agenda of the powerful. Marx maintained that the alienation of workers from the means of production was a direct result of capitalist ideology. In relation to the portrayal of refugees, the media misled viewers using images of fictional refugees being exploited (Dorothy, 1938). More recently, photos and memes have been used by Right-​wing organizations and commentators to stigmatize the refugees who are risking their lives to enter Europe as the debate over how to address the crisis rages on. However, many of the pictures being used to back up the claims are phony, distorted, altered, or taken out of context (Haddad, 2008). According to the International Organization for Migration, forced migration is ‘a migratory movement that, while the drivers may vary, involves force, compulsion, or coercion’ (Faye, 2021: 3). In Myanmar, three types of forced migration have been practised. First, armed conflicts between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims resulted in successive relocations. Second, this border state is under military occupation, which is causing displacement. Third, the fragility of livelihoods has resulted in both internal and external migration (Jolliffe, 2015; Krisna, 2018; Adams, 2019; Mehebub, 2019). Numerous academic studies have looked into the suffering of the Rohingya people and how this has affected their lives as well as the lives of others around them. Part of this involved considering how the different meanings applied to the term 'Rohingya' have created tensions between groups. According to Leider (2013), the term ‘Rohingya’ dates back to precolonial periods. The Rohingya crisis as a Muslim minority in Myanmar and bilateral relations with Bangladesh dates back to the early seventh century, when Arab Muslim traders were in residency. They were characterized as Bengali people due to their physical, cultural, and linguistic similarities to Bangladeshis. Following the passage of the 1982 Citizenship Law, many Rakhine Buddhists referred to the Rohingyas as ‘illegal immigrants’ or ‘Bengalis’ (Parnini, 2013; Leider, 2018). In the Rohingya language, the term means ‘inhabitants of Rohang’, 25

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

referring to a group of people who have lived in Myanmar for a long time. In the seventh century, Bengali Muslims referred to Arakan, now known as Rakhine, as Rohang. As discussed previously, despite the kingdom’s final annexation in 1785, the suffering of the Rohingya Muslims has lasted for more than two centuries and has only gotten worse in recent years. After the country’s independence, three successive democratic administrations in Burma, from 1948 to 1962, recognized Rohingyas as citizens; however, after military control was established, this right to citizenship was abolished. In Myanmar, a genocide against the Rohingyas has been ongoing since 1985, and this could be described as a slow-​burning genocide (Zarni and Cowley, 2014). Burma (now Myanmar) has two significant ethnic groups: the Rohingyas and the Rakhines, both of whom are Muslim and live in the northwestern region of Arakan. After Burma obtained independence from the United Kingdom (UK) in 1948, the elected regime of Premier U Nu recognized the Rohingyas’ claim to cultural distinctiveness. Despite this, the government of Myanmar has maintained that the Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh since 1962. On four separate occasions, the Rohingyas were subject to a military crackdown: in 1978, 1991–​92, 2012, and 2015. However, in August 2017, they were subjected to appalling cruelty, resulting in the world’s largest case of ethnic cleansing in recent years (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018). By any standard, what happened to the Rohingyas in Myanmar is a humanitarian disaster. The onslaught on innocent civilians has been described as a ‘textbook example of ethnic cleansing’ by the UNHCR (quoted in Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018: 543). As a result, between 2017 and 2019, about 80 per cent of Rohingya Muslims were compelled to depart Myanmar (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018; Ganyo, 2019). Going back in time, as early as 788 CE the religion of Islam spread to Arakan and enchanted the people of Myanmar. As a result, Islam had a large impact on Arakan, and it was controlled by Muslims from 1430 until 1784, when it was captured by the Burmese. British troops took control of Arakan in 1824. During their administration, the British used ‘divide and rule’ tactics which resulted in Buddhists’s dislike of the Rohingya Muslims, referring to them as kalas (foreigners). Burma gained independence in 1937, and Arakan became a province of Burma in 1948. Since then, the government has carried out more than a dozen major ‘operations’ against the Rohingyas with the sole intention of damaging and destroying the Rohingya people. This process persists to the present day. General Ne Win’s socialist military government started the first large-​scale campaign against the Rohingyas in Rakhine state in 1978 in order to legitimate the systematic erasure of the Rohingya group identity and legitimize their physical extinction. Many Rohingyas were wrongly accused of being illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and were tortured during Operation Nagamin in Rakhine state in 1978–​80. This was 26

A theoretical understanding

the start of the first wave of the ethnic cleansing effort. When this started, it was evident that the Rohingyas were being targeted for annihilation, and this swiftly devolved into a broad campaign of terror and killing.

Refugees and their status Conflict and conflict-​related displacement cause ‘radical’ and ‘protracted’ uncertainty in people’s lives (Horst and Grabska, 2015). Because of the duration of their journeys, the refugees find themselves in liminal positions. Also, some refugees are granted formal status while others remain in refugee-​ like conditions as a result of their displacement. Time ‘continues to flow through routinized practices and survival strategies’ in an ephemeral state of flux for individuals affected by prolonged conflict. When their return situations change from short term to long term, their emergency mode switches to one in which the feeling of ‘permanent impermanence’ is paired with the certainty and regularity of everyday routines (Betts, 2009: 75). Because of the ambiguity, individuals and governments can negotiate, which leads to beneficial social development and innovation. Forced migration is assumed to be motivated by fear of violence or persecution, as opposed to voluntary migration, which refers to those who leave their home countries for economic reasons (Betts, 2009; Ullah, 2010). Forced migrants are people who are forced to leave their home countries because their governments refuse to provide them with basic human rights. Forced migration is now widely acknowledged, as are ‘other groups of persons who can legitimately be labelled forced migrants even if they have not crossed an international border or may be leaving for reasons other than those that determine refugee status’ (Wood, 1994: 614). To put it simply: The fundamental reason for forced migration, according to Betts (2009), is extremely political and is tied to movements in the international system, geopolitics, and the global political economy. People flee their nations to escape repressive regimes, which has repercussions on global politics. Conflict, peacebuilding, state building, terrorist recruitment, sources of foreign direct investment, transnational crime, or even interest group development and voting patterns in domestic politics are just a few of the many elements that play a role. Because of the presence of refugee camps, refugees have been referred to as ‘spoilers’ in times of peace (Betts, 2009).

Kunz’s typology The categorization of refugees, according to Kunz (1981: 44), can be explained by looking at how the refugees see their own displacement. The majority of identifiable refugees are individuals who oppose political and social events occurring in their home countries by their fellow citizens, 27

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

both those who have fled and those who stay. Refugees frequently have little interest in what occurs back home after they have left their homelands in relation to discrimination against specific ethnic groups. Because they are so isolated from society, Kunz refers to these people as ‘event refugees’. A second group of refugees comprises those who have decided to leave their nation for personal reasons. Their exclusion from society is the outcome of a personal philosophy, not an active policy. The Rohingyas do not appear to fit within either of these categories. They have fled their nation owing to well-​founded fear and persecution, and they are eager to return once the situation returns to normal –​that is, places are habitable (Ullah, 2016). The fall of the Berlin Wall prompted international investors to invest in developing economies as an incentive for economic progress, leading to a move by separate national economies towards a more integrated and unified global economy (Harris, 2002). But false promises of a more peaceful world with less war and more return migration only served to conceal the reality of a more polarized globe plagued by crises (Hayter, 2004). Following the eviction of the Rohingyas from Rahkine, several Japanese corporations arrived to invest in the region. According to papers freshly disclosed from the British archives, the Rohingya people’s current situation stems from their role in WWII, notably the communal violence that erupted during and after the war between the pro-​British Rohingya Muslims and the pro-​Japanese Rakhine Buddhists. As a result, even after Rohingya refugees returned to their towns with British soldiers in 1943, violence between Rohingya Muslims and Rakhine Buddhists persisted (Sarkar, 2019). Now, some say that this was about vengeance for the events of the war.

Refugee status and colonialism Some analysts have proposed a simple explanation for the enormous number of refugees globally: colonialism and the long-​term consequences it has had on conditions. For example, in 1824, the British launched a series of battles in Myanmar (then Burma), which lasted more than a century. Colonial officials encouraged the use of migrant labour to increase rice productivity and revenue, leading to a huge number of Rohingyas migrating to Myanmar in the 17th century. Between 1871 and 1911, the Muslim population tripled (Faye, 2021). During WWII, the Rohingyas supported the British, while Myanmar nationalists supported the Japanese. In exchange for their assistance, the British offered the Rohingya people a Muslim National Area. And following the war, the British offered major government positions to Rohingyas. However, the Rohingya people did not gain their own state, and Myanmar experienced ethnic and racial violence following its independence from British rule in 1948. 28

A theoretical understanding

Much of the literature on refugees has traditionally cantered on the concept that the boundaries established by colonial actions in the past are directly responsible for the contemporary refugee issue (Kibreab, 1985: 32). Ethnic and linguistic areas that were previously part of the same colonial entity are now split by artificial boundaries imposed on Africa and Asia by European colonial powers (Beattie et al, 1997). During colonial times, few attempts were made to promote a feeling of national identity among the numerous ethnic communities living in colonies. Inter-​ethnic antagonism could be exploited by colonial regimes. Long-​suppressed ethnic rivalries and conflicts arose during the contest for control of newly emerging states, many of which had been suppressed under colonial authority (Ganyo, 2019).

Identity crisis and exodus When attempting to index the 135 ethnic groups in Myanmar, researchers assumed they were made up of people who had been around for centuries or more and could be defined consistently over time (Washaly, 2019). The Muslim minority in Rakhine state was identified as Rohingya by the Myanmar Census in 1961. Hence, they were always referred to as such. However, the Myanmar government attempted to prevent people from identifying as Rohingya; moreover, since 1982 it has refused Rohingya people citizenship since they are considered unlawful immigrants. Thus, the Rohingyas have been formally refused citizenship in Myanmar due to their ethnicity and religion. Another tactic of regime authorities is to see conflicts between Myanmar’s Buddhist majority and the Rohingya Muslim minority as having a religious component.

Citizenship as identity Beyond establishing legal status, the notion of citizenship (Bosniak, 2000) advocates for equal rights and the application of the same laws to all members of a society (Joppke, 2010). Bosniak contends that being a citizen is required in order to have legal standing, rights protection, political involvement, and a sense of self. Citizenship is an exclusionary category that justifies the oppressive authority of those who are included over those who are excluded (Ignatieff, 1987; Anderson, 2011). Our focus here is on how the Rohingyas’ loss of citizenship has altered their identity and intensified their misery. People’s subjective sense of citizenship provides them with a sense of belonging in specific societies (Gow, 2006). It is argued, however, that more rights should be given to reflect broad ideas of citizenship (Turner, 2001). In contrast, the Rohingyas were denied all of these rights in newly independent Myanmar. Instead, discriminatory legislation and policies enacted by succeeding governments have limited their freedoms. As a result, 29

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

not only were the Rohingyas denied basic rights, but their identification as a less equal ethnic community, as well as the power imbalances that occurred, also caused harm. Reduced civil and political rights for the Rohingyas inevitably led to the revocation of citizenship. This denial shapes the Rohingya identity, from the Rohingyas’ own perspective and that of others. To put it another way, these people are thought to be outside the ‘pale of the law’ because they lack citizenship (Arendt, 1951). Individuals who are stateless are denied some sorts of treatment that are compatible with their membership claims as well as the legal right to do certain activities (Benhabib, 2004). The Rohingyas have been denied membership in any political community as a result of the Burma Citizenship Law 1982 and are, thus, unable to participate in any political activities. As a result, they reflect an archetypal idea of Arendt’s (1951) abandonment of the ‘right to have rights’ paradigm. Indeed, the adoption of nationality and citizenship laws that discriminate against people based on their race or ethnicity frequently ends in statelessness for those who are marginalized, such as the Rohingyas (Blitz and Lynch, 2011). Sense of citizenship shapes a person’s sense of self in a major way. As previously noted, citizenship grants legal standing, rights, and political engagement, all of which have a substantial impact on an individual’s identity creation. The Rohingyas’ vulnerable identity in the majority-​Burman society was first exacerbated when they were gradually marginalized as citizens of Myanmar, and then when their citizenship was revoked by legal means, they were left with the identity of a stateless people, which has led to their ongoing persecution and suffering (Ullah, 2011). Complex and multifaceted, the relationship between identity and citizenship can have significant effects on individual and social identity, as well as political and social inclusion. Our sense of belonging and relationship to the state are shaped by our identity and citizenship. Citizenship is a legal status conferred by a state that confers certain rights and privileges on an individual. Alternatively, identity encompasses our sense of self, our social roles and affiliations, as well as our cultural and historical roots. Citizenship shapes the identity of an individual. Citizenship confers a sense of inclusion and belonging within a specific political community, and can be a source of pride and identity. Citizenship can also be exclusive, especially when certain groups are denied citizenship on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, or other factors. Those excluded from the political community may experience feelings of marginalization and a diminished sense of identity as a result of this exclusion. The Rohingya identity is a constructed construct that has evolved over time (Wong, 2012). The Rohingyas’ claim to be a separate ethnic group has been called into question (Leider, 2013). A plausible explanation is the majority community and the government wished to deny them minority status (Callahan, 2007). 30

A theoretical understanding

When the Rohingya ethnic identity became widespread in the 1950s, the ethnic Muslim community in Arakan was referred to as a ‘fighting movement’ for the Rohingyas. In the world media and for human rights organizations, including the UN, the Rohingya identity eventually became a symbol of the struggle for rights.

The Citizenship Law of 1982 Following a survey done by the British in 1824, General Ne Win drafted the Burma Citizenship Act 1982, which restricted the citizenship rights of any community or group that was not included. That is, all other ethnic groups were recognized as outsiders and treated as such by the land. Within the eight major ethnic groups of Arakan, Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kaya, Mon, Shan, and Bamar, 135 smaller ethnic groups were discovered. Nonethnic peoples, like the Rohingyas, were denied citizenship because they did not belong to any of the 135 ethnic groups. Prior to this census, Rohingyas were referenced in records, but these were ignored (Cheesman, 2017). Crimes against human rights and abuses of the rule of law are justified and perpetrated with official impunity when carried out horizontally by local ultra-​nationalist Rakhine Buddhists under the 1982 Act (Zarni and Cowley, 2014). Instead of just conducting periodic ‘anti-​immigration’ operations, a permanent set of severe laws and policies have been imposed on the Rohingyas, amounting to the infliction of living conditions meant to cause serious physical and mental suffering and to entirely or largely destroy the community. Many people believe that awarding Rohingyas citizenship would be the best approach to settling the situation, because it would provide a long-​ term solution. Critics of Myanmar’s 1982 citizenship law and the 2008 constitution, which they see as essential in depriving the Rohingyas of citizenship and ultimately contributing to their persecution as a minority, have called for their repeal or modification (Alam, 2017). Aside from legal issues, the Rohingyas’ status as minorities in Myanmar is a crucial theoretical component in their persecution (Alam, 2017). Alam investigates how minority identity has been (re)constructed across time and notes that Burmese nationalism, identity politicization, deprivation of citizenship, and ethnic differences in a multi-​ethnic Myanmar society have all played important roles in forming the Rohingya identity. The rise of Burmese nationalism has led to Rohingyas being classified as a non-​Burman ethnic minority. The Rohingyas’ controversial position as a Muslim minority in a Buddhist-​majority country explains why the Rohingya problem has gone on for decades and continues to this day. Because the Rohingyas are a minority in Myanmar, their suffering and persecution have stemmed from the use of ‘citizenship as an identity’ as a legal tool to revoke their citizenship (Alam, 2017: 181). 31

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

The Rohingya crisis can be explored from a variety of theoretical vantage points, including human rights theory, conflict theory, and postcolonial theory. The Rohingya issue can be interpreted as a violation of the Rohingya people's fundamental rights, including their right to citizenship, freedom from discrimination, and protection from violence and persecution, from a human rights perspective. From the perspective of conflict theory, the Rohingya crisis is an expression of power conflicts and inequities between various communities in Myanmar. The conflict between the Rohingya and the government of Myanmar has historical and political origins, including the colonial legacy, ethnic and religious differences, and competition for resources and territory. From the perspective of postcolonial philosophy, the Rohingya problem is a legacy of colonialism and imperialism in the region. Colonialism continues to influence Myanmar's power relations and social dynamics, particularly the plight of the Rohingya people. If the Rohingyas or any other minority group is ever in a similar situation, this framework may be useful for gaining a tangible understanding of what it means to be a minority group. Following WWII, Myanmar began drafting its constitution. A person who had been a permanent resident of Myanmar for eight years was considered a citizen. Rakhine-​born Rohingya Muslims, according to this definition, were citizens of Myanmar because they were born there (Washaly, 2019). As a result, they acquired their National Registration Cards (NRCs) and were granted the right to vote. They worked in bureaucratic and government departments much like any other Burmese people. There was also a provision under the Union Citizenship Act 1948 which originally granted the Rohingya people certain rights and privileges, including the ability to work in government sectors. However, subsequent laws and policies enacted by the government of Myanmar have restricted the rights of the Rohingya people, and they are not currently recognized as citizens of Myanmar. In Buthidaung, the citizenship election officer, decided in 1949 that Muslims (that is, the Rohingyas) were ineligible to petition for citizenship since they were not Burmese citizens. In the 1950s, Burma’s Supreme Court of Justice introduced a similar concept (Parashar and Alam, 2019). The Rohingyas, like Kachins, Kayahs, Mons, Rakhines, and Shans, have the same right to nationality as other Burmese ethnic groups, according to a statement by Burmese Prime Minister U Nu in 1954. The Rohingya language was soon used alongside other ethnic languages in radio transmissions. In this region, the U Nu administration had even formed a special administrative unit for the Rohingyas. But when General Ne Win took power in 1962, the zone was turned upside down. The Rohingyas’ rights were gradually and deliberately eroded. To deny the Rohingyas a right to citizenship, the Emergency Immigration Act 1974 and the Burma Citizenship Law 1982 were enacted. The NRCs were introduced in 1974 32

A theoretical understanding

as a system of ethnic identity cards (Irom et al, 2022). The Rohingya ethnic group was omitted from Myanmar’s ethnic categories under this approach. They were unable to access education and jobs since many schools and institutions did not recognize the Foreign Registration Cards issued under the Emergency Immigration Act 1974. Citizenship was only conferred to people whose parents were Asian citizens under the 1974 constitution. Nonetheless, some Rohingya people could apply for NRCs. However, through the infamous Burma Citizenship Law 1982, which established three classes of citizenship and excluded the Rohingyas from all three, the Rohingyas were denied citizenship. They have ceased speaking about them as a result of their exclusion from Myanmar’s national languages and a lack of proof of their family’s historical history. Despite receiving white cards, the they were not able to vote because they were unable to establish their identity. Finally, the cards were all removed from the table. The Rohingyas had no economic or educational options; nor did they have the right to possess property. A year later, in 1983, the Rohingyas were denied the right to vote and declared stateless (Ullah, 2016).

Minority identity Minority identity refers to any attribute that separates a ‘minority group’ from other groups of people. Physical and cultural features might contribute to a common feeling of identity and experience of burden (Feagin, 1984). As a result, a minority, according to Wirth (1945), is a group of people who are distinguished from the rest of society due to physical or cultural traits. Because the term ‘minority’ is culturally loaded, the structure of minority identity creation differs from society to society and may be influenced by certain crucial qualities such as race, ethnicity, geography, religion, or social status (Wirth, 1945). While religion has traditionally been used by minorities to establish their identity, it may also be used to foster group cohesion. Many individuals are fascinated by the idea of religious minorities. Tomuschat (1983), for example, defines religious minorities as those ‘connected by a shared creed’. Krishnaswami (1960) makes two crucial remarks in this regard: when a state recognizes a majority religion as the state religion, it is likely to define religious status using its own criteria, which may be unfair to minorities; and the absence of a policy of recognition as a precondition to religious status does not necessarily imply that minorities will be treated unequally. The Rohingya people are classified as a religious minority rather than an ethnic minority (Hurd, 2017). Separated societies are more likely to generate narratives, discourses, and ideologies based on exclusionary intergroup relations, national identities, and nativist self-​identification appeals (Malesevic, 2006). Ethnic prerogatives, 33

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

rights, and privileges are frequently entrenched in postcolonial governments, resulting in diverse and unequal communities and a citizenship dilemma. Citizenship is reduced to a collective good in this perspective. The dominant population’s cultural (Ullah, 2022) and ethnic homogeneity increase, while the minority population begins to diminish (Ullah and Azizuddin, 2018) and, in the worst circumstances, disappears totally (Ganyo, 2019). There are reasons to assume that the Myanmar government has been attempting to exterminate the Rohingya minority through persecution so that they will eventually vanish from the Myanmar ethnic picture. When the country acquired independence in 1948, its population was made up of people of native, diversified, and foreign origins. Because of the country’s ethnic, linguistic, and cultural heterogeneity, national unity divides the country’s political parties. In 1947, 1974, and 2008, different political regimes established distinct constitutions. However, the original constitution declared that both citizens and noncitizens had equal rights and benefits. The Rohingyas’ status has been influenced by these laws (both the constitution and the legislation) in three separate historical periods. The military rule in 1958–​60 upset the citizenship of ethnic groups existing in Myanmar, which ended with the military takeover in 1962 (Parashar and Alam, 2019). The Constitution of the Union of Burma in1947, the Union Citizenship Act 1948, and the Union Citizenship (Election) Act 1948 all had an effect on the legal status of the Rohingya people. The first Burmese constitution, created while Myanmar was still under British colonial administration, went into effect on 4 January 1948 (Arraiza and Vonk, 2017). As a result, it was contended that while guaranteeing specific rights to minorities and establishing a quasi-​federal ethnic state system, this constitution would politicize and rigidify the institutional structures of minority and central government interactions. Prior to independence, Myanmar was divided into two parts: the majority Burmese population and the minority non-​Burmese population. As a result, ethnic minorities in Myanmar stated their desire for full independence during the country’s independence negotiations.

Rohingya identity At least two grounds exist for relying on the concept of Rohingya identity: if an ethnic minority group’s national identity is weakened or nonexistent, this can lead to marginalization and persecution, among other things (Galache, 2014); if an ethnic minority group’s national identity is politicized, this can prolong the group’s miseries (Phinney et al, 2001; Galache, 2014). The Rohingyas’ incapacity to express their identity and suffering can be attributed to two factors. The first is Myanmar’s state structure and power concentration. Following its independence from British domination in 1948, 34

A theoretical understanding

Myanmar was left with frail and unrooted colonial institutions, resulting in a shattered multi-​ethnic society. Furthermore, on 2 March 1962, the military seized control of Myanmar, and the government has been under military control ever since (Kipgen, 2015). As a result, the government control over the majority of society (business, media, and production), as well as the context in which other minority groups and their identity formations, including the Rohingyas, are intrinsically linked to the Rohingya identity, has had a negative impact on their proper representation. The second factor is the context in which Rohingya identity was formed. As a result of ethnic nationalism in Burma, there has never been a place for the establishment of a new identity that integrates multiple peoples residing in the modern state, such as the Rohingyas (Smith, 2001). The Burma Citizenship Law 1982 recognizes eight ‘national ethnic groups’. the exception of the Rohingyas, the eight categories have been subdivided into 135 recognized ‘national ethnic groups’, provided in various official documents (Ullah, 2011). So not only have the Rohingyas suffered, but also their identity has been denied by the majority and other recognized minorities in the absence of legal recognition and state-​led policies to safeguard them. This shows that minority identity and identity politics still require investigation in relation to the current Rohingya crisis (Mullen, 2016). The following section examines how identity has been (re)constructed for Rohingyas over the years.

Politicization of identity Identity is politicized by (intrapersonal) individual decisions and (interpersonal) social conditions (Massey, 2004). Political identity, then, pertains to how people define themselves and others, as well as how they understand the domination and oppression relationships that exist between and among groups. National identity is one of the numerous expressions of political identity. It is an important aspect of our modern identities (Poole, 2012). A sense of national belonging, on the other hand, is not something that is bestowed upon a person; it must be earned. Nation states are seeking to develop national bonds in which the main political identity predominates over subordinate identities. As a result, the adoption of a certain (non-​national) identity is called into question, and it becomes a source of political controversy. There are two schools of thought when it comes to national identity and its political implications: civic nationalism and ethnic nationalism (Plamenatz, 1976). Civic nationalism differs from ethnic nationalism in that it emphasizes a political, rather than a cultural, understanding of a nation. An important aspect of this classification is that each ‘civic nation’ can accommodate multiple nations, whereas ‘ethnic nations’ cannot because these assume that 35

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‘each nation should have its own state, and that each state should be made up of members of the same nation’ (Muller, 2008). Identity politics can be explained in two ways, according to David (2013). The first is primordialism, which holds that political identity is ascribed, fixed, and indelible, in contrast to constructivism, which holds that people’s political identities are changeable and subject to change based on their experiences in society (David, 2013). Second, instrumentalists contend that a person’s political identity is ‘neither inherent in human nature nor essentially valued’ because what matters is its utility in accomplishing a certain purpose. As a result, under instrumentalism, identities can change and gain meaning as they become relevant to a goal or serve as a means to an economic or political purpose (Yang, 2000). In general, instrumentalists do not seek and manipulate identity in order to obtain power, but rather employ primal or constructivist tactics and politicize identity until economic and political goals are satisfied (Varshney, 2009). Primordialism is an important notion to consider in the situation of the Rohingya people. Because of the Rohingyas’ ethnic and religious identities, which can be traced far back in their history, they have formed a distinct set of mentalities, customs, and values from those around them. According to primordialism, this demands the acknowledgment of separate identities, the provision of protection, and the encouragement of active engagement. The Rohingya crisis is, therefore, exacerbated by denial of their different identities, lack of security and protection, and limitations on their ability to engage effectively in social institutions (Azar and Burton,1986). A persistent policy of viewing the Rohingyas as aliens (or ‘others’) has contributed to the development of prejudice towards them. This is also why the fighting seems perpetual in Myanmar, regardless of who is in charge or what government is in place (Win, 2017). Since the end of the Cold War, realism has gone back to its traditional values. There has been a resurgence of interest among realist scholars in the thinkers who laid the groundwork for their paradigm, in the tragic nature of their view of life and politics, in the practical importance they place on ethics, and in their view of theory as the launching pad for narrative explanations or context-​ dependent predictions (Behr, 2010). We use the present refugee situation in Bangladesh to illustrate the value of realism in 21st-​century international relations theorizing. Because of the media’s role as a distant authority, we must learn to trust it in order to protect ourselves from ontological insecurity (Kinnvall, 2004). In this book, we briefly consider ontological reflections in an effort to define reality. The globalization of economics, politics, and human affairs (Kinnvall, 2004) causes individuals and the communities to which they belong to become more ontologically insecure and existentially unclear. Myanmar’s ruling class has been worried about the Rohingya Muslim minority for decades (Kipgen, 2013). 36

A theoretical understanding

The ontological security notion has four components that apply to each human. On the one hand, an ontologically secure individual has a biographically coherent self-​identity that is shared with others on a daily basis. The Rohingyas’ self-​identity as an indigenous people is founded on biographical coherence, which the parliamentary administration safeguarded from 1948 and 1962 through a statement issued by the then government. The Rohingyas are now able to trace their ancestors back to a single point in history. As a result of this phenomenon, other indigenous ethnic groups were able to ‘easily’ share the Rohingyas’ status during this time period (Christou et al, 2010). Unfortunately, the growth of Islamophobia and extremism (similar to what was seen in Sri Lanka following the Easter Bombings in April 2019 (Chattoraj and Gerharz, 2019) has rendered the Rohingya Muslim minority stateless and has disproportionately impacted them. This problem now governs Myanmar’s transitional phase. As a result, the Rohingyas’ personal history has been tainted by their status as Burmese nationals and Muslims. Burmese nationalism-​fuelled bigotry (Wake and Yu, 2018) as well as manipulations by the predominantly coercive military dictatorship are to blame for this delay, as are the Union of Burma constitution of 1947 and the Union Citizenship Act 1948. During in-​securitization, three components of ontological security –​ trust structures, social tokens, and faith in experts –​are stripped away, and a once-​respected institution begins to lose respect and is perceived as unfriendly and negative (Croft, 2012). In this situation, the Burmese military administration has limited the Rohingyas’ status as Burmese nationals through the constitution. As a result, the constitution protects the Burmese majority by keeping out the ‘threat’ posed by the Rohingya people.

Response of the world community The Rohingyas have been the subject of a slew of empirically incorrect publications and implausible theories in recent years (Brickey et al, 2018). However, many of these were found to be motivated by a skewed agenda, while others were due to a lack of thorough investigation. For example, despite repeated claims in numerous media outlets, the UN has never called or made any statements about the Rohingyas being ‘the world’s most persecuted minority group’. ‘Devastating cruelty’ (Kofi Anan, Chair of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, 2017) was the term used for the government of Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya people. No formal resolution was passed by the UN, but the Security Council strongly criticized the violence that had occurred in Rakhine state, expressed alarm at the deterioration of the humanitarian situation, and called on the government of Myanmar to grant immediate, safe, and unhindered access to UN agencies and their partners, because of the opposition from China 37

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

and Russia (Arraiza and Vonk, 2017). In recognition of Aung San Suu Kyi’s election as leader of her party and the ongoing process of democracy in her country, the UN General Assembly voted on 16 November 2020 to ‘approve a person’s human rights resolution on the Asian country' (Peter, 2020). When the UN Security Council convened in February 2018 to ‘discuss Myanmar’, it declared that the ‘Rohingya crisis would remain a top priority’.

Media coverage of the Rohingya crisis The media covers only a small percentage of the world’s most important events. People are drawn to the news as a result of the media’s effort to be up to date (Kim et al, 2017). Minority repression is a significant occurrence. Even though many of the world’s minorities are indigenous, they suffer a variety of social, political, economic, and religious obstacles (Marsad, 2016). In general, Muslim minorities suffer challenges to their beliefs, values, behaviour, personality, and knowledge as a result of their non-​ Islamic surroundings (Attawab, 2012). One of these groups is Myanmar’s Rohingya minority. Coverage of the Rohingya refugee crisis is essential to people’s understanding of the issue. Most individuals, including policy makers and relief providers, are influenced by how refugees are portrayed in the media. This portrayal has an impact on policy formulation and interpretation, as well as on support and opposition (Johnson, 2011: 1017). The way refugees are portrayed, whether as possible threats, useful members of the community, or helpless masses awaiting rescue by humanitarian organizations, has a significant impact on how they are greeted and accepted by their host countries (Mahtani and Mountz, 2002). The media’s coverage of refugees is inextricably linked to editorial decisions regarding how the story should be told. It is possible to attract attention to specific features of reality in order to persuade others of one’s own point of view (see, for example, Gitlin, 1980; Entman, 1991, 1993). The media elevates certain aspects of refugees’ lives, making these the principal lenses through which readers interpret refugee themes from a narrative perspective. No matter what country the individuals are from, studies of refugee news framing show several fundamental traits (Baker and McEnery, 2005; Dimitrova et al, 2009, 2018; Greussing and Boomgaarden, 2017; Ehmer and Kothari, 2018, 2021; Kovar, 2019; Lippi et al, 2020). Baker and McEnery (2005: 197) discovered negative frames about refugees and asylum seekers as ‘packages, invaders, bugs, or water’ even in UNHCR-​produced materials. In The Star, a Malaysian daily newspaper, negative media framing of Rohingya immigrants was not mitigated by the shared Sunni Muslim faith (Ehmer and Kothari, 2021). Despite studies comparing refugee portrayals across international media organizations, few studies have contrasted media 38

A theoretical understanding

coverage of the Rohingyas in the East and West (such as Benson and Wood, 2015; Abid et al, 2017; Dimitrova et al, 2018; Ramasubramanian and Miles, 2018). Despite widespread coverage in Western news, the Rohingya crisis has garnered little attention as a result of a number of cultural and geopolitical circumstances.

