Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina returned home on Saturday morning, attending
the U.N General Assembly session in New York, to a ticker tape reception
by thousands of people from her party and all sections of the citizens.
The spontaneous and tumultuous welcome was accorded to her for her
international laurels which she gained for the humanitarian role she
played at the world body for the Rohingyas fleeing from Myanmar
persecution and taking refuge in Bangladesh.
The Prime Minister not
only earned the fame as 'Mother of Humanity' and 'Star of the East' but
she has raised the image of Bangladesh in the world as an unique example
of showing courage and humanity in giving shelter to more than half a
million Rohingyas fleeing from Myanmar persecution.
To welcome the
Prime Minister the jubilant crowd lined up the road leading from Hazrat
Shahajalal International Airport to Ganobhaban, the PM's official
residence, chanted welcome slogans, waved flags and held up banners and
placards. The people demonstrated love and respect to the Prime Minister
as she had raised the country's image abroad setting a positive example
of facing the Rohingya crisis with humanitarian considerations. She
drew attention of world leaders to the continuing atrocities and
persecution against Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar by the army and Buddhist
vigilantes - who have reportedly killed thousands of Rohingya men,
raped hundreds of women, beheaded scores of children and burned their
homes to drive them from western Rakhine state - the home to Rohingya
Muslims. The UN described this mayhem as 'ethnic cleansing'.
Others,
watching the horrors the Muslims facing in the Buddhist-majority
Myanmar, termed it as genocide. The Rohingyas who have lived in Myanmar
for generations are denied citizenships and human rights and subjected
to inhuman persecution by Myanmar government and army. Myanmar
government accuses the Rohingyas as illegal "Bengali" migrants from
Bangladesh - which Dhaka persistently denies and the UN does not accept.
Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her army deny the Rohingyas their
rights notwithstanding the historic evidence that they are part of
Myanmar's ethnic mosaic for centuries. Nicholas Kristof of New York
Times writes that Rohingyas featured in ethno-linguist Francis
Buchanan's Asiatic researches as far back as 1799.
Prime Minister
Hasina rattled the world conscience by telling the leaders at UNGA of
the brutal army actions in Myanmar that have already forced over half a
million Rohingyas to take refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh since August
25. The UN reports say thousands more are queuing up to cross the
border taking the life risk ignoring the landmines the Myanmar army
planted along the way.
The refugees brought a huge burden on
overpopulated and economically strained Bangladesh. Yet, Sheikh Hasina
seized the honour as 'Mother of Humanity' for her brave and extremely
humanitarian gesture to open Bangladesh's doors to the fleeing Rohingyas
in order to save them from the guns and unending human rights violation
in Myanmar. She also promised to feed and take care of the homeless,
stateless Rohingyas until they to back home safely with their national
rights.
The Bangladesh PM urged the world leaders and the UN to
expedite efforts to arrange their repatriation soon and put pressure on
Myanmar government of Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to stop the
'ethnic cleansing'. Instead of saving lives, it is alleged that Suu Kyi
is the main perpetrator of brutality in the guise of a democratic leader
only to appease the Myanmar army for clinging to power.
This raises
a question as to whether Suu Kyi's Nobel Peace Prize was justified?
Many around the world have demanded the award should be called back and
declared void by the Nobel Committee. The debate gained ground amid
worldwide speculations that the Bangladesh Prime Minister was among the
top choices of the Nobel Committee for the Nobel Peace Prize 2017.
The
speculations were based on Sheikh Hasina's enviable image as the
world's top humanist leader now who certainly deserves the award. But we
also knew the decision rests entirely in the hands of the Nobel
Committee often influenced by powerful lobbyists and different
governments, especially the US.
The 2017 Nobel Peace Award announced
on Friday went to the Anti-Nuclear Campaign ICAN, a forum of NGOs
alerting the world for years against the horrors of nuclear wars. That
sounds fair, if not the fairest of the choices.
Meanwhile, watching
the run up to the Nobel Committee's declaration of the winner on Friday,
people ask if Suu Kyi, Myanmar's democracy leader, could receive the
peace prize then why not 'Mother of Humanity' Sheikh Hasina, who is
pursuing a much bigger mission to save millions of Rohingyas whom Suu
Kyi's government and army have pushed at gun point across the border to
Bangladesh? In the Nobel Committee's picking of winner, whether a
democracy "icon" under military's control or a leader trying to save
million lives should have carried more weight!.
Responding to Sheikh
Hasina's call, the UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to
discuss the Rohingya crisis, where world leaders have voiced their
concern and started putting pressure on Yangon to stop the Muslim
persecution or face sanctions. The UN, the United States of America the
UK, EU and other western countries are exerting pressure on Suu Kyi to
stop Rohingya persecution and take them back to Myanmar with all their
rights. India, Russia and China who so far stood beside Myanmar are also
likely to change their stances on the Rohingya crisis.
When Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina could rise to the occasion showing humanity to
Rohingyas, Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi failed to keep her promise
as 'democracy icon.' Suu Kyi's present stance to defend Myanmar army's
'ethnic cleansing', only to fulfill her lust for power, has been widely
condemned by her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates including Desmond
Tutu and Malala Yusufzai. In reprimanding his "dearly beloved younger
sister," Tutu observed with anguish "if the political price of your
ascension to the highest office in Myanmar is your silence, the price is
surely too steep". In contrast, neither Sheikh Hasina nor his father
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, our Father of the Nation, ever
compromised with the army for power. For power Suu Kyi forgot her own
writing in her book Freedom from Fear that says "fear of loosing power
corrupts those who wield it."
Suu Kyi's government and Myanmar army
are now using the attacks by Rohingya militants on the security forces
as an excuse for their atrocities of the Rohingya Muslims. But in her
acceptance speech of the Nobel Peace Prize she said "wherever suffering
is ignored there will be seeds of conflict, for suffering degrades and
embitters and enrages." How Suu Kyi will now deny the reality that the
Rohingyas' retaliation is growing according to her words "suffering
degrades and embitters and enrages".
Bangladesh, in the meantime, is
ready to demonstrate feelings - as the PM says we can feed the
Rohingyas even by skipping one meal a day, if necessary. Our PM's brave
and passionate assertion surprised the U.N audience and earned her the
acronym "Mother of Humanity". This is no less an honour than the Nobel
Prize that Suu Kyi has demeaned by her stance against Rohingyas. Sheikh
Hasina is all for saving humanity and that she is pursuing unlike any
other leader in today's world.
Her action, courage and boldness in
trying to protect the sufferers and saving the dying Rohingyas entering
Bangladesh by thousands everyday have also spruced up Bangladesh's image
in the comity of nations. The all or most world leaders view the
Bangladesh PM as a role model they would like to follow.
By helping
the Rohingyas Sheikh Hasina is also promoting peace. If she is able to
convince Myanmar, with cooperation of other governments and the UN, to
stop the genocide it would add to her laurels that can outshine Nobel
Prize. Nobility showcased by serving humanity is much bigger (what
Sheikh Hasina now symbolises) than an award, we should not forget.