News framing Framing is a symbolic expression in which words or visuals are used to create a pattern or categorization in the minds of the audience (Azahar and Adibah, 2018). In 1972, Gregory Bateson proposed the concept of framing. Attention is focused on specific occurrences for framing theory, and those events are then placed in a context of meaning (Arowolo, 2017). Framing is one of the oldest and most well-established theories in the field of mass communication (Pere, 2013; Ardèvol-Abreu, 2015). There has been a lot of research done on framing in the media (Weaver, 2007; An and Gower, 2009). Framing research is becoming increasingly popular in the realm of mass media (D’Angelo, 2019). Frames give meaning by limiting people’s perceptions and providing specialized information about a specific subject using selective simplification (Razer and Friedman, 2017). The term ‘frame’ is often used to describe how the media frames and generates news stories to deliver information and create value for audiences (Chong and Druckman, 2007a; An and Gower, 2009; Arowolo, 2017). It is the manner in which speakers or media offer information or specific messages to their audiences through words, images, phrases, and presenting styles (de Vreese, 2005; Chong and Druckman, 2007; Cissel, 2012). Many communication studies employ frame theory to detect the frames employed by newsrooms and journalists before they are published to the public. Framing theory explores how journalists and newsrooms utilize frames to convey news and topics to their audiences. Other research focuses on framing the debate. They are concerned about the impact of media framing on their viewers when they are exposed to the news. Media framing theory is at the centre of everything when it comes to arranging the world along pre-​existing schemas (Goffman, 1974). Current events are framed in the media in order to make them more understandable to the general population (Reese, 2007). As a result of the usage of frames, readers feel as if they have a greater grip and understanding of events (Boesman et al, 2017: 305). Frames’ ability to trigger readers’ ‘chain of reasoning devices’ makes them effective tools for conveying persuasive information (Boesman et al, 2017: 305). Frames operate as ‘a constant meta-​ communicative message’ that offers ‘coherence and meaning’ to the news by specifying the relationship between various pieces of stories by drawing 39

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

attention to certain aspects of a topic while disregarding others (Entman, 1993; de Vreese, 2004; Van Gorp, 2005: 503). Framers choose and stress features of an occurrence in order to ‘promote certain issue definitions, causal interpretations, moral assessments, and/​or therapeutic recommendations’ for the item under consideration (Entman, 1993: 52).

Refugee portrayal in the media Frames give meaning by limiting people’s perceptions and providing specialized information about a specific subject using selective simplification (Razer and Friedman, 2017). The term ‘frame’ is often used to describe how the media frames and generates news stories to deliver information and create value for audiences (Chong and Druckman, 2007; An and Gower, 2009; Arowolo, 2017). It is the manner in which speakers or media offer information or specific messages to their audiences through words, images, phrases, and presenting styles (de Vreese, 2005; Chong and Druckman, 2007; Cissel, 2012). Many studies of communication employ frame theory to detect the frames employed by newsrooms and journalists before they are published to the public. Other research focuses on framing the debate. They are concerned about the impact of media framing on their viewers when they are exposed to the news. Media framing theory is central when it comes to understanding how the world is arranging along pre-​existing schemas (Goffman, 1974). Current events are framed in the media in order to make them more understandable to the general population (Reese, 2007). The use of frames makes readers feel as if they have a greater grip and understanding of events (Boesman et al, 2017: 305). Frames’ ability to trigger readers’ ‘chain of reasoning devices’ makes them effective tools for conveying persuasive information (Boesman et al, 2017: 305). Frames operate as ‘a constant meta-​communicative message’ that offers ‘coherence and meaning’ to the news by specifying the relationship between various pieces of stories and by drawing attention to certain aspects of a topic while disregarding others (Entman, 1993; de Vreese, 2004; Van Gorp, 2005: 503). Framers choose and stress features of an occurrence in order to ‘promote certain issue definitions, causal interpretations, moral assessments, and/​or therapeutic recommendations’ for the item under consideration (Entman, 1993: 52). Refugees are portrayed as ‘unwelcome disasters’ and ‘dehumanized beings’ through the use of metaphors such as flooding, pouring, trickling, swelling, and overflowing, which erase ‘any human aspect’ from the refugees (Abid et al, 2017: 138). Ramasubramanian and Miles (2018) discovered that in portrayals of refugee cries, humanizing frames were employed in Arabic news sources, whereas victim frames were used in English news sources, reinforcing hierarchies between Syrian victims and Western saviours. The 40

A theoretical understanding

majority of research on how the Rohingya situation is portrayed in the media comes from the West. There are several similarities in the coverage of refugees by Myanma Alinn, Myanmar’s most widely read daily newspaper, and its sister paper, the English-​language Global New Light of Myanmar (Khosravinik, 2009). They both portray the Rohingyas as a cohesive, active group that poses a threat to national security. There have been numerous examples of this in recent times, including a Global New Light of Myanmar statement comparing the Rohingyas to ‘detestable human fleas’ (26 November 2016). Furthermore, Myanma Alinn (30 October 2016) reported on the situation in the Rakhine state (Kironska, 2021). Reuters’ Pulitzer Prize-​winning investigative reporting frequently uses Orientalist tropes to support their findings of benevolent, paternalistic outsider intervention (Brooten et al, 2015). The New York Times made the same error in its coverage of the Rohingya situation (Brooten et al, 2015). It is worth noting that Brooten and colleagues (2015) found that Inter Press Service’s coverage of the crisis was significantly more attentive and sophisticated than that of The New York Times. The ethnic cleansing in Myanmar was regarded in the context of ‘militarization and structural violence’, as well as global economic developments (Brooten et al, 2015: 729).

Conclusion The news media is one of the most significant and effective sources of information (Cissel, 2012). The media provides viewers all over the world with their initial impressions of the Rohingya issue. News is presented in a variety of ways, depending on the source and gatekeepers. According to Cissel (2012), news organizations and journalists have the authority to decide which stories are noteworthy and how much importance and space they are given. As a result of the multitude of ways in which the Rohingya crisis was framed, audiences’ mental impressions of the crisis may be jumbled. Some viewers believe the Rohingyas are a persecuted minority, while others see the crisis as a civil conflict within Myanmar. As a result, addressing the problem takes on new significance. Media depictions of refugees are intricately tied to news framing. Framing highlights specific parts of observed reality in order to offer a specific viewpoint for persuasive objectives (Gitlin, 1980; Entman, 1991, 2019). The media emphasizes particular aspects of refugee lives, making them the principal lenses through which readers interpret refugee themes out of the innumerable complicated and sometimes contradictory layers of refugee existence. Regardless of refugees’ country of origin, studies of news framing of refugees share some fundamental characteristics (Irom et al, 2022). 41

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

Although news framing of the Rohingya crisis has received some attention in the recent literature (Cissel, 2012; Provencher, 2016; Rasaq et al, 2016; Borah, 2021), there is still little relatively research on the subject. Ehmer and Kothari (2021) discovered that Malaysia’s The Star presented Rohingya refugees as dangers; the fact that Rohingyas and Malaysians share the Muslim faith did little to relieve negative media framing (Irom et al, 2022). According to Hossain and Hosain (2019), more study is required to understand how the media presents the Rohingya situation. Afzal (2016) also emphasizes that further research is needed to resolve the Rohingya situation through media analysis. In this study, we look at how Al Jazeera and the BBC have structured their reporting on the Rohingya crisis settlement efforts by national and international organizations. Furthermore, this book offers ideas for new media that might be utilized to frame similar crises on a national and worldwide scale. It also demonstrates that mainstream media coverage of the Rohingya problem has been extensively elaborated.

42

3

The Path to Refuge: Ethnicity, Politics, Religion, and Global Order The preceding chapter examined the theoretical foundations of research on refugee populations. Several theories are utilized to frame refugee groups in the available literature. It is beyond the scope of that chapter to discuss all of the theories that have been identified ; instead, a few theoretical frameworks and social factors that have been used repeatedly in relation to refugee issues and may be useful in providing additional clarity to these existing complexities were discussed. This chapter analyzes the trajectory of the Rohingya refugees. For decades, the Muslim Rohingyas have experienced daily persecution and violence in Myanmar, which is mostly Buddhist. The Burmese government refuses to grant them citizenship under the 1948 law, rendering them stateless. Because they are not registered citizens, most Rohingya people face difficulties in obtaining jobs and accessing education and healthcare as well as travelling within the country. The supposed allegiance between Arakanese Muslims and British colonial overlords was enhanced by their landing alongside the British in 1824 and their continued support of the British during WWII. To their detriment, Muslims in Arakanese communities were encouraged to create a distinct identity known as ‘Rohingya’, which alienated them from the majority Buddhist Arakanese population (Ahmed, 2010: 58). The Myanmar government outlaws the category of ‘Rohingya’, since it was coined by Bengalis whose claims to prior historical connections to Myanmar are unsupportable (Chan, 2005). In the postwar years, the Rohingyas were nonetheless repressed and ostracized by Burmese military power, forcing them to flee time and again. During the 1978 Nagamin (Dragon King) census, which was designed to cleanse the country of Rohingyas but ended up being a cruel operation that resulted in the destruction of mosques and brutality, rape, and murder, and over 200,000 Rohingya people fleeing to Bangladesh (Matthieson, 1995; 43

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

Grundy-​Warr and Wong, 1997; Ullah, 2011). The following year, Myanmar and Bangladesh reached an agreement that allowed the bulk of Rohingya refugees to return home (Ahmed, 2010: 16). As a result of an amendment to the 1982 citizenship law, the Rohingyas (along with people of Indian and Chinese descent) became stateless. Between 1991 and 1992, around 250,000 Rohingyas were forcibly displaced to Bangladesh. According to a memorandum of understanding signed in 1992 by Bangladesh and Myanmar, many Rohingyas returned to Myanmar in the years that followed, though whether they did so voluntarily is debatable (Grundy-​Warr and Ong, 1997; Lewa, 2009; Ahmed, 2021). In 1993, the UNHCR and Myanmar signed a memorandum of understanding to provide Rohingyas access to the country, assist with repatriation, and monitor reintegration. Some of the Rohingyas resisted repatriation because they feared persecution if they returned to Myanmar. The next section covers ethnicity, politics, religion, and global order to better connect with the chapter objectives and, eventually, the goals of the book.

Ethnicity, politics, religion, and global order Ethnicity For many, ethnicity is the single most significant factor in contemporary politics (Hale, 2004). An emotional tie to or identification with a specific group is how some social scientists define ethnicity (Connor, 1993; Horowitz, 1985). For some, it is the presence of a complex network of meaningful symbols (Geertz, 1967; Smith, 2000). Other people consider ethnicity to be a made-​up thing that people just choose to identify with (Royce, 1982; Barth, 1998; Anderson, 1999). One alternative sees it primarily as a mental operation (Brubaker, 2002; Brubaker et al, 2004). Some have called ethnicity a nepotistic survival mechanism. Some people think it’s a combination of these ideas, though (Fearon and Laitin, 1996; Fearon, 1999; Laitin, 1999). According to Barth (1998), there are groups of people that fundamentally share a common culture and interrelated characteristics, and these unique cultures can be distinguished from all others. Because culture can be thought of a label for patterns of behaviour, it stands to reason that there are distinct groups of individuals, or ethnic units, that correspond to each culture. However, while the similarities and contrasts between cultures and their historical boundaries and links have received a lot of attention, the constitution of ethnic groups and the nature of the boundaries between them have not been similarly explored (Barth, 1998: 9). It is generally agreed upon in the anthropological literature that the term ‘ethnic group’ refers to a population that is ‘largely biologically self-​perpetuating; that shares fundamental cultural values, realized in overt unity in cultural forms; 44

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that constitutes a field of communication and interaction; and that has a membership that identifies itself and is identified by others as constituting a category distinguishable from other categories of the same order’ (Barth, 1998: 10–​11).

Politics Who gets what, when, and how is the essence of politics. As such, political conflict resolution is seen as central to this field. This may have been a true characterization of politics in the decades following WWII, when a more centralized state implemented progressive taxation and welfare provision together with a party system based on the conventional Left/​ Right ideological split (Boswell, 2020). However, the idea that politics is simply or mostly about distribution has been questioned since the latter part of the twentieth century. Politics now is as much (if not more) about identity and culture as it is about material resources, as seen by the growing prominence of ‘post-​ideological’ contestation over values and ways of life. Environmental protection, gender equality, immigrant rights, and national security are just some of the topics that have been at the centre of recent political debates (Boswell, 2020). Scholars have demonstrated that political conflict involves not only disputes over distribution but also contestation over how policy problems are framed or communicated. In fact, it’s possible that it’s not so simple to tell these types of conflict apart since alternative problem statements may have significant effects on distribution. But the point is that politics is an ideological conflict in which people try to influence the story by appealing to their own personal values and beliefs rather than to any kind of objective self-​interest. In light of discussions surrounding ‘fake news’ and the possibility of major differences in how competing political groupings frame policy issues, it is encouraging to see an acknowledgment of the relevance of narratives.

Religion According to Guthrie (1996), there is not a single comprehensive theory of religion that can hold up to scrutiny. More than 25 years after Geertz (1966) labelled the anthropological theory of religion ‘stagnant’, writers in all fields interested in religion admit that not even a common definition of the term ‘religion’ exists. Wax (1984), Poole (1986), and Boyer (2008) are some of them; religious scholars like Preus (1987), Penner (1989), Masuzawa (1993), Stark and Bainbridge (1987), and McCauley (1987) are others. There are, however, new attempts to develop a unified theory. Many authors, including William Sims Bainbridge and Rodney Stark, and philosophers David Hume, Feuerbach, Freud, and Malinowski, have argued that humans need religious 45

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

ideas in order to feel secure in their lives. It has been said that Gods ‘exist as hopes in the human consciousness’ (Bainbridge, 1987: 23). When it comes to ‘systems of universal compensators based on supernatural assumptions’, religion is what you get (Bainbridge, 1987: 39). Others in the academic community see the use of religious concepts and symbols as sneaky ways to advance social goals like unity and stability. First and foremost, religion is a concept rooted in a specific culture and historical era, as Guthrie (1996) argues. Cross-​cultural application necessitates changes such as substituting a focus on barriers between religious groups with a focus on genetic similarities of group members. However, if the family analogy is applied, the implication of common ancestry from which stereotypical family similarities emerge must also be taken into account. Despite their diversity, all religions agree that the rest of the universe is not unlike humans in important ways. This is a widely held and essential belief. Anthropomorphism is far more pervasive than religious belief and has a greater impact on one’s thinking and behaviour than is often acknowledged. Most importantly, the study of religion highlights similarities that lead to the view that faiths are related.

Global order International states are at the head of the world order, which is founded on the concepts of mutual recognition of sovereign rights and the right of each nation to determine its own fate. Since this is the case, it follows that governments at the national level are the key actors in the formulation and execution of international norms and policies (Eilstrup-​Sangiovanni and Stephanie, 2019). The order is liberal because it encourages free trade and economic cooperation among most nations (Ikenberry, 2018). Governments have approved a procedural principle of multilateralism which has two parts, to uphold these substantive principles. The first part is that justifications and actions are based on a set of rules. International law, particularly its provisions on the use of force, serves as the foundation for this order, which is built on a collection of generally accepted rules and principles (Shelter-​Jones, 2017). The seond part involves inclusivity. An absence of explicitly quid pro quo exchanges in favour of obtaining long-​term communal gains through cooperation characterizes the foundational ideas upon which relations are built. Some academics argue that the postwar order included elements that aren’t captured by this description, such as the free movement of people or the advancement of human rights and democracy (Eilstrup-​Sangiovanni and Stephanie, 2019).

From citizens of Myanmar to statelessness in the world In this section, we focus on the treatment of Rohingyas in Myanmar. To empirically test the thesis of statelessness, we focus on the legislation 46

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enforced in Myanmar to understand its impact on the Rohingyas’ human rights. Rohingya people have lived in what is now Myanmar for centuries. In a public speech on 25 September 1954, Myanmar’s first prime minister, U Nu, claimed that the population that lives in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships are Rohingya. At public speeches given in Buthidaung and Maungdaw Townships on 3–​4 November 1959, Prime Minister and Minister for Defense U Ba Swe reaffirmed the equal status of Rohingya as a nationality to that of Kachin, Kayah, Karen, Mon, Rakhine, and Shan (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018). On 20 November 1961, the prime minister’s office claimed that the Mayu Frontier was home to people of Rohingya ancestry (Ullah, 2016: 286). After General Ne Win instituted discriminatory practices toward the Rohingyas in the 1970s, a number of steps were taken to strip them of their NRCs. Until 1982, the Rohingyas were recognized as citizens of Myanmar despite the country’s systemic discrimination and exclusion policies, which included confiscation of their NRCs and other legal documents. However, in 1982, Congress passed the citizenship law to deny them the right to remain citizens of Myanmar.

Impact of the Burma Citizenship Law 1982 To understand the reasoning behind the Rohingyas’ statelessness, it is important to understand the human rights abuses against the Rohingya people that have gone on in Myanmar for centuries. Between 1.5 million and 2 million people are enduring continued persecution due to the ethnic cleansing policy of the military regime in Myanmar (Hussain, 2015). In addition, 1.5 million Rohingya people have been living in exile in several other countries all over the world. Myanmar’s government tries to justify the abuse with baseless claims that the Rohingyas might engage in violent activities at any time. In other words, the military is imposing power on them out of fear of terrorist attacks by these supposed 'Muslim radicals'. Another theory behind the Rohingyas’ statelessness is that it is part of the Myanmar government’s attempt to carry out ‘ethnic cleansing’. One vital point to keep in mind is the fact that the category of Rohingya is not considered an ethnicity in Myanmar, and this is entrenched in the newly updated constitution with the Burma Citizenship Law 1982: ‘First, there were members of Myanmar indigenous ethnic groups, and second, there was “associate” or “naturalized” citizens’. This violates Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: ‘(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.’ A criterion was also added to the citizenship law where, as Lambrecht (1995) highlights, a person should be of a good character, of sound mind, and fluent in the national language. This worked against the Rohingyas, as many had been taught the Chittagong 47

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

language and had no teaching in the national language (Hussain, 2015). Another point to add is that the law itself claims that the ‘The Council of State may decide whether any ethnic group is national or not’. The state of Myanmar has rejected Rohingya as an ethnic group, which means that they are not classified as citizens of Myanmar. Being denied citizenship within one’s own country has several repercussions for the individuals affected. Being denied citizenship, the Rohingyas are forbidden from participating in elections or joining the army, and they are also restricted from certain economic activities (Hussain, 2015). This further abuses their human rights with the UN Declaration, which claims in Article 21(1) that: ‘Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.’ Thus, the Rohingyas are prosecuted for their ethnicity and religion. Historically deprived of basic rights, in recent decades the Royinghya have also been systematically marginalized and had their freedom of mobility deliberately curtailed. In restricting their mobility, the government has erected several checkpoints, which have also greatly hindered economic development. The Rohingyas have to obtain permits to travel around the country and work in different areas, all of which is very expensive. Neither marriage nor employment choices are completely open to Rohingya people; in fact, there have been numerous instances of forced labour and gang rape by the Myanmar army (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018). Many cannot believe that in retaliation, poor and unarmed Rohingya insurgents launched attacks on security sites in August 2017, killing 12 people (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018). And Myanmar’s government used that as an excuse for unleashing a brutal crackdown on a defenceless minority. This suggests that the government has been waiting for the right moment to completely eliminate the Rohingyas from Rakhine. Additionally, the Myanmar government announced that the Rakhine district would be transformed into a business hub, and foreign investments were encouraged (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018). Because of this, Sassen (2017) enquired: ‘Is Rohingya persecution caused by business interests rather than religion?’ She added that both Buddhist and Muslim smallholders had been victims of corporate land grabs in Myanmar. This plan would indeed require the government to wipe out Rohingyas from their homeland. Several countries like Japan and Korea, known as upholders of human rights, have already invested in Rakhine and are keeping their eyes closed to this annihilation. The silence of Aung San Suu Kyi on the plight of the Rohingya and her endorsement of the brutality along with her cancelled trip to the UN General Assembly, certainly fits with the idea that a deliberate cleansing drive has been underway (Illius, 2017). In her speech on the crisis, instead of promising concrete action to protect the Rohingyas, she appears to be 48

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downplaying the horrific brutalities that have transpired. Added to this, incomprehensibly, she said that her government is ready to accept the Rohingya ‘refugees’. However, as noted by Ullah and Chattoraj (2018), this assertion is fundamentally incorrect because Rohingyas are refugees from Bangladesh and other countries, but not Myanmar. Furthermore, she surprised many with her seemingly ignorant statement about what is happening on the ground: ‘we will have to consider why Rohingya people are failing’ (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018: 545). Ullah and Chattoraj (2018: 546) have proposed that the best solution to this protracted crisis would be that Suu Kyi, as leader, takes responsibility for stopping the ongoing genocide and for facilitating and expediting the safe return of Rohingyas to Myanmar from the destinations of their refuge (Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Malaysia, and elsewhere). Also, she should take the initiative to give them back their citizenship. The International State Crime Institute discovered a leaked document apparently adopted by the regime in 1988, which revealed the State Peace and Development Council’s gruesome tactics to eliminate the Rohingyas from Myanmar: (a) The Muslims (Rohingya) are not to be provided with citizenship cards by identifying them as insurgents. (b) To reduce the population growth of the Rohingya by the gradual imposition of restrictions on their marriages and by application of all possible methods of oppression and suppression against them. (c) To strive for the increase in Buddhist population to be more than the number of Muslim people by way of establishing Natala villages in Arakan with Buddhist settlers from different townships and out of the country. (d) To allow them temporary movement from village to village and township to township only with Form 4 (which is required by the foreign nationals for travel), and to totally ban them travelling to Sittwe, the capital of Arakan state. (e) To forbid higher studies (university education) for the Rohingya. (f) No Muslim is to be appointed in government services. (g) To forbid them from ownership of lands, shops, and buildings. Any such properties under their existing ownership must be confiscated for distribution among the Buddhists. All their economic activities must be stopped. (h) To ban construction, renovation, repair, and roofing of the mosques, Islamic religious schools, and dwelling houses of the Rohingya. (i) To try secretly to convert the Muslims to Buddhism. (j) Whenever there is a case between Rakhine and a Muslim, the court shall give a verdict in favour of Rakhine; when the case is between Muslims themselves, the court shall favour the rich against the poor Muslim so that the latter leaves the country with frustration. (k) Mass killing of Muslims is to be avoided in order not to invite the attention of Muslim countries. 49

The Unheard Stories of the Rohingyas

The above means that the actions such as genocide, discrimination, mobility, and marriage restrictions seemed to have been perpetrated against them as a part of Myanmar’s long-​term plan. (Quoted in Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018: 546)

The exodus: historical evidence In addition to decades of systematic discrimination, persecution, and statelessness, the Rohingyas faced waves of violence between 1978 and 2017, Figure 3.1 Rohingya destinations

Source: Map, authors, 2022; data, OCHA, 2018; Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018

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which forcibly displaced them to several countries, with the majority moving to Bangladesh (Baird et al, 2020). Among all others, the 2017 Rohingya refugee crisis is the worst. It has involved a series of major military operations in which the state’s armed forces targeted the Rohingyas (MacLean, 2019). In 1978, Operation Dragon King (Nagamin) took action against the illegal ‘Rohingya’ immigrants, forcing more than 200,000 of them to flee to Bangladesh as a consequence of the violence and human rights abuses by the Tatmadaw (Cisneros, 2008; Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018; Lee, 2021). See Figure 3.1 for the refugee settlements in Bangladesh camps. In 1992, a second wave of operations forced another 300,000 Rohingya to flee to Bangladesh, with horrifying accounts of rape, forced labour, and religious persecution (Lee, 2021). Following this, in October 2016, the Tatmadaw launched a major crackdown on the Rohingyas, including men and boys being taken for forced labour, girls and young women raped and sexually exploited, and children disappearing (United States Department of State, 2016). Notably, the Tatmadaw used social media platforms like Facebook to promote anti-​Rohingya propaganda online. Hundreds of military officials posted inflammatory posts depicting Rohingyas as terrorists (Lee, 2021). Without much accountability, Tatmadaw officials continued to use social media to spread hate speech and disinformation against the Rohingya people, causing ‘a negative impact on freedom of expression, assembly and association for Myanmar’s most vulnerable users’ (Stevenson, 2018). International organizations documented large-​scale atrocities against civilians by the Tatmadaw, including murder, torture, rape, and wanton destruction of property (Akhavan, 2019), which the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR, 2017) and Amnesty International (2018) describe as ‘ethnic cleansing’ and ‘genocide’. Triggered by a combination of intensifying violence, human rights violations, and systematic marginalization, the major exodus of Rohingya refugees began in October 2017 (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018) as around 700,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh while an estimated 6,700 were killed during the violent attacks (Médecins Sans Frontières, 2017a, 2017b). In January 2020, the International Court of Justice in The Hague unanimously ordered Myanmar to take all necessary measures to prevent the genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar (International Court of Justice, 2020), but little is known about the effects of the order on improving the living conditions of the Rohingyas in Myanmar. Despite strong advocacy by the UN and international humanitarian agencies for unhindered humanitarian access, the Myanmar government banned humanitarian organizations and their staff from visiting Rakhine state, restricting the UN from verifying reports of ongoing human rights violations and the number of people still internally displaced or fleeing (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs –​UN-​OCHA, 2017). This information blackout 51

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raises questions about the urgent humanitarian needs of the Rohingyas still in Myanmar and the 128,000 people who are still confined in camps as internally displaced persons (UN-​OCHA, 2017). About 78 per cent of them are women and children living in ‘overcrowded shelters and inadequate access to services and living opportunities’ (Lee, 2021), and their wellbeing continues to remain unknown and invisible to international observers (UN-​ OCHA, 2017; MacLean, 2019). The scale and speed of displacement were unprecedented in both Bangladesh and the wider region, creating significant humanitarian needs and impacting host communities (United Nations Development Programme, 2018). Although surrounding countries, such as Bangladesh, and international organizations have been compassionately aiding to alleviate the consequences of the Rohingya refugee crisis, humanitarian intervention policies have aimed to act on the causes of the crisis to stop it, as it is not sustainable for other countries to continue hosting Rohingya people. The refugess numbers for different camps are given in Table 3.1. Throughout the refugee camps in Bangladesh, the COVID-​19 pandemic (Ullah et al, 2021; Ferdous and Ullah, 2022) has worsened the living conditions, made access to services even more challenging, increased the Table 3.1: Number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh camps as of 27 January 2018 Camps

Number of refugees

Kutupalong-​Balukhali expansion site

584,854

Kutupalong RC

23,188

Leda MS

9,318

Nayapara RC

22,793

Camp 14 (Hakimpara)

32,073

Camp 13 (Thangkhali)

43,788

Unchiprang

19,502

Camp 15 (Jamtoli)

50,500

Camp 16 (Bagghona/​Potibonia)

22,047

Chakmarkul

13,373

Cox’s Bazar Sadar

7,941

Ramu

1,640

Teknaf

64,751

Ukhia

4,609

Total

900,377

Source: Adapted from Inter Sector Coordination Group (2018)

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risk of sexual and gender-​based violence, and exacerbated the impacts of infectious diseases in the overcrowded camps (Ullah et al, 2020; Chattoraj et al, 2021). Lack of access to critical and life-​saving services, such as food, drinkable water, latrines, and health services, has transformed an already serious crisis into a major human disaster (Ullah et al, 2020; Chattoraj et al, 2021). In summary, forced displacement, segregation, and severe restrictions on freedom of movement and press freedom all contribute to ‘creeping apartheid’, a form of ethnic cleansing in slow motion that makes it ‘easier to carry out large-​scale clearance operations’ (MacLean, 2019: 9).

Unwanted in Myanmar, mistreated in Bangladesh To effectively assess the situation of statelessness and its impact, it is important to compare and contrast the stateless group to the two nations where they are situated –​Myanmar and Bangladesh. This section assesses the Rohingya situation in Bangladesh. We look at the legislation that has been passed to deal with the Rohingyas, the treatment they receive once they arrive in Bangladesh, and the discourse used around the topic. We also use the same analysis of the UN Declaration of Human Rights to fully understand if human rights abuses have occurred and, if so, to what extent. First, it is important to define what is meant by ‘refugee’, as this helps in explaining the treatment a citizen will receive if classified as such. According to the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 (Article 1A(2)), refugees are defined as any person who owing to a well-​founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country. (Quoted in Chattoraj, 2022: 2) This directly links to the Rohingyas who were and still are in fear of persecution. Nevertheless, although the evidence highlights there is a fear of persecution leading to mass exodus, the Bangladeshi government accepts Rohingyas as they ‘become invisible refugees, being labelled as “economic migrants” by the Bangladesh authorities’ (Ullah, 2011: 151). By this discourse, there is a clear indication that if labelled a refugee, there is an acceptance of persecution and a sense of fear of returning to the home country. However, if labelled an economic migrant, there is a constant fear of being forced to go back (Rogge, 1987; Petrasek, 2000; Ullah, 2011). Sajjad (2003) went one step further to claim the Bangladeshi government had labelled Rohingyas as ‘illegal immigrants in certain time frames’. 53

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Therefore, this discourse certainly worsens the chances of human rights abuses as the Rohingyas are labelled negatively in media and in policies as it restricts them from acquiring civil rights and liberties. This has resulted in ‘being denied entry to the camps’ and (they) are not recognized as refugees by the government (Hussain, 2015). These left-​behind Rohingya refugees have settled in various villages on encroached forestry (Uddin and Khan, 2007), and are completely dependent on the forest for food, demonstrating the denial of basic human rights for food, shelter, and clean water.

Violence and exploitation in Myanmar and Bangladesh The UN and human rights investigators have documented widespread human rights abuses and atrocities against the Rohingya people in Myanmar, including torture and inhuman treatment, rape and other forms of sexual violence, extrajudicial and summary killings, and enforced disappearance, among other crimes (Fortify Rights, 2018). The Independent International Fact-​Finding Mission on Myanmar has called for Myanmar military officials to be investigated for genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes (Women’s Refugee Commission, 2018). While significant attention has been directed toward the Myanmar armed forces as perpetrators of violence, others, including the Border Guard Force, Myanmar Police Force, local administrators, and civilians also work in concert with the military to commit atrocities. The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict has suggested that the use of sexual violence against Rohingya women and girls is genocidal in its intent, stating that it serves as a calculated tool of terror seemingly aimed at the extermination and removal of the Rohingyas as a people (Women’s Refugee Commission, 2018). Though refugee camps in Bangladesh have brought relative safety to women and girls, they remain highly vulnerable to sexual violence and other forms of gender-​ based violence. Some accounts of sexual violence against Rohingya men and boys in Myanmar have been documented, but little is known about the nature or extent of this violence. The fact-​finding mission documented accounts of male-​directed rape, genital mutilation, sexual humiliation, and sexualized torture, sometimes resulting in death (Women’s Refugee Commission, 2018). Forms of conflict-​related sexual violence against Rohingya men and boys in Myanmar encompass genital violence and torture, including burning, mutilation, and electroshock of the genitals; castration and penis amputation; penile and object anal rape, including with sticks and metal rods; penile oral rape; forced sex and sexual interactions with family members and other people; forced witnessing of sexual violence against female 54

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family and community members; forced nudity; and sexual humiliation. The three most common forms of sexual violence against men identified were forced witnessing, genital violence, and anal rape (Women’s Refugee Commission, 2018). Most of the sexual violence from August 2017 onward occurred during home searches and village attacks, and the men were the primary targets of these raids. Some incidents of sexual violence were perpetrated during the flight to Bangladesh and in detention in Myanmar (Women’s Refugee Commission, 2018). Due to gender norms within Rohingya society in Myanmar, women’s lives and movements are severely restricted by male family members. With the increasing violence, particularly the widespread sexual violence against women and girls, since 2017, men have become even more controlled and controlling over the movement of women and girls. And due to this, domestic violence has increased in both Myanmar and Bangladeshi camps. This is mainly because men are struggling with unaddressed issues related to violence and are transferring that to their wives and children (Women’s Refugee Council, 2018). In Bangladesh, reports of sexual violence perpetrated against Rohingya men and boys are rare. This is mainly because few Rohingya men or boys have come forward to access post-​sexual violence services in Cox’s Bazar. Also sexual abuse within the Rohingya community is deeply taboo. However, a UNHCR representative shared that the rate of newly reported male sexual and gender-​based violence cases rose from about 1 per cent to 7 per cent from January to May 2018. Most cases involved young boys, adolescent boys, young men in their early twenties, or boys with intellectual disabilities. Other vulnerable groups were unaccompanied boys, men and boys working in the informal sector or in the context of child labour, boys studying in madrassas, single men with no family members, male sex workers, boys collecting firewood, men and boys in local prisons, men and boys at risk of labour trafficking, and men and boys using yaba, a popular drug made of methamphetamine and caffeine. Studies suggest that the perpetrators were primarily men and older boys within the community or host community, or government officials from Bangladesh. The Rohingya people have suffered multiple forms of trauma, including individual and communal experiences of violence, oppression, and loss. Sexual violence is but one of these traumatic events and must be understood within broader cultural, religious, political, and historical contexts. Refugees suffer from several health issues, including urinary and bowel problems, as a result of genital beatings, and there is a need for better medical care after genital violence. Other health concerns include transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, particularly among Rohingyas engaged in sex work in the Cox’s Bazaar camps. 55

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Life in and out of the refugee camps The Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar region are two of the world’s largest and most densely populated camps, with an estimated 919,000 Rohingya refugees living there. Seventy-​five per cent of the refugees in Cox’s Bazar camps arrived after September 2017. Due to the level of mass persecution in Myanmar under military rule, Bangladesh has been subject to a huge influx of Rohingyas from 1970s up to 2017 (Lintner, 2002; Lewa, 2009; Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018). Rohingyas have reported living in overcrowded quarters, with two to five people sharing a 50-​square-​foot room. There were 16 of these rooms in each outbuilding, but only two bathrooms. When Rohingya people arrived, they were merely handed a plate, some food, and a mosquito net. Many people’s bed linens have been converted into wearable outfits by Rohingya women with sewing skills. Due to the twice-​daily provision of food, they initially complained that the same dish had been served to them each day since they arrived. The only option for medical care was a Navy-​run mobile clinic that is open every day from 8 am to 12 pm. They were frequently confined to their sheds and were not allowed to walk outside. Articles 9 and 12 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights safeguard everyone’s liberty and freedom to choose their home within a territory, which is why Bangladesh’s continued imprisonment of Rohingya refugees on the island is a violation of the covenant. Moreover, Article 26 of the Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone is entitled to an education regardless of where they live. The Bangladeshi government has also violated this right in its treatment of the Rohingya population. During the initial five years of their influx (Frontières-​Holland, 2002), the Bangladeshi government did not allow any Rohingya refugees to be educated in the UN refugee camps. This is due to the fact that free education could encourage more refugees to enter Bangladesh and hinder the process of repatriation. Even today, the highest level of education in the camps is at primary school level, and those who are teaching are not paid, but do this on a completely voluntary basis. There are shortages of teachers among the refugees because very few Rohingyas were able to complete higher education in Myanmar due to restrictions on their movements and other rights (Siegfried, 2022). By not allowing education to take place within these camps, there is an economic obstacle for everyone entering the camps (Hussain, 2015). The lack of education hinders every child, man, and woman and reduces their chance of employment (Hussain, 2015). By systematically hindering all Rohingyas in these camps, there is a sense of lack of respect for human rights and this heightens the sense of inequality. Though the government of Bangladesh is trying to pair Rohingya refugees with local Bangladeshis to teach at 5,600 learning centres throughout the 56

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camps in Cox’s Bazar, this is not without challenges. Also some of the primary-​aged refugee children in the camps avoid going to the learning centres. This is mostly during the monsoon season when paths in the camps become muddy and treacherous. In addition, some work to help their parents, whiles others spend their days doing nothing (Siegfried, 2022). Another major human rights abuse that the Rohingya people suffer in the Bangladeshi camps is their inability to leave the camps, as if they do, their stay in Bangladesh will be terminated immediately. In 2011, Bangladeshi forces decided to remove several makeshift camps and send back all refugees who were living in conditions of squalor (Datta, 2005). As a result, 6,000 Rohingya refugees have been left homeless, and no aid agencies have been allowed to help them. They were denied education, healthcare and even food rations. By restricting movement completely and denying the basic standards of living, it was evident that the Bangladeshi government has refused to help the Rohingyas. Like the Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils, (Chattoraj, 2017, 2022), there is close proximity between the Rohingyas and the Bangladeshis in their culture, language, religion, and heritage. Yet there is a lack of acceptance for any Rohingyas taking refuge in Bangladesh. To add to this, NGOs are forbidden to enter the camps, and there are armed guards to control the camps (Uddin and Khan, 2007). Therefore, this adds a sense of secrecy to the treatment of Rohingya people by Bangladeshi forces and restricts data capture (Mayring, 2014). To take this argument further, the Bangladeshi government had rejected a proposed US$33 million UN project to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazaar. This does, in fact, hinder the human rights of the Rohingyas, as that funding could help to address ‘the bad condition of the newly arrived refugees, the poor health and nutritional status of the refugees, the inadequate living and sanitary conditions in the camps and the imminent monsoon, [which] all contributed to the high risk of an outbreak of disease’ (Wijnroks et al, 1993: 352). This reflects the Bangladeshi government’s stance on the Rohingyas’ basic human rights. The main reason is that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina does not consider the Rohingyas to be their own people. And with Bangladesh having a population of more than 168.7 million people, with 20.5 per cent living below the poverty line, there is a debate that over a million refugees is an excessive number for this very poor, underdeveloped country. From a realist perspective, the government believes firmly in ‘self-​interest’ and would face grave scrutiny for improving the lives of the Rohingyas when the national citizens are so gravely poor (Grieco, 1988). In an interview with Barnaby Phillips of Al Jazeera on 27 July 2012, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina repeatedly asserted that it was not her country’s problem to deal with the Rohingyas and that she could not intervene 57

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because it was unwise to meddle in the internal affairs of another country (Chakraborty, 2018). She also said that the international community should insist on Myanmar taking back the Rohingyas and not point an accusing finger at Bangladesh. Responding to accusations that fleeing Rohingyas were forced back by Bangladeshi border guards, she said the guards had responded in a humanitarian way and offered money, medicine, and food to the Rohingya people and then ‘persuaded’ them to return. As journalist Subir Bhaumik points out, the Bangladesh Awami League government sees Rohingyas in Bangladesh and India as Islamist extremists, similar to their arch rivals, the Jamaat-​e-​Islami. The UNCHR has been asked to shut down the Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh (Chakraborty, 2018). After five years of influx (at the time of writing), with repatriation not an option for the Rohingya people in Bangladesh, social relations between the Rohingyas and the locals has become more complex than ever (Siddiqi, 2022). Though the locals initially were sympathetic to the Rohingya refugees, this attitude has changed significantly due to the fact that various antisocial and unlawful activities are on the rise due to the influx of Rohingyas (Siddiqi, 2022). This situation can be compared with that of the Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in South India, where, as Chattoraj (2017, 2022) describes, the sweet relationship between the host and the refugees became increasingly bitter over time. In July 2014, the law minister, Syed Anisul Huq, announced a draft law through which Rohingya marriages would no longer be solemnized in the country. This applied to marriages within the community as well as marriages between a Rohingya person and a Bangladeshi national –​the latter allegedly being ‘used’ by Rohingyas to escape camp life and gain legitimacy as citizens. In November 2014, Nigel O’Connor of Al Jazeera reported on the plans of the Bangladeshi government to intern and repatriate 270,000 undocumented Rohingyas (O’Connor, 2014). Al Jazeera also revealed a five-​page foreign ministry document dated 31 March 2014 which said it had been suggested that a survey of undocumented Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh would be carried out in order to identify them and determine their actual number and location. The individuals would be housed in temporary shelters in different suitable locations pending their repatriation to Myanmar through consistent diplomatic/​consular channels. International pressure and the country’s need for economic trade could, in fact, alleviate the human rights of the Rohingyas. Though if the government in Bangladesh becomes too welcoming of Rohingya refugees, there is a chance that ethnic cleansing could take a full swing in Myanmar without international pressure. While there have been human rights abuses in Bangladesh, there is a greater sense of security for the Rohingya people and freedom from ethnic and religious tension. As Bangladesh is a secular state with a sizable Muslim population, Islam is widely accepted. Mosques, 58

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Friday prayers, and halal meat are permitted in this Sunni-​majority country. This frees the Rohingyas from the worry that the government might crack down on cultural and religious differences. Also the Bangladesh language is similar to the Rohingya language, making it easier for refugees to find work and learn Bengali. From the removal of threat to the provision of social security, Bangladesh has allowed more than a million Rohingyas to enter the country and provided them with some assistance. In a letter, dated 4 May 2009, to the president of the UN General Assembly on the occasion of its candidacy to the Human Rights Council, the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh pledged that Bangladesh would ‘intensify its efforts while framing its national policies and strategies, to uphold the fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution of Bangladesh as well as those of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international and regional human rights instruments to which it is a party.’ This is a positive initiative. An example of the assistance provided by Bangladesh is that it allows Rohingyas to earn money without tax at fisheries and permits women to train in the refugee camps so that they can work in textiles. In this way, they can develop skills for future employment. There is a sense that the Bangladeshi government does not want to watch over the Rohingya people all the time, and they do allow some room for manoeuvre. Although this is not quite enough for the Rohingyas, they have a greater sense of being treated like citizens with the ability to work and train. In early 2022, the government of Bangladesh intensified its restrictions on the Rohingyas’ livelihoods, movement, and education (HRW, 2022). Thousands of shops have been destroyed, and new obstacles to travel have been imposed within the camps in Cox’s Bazar, denying Rohingyas the ability to live freely and independently. Rohingyas have also described new arbitrary restrictions on movement within the camps, including threats, frequent curfews, and harassment at checkpoints: ‘Before, we used to move freely around the camps to visit friends and families, but now we face a lot of questioning by the authorities whenever we’re outside our shelter’ (HRW, 2022). Markets and schools have also been closed. In December 2021, the government of Bangladesh banned Rohingya-​led community schools, affecting about 60,000 students. As mentioned previously, Bangladesh is, no doubt, overburdened by its hosting of Rohingya refugees, but cutting them off from opportunities to work and study is not a way to help matters, and it will only compound the refugees’ vulnerability and dependence on aid (HRW, 2022). The informal markets established by Rohingyas within the camps were critical sources of money for meeting basic needs and augmenting humanitarian supplies. However, some shops in the camps were destroyed, frequently without warning, since October 2021. More than 3,000 shops 59

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have been damaged as of the time of writing, affecting tens of thousands of people (HRW, 2022). Nonetheless, the government of Bangladesh has maintained that all of the demolished stores were ‘illegal’. Furthermore, they noted that ‘Livelihood opportunity (for the Rohingya refugees) is not the responsibility of Bangladesh’. The approximately one million Rohingyas in Bangladesh lack recognized legal status, which puts them on uncertain footing under domestic law and makes them vulnerable to rights violations. However, as a signatory to key international human rights treaties, Bangladesh is required to ensure that everyone under its authority, including refugees, has access to essential rights, such as freedom of movement, access to means to earn a livelihood, and access to services such as education and healthcare. In 2019, the authorities began erecting fencing in the camps, ostensibly to safeguard the safety of the refugees. Instead, the fencing restricted their freedom of movement while putting them in grave danger in situations such as fires. Refugees and humanitarian organizations are concerned that the current harsh restrictions are part of the government’s efforts to force refugees to migrate to Bhasan Char or repatriate to Myanmar. As of October 2022, 30,079 Rohingyas have already been sent to the remote, flood-​prone island, where they endure severe movement restrictions, face food and medication shortages, and have to deal with the force brutality of security personnel (The Daily Star, 2022). Many were moved without their complete and informed consent, and they were not permitted to return to the mainland. The government has also stepped up efforts to repatriate them. In a HRW survey carried out in February and March 2022, Rohingya refugees stated that the new restrictions have made their lives more difficult in terms of taking care of their families and educating their children. It is becoming more apparent that officials are acting on purpose to pressure these refugees to leave the camps due to the degrading conditions. Nonetheless, recently, tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees, from 23 Rohingya camps in Bangladesh –​21 in Ukhia and 2 in Teknaf Upazila –​staged a Bari Cholo (Let’s Go Home) protest to demand repatriation back to Myanmar (Al Jazeera, 2022b). Previously, two repatriation attempts were unsuccessful because Rohingya refugees were unwilling to return to Myanmar owing to the continuous risk of persecution and mistreatment. Given the Myanmar junta’s continuous and frequent atrocities and crimes against humanity aimed at the Rohingyas, the UN’s special rapporteur on Myanmar said in December 2021 that conditions for the safe, durable, and dignified return of the Rohingyas to their homeland now do not exist. To sum up, this assessment of the situation in Bangladesh clearly demonstrates that terrible human rights violations against Rohingya people are taking place. This is not to suggest that Myanmar are systematically attempting to annihilate the Rohingyas. Bangladesh continues to question 60

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the motives of the Myanmar government, and they do so on a global scale. There is substantial evidence that the Rohingyas have far more rights in Bangladesh than in Myanmar, which could be attributed to shared ancestors and cultural commonalities.

Geopolitics of the Rohingya crisis Myanmar as a whole, and Rakhine state in particular, is considered a geopolitical hotspot in South East Asia. Myanmar borders two merging Asian countries, China and India, and has access to the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Myanmar has benefited from the fight between the (US) and China for influence in South East Asia (Kundu, 2018). Both China and India have made significant investments in Myanmar and Rakhine state in recent years. China invested roughly US$4.8 billion in Myanmar in 2019, up marginally from US$4.7 billion the previous year. The China–​Myanmar Economic Corridor was developed as part of China's One Belt One Road plan, and China is building a US$1.3 billion deep-​sea port at Kyaukpyu in Rakhine state, as well as high-​speed rail linkages and special economic zones. These projects would allow China to bypass the Strait of Malacca and have direct access to the Indian Ocean (Albert and Maizland, 2020). Under the flagship Kaladan Multi-​Modal Transit Transport Project, India is also constructing a 109-​kilometre highway between Paletwa and Zorinpui on the Indian border in Mizoram. The latest Rohingya crisis emerged at a time when Myanmar has been trying to balance its foreign policy between China and the Western powers. Historically, China has had significant influence in Myanmar’s foreign policy. Since Myanmar's transition to democratic rule in 2010, it has significantly improved its relations with the West, particularly the United States. However, as a result of the West’s condemnation of the suppression of the Rohingya people, Myanmar is receiving more pressure from the West than from China (Albert and Maizland, 2020). Myanmar always has China and Russia on its side whenever the UN Security Council attempts to sanction the country for atrocities against Rohingyas (Nichols, 2018). The Rohingya refugees are also a contentious topic in Bangladesh’s domestic politics. Islamist groups who have a strong influence in Bangladesh’s politics are supportive of the Rohingya cause and give them shelter. Bangladesh’s largest Islamist party Jamaat-​e-​Islami and some small Islamist groups are said to have a connection with Rohingyas (Brennan and O’Hara, 2015). Following Myanmar's military crackdown on Rohingyas in 2017, Islamist groups from all over Bangladesh held street processions, calling on the Bangladesh government to arm Rohingya refugees (The Indian Express, 2017). Bangladesh’s politics are dominated by two parties: the ruling Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party. Jamaat-​e-​Islami, Bangladesh’s 61

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largest Islamist party, and several tiny Islamist factions have substantial influence and shared power with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party during its government of 2001–​06. According to political experts, one of the reasons why the ruling party decided to provide sanctuary to Rohingya people was to ensure that Islamist parties could not politicize the issue and to gain support among Islamist voters. The ruling Awami League was successful in exploiting the issue for domestic political gain. Awami League activists claimed that the prime minister is a ‘mother of humanity’ for providing refuge to the Rohingyas. Some pro-​government news outlets reported that the prime minister had even been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (Yayboke, 2018: 1).

Conclusion As torture, murder, rape, and forced removal from traditional homelands persisted in Myanmar, Rohingya refugees began fleeing the country for Bangladesh and other countries. It is not unreasonable to regard the Rohingya refugees as genocide survivors. Experts, scholars, and international leaders from all over the world have begun to express their concerns about the latest Rohingya refugee crisis, which has also raised issues about human rights violations. However, it will be critical to hear Rohingya refugees’ own voices, which have been lacking in a variety of ways thus far. The Rohingya's path to refuge has been determined by a long history of violence and injustice. The Rohingya are a minority ethnic group that has existed in Myanmar for millennia, but for decades they have been persecuted and subjected to violence by the Buddhist majority. The Burmese government has denied citizenship to the Rohingya, thereby rendering them stateless, and has restricted their travel, access to healthcare and education, and other fundamental rights. The situation reached a critical point in 2017 when the Burmese military launched a deadly campaign against Rohingya in Rakhine State. The military burnt villages, raped women, and murdered thousands of Rohingya, compelling hundreds of thousands to escape their homes and seek sanctuary in Bangladesh. The United Nations has described the conduct of the military as "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide." As they traversed dangerous terrain and endured exploitation and abuse at the hands of human traffickers, the Rohingya's route to refuge has been fraught with enormous hardship and peril. Even after reaching Bangladesh, the Rohingya continue to confront considerable obstacles, including as overcrowded refugee camps, lack of access to essential services, and restricted employment and educational prospects.

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Dispossession and Displacement: The Crisis and Media Influence This chapter analyzes the media’s role in depicting the Rohingya crisis on the ground. The media plays an important role in raising awareness of the Rohingya refugee crisis by exposing all aspects of the situation. Despite the fact that the Rohingya refugee crisis has captivated the attention of people worldwide, the media’s portrayal of the Rohingyas’ situation is as contentious as that of any other group of people seeking safety from persecution. This has exacerbated the problem, resulting in a slew of economic, social, and political problems in Bangladesh. As a result, it’s critical to investigate how the media frames the Rohingya refugee crisis, how those frames differ and overlap, and what can explain the media’s selective focus on certain aspects of the problem. Academic research on the Rohingya refugees’ situation can help identify all of the aforementioned components. There have been studies of how the Rohingya refugee crisis is depicted in the media, but the data is insufficient, and no comparison of media coverage across regions has been conducted. The Rohingyas have been presented as criminals and security threats in major South Asian media outlets. The condition of the Rohingya people in Bangladesh is detailed in newspaper stories such as ‘Desperate Rohingya turn to crime’, ‘Refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar: Rohingya embroiled in crime’, and ‘Rohingya pose a threat to regional security’ (Wong and Suan, 2012). These stories have focused on the assumption that the Rohingya people are to blame for the breakdown of law and order in Bangladesh, as well as the initiation of many criminal actions, including murder, kidnapping, extortion, sexual harassment, and drug smuggling. Locals in Teknaf Upazila and Ukhia, where the camps are located, are extremely frightened about their safety as a result of the Rohingyas’ criminal acts, as presented in the aforementioned news stories. This is because, after three years of hardship and uncertainty, the Rohingya people have grown increasingly desperate. We believe that the media’s emphasis (Toole and Waldman, 1997; Turow, 2009) on these concerns is deliberate in order to capture the attention of 63

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international leaders and compel them to act on the repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh. However, there are reports that the Rohingyas pose a threat to regional security: Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is deeply concerned about the influx of Rohingya refugees, and she has commented that these people pose a significant threat to Bangladesh’s national security. Headlines like ‘COVID-​19 outbreak among Rohingya refugees will cause mayhem’ convey a bleak picture of the Rohingyas as a public health danger. This narrative emphasizes the fact that a million Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar refugee camps are likely to be the primary source of the COVID-​19 pandemic in Bangladesh because of the lack of medical services available to them, their exceedingly unclean living conditions, and the high population density in the camps (Ullah and Ferdous, 2022). In reality, Rohingya refugee camps succeeded in keeping the confirmed number of COVID-​19 cases low, at 5,992, with 42 deaths. These numbers represent low levels compared to the cases in the host community (World Health Organization Bangladesh, 2022). The victim narrative is prevalent in the Right-​wing Bangladeshi media. ‘Elections begin in Myanmar denying Rohingya the right to vote’, ‘35 organizations call for recognizing Rohingya genocide’, ‘Burnt Rohingya village erased from map’, and ‘Amnesty files complaints against Myanmar with UN providing evidence of atrocities’ are all Burmese headlines from The Daily Inqilab referring to events in the country. Furthermore, the news story ‘Erdogan hails Sheikh Hasina for granting refuge to Rohingya’ emphasizes the role of other Muslim countries in the Rohingya crisis. Our thesis is that the major impetus for this type of framing is The Daily Inqilab’s religious affinity for Islam and Muslims. By emphasizing their status as victims, The Daily Inqilab has attempted to humanize the Muslim Rohingya people. It is clear that ‘Framing has far-​reaching implications beyond simply understanding what is in the news; it shapes the types of information that ultimately contribute to public perception about specific religions’ (Stout and Buddenbaum, 2008: 228). This chapter also debates whether the Rohingyas were compelled to escape their homeland as a result of genocide, or an ethnic cleansing effort. Evidence of attempts at the extermination of the Rohingya population because of their ethnic and religious identity are rife. This chapter charts the journey to the Rohingyas’ refuge and explains how the world turned a blind eye to the problem and allowed it to deteriorate to its current state. To that end, we demonstrate the intersections of ethnicity, religion, politics, and the global order and how media play roles in reshaping the crisis. In May 2015, a politician aroused anger when he said at the rally, ‘kill and bury’ all Rohingyas, and the audience applauded and reiterated the statement (Kreibich et al, 2017). Such emotions and open hostility against the Rohingyas are the result of Rakhine’s long history of ethnoreligious 64

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clashes (Khan and Munshi, 1983). When Myanmar obtained independence, its administration chose to support the Buddhist majority in Rakhine against the Muslim majority. The government began to admit Rakhine Muslims as Burmese citizens in the 1950s, but subsequent governments have refused to recognize them as such. As a result, a Muslim independence movement was formed with the goal of establishing an autonomous Muslim state. In this chapter, we explore the numerous framing patterns used to describe the Rohingya refugee crisis in the Bangladeshi, Myanmarese (Burmese), and international media. This chapter explores why and how the political economy and ideology of media influence the way the Rohingya refugee crisis has been framed in the media and how distorted identities of Rohingya refugees were constructed through media. Also, we seek to analyze the plethora of reasons that have led to the media’s limiting attention on this crisis. Additionally, this chapter analyzes a variety of social, political, economic, cultural, racial, religious, and geopolitical elements that influence how the Rohingya refugee issue is framed in the media and how their identity is constructed through the media. This chapter takes a critical stance on how the political ideology of media outlets and their origins influence media content through manipulation, distortion, and bias. We believe, however, that the discussion in this chapter will raise awareness about these issues among citizens, political parties, media organizations, governments, and journalists. As a result, world leaders will be more aware of the Rohingya refugee crisis and may press the Myanmar government to take back Rohingyas and guarantee their safety and citizenship, improve the living conditions, and assist the Bangladeshi government in finding a solution to the issues caused by the presence of Rohingyas in Banglashesh. As the current Rohingya refugee crisis has become an enormous burden for this developing and overpopulated country, such a move would surely benefit the Bangladeshi government and people.

Conceptualizing displacement and dispossession Displacement The global issue of migration and displacement is not new. Since the beginning of recorded history, people have been displaced and relocated for a variety of social, political, economic, and disaster-​related reasons. Displacement is a type of migration in which people are compelled to relocate against their will. As a result, forced displacement (also known as forced migration) is the involuntary or compelled removal of a person or individuals from their home or native territory. According to the UNHCR, ‘forced relocation’ takes place when people are displaced as a result of persecution, conflict, widespread violence, or breaches of human rights. Individuals who have been displaced are those who have moved their place 65

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of residence, either by crossing an international boundary or by relocating inside their country of origin to a different region, district, or municipality. People are deemed displaced/​migrants if they are absent from their original place of residence for at least three months. With the European migrant crisis, forced relocation has acquired prominence in the global debate. As a result, there has been a heightened focus on the effects of forced migration on affected regions outside of Europe. Various international, regional, and local organizations are creating and implementing strategies to both avoid and reduce the consequences of forced migration in both the sending and receiving regions. Furthermore, certain collaborative efforts are made to gather evidence to seek prosecution of individuals involved in generating manmade forced migration events. In 2022, an estimated 100 million people worldwide were forcefully displaced, with the majority coming from the Global South. The causes of forced relocation, natural and manmade, are discussed next. Natural disasters can cause forced migration in two ways: directly, by damaging essential services like power and water supply, and indirectly, by affecting local and regional economies and livelihoods. Relocation could be short or long term, depending on the severity of the disaster and the local capacity for repair. Natural disasters are becoming more frequent as a result of climate change, which may lead to an increase in population relocation. Crop failures caused by blight and/​or pests also fall into this category because they reduce the amount of food available to the general public. As an extension, the term ‘environmental refugee’ refers to a person who has been compelled to leave their home due to environmental issues that threaten their ability to make a living, or because of environmental disruption, such as a biological, physical, or chemical change in the ecosystem. Deforestation, sea level rise, and land degradation are all examples of slow-​onset climate change that can cause migration. The term ‘manmade displacement’ refers to people who have been uprooted against their will due to factors such as government action, criminal activity, war, anthropogenic ecological disaster, and urbanization. While human mismanagement can amplify the effects of natural disasters and blights/​pests, ‘manmade’ refers particularly to those caused more directly by humans. Regional studies corroborate the claims of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) that armed conflict is the primary driving force behind migration patterns in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Dispossession In general, the word ‘dispossession’ is the action of depriving someone of land, property, or other possessions. Nationalism, citizenship, religion, and 66

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identity questions are frequent themes relating to countries that were once united but now exist as separate nations. As a sovereign power, the state has the right to include or exclude a population group, sometimes even pushing them beyond its borders (Sengupta, 2020). The Rohingyas are a prime example of people being evicted and dispossessed by their own nation state: Myanmar. As already discussed in the previous chapters, they were denied citizenship under the Burma Citizenship Law 1982, rendering them stateless. This means they have been without formal citizenship status since 1982 and have been living without a nationality or the protection of a state that comes with being a citizen (Sengupta, 2020). Researchers have shown that the majority of Myanmar’s Muslims live in urban areas, speak Burmese, have Burmese names, and are citizens of Myanmar, whereas the Rohingyas are mostly Sunni Muslims living in rural Rakhine (formerly Arakan; Canefe, 2020). Their traditional home was in the northwest, and they speak a Bengali dialect which is close to Chittagonian (Chittagong dialect) and have Muslim names (Canefe, 2020). In Rakhine, prior to the 2017 exodus, it was estimated that 35.6 per cent of the population was Rohingya, 59.7 per cent was Buddhist, and the remainder constituted other religious groups (Canefe, 2020). Presently, fewer than half a million Rohingya people currently reside in Myanmar, while close to two million Rohingyas have fled decades of repression and exclusion in several waves (Canefe, 2020). Therefore, they can be described as the dispossessed group of the population who have been stateless for decades. The government of Myanmar has deprived them of their own land, properties, and other possessions. This has led them to migrate to other countries in search of a better life. However, in India, according to Sengupta (2020), they have often, unjustifiably, been linked to terror activities and incarcerated as ‘illegal immigrants’. Here, their Islamic religion has played an important role. This is because, as Ullah and colleagues (2020a) argue, the formation of an illusory correlation between migration and insecurity results in an extreme act of bias towards migrant minority groups. And in this case, as Chattoraj (2022: 32) has shown, every Muslim becomes a target as they carry the social stigma caused by crimes committed by a few Muslim men. Since Bangladesh is also an Islamic country, the situation differs from that of India, where Rohingyas take refuge without causing any fear of terrorism. Presently, a number of developmental projects are taking place both in Cox’s Bazar and Ukhia –​places surrounding the camps. For instance, new restaurants, tea shops, five-​star hotels, and housing complexes for NGO workers have been built, and roads leading to the camps have been properly constructed (Sengupta, 2020). However, despite all these developments, security issues and fear of the Rohingyas surpassing the Bangladeshi locals in Cox’s Bazar have strained the relationship between the two communities. 67

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According to multiple news outlets, if the Rohingya people are not returned to Myanmar soon, there could be a negative impact on security and stability in Bangladesh. Overcrowding and poor sanitation in refugee camps contribute to the prevalent unrest among the Rohingyas (Canefe, 2020; Ullah et al, 2020). As Sengupta (2020) notes, the current situation in Bangladesh has the potential to bring about security concerns and lawlessness. As well, there have been cases of violence within the camps. Even though the two nations signed the repatriation agreement in November 2017, Bangladesh is frustrated with Myanmar’s role in prolonging the return process based on groundless excuses. According to the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State, Myanmar’s government should have a well-​defined plan and time frame for verifying citizenship applications, and it should conduct a thorough review of its citizenship law and make it clear what happens to those whose applications are denied (Canefe, 2020; Sengupta, 2020). A viable solution for the Rohingya people could begin by resolving the ‘citizenship’ question. Deportation, in the current context, is particularly violative to them (Canefe, 2020). This means that despite the international conventions on statelessness (1954 and 1661), they continue to be stateless and dispossessed.

Struggles of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh The refugee struggle is part of a third-​world discourse, and third-​world countries house 85 per cent of the world’s refugees (UNHCR, 2021: 2). These nations have long struggled with the challenges of economic and political transformation, and they lack the capacity and motivation to house refugees’ in humane conditions. As a result, migrants face an enormous crisis of basic requirements as well as maltreatment on a daily basis. The Rohingya Muslims, the world’s most vulnerable ethnic group and the single biggest stateless community, are one example (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018). Persecution of this ethnic minority group has resulted in over 1.2 million people seeking safety in 36 sites in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2022). According to recent surveys, over 890,000 Rohingyas are currently seeking asylum in Bangladeshi camps (Root, 2022). Since the onset of the Rohingya crisis in August 2017, the heinous cruelty inflicted on the Rohingya population has escalated into the world’s largest case of ethnic cleansing in recent years (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018). By any standard, what is happening in Myanmar now to the Rohingya population is a humanitarian disaster. According to the UNHCR, the onslaught on innocent civilians is a ‘classic example of ethnic cleansing’ (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018: 543). As a result of the tragic human situation, the Rohingya people picked Bangladesh as a safe haven due to its proximity. At the time of writing, five years have passed since August 2017, yet the Rohingyas are still living in dire conditions, and this situation is deteriorating 68

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day by day. From late July through October 2021, deadly monsoon rains devastated the Cox’s Bazar region, killing six Rohingya refugees and affecting more than 21,000. Around 3,800 shelters were damaged or destroyed, and 13,000 refugees were forced to relocate temporarily. Further complicating this situation was the COVID-​19 pandemic, which sparked panic among the camp people. In addition, for several refugee families, the monsoon rain and flooding compounded the tragedy of a massive fire that swept through the camp in early 2022 (Durham University, 2018; HRW, 2022a). To add to the woes of these refugees, in recent months, Bangladeshi authorities have arbitrarily destroyed thousands of shops in the camps and imposed new obstacles on travel within the camps, denying the Rohingyas the ability to live freely and independently. New restrictions have also been placed on education, depriving Rohingya children of the opportunity to learn and build self-​reliant futures. In December 2021, Rohingya-​led community schools were banned, affecting about 60,000 students (HRW, 2022a). Beside this, in 2019, the authorities put up fencing in the camps to ensure the refugees’ safety, but the reality was that the fencing denied them freedom of movement and placed them at serious risk during emergencies, such as fires, which led to the deaths of several refugees in the camps.

Media representation of the refugee conditions In the academic discipline of media studies, arguments on the meaning of the word ‘representation’ are always intense. A number of scholars in the field of media studies have claimed that the idea of representation is fundamental to deciphering, interpreting, and making sense of media messages. To clarify, what does the term ‘representation’ mean? John Stuart Hall defines representation as ‘making one’s thoughts and feelings about the world known to other people in a way that is both accurate and persuasive through the medium of language’ (Hall, 1997: 15). Why bother with this idea of representation, then? To this, John Stuart Hall replied, ‘Representation is a fundamental part of the process by which meaning is generated and exchanged among members of a society’; communication is necessary, as is the use of signs and symbols to stand in for things in the real world (Hall, 1997: 15). Therefore, representation, meaning, and language are interconnected concepts. So, it is acceptable to claim that everything, from objects to subjects to events, can have significance if they’re portrayed properly. It is Hall’s contention that ‘meaning is also produced in a variety of different media; especially, these days, in the modern mass media, the means of global communication, by complex technologies, which circulate meanings between different cultures on a scale and at speed hitherto unknown in history’ (Hall, 1997: 3). It is clear that the media has a significant role in shaping how people understand the world. What specific methods do 69

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the major networks use to do this? A key strategy employed by the media in constructing or fabricating an overt meaning for something or for a group of people lies in the usage of the word ‘language’. When we talk about representation, what we mean is the process of giving words meaning. The constructionist view holds that representation is predicated on communicating with others through the exchange of signals that are organized into linguistic systems. Language signals can reflect, stand in for, or make reference to things, people, and events in the ‘actual world’ (Hall, 1997: 28). The problem here is not that language fails to accurately portray reality; rather, it is that language frequently produces a fabricated or controlled reality. If this is so, the original meaning would have been altered. However, language can also make references to things that do not exist in reality, such as fantasy worlds or abstract ideas. Linguistically, you cannot use a mirror image to describe something. To keep things simple, all of these systems of representation shall be called languages from here on out. Meaning is laboriously produced through the process of representation. It’s built through the procedures of signalling, or giving things a meaning (Hall, 1997: 28). Fursich argues that representations are integral to culture, meaning, and self-​and community awareness. Media such as movies, TV shows, photos, and newspapers don’t just report the news; they also mould it and legitimize certain viewpoints and values (Fursich, 2019: 115). Many academics, like Fursich and Hall, have spoken out against the media’s deliberate use of language to misrepresent the facts, which in turn influences policy making and social decision-​making and exacerbates existing social and political inequities. By painting Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East in a negative light, the West ‘others’ these countries, as Edward W. Said (1978) discusses in his book Orientalism (1978: 9–​34). In this sense, Shohat and Stam’s (1994: 178–​215) assessment of many Eurocentric media depictions provides a more thorough approach. Therefore, it is clear from the foregoing that media portrayal is crucial since it significantly influences and changes our perception of reality and different groups within a society. Media representations of minorities, refugees, and other marginalized elements of society are often inaccurate, harsh, degrading, and clichéd. For instance, Wodak (2003) found that minorities and immigrants are frequently portrayed negatively in the media, either as a threat to national security or as criminals. Cottle further elaborates on the media’s role in maintaining a broken social power structure, particularly through representation. Media coverage of controversial themes such as ‘we’ versus ‘them’, ‘insiders’ versus ‘outsiders’, ‘citizens’ versus ‘foreigners’, and so on, has deepened rifts between the majority population and marginalized groups. This is one way in which the media reinforces prejudice against society’s most vulnerable people (Cottle, 2000: 2). 70

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Media framing Many communication and social research professionals agree that the content of mass media has the capacity to dramatically affect its viewers on multiple levels. ‘The media can have micro-​effects that are exclusive to an individual or macro effects that are ubiquitous throughout a population’ (Johnson-C ​ artee, 2005: 8). As Johnson-​Cartee (2005: 147) argues, knowledge is socially created, and the news media, in particular, play an increasingly important role in constructing political reality. McCombs et al (1997), on the other hand, claim that media framing can be viewed as a comprehensive version of agenda development in the media due to the numerous effects media framing of news events has on audience members’ mental processes. The framing of an event by the media has a significant impact on the audiences’ capacity to make judgments and draw conclusions about that event. News frames, according to Gitlin, ‘order the world both for journalists who report it and, to some extent, for us who rely on their reports’, yet they are rarely discussed or acknowledged’ (Gitlin, 1980: 7). Furthermore, Gamson and Modigliani (1989) use the phrase ‘media framing’, which refers to a fundamental organizing principle or storyline that provides meaning to a developing sequence of events. The framing exposes the source of the disagreement, the crux of the problem (Gamson and Modigliani, 1989: 143). Tuchman uses the concept of media framing in the sense that, ‘The news frame organizes everyday reality, and the news frame is a component of everyday reality … [it is] a fundamental quality of news’, for example (Tuchman, 1978: 193). Entman (1993) expands on the premise that mass media can offer viewers precise framing to understand news or media items in a specific way. According to Entman, the importance of selection and visibility cannot be emphasized enough. Furthermore, he believes that framing ‘is to select some aspects of a perceived reality and make them more salient in a communicating text, in such a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation, and/​or treatment recommendation’ (Entman, 1993: 52; italics in the original). As Price et al (1997: 4) have shown, the framing and portrayal of news items or media contents have a major impact on viewers’ interpretation and understanding of media contents.

The Rohingya crisis in the global media For a variety of reasons, Muslims and Buddhists in Myanmar interpret the term ‘Rohingya’ differently. While Muslims in Rakhine state are pleased to call themselves Rohingya, the Myanmar government and the majority of the Burmese people find the term objectionable. They also commonly use derogatory names for Rohingya Muslims. According to Ware and Laoutides, 71

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the people of Myanmar are known as Bengali/​Bangali or even kala within the country; the latter is a term which refers to an outsider or foreigner, most often from South Asia. There’s no doubt that the term ‘Bengali’ implies that these individuals are recent, possibly illegal, arrivals from Bangladesh with few, if any, rights as Myanmar residents (Ware and Laoutides, 2018: xviii). The Rohingyas, on the other hand, is a religious and ethnically diverse minority community in Myanmar’s mostly Buddhist population, centred in the western coastal state of Rakhine. Having their own language and following Islam, they form a religious minority. They have darker skin than the native Burmese populace. High-​ranking Myanmar officials have branded the Rohingyas as ‘ugly as ogres’, claiming that they lack the ‘fair and delicate complexion’ of other Burmese ethnic groups’ (quoted in Ibrahim, 2018: 4). Myanmar’s Rohingya minority has long struggled for full citizenship. They filed for citizenship for the first time in 1982 and were first turned down by the Myanmar government. They have been basically stateless in Myanmar since then, and there they have faced discrimination and even violence. For years, the Rohingyas have been forced to flee to neighbouring countries in order to survive, but the situation has deteriorated in recent years due to a variety of factors. Since Burma’s independence in 1948, the Rohingyas have been targeted whenever ambitious (or desperate) governments require a distraction from other crises. Both the government and party leaders have targeted them for deportation from the country, and the main opposition has decided to ignore their plight. In the run-​up to the elections in late 2015, their civil liberties in Myanmar were systematically eroded (a process that began with the 1947 constitution), and they are increasingly being detained in what are essentially permanent internal refugee camps, where they are denied access to basic necessities like food, language, and healthcare (Ibrahim, 2018: 1). The Refugee Act of 1980 states that ‘refugees leave their homeland owing to an immediate threat to their lives or the lives of their families’, and the hazardous condition in which the Rohingyas find themselves has given them the label of ‘refugee’ around the world. Most of the time, they aren’t given enough warning of an imminent threat to get away in time. It is possible that these judgments are taken so quickly that there is no time to collect important documents such as birth certificates or passports (McBrien, 2017: 116–​17). Despite a long history of oppression against the Rohingyas, the most recent refugee crisis began in August 2017 when members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army stormed 30 police outposts in Myanmar, killing more than 12 people. In reaction to the attack, Myanmar’s government and military launched a persecution campaign against the Rohingyas, pushing many of them into exile and solidifying the global picture of them as terrorists and criminals. As a result of the persecution, thousands of Rohingya people migrated to Bangladesh and took refuge at the Kutupalong and Nayapara 72

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refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar region –​which have grown to become two of the largest and most densely populated camps in the world (USA for UNHCR, 2022). In the more than 26 subcamps of the Kutupalong refugee camp live around 880,000 Rohingya refugees (UN News, 2021). Because of external political and power issues, resolving the Rohingya refugee crisis has become more challenging. While the West has criticized Myanmar, China has praised the country’s military for its tough and quick attempts to maintain stability in the Rakhine state, as Tapan Bose explained. Interestingly, although the US Secretary of State referred to the military operations against the Rohingya people as ‘ethnic cleansing’, Washington’s strategic partner in South Asia –​ India –​ joined China in defending Myanmar’s military campaign on the Rohingyas as a counterterrorism measure (Bose, 2019: 172). As a result, dealing with this catastrophe will necessitate a comprehensive and multifaceted strategy. If people around the world, particularly those in Myanmar, begin to speak out against the plight of the Rohingyas, it is possible they would be allowed to return home.

Framing of refugees in the media Van Gorp (2005) studied the content of eight Belgian newspapers to determine how migrants were portrayed. According to his research, the adjectives ‘victim’ and ‘intruder’ were used to characterize refugees more frequently than any other in the selected articles (Van Gorp, 2005). In his investigation, Van Gorp discovered that newspapers frequently represented immigrants as weak, destitute individuals who were victims of violence. While depicting migrants as ‘intruders’, these media outlets underlined the risk that they might participate in different criminal acts and endanger the local people (Van Gorp, 2005: 491). Regional variations in framing were also discovered in the Belgian study results (Dimitrova et al, 2018). A study by Dimitrova et al (2018) contrasted the representation of Syrian refugees in Turkish and Bulgarian periodicals. When depicting Syrian migrants, the victim frame was used more frequently in Turkish publications, while the administrative frame was used more frequently in Bulgarian newspapers. The victim frame concentrated on Syrian refugees’ poor living conditions, lack of treatment facilities, lack of food, and lack of educational opportunities, as well as any crimes committed by refugees, whereas the administrative frame concentrated on local bureaucracy, expatriate management, or the legal status of refugees (Dimitrova et al, 2018: 538). Nickels (2007) conducted more studies on asylum discourse in Luxembourg. According to the findings of this study, four main conceptual frameworks predominated in media depictions of asylum seekers in this study: the administrative frame, the sincerity frame, the human dignity frame, and the homecoming frame (Nickels, 2007: 37–​59). The analysis emphasized 73

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the ‘homecoming' concept, arguing that long-​term asylum seekers staying in Luxembourg would exacerbate the country’s housing scarcity. This study also decided that forcibly deporting asylum seekers who refuse to return to their home country is not illegal (Nickels, 2007: 52–​3). Hoewe (2018) conducted a content analysis of US newspapers and foreign news media to uncover the several crises of refugee misrepresentation in the media. Her research reveals that the words ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’ are frequently concealed in American periodicals (Hoewe, 2018). Hoewe’s study also included a test to see if news consumers in the US are influenced by media portrayals of refugees while making public policy decisions. The findings indicate that Americans of all political stripes did not hold differing views on refugees and immigrants on any policy issue (Hoewe, 2018: 478). Tirosh (2018) investigated a number of Israeli newspapers to show how the media can play a contentious role in portraying refugees and how this can have a practical influence on the lives of individuals fleeing their homes. According to Tirosh, the Israeli government has a history of misclassifying refugees as economic migrants or spies. ‘These different narratives about refugees are mediated in a non-​neutral setting in which newspapers estrange migrants through natural professional capacities’ (Tirosh, 2018: 417). Sunata and Yldiz (2018) also studied over a thousand news stories to determine how Syrian refugees are portrayed in Turkish media. According to their research, Syrian refugees in Turkish media are represented as victims, criminals, and selfless help seekers (Sunata and Yldiz, 2018: 129–​51). Parker (2015) examined 40 newspaper stories from the UK and Australia to learn more about how refugees and asylum seekers are framed in those nations and to assess the media’s success in attaining their goals. According to his research, there are some similarities in the framing criteria used by British and Australian publications when reporting on refugees and asylum seekers. All of the publications portrayed refugees and asylum seekers in the US negatively, as criminals, undesirable invaders, or tragic figures (Parker, 2015: 6–​9). By doing so, a few news outlets in the UK and Australia projected a bleak picture of refugees for their viewers worldwide and at home. The ‘uninvited intruder’ scenario was a common thread among the 40 stories. In this case, the refugee or asylum seeker is depicted as an active villain, someone to be feared (Parker, 2015: 6). Parker did notice, however, that the ideological views on this topic differed between the UK and Australian media. For example, whereas Australian newspapers portrayed migrants in a way that made their existence in Australia appear unusual, UK publications emphasized the urgent need to remove asylum seekers and refugees from the country (Parker, 2015: 10–​12). As a result, those seeking asylum or fleeing persecution frequently encounter an identity crisis. Parker claims that, in addition to delivering a strong message that these asylum seekers do not belong in Australia, ‘the use of 74

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such discursive constructions appears to be legitimizing the Australian Government’s offshore processing methods’ (Parker, 2015: 14). While all newspaper articles used the tragic frame, the study discovered that none of them focused on the true sufferings and crisis of refugees and asylum seekers. However, in UK stories, the tragic person repertory was utilized more frequently, presenting an ideological quandary. The stories of persons who have sought or are seeking asylum in the respective countries have frequently been disregarded in favour of stories of those fleeing war (Parker, 2015: 9). In addition, a study of Canadian newspaper articles discovered similar framing patterns surrounding Syrian refugees, such as conflict, family, home, and community. The findings of the study reveal that migrants’ framing habits change with time. The clash frame was a popular example prior to 2015. However, by 2015, the victim frame had become the standard (Wallace, 2018: 227).

Framing of Rohingya refugees There has been no significant research or effort comparing how media outlets in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and abroad have handled the Rohingya refugee issue. Nonetheless, some academics have explored this problem in a different ways. Islam (2018), for example, examined important publications from China, India, and Bangladesh for his research on this topic. Islam’s research found that Indian publications emphasized the security frame, but Bangladeshi newspapers emphasized the human interest frame. When writing about Rohingya refugees, Western media outlets were less likely to use the conflict frame, whereas Chinese media outlets were more likely to do so. ‘News outlets that characterize the issue using the conflict frame refer to the Rohingya crisis as a struggle between the Rohingya people and Myanmar law enforcement officials, particularly the army, or battle between the Rohingya and Buddhists’ (Islam, 2018: 28). ‘News reports that represent the crisis using the human interest frame focus on the human rights abuse of the Myanmar army such as murder, rape, and burning down houses of Rohingya’, Islam continued, while news reports that portray the crisis using the security frame focus on illegal border crossing and their links to extremist groups (Islam, 2018: 28). Awan (2016) investigated the editorial attitudes of Pakistani, British, and American periodicals. According to Naeem Afzal Awan, ‘the editorial staff of the selected newspapers has taken the same stance in reporting the crisis, namely pro-​Rohingya Muslim monitory, anti-​Buddhist majority, and anti-​ Malaysian governing class’ (Awan, 2016: 96). In 2020, Mushfique Wadud examined how narratives of Rohingya refugees changed in Bangladesh media. According to his research, ‘there are commonalities in the coverage of all media outlets analyzed when they define Rohingya as an economic 75

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burden’; major issues include growing food prices, the impact on tourism, and the strain on natural resources (Wadud, 2020: 29). To add, according to Bour et al (2017), there might be a baby boom in Bangladesh if the media reinforces the idea that Rohingya women are illiterate and do not use contraception (Wadud, 2020: 29). Lisa Brooten also conducted research in 2013 on various English media blogs and Reuters news items. According to her research, journalists usually depict Rohingya refugees negatively, either as victims or criminals. This research shows that the savage-​victim-​saviour motifs emerge strongly in the Reuters accounts (Brooten, 2015). ‘The rise of contrasting viewpoints online both supports and challenges this framework’ (Brooten, 2015: 132–​ 3). Furthermore, Rahman and Nova examined four daily newspapers in Bangladesh, focusing on the portrayal of Rohingya refugee women. According to their research, all of the newspapers they looked at portrayed Rohingya women as victimized or powerless. None of the journals mentioned the fundamental rights of Rohingya refugee women (Rahman and Nova, 2020: 55–​8). Kanaker et al discovered in 2020 that the BBC and Al Jazeera regularly used the powerless frame and the responsibility frame when reporting on the Rohingya refugee crisis. Al Jazeera and the BBC organized their coverage of the Rohingya minority by stressing examples rather than conveying the larger picture of the situation (Kanaker et al, 2020). The media characterized the Rohingya minority’s plight as one of hardship and anguish. It granted citizenship to Rohingyas, notwithstanding their refusal to leave their homes, and violated their right to live in peace (Kanaker et al, 2020). Ma et al investigated how traditional Western media depicted Rohingya refugees and their identities in 2018. They conducted in-​depth interviews with two professionals and one Rohingya refugee family, and they evaluated the substance of 50 news pieces about Rohingya refugees published in Western mainstream media. They also looked at images, articles, and videos related to the topic. During their investigation, they observed that Western media portrayed Rohingya refugees as victims of horrific crimes committed by Myanmar’s military and government. According to their findings, Western media presented Rohingya refugees in a way that conveyed the idea that they were powerless to resist torture or change their situation. After enduring various sorts of torture and cruelty, they departed Myanmar for Bangladesh and a few other nations. However, the findings from the three interviews revealed that these portrayals of Rohingya refugees are one-​sided, as the Rohingya people are neither desperate nor sad; rather, they failed to get recognition of their identity due to the Myanmar government’s controversial policy and were forced to flee their homeland due to several tortures. Despite their persistent uncertainties about the origins of their exile and the identity issues caused by decades of exposure to Myanmar culture, many Rohingya 76

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refugees remain hopeful that they will be able to return to Myanmar one day. Unfortunately, most Western media outlets have chosen to ignore this fact in favour of stereotypical representations of Rohingya refugees. The descriptions and representations of the Rohingya people should not be one-​sided, the researchers argue. Although many parts of Rohingya culture and society have been depicted in the media, many have been left out. As a result, media portrayals of the Rohingya people did not provide the general public with a realistic picture of the Rohingya people (Ma et al, 2018: 10). Isti’anah (2018) scanned the headlines of 20 news pieces from Bangladeshi and Burmese newspapers. Critical discourse analysis was used to analyze 20 newspaper headlines about Rohingya refugees. According to the findings, headlines in Bangladesh and Myanmar focused on a variety of concerns. In their headlines, Myanmar newspapers referred to Rohingya refugees as ‘refugees’ rather than ‘Rohingyas’, and they emphasized the government’s efforts to ease the situation. ‘However, the term refugee, rather than Rohingya, is used to obscure the issue recognized by the world’, Isti’anah (2018: 20) insisted. To avoid playing on the sympathies of the readers, the newspaper avoids identifying the refugees as Rohingya. More importantly, the avoidance of the term ‘Rohingya’ by the Myanmar media reveals a lack of concern for the ethnic minority (Isti’anah, 2018). The Myanmar tabloid likewise presented Rohingya refugees as a threat to international stability in their headlines, using words like ‘illegal’, ‘terrorist’, and ‘threat’. According to the study, this restriction of attention in the headlines is deliberate since the Myanmar media is totally under the jurisdiction of the Myanmar government. While the Burmese newspaper avoided using the term ‘Rohingya’ in any of its headlines, the research revealed that the Bangladeshi newspaper frequently used the term to bring the issue to the attention of international leaders and persuade them to support the Bangladeshi government. Furthermore, the Bangladeshi magazine highlighted the ‘actor’ framing in news headlines in relation to demonstrating the Bangladeshi government’s favourable attitudes toward Rohingya refugees (Isti’anah, 2018: 21). Awny examined 253 news stories about Rohingya migrants from two Bangladeshi and two Indian newspapers from August to December 2017. Her study aimed to answer questions like whether the framing of news concerning Rohingya refugees is linked to the specific news outlets that cover the story and how different news frames are used in both countries. The study discovered some similarities and differences in the framing criteria of Bangladeshi and Indian newspapers. While both Bangladeshi and Indian newspapers used the return home and administrative frames to describe Rohingya refugees, Bangladeshi media used the victim frame more frequently, while Indian media used the invader and criminal frames more frequently. Furthermore, the study found that religion, the country’s diplomatic relationship with Myanmar, foreign policy, and cultural proximity 77

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all influenced how the media portrayed the Rohingya refugees. According to Awny’s research, Bangladeshi media represented ‘the enormous number of refugees in Bangladeshi camps, the presence of many humanitarian groups, and the dreadful living conditions of the Rohingya peoples in the refugee camps’. However, the Indian media’s coverage of the matter more correctly represented the political debate about the legal status of Rohingya refugees in India, as well as government officials’ concerns about the country’s internal security (Awny, 2019: 36). However, the study discovered that several news outlets in Bangladesh and India were used to cover the Rohingya refugee problem. As news sources, Indian newspapers relied on government officials and local politicians, but Bangladeshi publications relied on NGOs, workers, international politicians, and journalists. The study also discovered substantial disparities in how various news outlets framed their articles. According to Awny’s analysis, ‘official sources appear to have a good link with the invader frame’. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the responsibility frame is positively associated with international politicians and NGO spokespersons (Awny, 2019: 41). The focus of the next section is on international news outlets in the region, notably those in Bangladesh. Then, the groundwork is laid for media stories told globally, regionally, and eventually in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Rohingya refugees in the Bangladeshi media The representation of the Rohingya in the media as terrorists or otherwise dangerous parts of society. Articles published in Mizzima headlined ‘Unknown armed group attacks outpost’, ‘Bangladesh imprisons three Rohingya extremists for 10 years’, and ‘Suu Kyi condemns world for ignoring Rakhine terrorists’ present Rohingya refugees in a negative light. The overemphasis on the armed struggle and other criminal acts committed by Rohingyas as well as the use of adjectives such as ‘terrorist’, ‘armed group’, and ‘extreme’ in headlines establish a clear picture of the Rohingya people as zealots and a global security issue. Instead of highlighting the various sufferings experienced by Rohingya people as a result of the Myanmar government’s actions, the daily Mizzima has openly supported the Myanmar government’s inhumane acts. It reflects the control of the Myanmar media by the state up to this point.

Crime and sickness among the Rohingya refugees Six news articles on crime and sickness among the Rohingya were analysed. These included stories of Rakhine asylum seekers having ties to the Araken army. Also, in Myanmar, the COVID-​19 pandemic raised alarm in the 78

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Rakhine camps. The first case in the refugess camp was identified in a Rakhine camp for internally displaced persons, and refugees were living dangerously close to the edge. The articles, in Mizzima and the Myanmar Times, portrayed the Rohingyas, similar to other migrants and refugees (Ullah et al, 2021), as criminals and disease carriers. These articles either chronicled the crimes committed by Rohingya refugees or warned of the public health risks posed by COVID-​19. Mizzima, the conservative, and Mizzima, the progressive, in their reporting, have ignored humanitarian perspectives on the Rohingya crisis. The Myanmar Times, on the other hand, appears to be less damning in its reporting on the Rohingyas. To some extent, we believe the negative representation of Rohingya refugees in the Myanmar media may be due to the media’s attempts to use news coverage to legitimize the Myanmar government’s deportation of the Rohingya people. When their humanity is called into question, refugees are transformed from ‘speechless messengers’ into potential terrorists (Malkki, 1996: 381). As a result, the media’s criminalization of refugees’ actions has legitimized the securitization policies that led to the refugees’ encampment or expulsion from Myanmar.

Rohingya refugees in the global media Rohingyas as victims of statelessness, impoverishment, and inhuman treatment

Analysis of articles published in UK newspaper The Guardian shows that the Rohingya refugees are portrayed as defenceless victims of persecution, poverty, and violent treatment because of their ethnicity. Images and text in news articles such as ‘Justice and the Rohingya people are losers in Asia’s new cold war’, ‘Fears Rohingya refugees face disaster after COVID-​ 19 reaches Cox’s Bazar’, ‘Hundreds of Rohingya refugees stuck at sea’, ‘Rohingya refugees sent to remote Bangladeshi island after weeks at sea’, and ‘Rohingya refugees allege sexual assault on Bangladeshi island’ highlight the precarious situation of the refugees in which as an example, The Guardian published the image below alongside the article ‘Fears Rohingya refugees risk calamity after Covid-​19 arrives in Cox’s Bazar’. It demonstrates that many Rohingya refugees are awaiting financial and medical assistance as a result of the discovery of two COVID-​19 patients in a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar. We argue that this form of media portrayal invariably inspires sympathy for Rohingya refugees as well as censure of Myanmar’s government. In contrast to the Myanmar Times, Mizzima, and The Daily Star, which have portrayed Rohingya people as a huge threat in relation to the spread of COVID-​19 among local people, The Guardian has focused on the health concerns and sufferings of Rohingya refugees as a result of the pandemic. 79

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Rohingya refugees as victims and disease carriers Articles in another UK newspaper, The Telegraph, have portrayed Rohingya refugees negatively, as victims and carriers of disease. This is evident in, for example: ‘Thousands of Rohingya flee gang warfare in squalid camps’, which focuses on how thousands of Rohingyas were forced to flee their homes due to clashes between different Rohingya groups; and ‘Bangladesh to build barbed wire fences around Rohingya camps’, which reports on refugees being been trapped in the no man’s land between Bangladesh and Burma due to the construction of wire fences by the Bangladeshi government. It has been argued that Rohingya camps in Bangladesh –​which, as mentioned earlier, are considered the largest refugee camps in the world today –​could become hotpots of COVID-​19 due to the propinquity of camp settlements (Ullah et al, 2020). In turn, this would increase the refugees’ experience of social exclusion and othering from the local people (Chattoraj et al, 2021). The UK has spent £47.5 million to aid the Rohingyas and help Bangladesh deal with both the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s frequent natural disasters (Frontier, 2020). News coverage, in the UK, in March 2020 of the discovery of the first two cases of coronavirus in a Rohingya refugee camp sparked fears of a widespread outbreak; this coverage focused on both the UK’s welcoming stance toward Rohingya refugees and the potential for such camps to cause an epidemic of COVID-​19 in surrounding communities. While the world was witnessing a disaster in the form of the pandemic, the camp people were fortunate enough to keep the number of cases relatively low, at under 5,000 (Ullah and Chattoraj, 2022). The way the media portrays the Rohingya refugee situation can have catastrophic ramifications. The media has an undeniable influence in terms of moulding mindsets and attitudes. People consume media for a variety of reasons, including being informed on a wide range of issues, as well as learning (either directly or implicitly) how much attention to pay to a particular topic or how to understand that topic. Media outlets’ choices about lead articles, headlines, newscasts, and length and priorities of news stories all contribute to moulding public opinion. As a result, the media can be seen as a tool for shaping the views of the masses. Walter Lippman (1922) argues in Public Opinion, in the chapter titled ‘The world outside and the pictures in our heads’, that the news media is a critical source of the ‘pictures in our heads’ that are related to the larger world of public affairs, which is, in his words, ‘out of reach, out of sight, out of mind’ for most citizens. McCombs and Shaw (1972) note that the media’s involvement in establishing an agenda extends beyond simply bringing an issue to the forefront of people’s minds. What follows in the communication process is the development of our comprehension and opinion on a topic, both of which are influenced by the media. The media, however, plainly determines what 80

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we should know and how we should think about the world, as indicated by Lipmann’s and McCombs and Shaw’s assertions. Furthermore, media items and their treatment assist us in prioritizing one issue over another. The media’s representation of Rohingya refugees can, therefore, create prejudice or acceptance, based on the media’s enormous influence in moulding public opinion and attitude. Taking this further, how the Rohingya refugees are portrayed in the media can help to either end the refugee crisis or establish bridges between the Rohingyas and the rest of Bangladesh’s population. The media’s persistent and extensive use of negative material, misinformation, or hate speech concerning Rohingya refugees can incite anti-​refugee sentiment and intensify social friction between the Rohingyas and the wider public. Alternatively, portraying the Rohingya refugees and their struggle in a positive and honest light may impact public opinion and lead to increased media coverage of their situation. Discussing the media’s portrayal of Syrian refugees in Turkish media, Müzeyyen Pandir argues: ‘Media practices can motivate empathy, acceptance and peace between groups when they intend to promote a culture of coexistence and mutual understanding in their portrayals of minority and vulnerable groups’ (2020: 100). That is to say, the media is both the problem and the solution, because its depictions of migrants can have either positive or negative consequences for the refugees’ situation. Media reports have characterized Rohingya refugees as ‘victims’ or ‘helpless human beings’ in numerous cases. On one hand, the portrayal of Rohingya refugees as victims or as helpless in the media may drive more people to support them or help them to return to their home country, which some may view as a positive development. On the other hand, this portrayal might trigger a new catastrophe. People in Bangladesh may consider that it is their moral obligation to assist Rohingya refugees in returning to Myanmar once the conditions there improve. Under these circumstances, the Rohingyas will never be fully accepted into Bangladeshi society. While many Rohingya refugees are already actively participating in and contributing significantly to Bangladesh’s social, political, and economic life, their contributions and successes may go unappreciated if they are always portrayed as victims or as helpless. People around them will only see them in this light, rather than as complete people. Furthermore, if the Rohingya refugees are continually portrayed as helpless or as victims and are unable to change their situation without the help of others, their own resilience may be diminished. This could render them dependent on others to make significant life decisions for them. According to Nyers (1999), reducing refugees to a homogeneous group, rather than highlighting the uniqueness of individuals within the group, erases their biological specificity as historical beings and relegates them to the status of ‘sub-​citizens’, who lack legitimacy to articulate political will or rational argument in their state of physical destitution (Hyndman, 2000). 81

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In a number of media publications, the Rohingya refugees have been presented as both ‘victims’ and ‘dangers’. By portraying them as, variously, illegal immigrants, criminals, drug traffickers, murderers, terrorists, unwilling returnees, opportunity seekers, and disease carriers, they are presented as a threat to both Bangladesh and Myanmar. They have often been referred to as ‘Barmaiya’, which means ‘from Burma’ but in an offensive way (Chattoraj et al, 2021: 172). The dehumanization of Rohingya refugees is an unavoidable result of such portrayal. As Naira Delgado et al (2009) describe it, ‘dehumanization’ of human beings means they are viewed as not advanced much from their animal ancestors and hence lacking in emotions, intelligence, morality, and civility. Dehumanization is a racist mindset that occurs when one regards another human being as less than human. Dehumanization can occur in various circumstances, as previously stated. Dehumanization can also be defined as the act of depriving members of a group the ability to feel complex emotions (Delgado et al, 2009). The media in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and other countries has characterized the Rohingya refugees as arriving ‘en masse’ or in ‘floods’, and as ‘invaders’. Dehumanization occurs when Rohingya refugees are reduced to statistics or when it is agreed that they are individuals in need of protection. But the cost of aid given to them is portrayed as a problem, the argument being that poor Bangladeshi locals deserve that aid more than the Rohingyas. The media portrayal of Rohingya refugees indicated above may make one assume that they are not on par with local people in Bangladesh and, in fact, are less deserving than them (Chouliaraki and Stolic, 2017). The dehumanization of Rohingya refugees may endanger their lives. The lives of Rohingya refugees are at risk as a result of the media’s harsh and divisive portrayal of the community in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and around the world. According to Michaela Hynie’s (2018: 269) reasoning, abuse and antisocial behaviour toward the group may be justified if ‘they are viewed as being outside the sphere of our moral obligations’ as a result of this perception or description. Some may defend such actions by claiming that society as a whole, but especially ‘our children and women’, require protection. It may be argued that they deserve what they get (Hynie, 2018: 269). However, when the media concentrates only on the emotional aspects of the refugees’ predicament, this may have unforeseen implications, such as depoliticizing the migrants. ‘Refugees are political subjects with political rights, and their situation needs rights-​based political decisions and measures’, contends Pandir (2020). However, when the media focuses exclusively on ‘victim’ rhetoric in their coverage of the refugee issue, an emotive approach to the subject, political discourses seeking political solutions are not given a fair amount of space and are eventually erased from public debates. This is an example of the depoliticizing effect of the media. According to Vaughan-​ Williams (2015), portraying refugees as victims or as unfortunate only 82

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presents a biological subjectivity in which refugee lives are portrayed as lives that need to be governed or which can be thought of as ‘biopolitical’: a field of symbolic power that produces human bodies as ‘living matter’, subject to the humanitarian munificence of the West. As a result, several significant geopolitical concerns surrounding the Rohingya refugees may be neglected and depoliticized if the media largely presents the refugees as victims in need of shelter or committing various crimes as a result of their helplessness. As a result, the true causes and potential solutions to the current Rohingya refugee crisis will stay unknown to the people of Myanmar and Bangladesh, as well as world leaders. Some may argue that portraying refugees as victims in the media can be effective in evoking the role of the government, citizens, and world leaders. According to Silverstone, the tendency of media outlets to emphasize the emotional aspects of the refugee crisis is merely a coping strategy aimed at shielding viewers from the unpleasant repercussions of the news. The media satisfies our want for convenience, comfort, and predictability by providing only incomplete data about victims and perpetrators (2002: 777). As a result, portraying migrants as victims or assistants in the media delivers the message that we should defend us rather than them, essentially relegating refugees to a distinct category (Ellis, 2000). On the other hand, conventional, unfriendly, and contentious media coverage of Rohingya refugees may cast them as a ‘marginalized community’, exacerbating their multiple difficulties. Marginalization is the image of social organizations as an outside society, as sitting on the outside and disconnected from the unified centre (Chavez, 2001; Jakubowicz, 2007). As a result, the people of Bangladesh and Myanmar may be concerned that the safety of Rohingya refugees would be endangered if they are portrayed negatively in the media. Furthermore, because numerous media reports suggest the culture, customs, values, and ideology of the Rohingya refugees differ from those of the host culture, residents of the host country may fear that their own culture and values may be imperilled as a result of the Rohingya immigrants. Due to this, they may be unwilling to connect with the Rohingya refugees and might instead seek to distance themselves from them. As a result, the host society’s social cohesion can suffer, while the Rohingya refugees’ perception of threat and negative sentiments might strengthen.

International community and the media The unexpected increase in the refugee population has put enormous strain on Bangladesh’s modest existing infrastructure and services as a host community. The camps are severely overcrowded and expanding quickly in every way, with little room for mobility of relief workers and other emergency services. According to the UN Joint Humanitarian Response 83

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Plan (2017), Rohingya refugees are profoundly traumatized and in vulnerable conditions. Survival sex, human trafficking, and drug trafficking are all on the rise, along with a number of other social issues. In addition, because of their position, the Rohingya refugee camps on the coast are especially vulnerable to natural disasters. Furthermore, refugees living in the hills face more landslides than ever before as a result of haphazard tree-​cutting practices (Stevenson, 2018). The international community has intensified its involvement in humanitarian and development activities in the region since 1992, due to the persecution of the Rohingyas. The UN Security Council has responded simply by urging Myanmar to end the brutality against the Rohingya people and Bangladesh to respect the principle of nonrefoulement (that is, deportation to a place of persecution). Most international and regional organizations, including the EU and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, have spoken out against the ‘cleaning-​up operations’, though some chose ‘quiet diplomacy’. Most crucially, as countries of this region, India and China have taken opposing and sceptical positions on this topic. Bangladesh maintains an open border and welcomes all Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. However, Malaysia, India, and Thailand have closed their borders and returned refugees seeking entry to the sea. The UK and the US have called for a UN Security Council resolution criticizing Myanmar for its human rights violations. However, China and Russia have blocked the effort. Some Middle Eastern countries have fiercely condemned the ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. They have spoken out in support of global Muslim brotherhood and have demanded action in the face of such atrocities, while other Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have stayed mute. Although Saudi Arabia promised US$15 million in humanitarian help, it has said nothing about Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingyas. In conclusion, despite the long-​term suffering of the Rohingya people at the hands of Myanmar, the country has never been held responsible. At the same time, Bangladesh, with limited capabilities and resources, is forced to keep its doors open. At the same time, the international community is focused on short-​term humanitarian relief and the fanciful prospect of repatriation, without having addressed the root cause of the problem. This requires confronting the region’s power dynamics and how they influence the perpetuation of the Rohingyas’ persecution. At the launch of the 2022 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis in Bangladesh, US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas announced more than US$152 million in additional humanitarian assistance for those in Bangladesh, Burma, and elsewhere in the region affected by the Burmese military’s genocide, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing against Rohingyas. With this new funding, the total 84

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assistance for this response has reached more than US$1.7 billion since August 2017 (Price, 2022).The HRW has urged that donors such as the US, the UK, the EU, and Australia should increase funding to meet the vast needs of the Rohingya refugee community while also asking Bangladesh to lift restrictions on refugees’ livelihoods, mobility, and education.

Bangladesh’s media landscape The role of the media in covering humanitarian crises is vital because critical coverage of a crisis might drive governments to intervene (Robinson, 2002). Coverage can also have an impact on enlightening citizens about international affairs, and the news media has a significant impact on defining the public agenda and moulding public opinion through its selection and presentation of news stories (McCombs and Shaw, 1972). For example, media coverage of human suffering and atrocities in several nations has compelled Western governments to ‘do something’ in the face of mounting public pressure; examples include Operation Restore Hope in Somalia in 1992 and Operation Deliberate Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995 (Jakobsen, 2000; Mermin, 2001; Robinson, 2004). However, other experts contend that even significant media coverage cannot persuade policy makers to intervene in humanitarian emergencies (Robinson, 2001). News coverage of international conflicts differs greatly from other types of overseas reporting (Lee and Yang, 1996; Novais, 2007). Several studies have noticed that media coverage tends to promote the home government’s foreign policy interests due to political, economic, and ideological motivations (Herman and Chomsky, 1988; Paletz and Vinson, 1994). Even the business nexus of countries has influenced news coverage framing (Lee and Yang, 1996). Some see media coverage of the Rohingya situation as biased towards the mostly Buddhist country (Freeman, 2017), while others, like US Secretary of Defense James Mattis, believe the suffering of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims is worse than the media portrays (Islam, 2018). U Tha Aung Nyun, Myanmar’s ambassador to Australia, has alleged that some international media coverage of Myanmar’s Muslim community had exacerbated the current situation in the state of Rakhine. Part of the issue is that most international media outlets took nearly three weeks to begin covering the Rohingya situation (Asiuzzaman, 2017). As attacks on Rohingyas are planned at the highest levels of government in Mayanmar, and the governments of Myanmar’s neighbouring nations have made their stances on the issue plain, this book focuses on media coverage in light of media–​policy relations. Several researchers have examined how the Rohingya issue has been presented in the past by Western media (Brooten, 2015; Brooten et al, 2015; Brooten and Verbruggen, 2017). However, 85

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nearly little systematic research has been conducted to investigate how other countries’ media portray the subject. As a result, it is worthwhile investigating how much government policy influences coverage of neighbouring nations’ humanitarian crises. We anticipate that our research will reveal significant discrepancies in coverage of the Rohingya crisis due to differences in the social and political systems involved. The Chinese government and the Communist Party of China control the Chinese media (Sun, 2010). The Chinese media have been seen as ‘censorship-​controlling entities’ (Sun, 2010: 69), and the Communist Party controls the financial and human resources of mass media companies through ownership and political power. However, from the late 1970s, a gradual introduction of commercialization and decentralization in the Chinese media business has resulted in economic autonomy for a number of commercially managed news companies (Sukosd and Wang, 2013). Commercial news organizations in China have more independence in content production and economic operation than party-​sponsored media (Sukosd and Wang, 2013). India, the world’s largest democracy, has a long and famous record of public interest investigative journalism, which has even forced administrations to fall (Dhavan, 2005). Bangladesh has a long history of news media, beginning with the publication of the first major newspaper in 1847. During the British administration, modern print journalism arrived in the area. Newspapers initially developed in present-​day Bangladesh in the mid-​18th century. There were many publications in Bangladesh prior to independence in 1971, including some English-​language dailies such as the Morning News and Pakistan Observer. At the time, there was a national television station and a radio station with a few substations. Bangladesh is one of those countries where authoritarianism still exists in the political structure, and press freedom, while guaranteed by the constitution, remains elusive. According to international media reports, the Bangladesh government frequently interferes in the activities of the media by making orders about what to publish –​an authoritarian approach to controlling the media (Safi, 2017). Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital city, is home to over 150 daily newspapers and 40 satellite TV stations. The media in this region plays a sigficant role in shaping the narratives about Rohingyas like Indian and Chinese media. Though, the Indian media is meant to act as a ‘watchdog’, whereas the Chinese media serves as the Communist Party of China’s ‘mouthpiece’. As a democratic country, Bangladesh’s media is supposed to play a key role, despite the fact that the country’s media system is neither libertarian nor authoritarian, and some authoritarian behaviours remain in force (Islam and Yousuf, 2017). While Bangladesh has a thriving media system in terms of the total number of publications, some scholars doubt the quality of journalism in the country. 86

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According to one survey, Bangladesh had 2,320 newspapers, 1,781 online news sites, 72 radio stations, and 43 television channels in 2017 (El Bour et al, 2017). According to the same study, there are 17,300 organized journalists working in Bangladesh (El Bour et al, 2017). Elahi (2013) contends that the quality of journalism in Bangladesh is depressing. According to his research, journalists’ ethical standards are low, and many engage in unscrupulous acts. He observes that ‘certain journalists and certain segments of the media imposed self-​censorship due to journalists’ and editors’ personal political leaning or the political position of the media owner’ (Elahi, 2013: 197). The fact that merchants and politicians own the majority of the print media has an indirect political impact (Riaz and Rahman, 2016). The Bangladesh government dismantled the state control of the media in the late 1990s. It also closed all state-​owned newspapers, effectively ending the government’s decade-​long ownership of the print media. According to Mahmud (2013), the entry of commercial conglomerates into print media may appear to be a depoliticization of state control, but it is actually a type of ‘corpo-​politicization’.

Media influence Significant academic research has been conducted on the impact of the foreign media on humanitarian interventions, including the effects of news media on foreign governments’ political decisions to intervene, known as the ‘CNN effect’ (Robinson, 2000; Balabanova, 2010). The ‘CNN effect’ describes the policy–​media interaction and predicts that media impact occurs when the policy is unknown, and media coverage is critically positioned to empathize with suffering people, while media influence is unlikely to occur when the policy is definite (Robinson, 2000). Scholars frequently cite the Bosnian War in 1992–​95 as an example of media influence on foreign policy; however, others are sceptical, arguing that the Bosnian example may be based on certain cultural and political assumptions and that working with the same presumption outside of the West European context might not be very successful (Balabanova, 2010). Furthermore, new work on the ‘Amnesty International effect’ contends that the operations of human rights organizations appear to have a major impact on the possibility of military interventions led by third-​party states (Murdie and Peksen, 2014). Others have discovered that the determinants of intervention decisions tend to focus on geopolitical and economic reasons, frequently missing the potential nonstate actors, such as the media and humanitarian organizations, to influence foreign policy decisions on humanitarian intervention (Beardsley and Schmidt, 2011; Beardsley, 2012; Choi, 2013). In conclusion, scholarly and professional examinations of the CNN effect, that media plays a direct role in alleviating humanitarian crises, yield mixed, 87

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inconsistent, and perplexing results (Gilboa, 2005). Thus, for humanitarians, the question of how trends in news media coverage affect the population group they report on, and influence humanitarian assistance, remains unanswered (Lee, 2021). By throwing light on extreme human rights breaches in remote corners of the world, international media attention can help to mobilize and shape the international community’s attitude. Based on his study of the media’s influence on the Rohingya refugee issue, Lee (2021) argues that increased media coverage of the Rohingya refugee crisis enhances the possibility of humanitarian action to lower the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar. She also argues that as media coverage increases, international pressures may be mobilized to stop the causes of the refugee stream and maybe undertake various humanitarian initiatives aimed at protecting the human rights of Rohingyas in Myanmar (Barry et al, 2012). Lee (2021) for her analysis, combined the statistics/​data based on The New York Times and The Guardian. Images of Rohingya people leaving Myanmar on risky boat journeys, in which hundreds of people, maybe more, drowned, gained international attention in 2015. And media coverage of the Rohingya refugee crisis grew by 240 per cent in The Guardian and by 116 per cent in The New York Times from 2014. However, there was a substantial fall in media attention in 2016, with stories about the issue decreasing by 62 per cent in The New York Times and by 48 per cent in The Guardian. Again, there was a nearly threefold increase in Rohingya refugees to 932,204 in 2017, during which time The New York Times published the most pieces (127 articles), while The Guardian did so in 2018 (229 articles; Lee, 2021). This is best explained by the events of 25 August 2017, when an armed Rohingya organization (the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army) purportedly attacked police stations and government officials (HRW, 2017; Khin, 2017; Southwick, 2018). In a series of actions described by the UN as a ‘classic example of ethnic cleansing’ (quoted in Ullah and Chattoraj, 2018), the military replied by burning communities, shooting children and women, gang-​raping women, looting, and preventing humanitarian aid (Gettleman, 2017; Khin, 2017; Revesz, 2017). Evidence reveals that army build-​ups and increased military-​sponsored Islamophobia had been taking place for weeks prior, implying that the military operations were preplanned to drive the majority of the Rohingyas out of the country (Fortify Rights, 2017; Khin, 2017; Southwick, 2018). According to Lee’s (2021) analysis, the effect of global media on humanitarian aid may not have been as much as humanitarians had hoped in terms of deterring military-​driven genocidal campaigns against the Rohingyas. Empirical evidence suggests that there was no direct or long-​ term effect of decreasing the number of Rohingya refugees despite increased international media reports and diplomatic pressure. Since the August 2017 88

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events, which the UN has described as bearing the ‘hallmarks of genocide’ (OHCHR, 2018a; see also OHCHR, 2018b), harrowing personal stories and the sheer extent of cruel human rights crimes have rapidly aroused international media attention (MacLean, 2019; Rosenthal, 2019). The media was dominated by aerial views of burned settlements and images of people marching into the horizon in quest of refuge in neighbouring countries, with the number of online publications increasing by 408 per cent for The New York Times and 295 per cent for The Guardian. Despite formal investigations by the Kofi Annan Foundation (2017) and the UN fact-​finding mission, the number of Rohingya refugees escaping Myanmar remains high, at roughly 850,000 every year (OHCHR, 2018a, 2018b; Lee, 2021). Lee (2021) concludes that there is little evidence to support the claim that global media coverage influences humanitarian intervention actions or leads to changes in the Myanmar government that would address the root causes of the crisis and reduce the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing the Tatmadaw’s violence. Yanghee Lee, the UN special rapporteur on the state of human rights in Myanmar, has questioned ‘whether the UN and international community could have prevented or managed the situation differently that occurred regarding the Rohingya and in Rakhine State’ (OHCHR, 2018a). Scholars have questioned the lack of sustained high-​level pressure on Myanmar to cease gross human rights crimes, as well as global leaders’ subdued replies (Khin, 2017). The Obama administration lifted sanctions against Myanmar on 7 October 2016, at the height of the Tatmadaw’s clearing operations in Rakhine state, to ‘support efforts by the civilian government and people of Myanmar to continue their process of political reform and broad-​based economic growth and prosperity’ (US Department of the Treasury, 2016; see also Khin, 2017; Southwick, 2018). Furthermore, foreign aid and investment in Myanmar surged considerably between 2016 and 2017, reaching US$6.6 billion, with the US and the UK among the biggest investors (Lee, 2021). While recent studies have revealed that exposure to human rights violations through the news media enhances the chance of the US imposing economic penalties, research on the consequences of economic sanctions remains limited (Peksen et al, 2014). Since October 2017, the US, the UK, and the EU have halted or decreased military support to Myanmar units related to violence against Rohingyas, and they have sanctioned military personnel (Peel, 2017; The Guardian, 2017). Nonetheless, these sanctions do little to address the root causes of the conflict in northern Rakhine state, which range from chronic underdevelopment and increasing competition for scant resources to institutionalized discrimination and Islamophobia (Appadurai, 2018; MacLean, 2019). Scholars have fiercely advocated for a UN-​mandated worldwide arms embargo to prohibit investment in military-​owned firms 89

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in Myanmar, as well as travel bans and support for referring the issue to the International Criminal Court (Khin, 2017). One reason why the number of refugees has not decreased despite rising international efforts to end the crisis could be the Myanmar regime’s resistance to pressure. In the case of the Rohingya refugee crisis, despite international efforts by media outlets and international assistance organizations to end the issue, the outcomes in reducing the number of refugees from Myanmar remained unsatisfactory. Previous research has found that when state-​sponsored genocides have already begun, the perpetrators have likely already evaluated the international context and determined that there is sufficient permissiveness to commit genocide without consequence, in which case simply signalling that the world is watching is unlikely to stop genocides (Krain, 2005). For example, the Myanmar army may have interpreted the steep reduction in worldwide media coverage of the situation in 2016 as a loss of international interest and lack of understanding of Myanmar’s atrocities. This observation begs the issue of whether the steady rise of foreign media coverage and pressure beginning in 2015 could have influenced the outcome in 2017 and the decision to intervene. While the current literature on the motivations and effectiveness of humanitarian interventions in stopping genocides is limited, a recent study suggests that interventions that directly challenge the regime, rather than ineffective impartial interventions, are the only effective type of military response to slow or stop state-​sponsored genocides (Krain, 2005). Similarly, nonmilitary countermeasures, including media attention and relief group efforts, had little impact on Myanmar’s military rulers’ homicidal mission. In fact, scholars have discovered that while interventions can shorten a conflict, they can also hasten offenders’ genocidal policy within that time frame. This pattern may be found in Myanmar, where an overt military mission of ethnic cleansing began in 2015 and grew in intensity between 2017 and 2018, owing to rising international pressure and interest. To reduce atrocities against Rohingyas in Myanmar, future policy should focus on directly restricting or disarming the military and removing them from power (Krain, 2005). Another reason for the lack of direct military engagement to minimize the number of Rohingya refugees is competition for geopolitical interests and reasons to intervene. As history has shown, intervening for reasons other than humanitarian reasons has successfully slowed or stopped state-​sponsored mass executions (Power, 2002). For example, India’s humanitarian intervention in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, was primarily an attempt to undermine Pakistani dominance and halt the stream of refugees and only secondarily a humanitarian mission to safeguard ethnic Bengalis during Pakistan’s civil war in 1971 (Charney, 1999). Similarly, noble and humanitarian intentions by international media and aid organizations to intervene in Myanmar have 90

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not translated into effectiveness, and unfortunately, there is little political will to spur intervention and multilateral support because China and Russia hold permanent membership in the UN Security Council (Kingston, 2015; Kichmann, 2020). In addition, there are other severe human rights problems receiving worldwide attention in Asia, such as China’s state-​sponsored persecution of Uighurs. Uighurs and Rohingyas are both Muslim ethnic minorities who have suffered, respectively, at the hands of China and Myanmar (Lee, 2021). According to studies, the expense of interventions outweighs any potential material or political reward for the intervenors because of China’s status as a hegemony (Kichmann, 2020). The present literature encourages intervention and aid from Muslim organizations and Muslim-​majority countries; nevertheless, they have mostly remained relatively mute, favouring economic and strategic connections with China (Maizland, 2022). While studies frequently rely on nonviolent international pressure, such as HRW campaigns and International Court of Justice judgments, to stop ethnic cleansing (Kichmann, 2020). Lee’s (2021) study shows that international media does little to increase international pressure to influence foreign policies aimed at reducing the number of Rohingya refugees or addressing the root causes of the refugee crisis. The lack of access to Rakhine state for humanitarian organizations as a result of the travel restrictions limits the scope of this study, as precise and detailed information about continuing human rights violations is only accessible online. The UNHCR website only provides yearly statistics on those registered as refugees from Myanmar and settled in Bangladesh refugee camps, excluding a number of those who have settled in other countries, those living in host communities or certain locations outside camp boundaries, those who died en route to Bangladesh, and those killed in Rakhine state (UNHCR, 2021). The exact number of people affected by the rising violence in Rakhine state is unknown. The media is a significant source of information regarding politically heated situations and the policies that come from them (Ehmer and Kothari, 2021). The media’s portrayal of minority groups frequently perpetuates stereotypes, and in the case of refugees, such as the Rohingyas, even frames them as threats to the host nation (Ehmer and Kothari, 2021). Given that news coverage frequently influences public support for a policy, the media’s ability to report on an issue without intervention from the state is particularly critical. As a result, Ehmer and Kothari’s (2021) research investigates how Rohingya refugees are portrayed in Malaysian media during a period of high refugee admissions. Ehmer and Kothari (2021) sought to understand how the media depicted migration, state sovereignty, regional politics, and domestic policy, as well as how refugees who share the same religion as the host nation was represented. 91

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Because the media has a significant impact on public opinion regarding immigration-​related policies (Van Gorp, 2005), it is critical to examine how a government-​affiliated newspaper describes the experiences of people seeking refuge while also balancing news coverage with the government’s perspective on domestic and regional refugee policies. Depending on the geopolitical position of the media, victim–​saviour storylines are frequently deployed in Malaysian media coverage of the Rohingyas. Brooten et al (2015) examined the Rohingya community’s Facebook page, The New York Times, and the Inter Press Service using Mutua’s (2002) savages–​victims–​saviours framework. They discovered that in texts, the Rohingyas and Myanmar’s democratic reform efforts are portrayed as victims, while Rakhine Buddhists, Arakan security forces, the Burmese army and police, Myanmar media, and Bangladesh officials are portrayed as savages (Ehmer and Kothari, 2021; Sudheer and Banerjee, 2021). International and local groups are considered saviours, whereas foreign investment is viewed as both a saviour and a barbarian. Reuters constructs the Rohingyas as victims in several other news items, whereas the newspapers disagree on who should be labelled savages or saviours. Rakhine Buddhists, Arakan security forces, and the Burmese army are frequently presented as savages, whereas the UN, the US, democracy, grassroots communities, and journalists are frequently portrayed as saviours. Ubayasiri (2019) discovered that the news coverage of the refugee flow in a Bangladeshi daily, The Daily Star, followed a nationalistic narrative, presenting the Rohingyas as victims as well as intruders of Bangladeshi sovereignty and a threat to the nation’s prosperity. Coverage of a refugee crisis involving numerous nation states hinders journalists’ ability to obtain and report information. Brooten and Verbruggen (2017) discuss the complexity of the key players in the process, the access constraints foreign correspondents and other reporters face, and the lack of transparency generated by reliance on local producers, interpreters, and sources in a study exploring the news reporting process related to the Rohingya crisis. Islam’s (2018) master’s thesis analyzed how newspapers in China, India, and Bangladesh framed the 2017 Rohingya crisis. This discovered that the conflict frame was prominent in the Chinese media, but Indian newspapers usually used help, protest, and security frames. The human interest frame was used more frequently in Bangladeshi newspapers, which served to spotlight the Rohingyas’ hardships. The human interest frame’s prominence in Bangladeshi media can be linked to the number of Rohingya people who sought asylum in the country, as well as public interest in the topic and journalists’ ability to interview sources. To support policy suggestions, the media frames complex topics by allocating responsibility and/​or blame. Isti’anah (2018) discovered that Myanmar’s Myanmar Times newspaper headlines concentrated on the government’s good actions, but Bangladesh’s The Nation newspaper highlighted Rohingyas’ experiences 92

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in a comparative critical discourse analysis of Myanmar and Bangladesh newspaper headlines. Isti’anah (2019) conducted a five-​nation comparison study to investigate how South-​East Asian newspapers in 2017 depicted the Rohingya crisis in their headlines. The study discovered that The Jakarta Post in Indonesia, Malaysiakini in Malaysia, Mmtimes in Myanmar, The Nation in Thailand, and The Daily Star in Bangladesh all used responsibility and blame discourses in their news coverage of the Rohingyas. The newspapers presented a favourable discourse on how their governments were performing their responsibilities toward Rohingyas, and pieces blamed Myanmar, and in some cases, Bangladesh, for the Rohingya catastrophe. The prevalence of nation state narratives in Southeast Asian newspapers demonstrates that the media struggles to balance its reporting focus on human interest stories and sociopolitical issues, with elite perspectives favouring official responses frequently becoming the dominant framing of the refugee crisis. When it comes to human suffering, journalists frequently struggle to balance ‘extreme, violent, or catastrophic occurrences rather than what “regular” life is like for those living in afflicted places’ (Brooten and Verbruggen, 2017: 56), and when it comes to elite or official perspectives. It also involves reproducing official narratives in the case of government-​ controlled media, as state authorities prefer to exert tight control over media organizations through severe defamation laws and other censoring measures. According to Siddiquee (2019), press coverage of Rohingyas in Myanmar frequently uses other terminology, such as ‘illegals’, ‘immigrants’, and ‘Islamic extremists’, when referring to them, and the reporting reproduces the government narrative, minimizing the crisis’ complexity. Academics first became interested in media coverage of foreign wars in the early 1980s, and more researchers became interested in the political background of Western democratic regimes, particularly the media in the US, in the 2000s (Islam, 2018). Some researchers have investigated the role of European media in covering international conflicts (Novais, 2007; Halttu, 2010). Few have looked precisely at media coverage of the Rohingya issue (Brooten, 2015; Brooten, et al, 2015; Brooten and Verbruggen, 2017). Many studies have demonstrated that news media prefer to cover overseas news in accordance with their home country’s foreign policy, particularly when it comes to political, ideological, and economic problems (Herman and Chomsky, 1988; Lee and Yang, 1996; Shoemaker and Reese, 1996; Zaremba, 1998; Novais, 2007). For example, Herman and Chomsky (1988) suggest that the American ‘elite media’ had become an accomplice of the government, either by commission or omission. Herman and Chomsky demonstrate a double standard in media coverage by denouncing Soviet engagement in Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary while justifying US intervention in Vietnam and Grenada on ‘humanitarian’ grounds. Herman and Chomsky 93

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(1988) investigated carefully how the news media carried out their mission of informing the American public about US foreign policy in a way that is supportive of that policy. In their famous book, Manufacturing Consent, they examined media coverage of several international crises, concluding that ‘the mass media of the US are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-​supportive propaganda function by reliance on market forces, internalized assumptions, and self-​censorship, and without significant overt coercion’ (Herman and Chomsky, 1988: 122). With the advent of national television networks, more mass media concentration, Right-​wing pressures on public radio and television, and the expansion in scope and sophistication of public relations and news management, this propaganda machine has become even more efficient in recent decades (Herman and Chomsky, 1988: 306). Herman (1993) examined media coverage of the US’ activities, inactions, and invasions in several countries from the 1980s through the 1990s. He established empirically that mainstream media follow a state agenda when reporting on foreign affairs and that the media also functioned as government public relations weapons to some extent. He contends that the mainstream media aided government policy but not democratic governance. Herman sums up his argument about media–​state ties as follows: Both structural analysis and empirical evidence of media performance support the assumption that the mainstream media tends to report on foreign affairs with a state agenda […]. The underlying issue is the media’s already high level of subservience to official goals, as well as its persistent inability to provide context and to encourage or even enable conversations that extend to fundamental criticism. These flaws are irreconcilable with the media’s stated role in fulfilling a democracy’s informational requirements. (1993: 45) Entman’s (1991) comparative study focused on media coverage of two similar air accidents: the downing of Korean Air Lines flight 007 by a Soviet fighter in 1983 and the downing of an Iran Air flight by a US Navy ship in 1988. He discovered several framings of identical situations in US media. The Iranian plane disaster was framed as a technical failure, whereas the Korean accident was depicted as a moral outrage, in keeping with the government’s Cold War regime foreign policy. Paletz and Vinson (1994) discovered careful selection and interpretation of facts, as well as headline strategies to suit objectives according to the political, economic, and ideological affiliations of the newspaper’s home country, by examining the coverage of Korean Air Lines flight 007 in the newspapers of six countries –​Nigeria, India, the US, Pakistan, Nicaragua, and the Soviet Union. The study specifically examined articles from the Daily Times (Lagos, Nigeria), The Times of India, 94

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Durham Morning Herald (North Carolina), Dawn (Pakistan), El Nuevo Diario (Nicaragua), and Pravda (Russia) (Soviet Union). Zaremba (1998) investigated journalistic coverage of the 1973 Arab–​ Israeli War in Ghana, the UK’s Times of London, Japan’s Asahi Evening News, Singapore’s The Straits Times, the Soviet Union’s Moscow News, and the US’ The New York Times. It indicated significant disparities in perceptions and interpretations of the war based on the newspaper’s home country’s political and ideological alliances. Downing (1988) compared Soviet coverage of the Afghan incursion to US coverage of the violence in El Salvador in 1980. According to Downing’s research of Soviet media coverage of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1986, neither the US nor the Soviet media provided an adequate portrayal of crises in which superpowers were deeply involved. The Soviet media downplayed the Soviet military’s involvement in terror bombing of rebel-​held areas and indiscriminate fire into towns, while the US ignored the relocation of civilians and casualties from aerial bombing in El Salvador. Lee and Yang’s (1996) investigation discovered many political and economic assumptions in Chinese coverage of the Tiananmen Square protests. According to the analysis, Associated Press coverage was compatible with US ideological goals in framing the movement as a fight for democracy against a Communist state, but Kyoto News, a Japanese news agency, was hesitant to challenge the Chinese government’s authority. The news agencie's coverage of the event was dominated by Japanese commercial interests (Lee and Yang, 1996). Yang (2003) examined news coverage of NATO air strikes on Kosovo in US and Chinese newspapers and discovered that the countries’ newspapers used two different media frames. The author discovered that Chinese newspapers framed the air attacks as an intervention in Yugoslavia’s sovereignty and territory, whereas American newspapers framed the air strikes as humanitarian aid to Albanians in order to stop the ethnic cleansing launched by Serbians. Using the method of content analysis, Rasul et al (2018) investigated the coverage of the Afghan conflict in four newspapers –​one elite daily from each of China, Iran, India, and Pakistan –​as well as the interaction between the elite press and the governments of Afghanistan’s neighbouring nations. They discovered that the elite English media followed their country’s official foreign policy while covering the conflict between Afghanistan and the Taliban at a time when the entire area was under attack by terrorists. Some academics claim that some national bias in foreign news reporting is natural because the coverage is aimed at a domestic audience (McQuail, 1999: 195; Malinkina and McLed, 2000: 39–​40). Because the Rohingya crisis has been a longstanding topic in South Asia, researchers have created a substantial amount of literature on various facets of the issue. Parnini et al (2013), for example, explored human rights crimes 95

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against Rohingya Muslims as well as the relationship between Bangladesh and Myanmar. According to Southwick (2015), the majority Buddhist Rakhine populace in Myanmar supports human rights atrocities against the Rohingya Muslim minority. A few studies look at how major publications covered the Rohingya crisis. Brooten (2015) examined a series of Reuters reports that won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize on sectarian violence in western Myanmar between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims and found that global media portrays the Burmese Buddhist culture dealing with the Rohingya issue as savage and reinforces the need for an external saviour. The author used textual analysis strategies, specifically the savages–​victims–​saviours framework, a ‘three-​dimensional prism’, to identify how key players are rhetorically constructed as victims, savages, or saviours in five lengthy investigative reports and two short companion pieces from Reuters wire service. Brooten et al (2015) examined texts from The New York Times and the Inter Press Service and discovered humanitarian news stories in Western media and wire services that depicted explosive violence unleashed by Myanmar Buddhists, and they discovered a clear vast of victims, villains, and heroes. Later, Brooten and Verbruggen (2017) investigated the access and procedures of Rakhine newsmen between 2012 and 2014. They funded journalists who relied on both local fixers who became emotionally involved and victims in the polarized situation; this was for a variety of reasons, including government restrictions on visiting sites, language barriers, and translation difficulties, all of which tended to reinforce the ‘us versus them’ narrative. Naeem Afzal (2016) investigated how the Myanmar government’s treatment of the Rohingya crisis was portrayed in three newspapers from Pakistan, America, and the UK, using content analysis of editorial viewpoints. His research revealed that newspaper editorials commonly used emotional appeals to divert readers’ attention and interest away from issues.

Media coverage of refugee issues In comparison to alternative media or media connected with social organizations, mainstream media only provides sporadic reporting. Social organizations have a number of complaints about the mainstream media’s coverage (Kaur, 2007). The prevailing issue has been a lack of discussion and debate on the predicament of the country’s asylum seekers and the conditions under which they live. Stereotypical descriptions of the behaviour of a few individuals who commit crimes, on the other hand, appear to be imputed to the greater population of this group of people. There has been little media coverage of refugees, particularly in the mainstream media (Kaur, 2007). This would seem to be in accordance with the nonrecognition of the refugee. There is a greater emphasis on migrant labourers, both documented and undocumented, and the issues they face (De Genova, 2002). During the 96

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effort to deport undocumented workers and migrants, the authorities used the media frequently to inform them of the amnesty given if they were to declare themselves and leave of their own accord. The media has also been used to warn companies of the consequences of harbouring illegal labour, some of whom are refugees (Kaur, 2007). In general, media coverage of undocumented workers, including refugees, emphasizes accusations and fear of them spreading infectious diseases, gangsterism, theft, violence among different groups, and involvement in other criminal activities, which leads to an increase in crime in areas where these people live. In alternative local media or social organization media, there is more discussion about the situation of refugees in their host countries, their plight, and the national policies that affect them. Kaur (2007) went on to discuss international refugee laws that Malaysia does not subscribe to but should, as well as national policies that do not include refugee protection, as well as issues related to the lack of legislation to protect refugee children internationally and in Malaysia in particular. This paper does bring up the issue that this is despite the fact that the majority of countries have joined the Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989, which provides for such protection, albeit in general terms. The paper provides information on the number of detainees as well as some of the awful conditions they have been subjected to in detention centres across the world, including Australia and Malaysia. It concluded with detailed recommendations to the government on how to improve and strictly enforce a more just system, as well as a call for all citizens to demand it. An article in the Aliran Monthly (Issue 11, 2003) discusses the specific case of an Aceh refugee who, despite being granted refugee status by the UNHCR, was arrested by a police officer in Malaysia, charged in court as an illegal immigrant by a judge who refused to recognize his refugee status, and then released from jail due to UNHCR intervention, which resulted in the charges against him being withdrawn by a magistrate. Later, he was accepted for resettlement in Denmark. Another popular storyline used by the media of social organizations and other alternative media, to raise public awareness of the need for appropriate legislation to provide basic protection for refugees as well as to seek government action, is reporting on the distressing experience of an individual refugee. The dearth of publicity and social debate on the refugee crisis in Malaysia and abroad is most likely due to a lack of awareness of the legalities and information on the predicament of the refugees. This lack of comprehension is mirrored in the paucity of journalists and contributing writers providing reports on such situations, as well as a limited selection of storylines that do not correlate to the issue’s variety and diversity of plots. SUARAM, or Voice of the People, a local civil society organization focused on human rights concerns, also released various press announcements and 97

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reports on refugee issues on its website. The content is similar to that of Aliran Monthly in that it tries to create public awareness in order to demand action to preserve the rights of refugees. However, relatively few local media outlets covered their press statements. Malaysiakini, an online newspaper read primarily by a small number of educated Malaysians, also included several items on migrants. International media, particularly international news agencies such as Reuters, Agence France Presse, and Associated Press, covered the plight of refugees in Malaysia and Malaysian policies toward them on occasion. Articles like the two listed in Aliran Monthly (SUARAM and Aliran) are uncommon and tend to be found in small independent publications. Any major media coverage of refugees and the challenges they experience is frequently intertwined with stories about problems faced and seen to be created by illegal immigration. As a result, relatively little information has been established regarding the specific issues confronting refugees.

News sources Because journalists are few in number and must locate themselves in areas where information is likely to flow to them, it is not practicable for them to be present on the ground at all times to see occurrences (Sigal, 1973, 1999: 224). As a result, they must rely on alternative methods of gathering event information. The news media refers to those who offer information as sources. People, letters, books, files, videos, and cassettes are all examples of sources that journalists use to put together news reports (Henshall and Ingram, 1991). Shoemaker and Reese (1996: 126) refer to them as ‘external suppliers of raw materials’ in the news-​making process. The source is an important aspect of the news-​making process because it can set the topic and impact the construction of meaning (Gamson and Wolfsfeld, 1993). Even the media is manipulated by its sources through their injecting material or propagandizing the reporters (Sigal, 1973). Sigal investigated the interaction between journalists and their sources and discovered that government departments have preferential access to the news media since journalists rely heavily on official sources and routine channels. According to Messner and DiStaso, the source can impact news reporting and ‘change the context in which a journalist views an issue’ (2008: 449). Following Sigal’s (1973) investigation into the relationship between journalists and their sources, Tuchman (1978), Gans (1979), and Fishman (1988) performed studies with the concept that generating news is the act of constructing reality itself rather than ‘an image of reality’. Despite the fact that Gans’ research focused on the organization of story selection, objectivity and ideology, revenues and audiences, and pressures and censorship, he highlights the relationships that play critical roles in the news-​making 98

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process. Gans views the media as largely passive, with powerful sources, notably public officials, wielding influence through their dominance of journalism. Sources alone do not determine the news, but they do help to focus journalists’ attention on the previously discussed social order. Sources do not determine the values in the news on their own, but their values are implied in the information they supply. Journalists do not, by any means, repeat these values, but they also do not refute them, since they are impartial and detached (Gans, 1979: 145). Journalists typically employ multiple sources while reporting on a conflict to ensure a story is credible and to avoid accusations of bias (McQuail, 2012). However, when reporting on national conflicts, including overseas events, news outlets depend primarily on official sources from the home country to frame the issues and events with an inherent slant. McQuail (2012) draws on Yang’s (2003) comparison of Chinese and American news coverage of the Kosovo air strikes, which demonstrated significant disparities in sources and coverage direction. Both countries’ news media relied heavily on their own national news sources, reflecting their governments’ perspectives on the events. Journalists’ choices of news sources are frequently subjective (Graber et al, 1997), and they purposefully select particular sources to tell the story in their predefined ways (Kim and Lee, 2008). During the Rohingya crisis, it is predicted that the media will analyze the government’s political strategies and use government sources from their home nations. A precoding test of 50 news reports revealed that four types of people were most frequently quoted: government officials of the home country, including ministers and law enforcement agencies, Myanmar government, Rohingyas (mostly refugees), international aid agencies, and human rights groups (International Organization of Migration, HRW, Amnesty International, the UN), and officials of other countries (ministers and diplomats of other countries) (political leaders, members of civil society).

Rohingyas and the media The Rohingya people have drawn media attention to their migratory dilemma. As a result, countries all over the world have focused their attention on the Rohingya crisis (Isti’anah, 2018: 19). What the media exposes results in many forms of support, such as camps and solidarity in Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries. One way the media misrepresents the topic is through headlines. Headlines are words packaged in unique ways to connect with an audience (Isti’anah, 2018). A ‘thumbnail sketch of the news’, a ‘super-​lead’, or a ‘commercial sample’ –​a concise and appealing way of presenting the reader with a sample of the paper’s offerings –​have been variably referred to (Tannenbaum, 1953: 189). As a result, it functions as a sort of index, guiding the reader’s selection of stories. Metila (2013) claims, 99

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on the other hand, that headlines present the most important information that newspaper agencies believe readers should be aware of. Furthermore, headlines can reproduce hegemonic knowledge and ideas, forging public agreement and sometimes opposing dominant discourses while keeping their independence and independent agency (Metila, 2013). Critical discourse analysis, as proposed by Isti’anah (2018), functions as a method for determining the meanings of words packed in headlines in order to reveal the ideologies that are driving media. Wodak (2007) defines ideology as planned or unintended meanings, as well as illocutionary and perlocutionary influences. Mode analysis is used by Halliday (1967) to assess the themes in headlines. The mode is about how communication is structured or packed in various ways, and the varied forms highlight distinct components of the message. Critical discourse analysis, with a focus on thematic analysis in headlines, can be used to determine ideological media perspectives in reporting news about Rohingyas. The use of goal as the dominant participant as the theme in Myanmar headlines demonstrates that the media’s ideological stance is to illustrate the consequences of the Myanmar government’s actions toward Rohingyas. The omission of the phrase ‘Rohingya’ in the headlines, on the other hand, demonstrates that the media remains within the government’s control (Isti’anah, 2018). As a result, it also addresses the Rohingya issue by discussing the government’s actions. Bangladeshi media, on the other hand, employs the theme as the dominant participant. The term ‘actor’ refers to Rohingya people who take action to preserve themselves. The usage of carriers also supports the earlier study that Rohingyas are associated with certain numbers that are in danger. Bangladeshi media purposefully uses the theme to highlight the fact that many Rohingya people must struggle for their freedom on their own. This section attempts to compare how newspapers handle the Rohingya issue based on headline messages. As noted earlier, news headlines are the most significant component of newspapers, since they provide a quick way of getting information to those who do not have time to read the intricacies of news items (Sajjad, 2022). Newspapers make deliberate decisions on the phrasing of their headlines. Regardless of textual media structure, the ideologies of the media are also compared with respect to ideological perspective. Several scholars have popularly investigated studies applying critical discourse analysis in news headlines. Ulum (2016) examined newspaper headlines about Syrian refugees in 10 English newspapers, 6 German newspapers, and 16 Turkish newspapers. The study sought to understand ideologies by examining ideological perspectives in newspapers. The research findings are based on an examination of the surface structures of headlines and the linguistic structures utilized. Those newspapers generally employ simple 100

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headlines. Topicalization, passivization, and information are the linguistic features employed. According to the research, Western publications focused on the issue from the risk perspectives that Syria may bring to Europe, but Turkish newspapers focused on the tragedy in Syria as the focal point of the conflict (Ulum, 2016). Afzal (2016) investigated the factors of pathos and media framing in newspaper coverage of the Rohingya situation. The study focused on the framing method utilized by the media to bring the problem to the international stage. There were three sets of newspapers involved: editorial viewpoints from Pakistani, British, and American newspapers. The three sets of articles have one thing in common: they all represent the crisis, which is the Rohingya Muslim minority, the anti-​Buddhist majority, and the anti-​Myanmar rung elite (Afzal, 2016). The media presented the Rohingya tragedy to elicit emotional responses from readers. Those investigations used Van Dijk’s theory of news and discourse to observe both the surface structures and linguistic elements used in headlines. This study adds to the study of news headline discourse by focusing on the textual structures of the headlines using Halliday’s systemic functional grammar (Eggins, 2004).

Improving the role of the media Better reporting standards are needed to increase the media’s credibility in the eyes of the international audience. The mainstream media, in particular, has to be more independent and active in raising social awareness about social concerns. It is necessary to affect a shift in society’s and governments’ attitudes toward issues concerning the situation of asylum seekers and refugees. The late 1990s global financial crisis highlighted the destructive capacity of the Western-​dominated international media to impact investor perceptions, contributing to the weakening of the Asian ‘Tiger’ economies, including Malaysia’s. Possible ‘exposés’ with a similar hard-​nosed approach might be avoided by a more acceptable refugee policy. For all asylum applicants, host governments must design asylum and refugee protection procedures and pass suitable implementing legislation. Several proposals are offered here in order to seek more effective resolutions to the issue and the protection of refugees’ rights. Journalist education and training on refugee issues should be improved. More journalists must be taught on human rights issues in general, and refugees in particular, as well as trained to write articles that influence legislation. To paraphrase the HRW (2013), the media should avoid the direct and indirect use of words that may contribute to a hostile climate in which racism, xenophobia, and related intolerance towards refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants thrive. 101

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Special attention should be paid to refugees and the challenges that arise as a result of their presence: In the media, inaccurate, racist, and xenophobic caricatures of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants should be challenged, and there should be an informed public debate on asylum and immigration issues. Coverage of the refugee issue should be maintained separately from that of migrant worker problems in order to build a clearer focus on the refugee issues. This will allow for a clearer understanding of existent and absent legislation as well as societal difficulties in such circumstances. Both mainstream and alternative media must adopt a fairer perspective. Alternative media outlets were largely critical of authority or demanded action. There is an obvious need for consistent guidelines to preserve the wellbeing of refugees and for all officers of relevant authorities to understand these principles.

Conclusion The potential consequences of unfavourable, divisive, biased, and partial media coverage of the Rohingya refugee crisis have been discussed. Because the refugee crisis is a political, social, and humanitarian issue, it is critical that the media report on it in a fair, objective, accurate, and accountable manner. This is not, however, a simple assignment for journalists; rather, it is one of the most challenging duties for journalists, since it requires a comprehensive understanding of many complicated ethical and moral considerations relating to politics, society, culture, and religion. Journalists, on the other hand, confront numerous demands from both public and private groups, including media owners, governments, political parties, and marketers. As a result, journalists may find it difficult to report correctly and comprehensively at times. However, journalists covering refugee stories must keep a few things in mind, such as how to cover diverse perspectives on the issue. How can we be compassionate and unbiased in the predicament of refugees? How can we remove refugee myths and misconceptions? Journalists face a difficult task in attempting to obtain answers to these questions. On the other hand, journalists must ensure that their work does not inspire bias, discrimination, or hate speech. ‘Journalists shall be aware of the danger of the media facilitating discrimination based on, among other things, race, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinions, and national or social origins’, states the code of ethics adopted by many unions and associations of the European Federation of Journalists. When covering stories concerning refugees and migrants, particularly the Rohingya refugee crisis, journalists should keep the following points in mind to ensure that their coverage is as honest and objective as possible without inciting bias, prejudice, or hatred. 102

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Because migrants are depoliticized, disenfranchised, and dehumanized, reporting about them can be devoid of context. Contextual reporting on refugees refers to understanding and reporting on the backgrounds of the groups of refugees (Pandir, 2020). This includes understanding the reasons behind the wars and crises in refugees’ home countries, as well as the mechanisms causing refugee mobility. As a result, contextual reporting does not imply focusing on the victimhood or emotional aspects of refugees, but rather understanding the problems, their causes, numerous geopolitical obstacles, and how to improve the refugees’ living standards. Journalists who begin writing and releasing contextual reporting about these people may shed light on the Rohingya refugee problem and potential solutions. This will benefit world leaders, politicians, the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar, as well as the people who live in these nations. Rights-​based journalism is another effective technique for highlighting the situation of Rohingya refugees in the media. The phrase ‘rights-​based journalism’ has been adopted as an approach to journalism, that tries to end social problems between groups in society (Bostanci, 2017). The purpose of rights-​based journalism is to ‘identify human rights violations and deliver news that prioritizes those rights’ (Bostanci, 2017). Given the emphasis, rights-​based journalism places on multiple perspectives of human rights violations and the many social, political, and economic issues associated with the refugees, rights-​based journalism about the Rohingya refugee crisis pressurized the Myanmar government and international communities to find a solution to the Rohingya crisis as soon as possible. The Rohingya refugee situation must be understood and handled, and this can only happen if the Rohingya refugees’ own voices are included in any reporting or publications about their plight. Ma et al (2018), for example, examined interviews given to journalists by Rohingya refugees in 2018 as potential examples of rights-​based journalism. ‘We never wanted a free nation or an autonomous country; all we wanted was to live in peace and harmony with our siblings and sisters and other ethnicities in Myanmar’, one respondent explained (Perveen, interview, 10 May). In contrast, another participant stated: ‘We just want our [identity cards] back, which we had before the government took [them] away’ (Arafah, interview, 11 May). However, speaking with Rohingya refugees reveals what they seek and what occurred to them. Without this information, the Rohingya refugee situation cannot be solved, nor justice delivered to the Rohingyas.

Data that can be depended upon For the sake of social justice for refugees, it is critical that journalists covering their predicament distinguish between facts and figures. Journalists 103

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must check the accuracy of every statistic, statistician quote, and source multiple times if necessary. It is critical to distinguish between actuality and supposition. The consequences of this line blurring are concerning. False statistics, and other false information can exacerbate the refugee situation. Methods for conducting a suitable interview: Reporters conducting interviews with refugees should keep the following issues and factors in mind and address them. Before the interview begins, the interviewee should be approached with compassion, respect, and due concern for their rights. Make sure journalists have the subject’s permission before conducting an interview or photographing the subject. Journalists who want to interview a certain person should explain not just how the interview will be done but also its possible relevance and implications. Journalists should discover as much as they can about the individual’s background and difficulties. Journalists should also look into pertinent political, social, religious, and cultural concerns, as well as criminal, civil, and administrative legislation and national and international human rights issues. When conducting an interview, one should: (a) not ask any question that could be viewed as insulting, embarrassing, negative, or controversial. (b) Make an attempt to be as genuine and pleasant as possible. (c) Prepare for the interview by studying everything you can about the interviewer. (d) Show as much empathy and concern for the person as you can; this will go a long way toward developing rapport. ‘Don’t be afraid to start the conversation with, ‘I’m sorry for your loss. While you may think the comment is banal, the victims are likely to cherish hearing them. As an extra precaution, it’s better to stick to a well-​rehearsed comment than to risk saying anything rash that might end up hurting someone’s feelings. Putting aside your doubt out of charity, on the other hand, is not the same thing. The challenge is to keep scepticism from turning into cynicism, which can lead to a lack of empathy and caring. It is prudent to give a victim the benefit of the doubt unless proven guilty (Brown, 2005). (e) Take a patient and open-​hearted listening stance. Some interviewees may become furious or disturbed while discussing a painful experience (Charteris-​Black, 2006). The press should not be tolerant of the situation. Victims frequently experience wrath, fear, denial, sorrow, frustration, and despair, but they can also exhibit unexpected reactions. Reporters should not misinterpret victims’ emotionlessness and indifference for lack of care, as these are symptoms of post-​traumatic stress disorder. Tips and techniques for conducting interviews with victims can be found in (Gill et al, 2014). 104

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(f) Do everything possible to ensure the interviewee’s anonymity, privacy, and secrecy. (g) Interviews with people in detention facilities, asylums, or hospitals must be conducted with extreme discretion. Instead of propagating hate speech or creating a negative perception of migrants, write an even-​handed, fair, and factual report following the interview. According to the European Court of Human Rights, ‘all forms of expression that spread, incite, promote, or justify racial hatred, xenophobia, anti-​Semitism, or other forms of hatred based on intolerance’, including ‘intolerance expressed by aggressive nationalism and ethnocentrism, discrimination, and hostility towards minorities, migrants, and people of immigrant origin’. How can people know the truth if journalists do not transmit it on the basis of accurate and impartial facts? A variety of credible official and NGO websites provide detailed data and statistics about migrants and refugees. If journalists want honest and balanced coverage of the refugee issue, they can contact them and use the information they offer. Criticism from Outsiders: The publication of biased, misleading, or deceptive remarks by a publication may provoke unwarranted worry and animosity towards migrants. As a result, journalists should be more cautious when citing official or government sources, including quotes from various organizations. As noted in the National Union of Journalists and UNHCR recommendations, care should be used when quoting third-​party statements and attention given to the weight attributed to them. Publishing unconfirmed charges or comments is an undesirable journalistic practice. Publishing inflammatory charges in the context of asylum concerns may instill fear and hostility that is unfounded. When referencing official or government sources, including statements from organizations that represent refugees/​ asylum seekers to ensure fair and balanced coverage. Guidelines for Journalists Reporting on Refugees (National Union of Journalists, UNHCR). Use of images: Journalists must check all photographs and captions to avoid further disruption or unjustifiable discrimination and hate toward refugees. Reporters, on the other hand, should preserve the confidentially of refugees whenever possible. If a reporter has any reservations about publishing a photograph, he or she should obtain permission from the subject before doing so. Vaughn Wallace, a former Al Jazeera photo editor, believed that journalists should exercise greater caution before adopting any photograph representing migrants. Their stories do not end just where the image is taken, he further remarked. As a result, journalists should make it a point to search out images that do more than merely highlight the subjects in the frame. Terminology: journalists describing the situation of refugees should be more careful with their terminology. Dehumanizing labels have been ascribed to 105

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refugees, including ‘illegal migrants’, ‘criminals’, ‘killers’, ‘terrorists’, and ‘drug traffickers’. More importantly, these expressions can contribute to an environment in which newcomers are treated with mistrust or hatred. The terms ‘influx’ and ‘wave’ are frequently used in media reports about Rohingya refugees. If the media continues to use terminology like ‘influx’ and ‘wave’ to describe the Rohingya refugees, the public’s opinion of them may deteriorate. Although many organizations’ codes of conduct include basic principles for journalists that may or may not address migrant or refugee issues, journalists should follow those standards when covering refugee stories. In addition, they must be aware of the legal boundaries in regard to refugee news. Empathetic reporting: Many governmental and nongovernmental groups recognize the media’s ability to evoke feelings of empathy or sympathy in communities. Reporters, regardless of their own ethnicity or religion, should present the migrants in a compassionate light. The media has numerous options to avoid ‘othering’ migrants by portraying them positively. In addition to reporting on refugees’ misery, journalists should highlight the similarities between them, potentially opening the path for greater acceptance and integration.

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Final Destinations and Policy Implications This book aims to determine how compelling Myanmar’s narratives are in justifying human rights violations. We argue that the media had a significant role in circulating narratives about the Rohingya crisis, which is the main reason for the deteriorating status of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority in Rakhine state. In turn, this hurts the ability of the Rohingya people to attract international support. In today’s political climate, the immediate nature of humanitarian crises tends to eclipse a more in-​depth interest in the complexities of a conflict’s historical roots. From the in-​depth discussion in the preceding chapters, it is clear that the Rohingya people have been portrayed as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities, while local Islamic history and the emergence of Muslim nationalism on the margins of Muslim Bengal (East Pakistan/​Bangladesh) and Buddhist Burma (Myanmar) has only recently begun to inform international understanding of the regional conflict. Therefore, our argument revolves around the fact that historical research is necessary both to understand the nature of the conflict and to safeguard against the possibility of alternate historical perspectives. It is also relevant to the continuing debate over collective images of non-​Western victims who are ‘voiceless’ and hence lack political agency. This book helps to improve understanding of the causes and drivers of identity-​based politics in Myanmar’s Rohingya population. Based on a mixed-method approach that includes a survey, key informant interviews, and numerous short case studies of persecution, the main goal of the book is to better understand the complex challenges of managing large-​scale refugee exodus in Bangladesh and how to best resolve them in the long run. By using stories from around the world regarding the Rohingyas, their refugee status, and the resulting crisis, this book aims to create discourse at the local, regional, and global levels. Humanitarian agencies have been chastised for failing to listen to refugees, particularly Rohingya women, who are sometimes unable to leave their makeshift houses. 107

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Thus, this chapter summarizes the findings and overarching conclusions presented in the book’s other chapters. The remaining sections of the conclusion draw together some of the main points and themes that emerged from the book. Based on our findings, some recommendations are presented for how new generations of Rohingyas should cope with their future and how the world should deal with them, with their return and resettlement. Also the role of the media in these circumstances is highlighted. The chapter further compiles a few key proposals and analyzes the narratives offered by the Myanmar government vis-​à-​vis the regional and international credible media outlets to test their validity. Finally, policy recommendations and their implications aimed at resolving this problem are considered.

Voices of the unheard The Rohingya people are a Muslim ethnic minority group who have lived for centuries in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar. In 788 CE, Islam reached Arakan, and since then it has enthralled Myanmar’s people. As a result, Islam had a large impact on Arakan, which was controlled by Muslims from 1430 until 1784, when the Burmese captured it. British troops did not take control of Arakan until 1824. During their reign, the British used ‘divide and rule’ tactics in Arakan, and due to this, the Buddhists developed a dislike for Rohingya Muslims, referring to them as kalas. The Arakan region was made a province of Burma in 1948 after Burma gained its independence in 1937. There have, however, been a number of major ‘operations’ by the government against Rohingyas since 1948 with the aim of damaging and destroying them. Racist attitudes toward them in the state of Arakan impede objective coverage of the humanitarian crisis there. Despite Myanmar being their place of birth, the Rohingyas are not recognized as an official ethnic group in this country. As a result of hostility towards them, many Rohingyas have been fleeing Myanmar since the 1970s. In 1982, they were denied citizenship in Myanmar, making them the world’s largest stateless population. In addition, they were denied basic rights and protection and were extremely vulnerable to exploitation, sexual and gender-​based violence, and abuse. For decades, the Rohingya people have suffered from violence, discrimination, and persecution in Myanmar. But the largest exodus began in August 2017 when a massive wave of violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, forcing more than 700,000 Rohingyas to seek refuge in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal, and other countries across the region. Entire villages were burned, thousands of families were either killed or separated, and massive human rights violations took place. Currently, around 919,000 Rohingya are living in the Kutupalong and Nayapara refugee camps in Bangladesh, 75 per cent of whom arrived during August and September 2017 (USA for UNHCR, 2022). More than half 108

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of those refugees were women and children. As Bangladesh is a Muslim-​ majority country, and the Naaf River is the only boundary between Myanmar and Bangladesh, a large number of Rohingya refugees enter Bangladesh on a regular basis (Yeasmin, 2016). About 600,000 Rohingyas stayed back under the oppressive rule in Myanmar, and they are confined to camps and villages without freedom of movement, cut off from access to adequate food, healthcare, education, and livelihoods (HRW, 2022a). The Rohingyas continue to face armed clashes, which make their survival extremely difficult. A generation is, thus, stuck in a cycle of poverty, absence of human rights, and lack of opportunity not only in Myanmar, the country they have called home, but also in countries where they took refuge (Yeasmin, 2016). Studies show that the Arakanese consider themselves to be the ‘sole original inhabitants of the area’ and claim that the Rohingyas are ‘illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who settled in the Arakan province during the British rule of Burma’ (Yeasmin, 2016: 7). In this book, we argue that it is Myanmar’s responsibility to provide safe, voluntary, and permanent resettlement for the Rohingya refugees. In light of the absence of political will and progress in Myanmar toward meeting these criteria, there is a real possibility that the refugee crisis may be a protracted one. According to credible estimates, a substantial proportion of Rohingyas will remain in Bangladesh. Myanmar and Bangladesh are engaged in discussions for the repatriation of substantial numbers of Rohingyas to Myanmar. This brings new worries and problems. Hence, it is important that the media reports on the Rohingya crisis in a factual and impartial manner. However, with regard to press freedom, Myanmar has been considered one of the worst countries (Hossain, 2020), ranking 176 out of 180 on the Press Freedom Index for 2022 (Reporters Without Borders, 2022). The authorities continue to exert pressure on the media and even intervene personally to change editorial policy. Additionally, dozens of journalists have been put in jail since the military coup in 2021 (Hossain, 2020). Though Rohingya people are Muslim, they are not Bangladeshi. That is why they face social, emotional, and political negligence from Bangladesh. Many argue that religion cannot be the only basis on which Bangladesh shows empathy (Hossain et al, 2022). Thus, the Rohingyas are being persecuted in Bangladesh also for their identity. And when it comes to Bangladesh’s turn for protection of the Rohingya refugees, the local situation and the complex structure of the Bangladesh–​Myanmar border explain in part why the Bangladeshi government has been unwilling to put in place a framework for protecting refugees (Hossain et al, 2022). For the last decade, Bangladesh’s political stability has been largely unpredictable. Following the bitterly contested 2014 national election, which ended in stalemate, Bangladesh witnessed political unrest in 2015 due to a standoff between the ruling party and the opposition. The country’s 109

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economy has been affected by strikes around the country. There is an apparent disregard for humanitarian issues in regard to the economy. Even though data compiled by the Bangladesh Ministry of Finance has tended to show that the additional number of refugees will have little influence on the country’s economy or national budget (Miazee and Kallol, 2017), issues such as domestic problems and national interest were prioritized ahead of the 2018 elections. Drug trafficking along the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar is also one of the key ways that amphetamines enter the country (Ganguly and Miliate, 2015). These refugees have been blamed for an increase in criminal activity, including the trafficking of narcotics and hazardous waste, as well as environmental degradation (Al Imran and Mian, 2014). Since they have been made a security challenge, the Rohingyas are seen as a threat to national security as well as the country’s legal and judicial system. To add, the most concerning issue is the increase in Muslim terror groups globally, and experts warn that the Rohingya Muslims might join those terror groups as fighters. Many governments, agencies, and human rights groups have labelled the Myanmar military’s actions against the Rohingya minority in Rakhine as ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’. However, the international community seems to have been reluctant to take any significant action to combat the crimes against humanity. The international community and donor organizations have undoubtedly provided humanitarian aid. However, a populous and resource-​poor country like Bangladesh cannot bear the brunt of one million refugees indefinitely. The government now has no choice but to mobilize worldwide public opinion in support of the repatriation of refugees with recognition of their citizenship and promise of a safe future, as well as the prosecution of those responsible for the atrocities committed against them. Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, in her meeting with the UN rights chief in August 2022, said that the Rohingya refugees must return home to Myanmar. However, the current situation in Myanmar is still not conducive to return. At the time of writing, five years have passed since the 2017 massacre and Bangladesh has become increasingly impatient with the huge refugee population and increasing anti-​Rohingya rhetoric and scapegoating of the community. Security has been a constant issue in the camps, with killings, kidnappings, and police dragnets targeting drug trafficking networks. Therefore, the environment in Bangladesh is getting increasingly hostile toward the Rohingya refugees. Myanmar authorities continue to impose discriminatory restrictions on Rohingyas’ right to freedom of movement, through a series of decades-​old directives. The existence of Rohingyas as an ethnic group is still denied in Rakhine state, as well as their right to a nationality. Fortify Rights produced a 102-​page report titled ‘Tools of Genocide’ in September 2019, showing how 110

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Myanmar authorities pushed and compelled Rohingyas to acquire National Verification Cards, which effectively identify Rohingyas as ‘foreigners’ and deny them full citizenship rights. Fortify Rights also documented recent violations, including forced labour and restrictions on the right to freedom of movement, as part of a larger context of genocidal acts committed by Myanmar authorities against Rohingyas, including killings, rape, and sexual violence, burning and razing homes and villages, and denying Rohingyas access to food and shelter. Since 25 August 2017, the Myanmar military has been engaged in a sweeping campaign of massacres, rapes, and arsons in northern Rakhine state, and this is ongoing. Half a decade has passed and the Rohingyas are still awaiting justice and protection of their rights. In Myanmar, no one has been held accountable for the defamation of humanity and acts of genocide committed against the Rohingya population. The year 2022 marked the fifth anniversary of the heinous crime committed in 2017, which should have prompted concerned governments to take concrete action to hold the Myanmar military to account and secure justice and safety for the Rohingyas in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and across the region (HRW, 2022). It is still necessary, however, to take action to improve the situation. While the situation has dominated global headlines for weeks, the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladeshi camps has garnered little attention in the local press. Instead, the media has focused on reports of atrocities committed by the Rohingyas in Arakan. The stories are written in such a way that the international community is unable to empathize with these people in life-​threatening situations. Narratives impact how the world perceives the Rohingya people. When we bring up the Rakhine issue, it is depicted as a religious matter from the outside. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Although the media can help raise awareness about the Rohingya refugee crisis by showcasing their voices and depicting various aspects of the current Rohingya refugee crisis, the problem remains unaddressed. Sadly, despite the fact that the Rohingya refugee crisis has captured the attention of people all over the world, the media’s representation of the Rohingya refugee crisis, like the media’s portrayal of other refugees and asylum seekers, is rather disputed. Local media has described them as criminals, burdens, and security risks in the majority of cases. The Myanmar media, on the other hand, has framed the Rohingya refugee story so that world leaders and the international community feel little sympathy for the refugees. As a result, the Rohingya refugee problem grows by the day, and the ongoing Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh produces a host of economic, social, and political issues. Thus, in Chapter 1, we provided a broad picture of how and why the Rohingyas ended up in their current condition. This chapter elaborated on Myanmar’s human rights crisis by examining the country’s history over 111

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the last thousand years, including precolonial history, upheavals, military control, WWII, and the media. An argument over how various historical events influence the theoretical continuum was also analyzed. We further highlighted the role played by ethnicity, religion, politics, and the global order (re)shaping the Rohingya crisis. In addition, this chapter explained the central argument, the underlying methodology, the analytical framework, and how the book advances the discourse. In Chapter 2, we began with the historical background of the settlement of the Rohingyas in Arakan and presented a comprehensive theory of refugees that emphasizes the importance of endogenous factors such as political and religious motivations in the context of global refugee issues and Rohingyas in particular. We followed Kunz’s (1981: 44) categorization of refugees, where he emphasizes that the majority of identifiable refugees are individuals who oppose political and social events occurring in their home countries by their fellow citizens, both those who have fled and those who stay. Refugees become disinterested in the affairs of their homeland once they have left due to discrimination against a specific ethnic group. Because they are so isolated from society, Kunz refers to these people as ‘event refugees’. The second group of refugees comprises those who have decided to leave their nation for personal reasons. Their exclusion from society is the outcome of a personal philosophy, not an active policy. The Rohingyas, however, do not appear to fit within any of these categories. They have fled their home nation owing to well-​founded fear and persecution, and they are eager to return once the situation becomes conducive. Having said that, we showed how citizenship is crucial for having legal standing, rights protection, political involvement, and a sense of self. Citizenship is an exclusionary category that justifies the oppressive authority of those who are included over those who are excluded (Ignatieff, 1987; Anderson, 2011). Our focus here was, thus, on how the Rohingyas’ loss of citizenship has altered their identity and intensified their misery. And how they have been regarded as a religious minority in their own country of birth and in what ways their identity got politicized. In this chapter, we also demonstrated how media framing had an impact on the Rohingyas in terms of the severity of the crisis. Since it provides an alternative to the ‘objectivity and bias paradigm’, media framing is crucial to understanding the broader implications of mass communication. When a conflict in Myanmar’s Rohingya region erupts between a Muslim minority and a Buddhist majority, framing goes beyond simple positive or negative connotations and encompasses complex emotional responses and cognitive dimensions, such as beliefs and attitudes (Tankard, 2001). Media portrayal of refugees influences refugee policies (Gunter, 2015; Kingsley and Timur, 2015; Somaini, 2019). 112

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The photograph of Alan Kurdi’s body, face down in the water on a Turkish beach, is an illustration of how media coverage affects refugee policies. After the photograph was published, many Europeans were sympathetic to the plight of migrants, and European views toward Syrian refugees shifted (Somaini, 2019). The study of how mass media influences public opinion has garnered a great deal of scholarly attention in recent decades. According to Johnson-​Cartee, ‘the mass potentially [has] two potential levels of effects: (1) microeffects, or those effects related to an individual; or (2) macroeffects, or those effects related to society at large’ (2005: 8). She states that the effects on the individual can be: cognitive –​‘influences on what an individual knows or is aware of ’; affective –​‘influences on how an individual emotionally responds to what is known’; or behavioural –​‘influences on how an individual acts on what is known and felt’ (Johnson-​Cartee, 2005: 8). Chapter 3 analyzed the trajectory of the Rohingya refugees. For decades, the Rohingya people have experienced persecution and daily violence in Myanmar, which is mostly Buddhist. Under a 1948 law, the Burmese government refused to grant the Rohingyas citizenship, rendering them stateless. Most Rohingyas face difficulties in obtaining a job, education, and healthcare, as well as travelling throughout the country, because they are not registered citizens, and so denied their basic rights. We also highlighted the terrible situation of the Rohingyas, who are unwanted in Myanmar and mistreated in Bangladesh. Chapter 4 explored the numerous framing patterns used to describe the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladeshi, Myanmarese, and international media. This chapter explored why and how the political economy and ideology of media influence the way the Rohingya refugee crisis is framed in the media and how multiple distorted identities of Rohingya refugees are constructed through media. Additionally, this chapter analyzed a variety of social, political, economic, cultural, racial, religious, and geopolitical elements that influence how the Rohingya refugee issue is framed in the media and how their identity is constructed through the media. Finally, this chapter discussed the aforementioned topics in order to provide a broad overview of the media’s role in representing the Rohingya refugee crisis and whether their role is escalating or intensifying the Rohingya refugee crisis. This chapter further takes a critical stance on how the political ideology of media outlets and their origins influence media content through manipulation, distortion, and bias. We believe, however, that the discussion in this chapter will raise awareness about the aforementioned issue among citizens, political parties, media organizations, governments, and journalists. As a result, world leaders will be more aware of the Rohingya refugee crisis and may press the Myanmar government to take back Rohingya by guaranteeing their safety and citizenship, improving the living conditions, and assisting the Bangladeshi government in finding a solution. As the current 113

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Rohingya refugee crisis has become an enormous burden for a developing and overpopulated country, this would surely benefit the Bangladeshi government and people.

Broken promises We believe that the media had a substantial role in disseminating narratives of the Rohingya crisis, undermining the Rohingyas’ ability to attract worldwide attention. The urgency of humanitarian crises tends to limit a deeper interest in the nuances of a conflict’s historical roots in today’s political atmosphere. The erosion of the rights of this group of the population in Rakhine state is one example. Due to the historical pieces of evidence of human rights abuses, they are often portrayed as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities. However, the international community has only recently begun to learn about the conflict through the study of local Islamic history and the emergence of Muslim nationalism on the periphery of Muslim Bengal (East Pakistan/​Bangladesh) and Buddhist Burma (Myanmar). We contend that research on past human rights abuses is crucial for comprehending the nature of the conflict and preserving the possibility of alternative historical perspectives. It is also linked to the ongoing discourse about collective representations of non-​Western victims who are ‘voiceless’ and hence lack political agency. People in today’s fast-​paced environment feel encouraged to read the news because of its easy accessibility. It is easy to find news and information with a Google search anywhere, at any time. Social media platforms, like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other feeds are constantly bombarding us with new information and trends. As a result of the abundance of information on the internet, some narratives never reach a wider audience, while others, like the Rohingya crisis, cannot be overlooked. Narratives shape how the world views the Rohingya people. Despite dominating global headlines for months and years, the plight of Rohingya Muslims in Bangladeshi camps has received little attention in the local media. Instead, the media has concentrated on the narrative of crimes they committed in Arakan and in Bangladesh. The narratives are crafted in a way that prevents the international community from empathizing with them in life-​threatening situations. When we bring up the Rohingya issue, it is portrayed as an external religious issue. This, unfortunately, is not the case. Despite the fact that the media can help increase awareness about the Rohingya refugee crisis by using their voices and showing their current crisis, the issue remains unresolved. Though this crisis has captivated the attention of people all over the world, the media’s portrayal is somewhat contested. In the majority of cases, local media has portrayed them as criminals, burdens, and security threats. In contrast, the Myanmar media has 114

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portrayed the Rohingya refugee narratives in such a way that world leaders and the international community feel little sympathy for the refugees. As a result, the Rohingya refugee problem is growing by the day, and this is causing a slew of economic, social, and political problems. Using Scheufele’s (1999) theory of frame-​building, we focus on media frames. He went into greater detail on the factors that influence the formation of media frames. In Bangladesh and China, the media seems to frame the issue as a human interest narrative, but Indian newspapers are more into highlighting security issues. The security frame portrayed the Rohingya refugees as a threat to national security, emphasizing illegal border crossing and their links with extremist groups. Given Myanmar’s lack of political will, there is a genuine risk that this crisis will last for a long time. According to reliable estimates (Daniel, 2022), a significant majority of Rohingyas will opt to remain in Bangladesh in the event of repatriation if the Myanmar government does not ensure safety and security. Though Myanmar and Bangladesh are negotiating the repatriation plans, this raises new concerns. The media has a great role here to play in an objective manner so the plans can be implemented smoothly. However, Myanmar ranks 176 out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom (Reporters Without Borders, 2022). The government continues to put pressure on the media and has sometimes intervened personally to modify editorial policies and put journalists behind bars. Racist sentiments toward Rohingya people in Arakan state prevent fair reportage of the humanitarian crisis there. The majority of Buddhists in their colonial and postcolonial host country dehumanized the Rohingya people by imposing a false identity on them based on their ethnicity and religion (Siddiquee, 2019), which is ‘Bengalis’ instead of ‘Rohingya’, in an attempt to erase their ethnic identity, and this has contributed to the widespread perception that they are illegal aliens who are not welcome in the country (Rosenthal, 2019). The discriminatory 1982 citizenship law was a crucial factor in the systematic oppression of the Rohingya people. Since then, one in every seven people without a country to call home is Rohingya (Mahmood et al, 2017; Tarabay, 2017; MacLean, 2019). More than a million individuals were excluded from the national census in 2014 because the government outlawed the category ‘Rohingya’ and replaced it with ‘those who believe in Islam in Rakhine state’ (Ferguson, 2015; Southwick, 2018; MacLean, 2019). Calling for the attention of the worldwide media to gross human rights violations in far-​flung regions of the world is a crucial step in mobilizing and moulding the opinion of the international community. We argue that the likelihood of humanitarian intervention to lower the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing violence in Myanmar rises in tandem with media coverage of the crisis. Increasing media attention could lead to a greater international effort to address the root causes of the Rohingya exodus and the launch of 115

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a range of humanitarian actions aimed at safeguarding the human rights of Rohingyas in Myanmar. In the setting of a prevalent authoritarian culture that defines Myanmar’s army, the Rohingya crisis provides an interesting instance to compare media coverage trends and how they correspond with the number of Rohingyas fleeing the country (Rosenthal, 2019). We find that increased international media reports and diplomatic pressure had no direct and long-​ lasting effect on reducing the number of Rohingya refugees or the level of brutality perpetrated on them, suggesting that the effect of global media on humanitarian aid may not have been as effective as humanitarians had hoped to deter military-​driven genocidal campaigns against the Rohingyas. Since the August 2017 events that the UN has characterized as bearing the markings of genocide (OHCHR, 2018a, 2018b), harrowing personal stories and the sheer scope of cruel human rights crimes instantly mobilized international media attention (MacLean, 2019). The New York Times online publishing soared by 408 per cent and The Guardian’s by 295 per cent as aerial photographs of burned villages and images of people walking into the horizon seeking sanctuary in neighbouring nations dominated the media. Although the Kofi Annan Foundation (2017) and the UN fact-​ finding mission have conducted official investigations on the plight of the Rohingya in Myanmar, the number of refugees fleeing the country remains stubbornly high at over 850,000 every year (OHCHR, 2018a; 2018b). However, there is little evidence to back the claim that global media coverage influences humanitarian intervention actions or any changes in the Myanmar government that would stop the causes of the crisis and reduce the number of Rohingya refugees fleeing from the violence inflicted by the Tatmadaw. The Rohingyas are a Muslim minority that has lived in Myanmar’s Rakhine state for generations. There they faced years of prejudice and violence at the hands of successive Myanmar administrations before being denied citizenship under the Burma Citizenship Law 1982. Following their persecution in 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh, India, and Malaysia. As a result, they have one of the largest numbers of stateless people in the world. In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas took shelter in overcrowded camps in southern Bangladesh, and from within the overcrowded settlements, the Rohingya people are finally finding their voice after years of having it filtered by journalists. Mojibol Kabir, a Rohingya whose family fled Myanmar before his birth in 1994, is a photographer who has documented life in the camps; he said, “the world does not know what is truly happening in the Rohingya camps. People are aware that terrible brutality has occurred, but those outside of our country have a hard time imagining our world in the wake of genocide.” Since coronavirus lockdowns made international travel and access to the camps more difficult, media coverage of the refugee problem outside of 116

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Bangladesh has dwindled. However, Islam and a large group of Rohingya photographers have stepped in. They have used their smartphones to record daily life in refugee camps throughout the pandemic, to report on breaking news such as floods and fires, and to tell cultural stories that provide context for the tragic events they have witnessed (Banik and Rahman, 2020; Ahmed, 2021).

Repatriation and international law No host country is ready to locally integrate Rohingya refugees, or any other refugees, because they feel overwhelmed by the responsibility of providing temporary refuge. Since the COVID-​19 outbreak has added to their existing domestic issues, they are even less prepared to do so. However, the quantity of available resettlement spots in the world has long fallen far short of demand. The situation has been exacerbated as a result of COVID-​19-​related border control measures being implemented around the world and the US decision under the Trump administration to severely reduce its refugee resettlement programme. Resettlement from a foreign country is seen as a double-​edged sword by the host country. They are concerned that the prospect of resettlement will bring a much larger number of refugees to their country than can be accommodated. For instance, in 2010 Bangladesh halted a scheme that had allowed for the resettlement of 920 Rohingyas to wealthy nations between 2006 and 2010. Some Rohingyas in Bangladesh remain optimistic that resettlement to third countries will happen, despite the lack of any evidence that the government has changed its position on the issue. There is no other choice but voluntary repatriation, as local integration and resettlement are not possible. As established by customary international law, a person with refugee status cannot be forcibly repatriated because it would violate the principle of nonrefoulement. The UNHCR defines voluntary repatriation as ‘the free and voluntary return to one’s country of origin in safety and dignity’. To be considered a long-​term option, the UNHCR stresses that repatriation must be feasible in the long run. The host states, however, acknowledge these values but do nothing to ensure they are upheld in practice. Even the UNHCR, which is understandably reluctant to risk its partnerships with states, does not always put its words into action. The Rohingyas have experienced these truths first-​hand. About 200,000 Rohingyas were forced to flee to Bangladesh by the Myanmar military in 1977. Most of them came back to their homeland by 1979. Roughly 300,000 Rohingya people moved to Bangladesh in 1992. Many returned home after a few years. In the first instance, in 1977, the UNHCR just observed the repatriation programme run by the government of Bangladesh; in the second, beginning in 1994, the UNHCR actively 117

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participated in the programme. Therefore, we can see that repatriation can never be a free, safe, dignified, or long-​term solution.

International support Researchers have pointed out that world leaders have been remarkably silent in response to Myanmar’s terrible human rights crimes, and they have condemned the lack of pressure that has been put on the country (Khin, 2017). The Obama administration lifted sanctions on Myanmar on 7 October 2016 when the Tatmadaw was in the midst of its clearing operations in the Rakhine state; this was ‘to support efforts by the civilian government and the people of Myanmar to continue their process of political reform and broad-​based economic growth and prosperity’ (US Department of the Treasury, 2016; see also Khin, 2017; Southwick, 2018). Furthermore, between 2016 and 2017, foreign aid and investment in Myanmar surged considerably to US$6.6 billion, with the US and Britain being among the biggest investors (Zaw, 2018). Scholars have called for visa bans and a referral of the issue to the International Criminal Court in addition to supporting the UN-​mandated global arms embargo’s ban on investment with military-​owned firms in Myanmar (Khin, 2017). Military aid to Myanmar troops tied to atrocities against the Rohingyas has been halted or decreased by the US, the UK, and the EU since October 2017 (Peel, 2017; The Guardian, 2017). However, ‘the underlying causes of the conflict in Northern Rakhine State, which range from chronic underdevelopment and growing competition over the scarce resource to institutionalized discrimination and Islamophobia’ (MacLean, 2019: 13), and these sanctions do little to address the underlying causes of the conflict (Appadurai, 2018). The lack of openness of the Myanmar administration to pressures may explain why the number of refugees has not decreased despite growing international efforts to bring an end to the catastrophe. The international response to the Rohingya crisis, which included efforts by the media and foreign humanitarian organizations, was ineffective in reducing the number of people fleeing Myanmar. Previous research has shown that signalling to the world that we are watching is unlikely to stop state-​sponsored genocides once they have already begun. This is because the perpetrators will have already assessed the international context and decided that they can commit genocide without fear of repercussions (Krain, 2005; Grbich, 2007). For instance, the Myanmar army may have interpreted the precipitous drop in foreign media coverage of the situation in 2016 as a sign that the international community no longer cared about the crimes being committed in Myanmar. An important question that this finding raise is whether or if a steady increase in worldwide media coverage and pressure beginning in 2015 might have affected the outcome in 2017 and affected the decision to intervene. 118

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Although research on the causes and effects of humanitarian interventions to end genocides is still scant, one recent study reveals that direct challenges to the government are the most effective military response to slow or halt state-​ sponsored genocides (Krain, 2005). The genocidal mission of Myanmar’s military rulers was also unaffected by nonmilitary countermeasures, including media coverage and campaigns by relief organizations. Scholars have discovered that while interventions can reduce the length of a conflict, they can also encourage the perpetrators to accelerate their genocidal policies during the remaining time. This tendency may be seen in Myanmar, where the government’s overt military mission of ethnic cleansing began in 2015 but significantly grew in intensity between 2017 and 2018 in response to increasing international pressure and interest. To stop the atrocities being committed against the Rohingyas in Myanmar, future policy should aim to directly constrain or disarm the military and remove them from power (Krain, 2005). Over time, Western depictions of refugees have changed. It was not until after WWII that ‘the refugee’ became ‘a specific social category and legal concern of global dimensions’ (Malkki, 1995: 497–​8). Three patterns have impacted how refugees are seen in the West (Johnson, 2011). There has been a steady escalation in the racialization, victimization, and feminization of displaced persons. The ‘picture of hordes of people became iconic of the refugee condition’ when the Cold War changed the public’s perception of refugees from courageous anti-​Communist individuals fleeing political oppression (Johnson, 2011: 1027). This trend toward generalization has consequential results, as it leaves viewers unable to ‘see faces, actual persons’, due to the lack of specific information about the victims; we only see faceless crowds. We are dealing with an impersonal and intangible political issue (Bleiker et al, 2013: 411). Several critiques address the preponderance of refugee women and children in media portrayals as reinforcing paternalistic colonial ideals of innocence, dependence, and protection (Dogra, 2003; Manzo, 2008; Dogra et al, 2009; Bleiker et al, 2013). For many refugees, the experience of being a victim of persecution leaves them unable to express themselves (Malkki, 1996; Bauman, 2002; Rajaram, 2002). Nyers points out that ‘the refugee’ is produced through a sequence of ontological omissions’; elements taken for granted in representations of citizens –​‘visibility, agency and rational speech’ –​are absent in refugees (2006: 3). According to Brooten and Verbruggen (2017), Reuters failed to cover the efforts of local organizations in Myanmar to end violence against the Rohingya people. However, despite their obvious complicity in the crisis, Reuters did not mention the role of transnational economic and political factors. These similar problems were also discovered by Brooten et al (2015) in coverage by The New York Times. According to their research, whereas traditional media outlets were constrained by ‘commercial news gatekeepers 119

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and approved, hegemonic kinds of “objective” journalism’, social media platforms were able to respond more freely to the situation (Brooten et al, 2015: 732). Coverage by the nonprofit cooperative Inter Press Service was more complex than that of Facebook and The New York Times. The Inter Press Service contextualized the violence in Myanmar against its minority ethnic groups against a historical backdrop of militarization and structural violence and global economic tendencies. The Inter Press Service highlighted the vital role played by local agencies in the fight against violence (Brooten et al, 2015). Humanitarianism has been criticized in several ways, and one of these is the way it tends to apply an ‘emergency imaginary’ to times of crisis (Calhoun, 2004, 2008, 2010). Humanitarian crises are portrayed in the imaginary as ‘apparently unexpected, unpredictable, and short-​term bursts of pain’, removing them from their historical and cultural contexts (Calhoun, 2010: 54). This mutes responsibility and inhibits Western complicity criticism. Because of this, the voices of those who are actually experiencing the effects of the imaginary’s silence are stifled (Calhoun, 2004: 384). Several other academics have also pointed out the significance of contextual approaches Dogra et al, 2009 ; Chouliaraki, 2017). There is still a fairly defined role for reporters to play in terms of their framing (Sida, 2018). It is important that historical and cultural contexts are maintained whenever possible in representations. During times of political mobilization or election campaigns, ‘false news’ is frequently spread with the goal of stoking hatred and division in Southeast Asia. Scholar from Singapore, James Gomez (2010), identifies four distinct forms of hate speech prevalent in Southeast Asia. First, there is religious and ethnically motivated hate speech, which tends to be more prevalent in countries with a high number of different religions and cultures. Second is the use of derogatory language toward international students, temporary employees, and refugees. Third, there is political ideology-​based hate speech, which is often aimed at those who oppose the system. The fourth is anti-​ LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) and anti-​female rhetoric. Together with Myanmar’s situation, is not just political philosophy and ideals that are mixed in with ethnic and religious bigotry. People in Myanmar still rely on print media due to poor access to social media. Five daily newspapers are published by the government. Myanma Alinn is the main government propaganda daily newspaper and the longest-​running newspaper in circulation in the country. People in the upper strata read it, especially the elderly and the well educated. Kyemon, the country’s second-​ largest paper, focuses more on human interest articles. The Yadanabon is a more regional publication concentrating on events and news in the Mandalay and Upper Myanmar areas. Myawady Daily was first published in 2011 and is owned by the military. Finally, Myanma Alinn’s sister publication, the 120

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English-​language Global New Light of Myanmar, is also a propaganda daily that primarily targets foreigners living in Myanmar (Kironska and Peng, 2021).

Different tales to tell: narratives from different media houses Elahi (2013) shows that many journalists engage in corrupt behaviour and have low ethical standards. Elahi goes on to say that ‘certain journalists and certain segments of the media imposed self-​censorship due to journalists’ and editors’ personal political bias or the media owner’s political affiliation’ (2013: 192). Since wealthy businesspeople and politicians control most newspapers, their coverage of politics is slanted (Riaz and Rahman, 2016). The government of Bangladesh abolished the state-​control trust in the late 1990s. It also ended the government’s decade-​long monopoly on newspapers by shutting down all state-​owned publications. According to Mahmud, ‘corpo-​politicization’ takes place when business conglomerates enter the print media, despite the appearance that this is a depoliticization of state ownership (2013: 44). Some studies have examined the similarities and differences in how media in various countries frame narratives. Media coverage of the Rohingya crisis has been discussed by, for instance, Afzal (2016), who looked at how the British and Pakistani press framed the crisis. Islam (2018) analyzed how Bangladeshi, Indian, and Chinese press framed the Rohingya problem (Islam, 2018). The Daily Star, the most widely read English newspaper in Bangladesh, has been criticized for how it has portrayed the Rohingya refugee issue (Ubayasiri, 2019). It’s worth noting that Afzal’s (2016) piece was published before the current crisis escalated. None of the pieces we saw differentiated between the format and ideology of media outlets when discussing the framing of the Rohingyas through time or showed how different frames were used at different times. Recent studies have confirmed the widespread consensus that Right-​wing media outlets are unsupportive of migrants and refugees (Delanty, 2008; Khan, 2012). However, the contrary is true in the case of the Rohingya issue. Two conservative newspapers, Inqilab and Naya Diganta, maintained a consistent tone of support for the refugees throughout the crisis. The majority of the coverage from these outlets is pro-​Rohingya, and they consistently avoid portraying the Rohingyas as an economic burden or the cause of any other problems in Bangladesh. Instead, Right-​wing media often presents narratives in terms of Muslim solidarity, brotherhood, togetherness, and the relief of other Muslims in trouble. Interesting to note is that both newspapers refer to the Rohingya people as ‘Rohingya Muslim’ in all of their coverage, whereas other publications merely use the term ‘Rohingya’. Right-​wing newspapers 121

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are persistent in their efforts to inform readers about the Rohingya people’s religious background. Right-​wing media outlets also frequently mischaracterize the violence against the Rohingyas as religious rather than ethnic. It is important to note that the Rohingya people have been persecuted for more than just their religion. Muslims in Myanmar are not exclusively Rohingya, and they do not experience the same discrimination (Ware and Laoutides, 2018). One possible way to learn why conservative media outlets are sympathetic to the Rohingyas is to speak with the journalists who work there. But this wasn’t possible with the data we had or the methods we were using. In our opinion, the fundamental reason is that both Rohingya and Right-​ wing Muslim newspapers are based on the same religious belief system. Therefore, the publications felt compelled to help their Muslim neighbours in need. Furthermore, Right-​wing Muslim media in Bangladesh are strongly influenced by political Islam, whose central ideology is pan-​Islamism. Muslims across the board, including Rohingyas, adhere to this ideology. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey and a major figure in political Islam, has spoken out strongly in defence of the Rohingya people (Barut, 2017). Bangladesh boasts a thriving media landscape, particularly in terms of the sheer volume of its publications. Academics, however, frequently raise concerns about the standard of reporting in the country. In 2017, there were 2,320 newspapers, 1,781 online news sites, 72 radio stations, and 43 television channels in Bangladesh. According to the report, there are 17,300 journalists in Bangladesh that are part of a professional union (El Bour et al, 2017). It is also interesting to see how the Rohingyas have been framed in Bangladeshi media. At the outset of the crisis, Bangladeshi newspapers took a largely positive stance toward the Rohingyas to cast them as victims and the Myanmar military and administration as villains. The persecution of the Rohingyas by the Myanmar military was the primary focus of media coverage at the time. The same Rohingyas, however, appeared to be cast in a villainous light by the Bangladeshi media after only a couple of months. In the middle of 2019, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh began receiving a lot of unfavourable attention from the local media to paint Rohingyas as criminals, drug dealers, and security risks (Shishir, 2019). The policy of the Bangladeshi government toward the Rohingyas has changed throughout the same time period as the shift in media coverage. Quotes from Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are the clearest examples of this. While speaking to reporters on 1 October 2017, Sheikh Hasina declared, ‘If required, citizens of Bangladesh would eat one meal to feed Rohingya refugees’ (Dhaka Tribune, 2017). On 11 November 2019, after two years of silence, the prime minister declared the Rohingyas to be a ‘threat to the security’ of the entire region (The Times of India, 2019). 122

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Then, after three years, in August 2022, she demanded their repatriation to Myanmar (Al Jazeera, 2022a). The role of reporting on migration crises has been substantially researched (King and Wood, 2001; Wright, 2002, 2004), and hence and there is a rapidly expanding body of literature on the current crisis (Berry et al, 2015; Malafouri, 2015; Georgiou and Zaborowski, 2016; Giannakopoulos and Anagnostopoulos 2016; Chouliaraki, 2017). Visual analysis, like more general studies of the media’s portrayal of migration (such as Van Dijk, 1991), defines the refugee as a fundamentally ambivalent media character. The refugee is seen as both a victim of geopolitical strife and a threat to the established national order and so is to be kept out of ‘our’ community for both of these reasons (Nyers, 1999; Moore et al, 2012). The critical literature on refugee iconography focuses on the refugee’s symbolic volatility, which can suddenly shift from hapless victims to evildoing terrorists. According to the theory, to the extent that the refugee is caught between these two worlds, media visualities are impacted by persistent orientalism that perpetuates stale colonial clichés in images of today’s nomadic peoples (Malkki, 1996). This conceptual typology is founded on the idea that the empirically supported patterns it identifies exist in a state of tension with theory since they do not reflect a ‘universal’ sense of responsibility while also not being wholly random outliers (Chouliaraki and Stolic, 2017). This image serves as an archetypal illustration of the visual strategies frequently employed to dehumanize, infantilize, or generalize refugees. It can be utilized to comprehend the greater logic of news representation. Inspired by (Chouliaraki and Stolic, 2017), we have followed the taxonomical breakdown of Rohingya visibility yielding five distinct regimes, which add to the current literature by challenging the historical motifs of refugee representation, victimhood, and threat. Visibility as biological life: Images of migrants in refugee camps as a ‘mass of unfortunates’ situate them inside a visual regime of biological life, a realm of representation that reduces their existence to that of a body and its demands (Boltanski, 1999). People are frequently reduced to an ‘anthropological minimum’ (Mehta, 1990: 429) due to their biological subjectivity, in which they are fully dependent on Western emergency relief or rescue attempts to survive, rendering them helpless and voiceless. This visibility regime might be characterized as ‘biopolitical’ in the sense that it shows refugees as ‘living substances’ to be handled and as ‘subject to the humanitarian generosity of the West’ (Vaughan-​Williams, 2015: 96). The dehumanization of these bodies is a result of the very power relations that claim to sustain them as human bodies in the first place, despite the fact that they are deeply political in the sense that they emerge at the intersection of corporeal and geopolitical power relations between the West and the Global South (Ticktin, 2011). 123

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Visibility as empathy: The regime of empathy, in contrast to the biological world, gives more weight to personal, up-​close images of people doing important things for one other, such as a mother comforting her wailing newborn or a rescue worker saving lives. Unlike the former regime’s massification, which adopted a distant point of view and failed to take into account individuals’ distinct personalities, the individuation approach takes a more personal attitude and may provide a more nuanced picture of refugees. The child’s face stands out as a symbol of the unique visualities of compassion (Burman, 1994). Visibility as a threat: After the Paris attacks in November 2015, images of migrants in their thousands wandering along highways along the Balkan route or crammed into rescue boats became increasingly common, as did images of angry young men wearing balaclavas and taking part in riot situations. The regime of threat is distinct from the preceding two in that it thematizes not empathy but fear –​specifically, the worry that ‘our’ social order is disturbed by racial and cultural ‘others’. This regime is characterized by massification, as in biological life, and singularization, as in victimhood (Gale, 2004). Visibility as hospitality: Images from September 2015’s ‘Refugees Welcome’ demonstrations in several European countries are included in this visual regime. They show large groups of people walking through city centres while carrying placates and banners reading things like ‘refugees welcome here’, ‘refugees are human beings’, ‘allow them in’, ‘be human’, ‘20.000? Are you kidding?’ Hospitality, understood as ‘welcoming the other in one’s space, with or without expectation of reciprocity’, is shown by such visuals of concerted action (Silverstone, 2002). Visibility as self-​reflexivity: Both celebrity altruism, with its ‘show business’ style, and social media graphics, with their fun reflexivity, contribute visuals to this regime of publicity. The former kind features well-​known actors and actresses –​like Angelina Jolie, Vanessa Redgrave, and Susan Sarandon –​ showing their support for migrants. These tend to feature the celebrity in question hugging, helping, or conversing with refugees in refugee camps or on beaches. Images like these use the representation of co-​presence to shift attention and focus from the well known and powerful to the nameless and powerless in the hopes of drawing attention to their plight and gaining support for their cause (Sandvik, 2010).

Contribution to knowledge This crisis is not an isolated one: For decades, many Rohingya families have moved from Bengal (an area that covers parts of India and Bangladesh) and settled in largely Buddhist Myanmar. They have lived in Rakhine state for generations, but the government has never recognized or awarded their citizenship. They constitute the vast majority of the world’s undocumented 124

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population. Rohingya people suffer in terrible poverty and are denied social and economic possibilities since they are not legally recognized as citizens or permanent residents. In recent decades, violence against the Rohingyas (especially females) has resulted in multiple mass displacements in 1978, 1991–​92, 2012, and 2016. Many Rohingyas have lived in regions like Cox’s Bazar for decades. However, the most recent and widespread crisis began in August 2017 due to a surge in violence. The number does not stop: Approximately 700,000 Rohingya people fled to neighbouring Bangladesh in the first few weeks after the violence in Rakhine state erupted in 2017, making difficult and sometimes lethal journeys along the way. On 25 August, the area had already housed around 200,000 Rohingya refugees. According to World Health Organization forecasts, there would be more than 925,000 Rohingya residents in Cox’s Bazar in July 2022. Nonetheless, the Rohingyas have not only fled to this place because they are being persecuted. Over 90,000 people are said to have fled to Thailand, and another 20,000 are said to have fled to India. Smaller groups have moved to neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and Nepal. According to the UNHCR, another 1.1 million Rohingyas have been internally displaced within Myanmar. The situation in Bangladesh has only gotten harder: Because of the deepening crisis, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are in a state of emergency. Most refugee camps in and around Cox’s Bazar were built on sandy hills that were soon levelled in response to the huge evacuation of Rohingyas in 2017. Since then, these squatter settlements have been plagued by flooding and landslides. Shelters were built of bamboo and tarps; bricks and concrete were not permitted. Several houses have collapsed, exposing the residents to more vulnerabilities. The weather is a major issue, especially in April, when Bangladesh’s primary cyclone season begins, and the Rohingyas are particularly vulnerable. Aside from the threats posed by high winds to makeshift shelters, a lack of access to clean water and sanitary facilities during these rainy seasons can increase the prevalence of waterborne infections in overcrowded camps. The elderly and children are particularly vulnerable. Bangladesh has its monsoon season, which lasts from July to October and causes similar problems. Bangladesh struggles for solutions to the crisis: The efforts of the host society to preserve its own sense of pride, stability, and health in the face of a refugee crisis are often downplayed in media coverage of such crises. The large influx of new residents has had a profound effect on daily life in the area. Increased animosity between refugees and the host population is a direct outcome of the great socioeconomic and environmental burden. Despite the government’s best efforts, Bangladesh is feeling the effects of the influx as local resources are diverted to the relief effort. Incomes fall as prices of goods and services are pushed up, and the wages of workers are pushed down. 125

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The crisis in Myanmar leaves no end in sight: Eventually, repatriation can bring an end to the refugee crisis. However, how to get there in the context of the Rohingya catastrophe is muddled. The Rohingyas do not think the conditions in Myanmar are right for them to return at this time. Unless the situation in Myanmar changes, returning there would be incredibly dangerous. Increased political and social unrest in Myanmar since February 2021 has further hampered efforts to find a peaceful solution. The UN Special Envoy reported in 2021 that about 25 per cent of the population of Myanmar needed humanitarian assistance due to the deteriorating circumstances. Sustainable solutions for the Rohingya people must be embedded into the architecture of a peaceful, inclusive, and democratic Myanmar. We realized that there is rarely any work that addresses media issues in the context of the Rohingyas’ rights and media coverage. This study contributes to a better understanding of the causes and drivers of identity-​based politics in Myanmar’s Rohingya community. The purpose of the book is to better understand the complex issues of handling large-​scale refugee exodus in Bangladesh and how to best address them in the long run, and attempts to promote dialogue at the local, regional, and global levels by using the narratives from throughout the world about the Rohingyas, their refugee status, and the consequent situation. Humanitarian organizations have been reprimanded for neglecting to listen to refugees, particularly Rohingya women, who are unable to leave their makeshift homes at times. Despite the fact that the media plays an important role in raising awareness about the Rohingya refugee issue by featuring the voices of Rohingya refugees and exposing various facets of the current Rohingya refugee crisis, the situation remains unresolved. Unfortunately, the media portrayal of the Rohingya refugee crisis is polarizing. In most cases, they are characterized as criminals, burdens, and security hazards in local media. Myanmar’s media, on the other hand, fabricated information concerning Rohingya refugees, leaving world leaders and the international community cold. As a result, the Rohingya refugee crisis worsens by the day, causing a host of economic, social, and political issues across Bangladesh. At one time, we realized that there is rarely work that addresses media difficulties in problematizing the complete spectrum of Rohingya rights and media positions. In the newspaper articles, the following frames were identified: victim, intruder, responsibility, administrative, and return home. According to the data, Bangladeshi media are more likely to employ the victim frame, whereas Indian publications are more likely to employ the intruder frame. We believe that the media and the Rohingya voice were underrepresented in teaching and research materials. This will be a brand-​ new piece, with nothing like it previously appearing.

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161

Index A accountability for past atrocities  22, 111 accuracy of reporting  104–​5 Advisory Commission on Rakhine State  37, 68 Afzal, N.  42, 75, 96, 101, 121 Al Jazeera  14, 15, 57–​8, 58, 76, 123 Alam, J.  31 Aliran Monthly  97 American media  see United States Amnesty International  51, 64, 99 ‘Amnesty International effect’  87 Anan, Kofi  37 ‘anayathu’  17 ancestry  6, 37, 46, 47, 61 Anglo-​Burmese Wars  8, 8–​9, 18 anthropological minimum  123 anthropology  45 anti-​Buddhist majority framings  75, 101 antiriot forces  20 anti-​Rohingya propaganda  51, 110 antisocial behaviours  58 see also criminal frames Arabic news sources  41 Arabs  5 Arakan  colonial period  9, 108 history  5–​13 history of Rohingyas  16 Islam  26 names of  7, 26 see also Rakhine state Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army  88 Arendt, H.  30 armed Rohingya organizations  88 arms embargoes  89–​90, 118 army service  48 arson  21, 111 see also burning of homes assassinations of Myanmar security by Rohingya militants  11 “associate” citizens  47 asylum discourses  73–​4, 74 Aung San Suu Kyi  7, 38, 48–​9, 78

Australia  85, 97 Australian media  74–​5 authoritarian governments  86, 116 Awami League  58, 61, 62 Awan, N.A.  75 Awny, M.  77–​8 Ayeyarwady  17 B Bachelet, M.  14 Bainbridge, W.S.  46 Baker, P.  38 Bangladesh  agreement with Myanmar  44, 68 attitude to Rohingya refugees  57–​8, 59 contribution to knowledge  125–​6 domestic politics  61 exoduses to  4, 5 history  9, 10 lack of policy/​structures regarding refugees  13–​14 media depictions of refugees  63 as Muslim country  58–​9, 67, 109 Muslim migration to generally  16 in Myanmar media  77 resettlement  117 rise of Muslim nationalism  12 struggle of Rohingya in  68–​9 unstable politics  13, 109–​10 see also refugee camps; refugee migrations Bangladesh media  75, 76, 77, 78, 85–​7, 92, 121, 122 Bangladeshi language  59 see also Chittagong language Bari Cholo (Let’s Go Home)  60 ‘Barmaiya’  82 Barth, F.  44, 45 Bateson, G.  39, 40 BBC  76 Belgian press  73 Bengal-​Burma migration  9 ‘Bengali’ classification  11, 25, 72, 115 Bengali language  59, 67 Bengalis  5 Betts, A.  24, 27

162

INDEX

Bhasan Char  60 Bhaumik, Subir  58 bilateral agreements  11 biopolitics  83, 123 birth, place of  32 boats  88 Boesman, J.  39 Boltanski, L.  123 Border Guard Force  54, 58 borders  closed  84 and forced displacement  25 geopolitics  61–​2 Myanmar-​Bangladesh  13, 84, 109 NaSaKa/​ Nay-​Sat-​Kut-​Kwey Ye  20 Bose, T.  73 Bosnian War  87 Bostanci, M.  103 British East India Company  8–​9 British media  see UK media British period  6, 8–​9, 18, 26, 28–​9, 32, 34–​5, 43, 108 Brooten, L.  41, 76, 85, 92, 93, 96, 119 Buchanan, F.  6 Buddenbaum, J.M.  64 Buddhism  5, 16–​17, 49, 67, 96 ‘Burma,’ name of  5 Burma Broadcasting Service  6, 10 Burma Citizenship Law 1982  3, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 44, 47–​50, 67, 115

Burma Socialist Programme Party  6 Burma Territorial Force  10 Burmese language  7, 67 Burmese media  see Myanmar media burning of homes  2, 21, 75, 88, 108, 111 business interests  48 Buthidaung  32, 47 C Calhoun, C.  120 Cambodia  18 camps  see refugee camps Canadian media  75 Canefe, N.  67, 68 capitalism  25 case study methods  3–​4 celebrity altruism  124 censorship  87, 121 census  11, 29, 43, 115 Chan, A.  6, 8 Charney, J.  5 Chattoraj, D.  4, 6, 11, 15, 26, 37, 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 57, 58, 67, 68, 80, 82, 88 checkpoints  21, 59 child labour  55 China  14, 37, 61, 73, 84, 91 China–​Myanmar Economic Corridor  61 Chinese media  75, 86, 92, 95, 99, 115, 121 Chittagong  5, 8, 9

163

THE UNHEARD STORIES OF THE ROHINGYAS

Chittagong language  7, 47–​8, 67 Chomsky, N.  93–​4 Cissel, M.  41 cities  17 citizen journalism  117 citizenship  as collective good  34 consequences of denial  48 denial of  48, 72, 111 dispossession of  67 exclusion/​inclusion  112 history of Myanmar  32 history of Rohingyas’  4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 19 as identity  29–​31, 112 resolution of  68 versus statelessness  46–​53 theories of Rohingya genesis  26 Citizenship Law (1982)  3, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 35, 44, 47–​50, 67, 115 civic nationalism  35–​6 civil liberties  54, 72 civil rights  30, 54 civil society organizations  97 civilization in Myanmar  16–​22 clearance operations  11 see also ethnic cleansing; massacres climate change  66 ‘CNN effect’  87 codes of journalists’ ethics  102, 106 colonialism  6, 8–​9, 28–​9, 32, 34, 34–​5, 108 confidentiality  105 conflict framing  75, 92 conflict theory  32 consent  104 Constitution (of Myanmar, 2008)  31 Constitution of the Union of Burma (1947)  34, 37, 72 constitutional rights, revocation of  10 constitutions (Burma/​Myanmar)  31, 34, 47 constructionism  70 constructivism  36 content analysis  95 contextual reporting  103, 120 contribution to knowledge  124–​6 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide  15, 21 Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)  97 conversion of Muslims to Buddhism  49 corpo-​politicization  87, 121 corporate land grabs  48 corrupt journalism  121 Cottle, S.  70 Council State  48 COVID-​19  52–​3, 64, 69, 78–​9, 80, 116, 117 Cox, Captain Hiram  8 Cox’s Bazar  8, 10, 55, 56, 57, 59, 64, 67, 68, 69, 79, 125

‘creeping apartheid’  53 crimes against humanity  14, 54, 60, 84, 110 criminal activity, refugees blamed for  13, 63 criminal frames  76, 78–​9, 97, 110, 114, 122 critical discourse analysis  77, 93, 100 culture  in definition of ethnicity  44 and religion  46 Rohingya-​Bangladeshi similarities  57, 61 curfews  59 customs  20 D Daily Inqilab, The  64 Daily Star, The  79, 92, 93, 121 danger frames  64, 82, 95 see also security frames; threat frames data, reliable  103–​6 David, S.  36 deaths during migration  10 dehumanization  40, 82, 103, 105–​6, 115, 119, 123 Delgado, N.  82 democracy  86, 92, 94 democratization  38 depoliticization  82–​3, 87, 103, 121 deportations  9, 68, 74, 84, 97 derogatory names  71–​2 developmental projects  67, 84 Dimitrova, D.  73 diplomatic/​consular channels  58 disease  52–​3, 57, 78–​9, 97 disease-​carrier frames  80–​3 disinformation  51, 104–​5 displacement, as concept  65–​6 dispossession, as concept  66–​8 DiStaso, M.W.  98 ‘divide and rule’  9, 26, 108 domestic violence  55 Downing, J.D.  95 drug trafficking  13, 14, 84, 110 Dussich, J.P.J.  3 E East India Company  8–​9 East Pakistan  10, 12 economic migrants  53, 74 editorial decision-​making  38, 75–​6, 80, 96, 121 education  and citizenship  33 closure of schools  59 in refugee camps  56–​7 restrictions on  59, 69, 85 right to  56, 60 Ehmer, E.A.  41–​2, 91, 92 El Bour, H.  76, 87, 122 Elahi, M.  87, 121 elections  13, 48 see also voting rights

164

INDEX

elites in media  93, 121 ‘emergency imaginary’  120 Emergency Immigration Act (1974)  32, 33 emergency state  125 emotional appeals  2, 24, 82–​3, 96, 97, 103, 113 empathetic reporting  106, 124 encroached forestry  54 English language  86, 121 Entman, R.M.  39, 40, 41, 71, 94 environmental refugees  66 Erdoğan, Recep Tayyip  122 ethnic cleansing  21st century refugee migrations  68, 73 ‘creeping apartheid’  53 history of Rohingyas  14, 15, 47, 58 media frames  41 naming Myanmar’s actions as  110, 119 theories of Rohingya genesis  26–​7 ethnic discrimination  19, 29, 30, 31, 47, 72, 120 ethnic identity  19, 44–​5, 115 ethnic minorities  33–​4 ethnic nationalism  35, 35–​6 ethnic origins of Rohingyas  5, 7 ethnicity  44–​5 EU  84, 85, 89, 118 Eurocentricity  70 European Court of Human Rights  105 European Federation of Journalists  102 European migrants  66 exaggeration of problems in media  85 exile  47 extortion  21 extremism  37, 58, 75, 78, 93 F Facebook  51, 92, 114, 120 faith in experts  37 fake news  45, 104, 120 faked pictures  25 false information  104, 120 fencing  60, 69, 80 Firingis  8 Fishman, M.  98 forced labor  20, 21, 48, 51 forced migration  25, 27, 50–​1, 60, 65–​6 foreign investment  89, 92, 118 foreign policy  85, 91, 93 Foreign Registration Cards  33 ‘foreigner’ designation  111 forests, living in  54 Fortify Rights  21, 54, 88, 110–​11 frame-​building, theory of  2, 115 framing  contextual reporting  120 cross-​country comparisons  83–​102, 121 definition  39–​40, 112 international community  83–​102

as media strategy  38, 42, 71 political framing  45 refugee portrayal in the media  38–​9, 40–​1, 73–​9 of Rohingya crisis  71–​3 Rohingya refugees in the global media  79–​83 freedom of movement  7, 21, 49, 53, 57, 59, 60, 85, 110 freedom restrictions  20, 21, 49 Funan  18 Fursich, E.  70 G Gamson, W.A.  71 gang rape  48 Gans, H.  98, 99 gatekeepers  119 Geertz, C.  45 gender norms  55 genocide  1942  9 calls for recognition  64 definition  15 humanitarian organizations  119 investigation for  54 labelling of actions as  14, 51 lack of accountability for  111 media role in deterrence  88 naming Myanmar’s actions as  110 ongoing  21–​2 role of international community  90 slow-​burning genocide  26 UN classification of  89, 116 geopolitics  14, 27, 61–​2, 83, 90–​1, 92, 103, 109, 123 Gitlin, T.  41, 71 global media  79–​83 Global New Light of Myanmar  41, 121 global order  46 globalization  36 Gomez, James  120 Gray, D.D.  5 Guardian, The  79, 88–​9 Guthrie, S.E.  45, 46 H Haas, Peter  84–​5 Hall, J.S.  69, 70 Halliday, M.A.K.  100, 101 Harmads  8 Hasina, Sheikh  14, 57, 64, 110, 122–​3 hate speech  51, 102, 105, 120 headlines  99–​102 healthcare  21, 56, 57, 60, 64, 79 helplessness frames  81, 92 Herman, E.S.  93–​4 Hinduism  17 historical research, importance of  1

165

THE UNHEARD STORIES OF THE ROHINGYAS

history of Myanmar  16–​22 history of Rohingyas  4–​13, 111–​12, 125 Hoewe, J.  74 home searches  55 ‘homecoming’ frames  74 homelessness  57 Hosain, S.  42 hospitality  124 Hossain, S.  42 host communities, impact of refugees on  52, 58, 63, 67, 75, 83, 97 human interest frames  75, 92, 93, 115 Human Rights Council  59 human rights investigators  54 human rights organizations  87, 97–​8, 99 human rights theory  32 human rights violations  forced migration  27 history of Rohingyas  19, 20, 32, 47, 53, 57, 58 human interest framing in media  75 international community  89 long history of  47 media influence  88 rights-​based journalism  103 Rohingyas as persecuted minorities  114 Human Rights Watch (HRW)  6, 14, 19, 22, 59, 60, 69, 84–​5, 91, 99, 101–​2, 109 human trafficking  84 humanitarian agencies/​organizations  12, 13, 51, 126 humanitarian aid  deserved by both Bangladeshi and Rohingya poor  82 international community  14, 118 lack of access  91 media influence  87–​8 Rohingya refugees in the global media  80, 84–​5 role of global media  115–​16 humanitarianism  120 humanizing frames  41, 64 Huq, Syed Anisul  58 Hynie, M.  82 I Ibrahim, A.  72 iconography  123 identification cards ‘white cards’  11, 21, 33 identity  and citizenship  29–​31, 112 politicization of  35–​7 Rohingya identity  34–​5 Rohingya identity as symbol of struggle for rights  31 identity cards  19, 32, 33, 49 identity documentation  72 ideological stances  33–​4, 45, 65, 74–​5, 100, 113, 120

illegal immigrants, Rohingya as  25, 26, 29, 53–​4, 67, 75, 77, 93, 109 illiteracy  7, 76 images  88, 105, 124 immigration officers  20 immigration policy, influence of media on  92 imperialism  32 imprisonments  21, 56 improving the role of the media  101–​2 independence (Burma)  10, 26, 28, 34, 65 Independent International Fact-​Finding Mission on Myanmar  54 India  closed borders  84 geopolitics  61, 73 position on Rohingya refugees  84 refugees in  9, 67, 125 support to Myanmar  14 Indian media  75, 77–​8, 86, 92, 121 Indonesia  93, 125 ‘influx’/​’flood’/​’wave’ frames  82, 106 information blackouts  51–​2 inhuman treatment frames  79 Inqilab  121 instrumentalism  36 insurgents  48, 49 Inter Press Service  41, 92, 96, 120 internally displaced people  51, 72 international community  2, 12, 37–​41, 58, 64, 83–​102, 111, 113, 118–​21 International Court of Justice  51, 91 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights  56 International Criminal Court  14, 90, 118 international law  46, 117–​18 international news agencies  98 International Organization for Migration,  25, 99 international refugee laws  97, 101 international relations  25, 36 International State Crime Institute  49 interview methods (journalism)  104–​5 interview methods (research)  3–​4 intruder frames  73 invader frames  78, 82 investment in Rakhine  61–​2, 89, 92, 118 Iran  9 Islam  5, 26, 64, 67 Islam, M.  13, 75, 86, 92, 121 Islamic states  6 Islamist extremism  37, 58 Islamist groups in Bangladeshi politics  61–​2 Islamophobia  37, 88, 89, 118 Israeli media  74 Isti’anah, A.  77, 92, 93, 99, 100 J Jamaat-​e-​Islami  61 Japan  6, 9, 14, 28, 48, 95

166

INDEX

Jinnah, Muhammad Ali  9 Johnson, H.L.  119 Johnson-​Cartee, K.S.  71, 113 Joint Response Plan for the Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis in Bangladesh (2022)  84–​5 journalism  codes of journalists’ ethics  102, 106 editorial decision-​making  38, 75–​6, 80, 96, 121 improving  101–​2, 103 journalism-​source relationship  98 press freedom  53, 109, 115 quality of journalism  86–​7, 92, 97, 121–​4 reporting standards  101–​2 rights-​based journalism  103 K Kabir, M.  116 Kachin  6 kala  72 Kaladan Multi-​Modal Transit Transport Project  61 Kaman Muslims/​Myanmar Muslims  6–​7 Kanaker, O.  76 Karen  6 Kaur, K.  96, 97 ‘King Dragon’/​Naga Min  10, 26, 43 Kinnvall, C.  36 Kofi Annan Foundations  89, 116 Korea  48 Kothari, A.  42, 91, 92 Krain, M.  90, 119 Krishnaswami, A.  33 Kunz, E.F.  27–​8, 112 Kurdi, Alan  113 Kutupalong camp  56, 72–​3, 108 Kyemon  120 L labor exploitation  25 see also forced labor Lae Phyu Pya Myo Myint  17 Lambrecht, C.  47 land grabs  48 landslides  84 language and meaning  70 Laoutides, C.  71–​2 Lee, C.C.  95 Lee, M.J.  88, 89, 91 Leech, N.L.  1 legal system  49 Leider, J.P.  25 linguistic features  101 Lippman, W.  80 livelihood fragility  25, 59–​60 ‘living substances’  123 local agencies  119, 120 Loescher, G.  24

Lon Htein  20 Lower Burma  18 Luxembourg  73–​4 M Ma, Y.  76, 77, 103 MacLean, K.  53 Maghs  8, 9, 10 Mahmud, S.  87, 121 Malay  9 Malaysia  84, 97–​8 Malaysiakini  98 Malaysian media  42, 91, 93 Malkki, L.H.  79, 119, 123 manmade displacement  66 ‘marginalized communities’  83 markets  59–​60 marriage  48, 49, 58 Marxism  25 mass media  ideological institutions  94 Marxism  25 media framing theory  39–​40 and the political agendas of the powerful  25 massacres  1942 genocide  9 2012  11 2017  11, 51, 54, 111 Burma Territorial Force  10 ‘King Dragon’/​Naga Min  10, 43 ongoing  21 Mattis, James  85 Maungdaw  47 Maw, B.  6 Mayu Frontier  47 McBrien, J.L.  72 McCombs, M.E.  71, 80 McEnery, T.  38 McQuail, D.  99 meaning, and language  70 media  coverage of Rohingya crisis  38–​9, 71–​3 and the international community  83–​102 language and meaning  70 media framing theory  39–​40 media influence  87–​96 media sources  78 policy-​media relations  85–​102, 112 ‘representation,’ as concept  69–​70 role in constructing political reality  71, 85 role in shaping public opinion  80–​1, 85 shaping of news  70 as solution to problems  81 see also journalism Mehta, U.S.  123 memoranda of understanding  44 Messner, M.  98 meta-​communicative messages  39 metaphors  40

167

THE UNHEARD STORIES OF THE ROHINGYAS

Metila, R.A.  99–​100 Middle East  84 migrant labor  28, 96–​7 Miles, C.  40 military government  10, 35, 37, 47 military intelligence forces  20 military junta  10 military retaliations  88 military rule (1958–​60)  34 military support from the international community  89 military takeover (1962)  34, 35 minority identity, definition  33–​4 minority repression in the media  38 Minority Rights Group International  6–​7 misrepresentation of facts  70 see also fake news mixed methods research  1, 3, 107 Mizzima  78, 79 Modigliani, A.  71 Mohajan, H.K.  8 Mon kingdom (c 6th–​11th century)  18 Monic (language)  18 monsoon season  57, 69 mosque destruction  43 mosques, ban on upkeep of  49 Mughals  5, 8 multilateralism  46 Murphy, D.  6 Muslim aid organizations  91 Muslim migration to Myanmar  16 Muslim minorities in the media  38 Muslim nationalism  12 Muslim Rohingyas (history)  5, 6, 7–​8 Mutua, M.  92 Myanma Alinn  41, 120 Myanmar  Myanmar media  6, 10, 64, 77, 93, 111, 120–​1 Myanmar Muslims  67 name of  5 pressure of international community  118–​21 religion  5, 67 responsibility to resettle refugees  109 rise of Muslim nationalism  12 Myanmar Times  79, 92 Myawady Daily  120 N Naaf River  5 Naga Min, Operation  10, 26, 43 NaSaKa/​ Nay-​Sat-​Kut-​Kwey Ye  20 Nation, The  92–​3 nation state narratives  93 national identity  29, 32, 35–​7 National Registration Cards (NRCs)  32–​3, 47, 111 National Union of Journalists  105

National Verification Cards  21, 111 nationalism  31, 35, 37 nationality, right to  47, 67 nationality, status of Rohingya townships as  47 natural disasters  66, 80, 84 “naturalized” citizens  47 Nawab Mīr Qasīm  8 Naya Diganta  121 Nayapara camp  56, 72–​3, 108 Ne Win, General  10, 26, 31, 32, 47 negative media framings of refugees  38–​9, 42, 53–​4 negative media portrayals of immigrants/​ minorities  70 New York Times  41, 88–​9, 92, 96, 116, 119, 120 news  construction of reality  98–​9 consumption of  2 fast pace of  12 news framing  39–​40 political framing  45 shaped by media  70 sources of  78, 98–​9 see also journalism; media newspapers  10, 86, 87, 120 NGOs  57, 67, 78 Nickels, H.C.  73–​4 non-​Burman ethnic minority, classification as  31–​2 noncitizen rights  34 nonrefoulement principle  84 Nova, J.K.  76 Nyers, P.  81, 119 O Obama administration  89, 118 O’Connor, Nigel  58 official sources  99 Olney, J.  16 online anti-​Rohingya propaganda  51 see also social media ontological security  36–​7, 119 Onwuegbuzie, A.J.  1 open borders  84 Operation Dragon King/​Nagamin  10, 26, 43, 51 Operation Golden Eagle  10 Organisation of Islamic Cooperation  84 Orientalist tropes  41, 70 ‘othering’  36, 70, 106 ‘outsiders’  31, 70, 72 overcrowding  52, 56, 68, 83 P Pagan kingdom (c 6th–​11th century)  18–​21 Pakistan  9, 10, 12 Pakistani media  75, 96, 101, 121

168

INDEX

Pandir, M.  81, 82, 103 pan-​Islamism  122 Parker, S.  74–​5 Parnini, S.N.  95–​6 paternalism  41 pathos  101 Permanent Mission of Bangladesh  59 Phillips, Barnaby  57 photographs  88, 105, 113, 117 plane disasters  94 police  dragnets  14, 110 NaSaKa/​ Nay-​Sat-​Kut-​Kwey Ye  20 as perpetrators of violence  54 police station attacks  88 policymakers  38, 85 policy-​media relations  85–​102, 112 political conflict  45 political discourse  82 political identity  35–​7 political Islam  122 politics  definition of.  see geopolitics politicization  121 theoretical concepts of  45 postcolonial theory  32, 115 post-​ideological politics  45 poverty  6, 57 powerless frame  76 press freedom  53, 109, 115 Press Freedom Index  3, 109 Price, N.  71 primordialism  36 problematization of Rohingya disputes  13–​15 propaganda  98, 120–​1 property, right to own  33 protest framing  92 protests  61 public health  64 public opinion, media shaping of  80–​1, 85 public relations  94 Pyu  17, 19 Q quality of journalism  86–​7, 92, 97, 121–​4 quantity of media attention  88 quiet diplomacy  84 quoted sources  99, 105 R racism  82, 101–​2, 105, 115, 120 radical Muslims  47 radio  32, 94 Rahman, K.A.  76 Rakhine language  7 Rakhine state  creation of  4, 5 geopolitics  61–​2 humanitarian agencies banned from  51

investment in Rakhine  61–​2, 89, 92, 118 Myanmars plans for  48 Rakhine Buddhists  31, 92, 96 Rakhine Muslims  26, 28, 67, 115 riots  11 see also Arakan Rakhine Yoma/​Arakan Mountains  5 Ramasubramanian, S.  40 rape  NaSaKa/​ Nay-​Sat-​Kut-​Kwey Ye  20 of Rohingya men  54–​5 of Rohingya women  10, 11, 43, 48, 51, 54, 111 as tool of terror  54 Rasul, A.  95 realism  36, 57 Reese, S.D.  98 Refugee Act (1980)  72 refugee camps  conditions  52–​3, 56–​61, 68, 69, 83 COVID-​19  52–​3, 64 denial of entry to  54 global media framing  80 internal  72 life in  56–​61 numbers in  56, 68, 73, 108 overcrowding  52, 56, 68, 83 restrictions on lives/​movements  53, 57, 59 security  14 violence against women and girls  54 refugee laws  97, 101 refugee migrations  2017  51, 51–​2, 56, 61, 68, 108, 125 Bangladesh  13–​14, 15, 43, 44, 51–​2 causes of  25, 27–​9 colonial period  9, 10 historical evidence  50–​3 history of Myanmar  108 media coverage of  38–​9 refugee status  13, 27–​9, 49 refugees  definition of  53 Kunz’s categorization  27–​8, 112 perceived homogeneity of  81, 119 refugees in the media  73–​9 Western depictions of  119 reliability of data  103–​6 religion, theoretical concepts of  45–​6 religion in Myanmar  5 religious discrimination  19, 29, 30, 120 religious identity  36 religious minorities  33 repatriation  consequences of  81 encouraged by media frames  81 global order  44 history of Rohingyas  3, 10, 11, 14 international law  117–​18 media attempts to force  64

169

THE UNHEARD STORIES OF THE ROHINGYAS

Myanmar calls for  123 from refugee camps  58, 60, 110, 115 as solution to problems  126 Reporters Without Borders  3, 109, 115 reporting standards  101–​2 ‘representation,’ as concept  69–​70 resettlement  109, 117 Residents of Burma Registration Act (1949)  21 responsibility frame  76 returning refugees  10, 11 see also repatriation Reuters  76, 96, 98, 119 ‘right to have rights’ paradigm  30 right to nationality  110 right to vote  11, 32, 33, 48, 64 rights-​based journalism  103 right-​wing media  64, 94, 121–​2 right-​wing politics  25 riots  9, 11 Rogers, B.  6 Rohingya Muslim League  10 ‘Rohingya’ name  6–​7, 25–​6, 71–​2, 77, 100, 121 Rohingya/​Ruaingga language  7, 10, 32 roots of refugee crisis  4–​5 Russia  37, 61, 84, 91 S Said, E.  70 Sajjad, M.  53–​4 sanctions  61, 89, 118 Sao Shwe Thaike  6 Sassen, S.  48 Saudi Arabia  9, 84 savage-​victim-​saviour motifs  76, 92, 96 saviour frames  76, 92, 96 schemas  39 Scheufele, D.A.  2, 115 securitization policies  79 security frames  75, 77, 92, 110, 114, 122 see also threat to national security Sein, President Thein  20 self-​reflexivity  124 Sengupta, S.  67, 68 sexual violence  against boys/​men  54–​5 against girls/​women  55 as tool of terror  54 see also rape Shaw, D.L.  80 Shoemaker, P.J.  98 Shohat, E.  70 shops, closure of  59 Shri Kshetra  17 Siddiquee, M.A.  93, 115 Sigal, L.V.  98 Silverstone, R.  83, 124 single refugee’s stories  97 Sittwe  5

skin colour  72 smallholders  48 social media  51, 92, 97, 114 social organizations’ media  96–​7 social tokens  37 sources, media  78, 98–​9 Southwick, K.  96 sovereignty  46, 67, 92 special regulations for Rohingyas  20 spies, refugees as  74 Stam, R.  70 Star, The  42 state control of media  86–​7, 121 State Peace and Development Council  49 statelessness  11, 30, 33, 44, 46–​53, 67, 68, 79 stereotypes  77, 96 Stevenson, A.  51 stigmatization  67 Stout, D.A.  64 SUARAM  97 sub-​citizenship  47, 81 Sukosd, M.  86 summary killings  54 Sun, W.  86 Sunata, U.  74 Supreme Court of Justice  32 survey methods  3–​4 survival sex  84 Susanti, A.  20 Suu Kyi, Aung San  7, 38, 48–​9, 78 sympathy for Rohingya refugees  79, 111 see also emotional appeals Syrian refugees  73, 74, 81, 100–​1, 113 systemic functional grammar  101 T Tatmadaw  51, 89, 118 Teknaf Upazila  63 temporary residence  11 terminology, care with  105–​6 terrorist frames  47, 51, 67, 77, 78, 110 Thailand  84, 93, 125 Thein Sein, President  11 theories of migration and displacement  24–​5 Theravada Buddhism  16–​17, 18, 19 third country resettlement  20, 117 third-​party statements  105 third-​world discourse  68 threat frames  77, 79, 91, 124 threat to national security  13, 20, 37, 41, 63, 67, 110, 115, 122–​3 Tibeto-​Burman speakers  17 Tirosh, N.  74 Tomuschat, C.  33 torture  11, 26, 54, 76 trade routes  17, 58 tragic media framings  75 translation issues  96 trauma  84, 104

170

INDEX

travel restrictions  21, 49, 57, 59, 60, 85 Tripura  8 trust structures  37 truth, importance of  104–​5 Tuchman, G.  71, 98 Turkey  64, 74, 101, 113 U U Ba Swe  47 U Nu  6, 10, 26, 32, 47 U Tha Aung Nyun  85 U Ye Sein  18 Ubayasiri, K.  92, 121 Uddin, N.  4 Uighurs  91 UK  Anglo-​Burmese Wars  8, 8–​9, 18 colonial period  6, 8–​9, 28–​9, 32, 34, 34–​5 humanitarian aid  80, 84, 85, 118 military support  89 World War II  6 UK media  74–​5, 76, 79, 80, 96, 101, 121 Ukhia  63, 67 Ullah, A.A.  4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 21, 25, 26, 28, 30, 34, 35, 47, 48, 49, 50, 53, 67, 68, 79, 80, 88 Ulum, Ö.G.  100–​1 UN (United Nations)  advocacy  51 arms embargoes  89–​90, 118 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide  15, 21 Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)  97 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees  53 ethnic cleansing designation  88 fact-​finding mission  111 General Assembly  38, 48, 59 genocide designation  89, 116 Joint Humanitarian Response Plan (2017)  83–​4 lack of statements about Rohingya  37 poverty alleviation projects in Bangladesh  57 saviour framings  92 Security Council  37, 38, 61, 84, 91 as source  99 Special Envoy  126 special rapporteur on Myanmar  60, 89 Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict  54 UNDP  52 UNESCO  66 UNHCR  13, 20, 26, 38, 44, 55, 58, 65, 68, 73, 89, 91, 97, 105, 117, 125 Universal Declaration of Human Rights  53 UN-​OCHA  51–​2 UNOCHR  51 undocumented workers  97

Union Citizenship Act (1948)  32, 34, 37, 113 Union Citizenship (Election) Act (1948)  34 United States  elites in media  93–​4 geopolitics  61 media  95, 96, 99 media framings  73, 84–​5, 89, 92, 101 Obama administration  89, 118 resettlement  117 saviour framings  92 support for Myanmar  118 Universal Declaration of Human Rights  47, 48, 56, 59 Upper Burma  17 V Vahed, G.  17 Van Dijk, T.A.  101, 123 Van Gorp, B.  73, 92 Vaughan-​Williams, N.  82, 123 Verbruggen, Y.  85, 92, 93, 96, 119 victim frames  41, 64, 73, 75, 76, 80–​3, 92, 96, 103 victim-​saviour narratives  41, 92 village attacks/​raids  55 violence, waves of  50–​3 visa bans  118 visibility as a threat  124 visibility as biological life  123–​4 visibility as empathy  124 visuals  123 see also photographs Voice of the People  97 voicelessness  114 voices of the unheard  108–​14 voting rights  11, 32, 33, 48, 64 W Wadud, M.  75–​6 Wallace, R.  75 Wallace, V.  105 Wang, L.  86 Wang Yi  14 war crimes  54 Ware, A.  71–​2 ‘watchdog’ role of media  86 Western mainstream media  39, 75, 76–​7 white cards  11, 33 Wijnroks, M.  57 Williams, K.  2 Wirth, L.  33 Wodak, R.  70, 100 women and girls  impersonal depictions of  119 media framings  76 rape of  10, 11, 43, 48, 51, 54, 111 refugee camps  109 restrictions on lives/​movements  55

171