RT Article
T1 A Politician, Not an Icon: Aung San Suu Kyi's Silence on Myanmar's Muslim Rohingya
JF Islam and Christian-Muslim relations
VO 25
IS 3
SP 321
OP 333
A1 Lee, Ronan
LA English
PB Taylor & Francis
YR 2014
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1562915320
AB In Myanmar (also known as Burma), the Rohingya are a persecuted Muslim minority living mainly in northern Rakhine State. Aung San Suu Kyi, the iconic leader of Myanmar's opposition party the National League for Democracy (NLD), is championed as the voice of the people. However, on the matter of the Rohingya's persecution she has been notably silent. This article examines the possible reasons for Suu Kyi's silence and argues that Buddhist-Muslim political relations in Myanmar are central to understanding the reasons behind Suu Kyi's position on the Rohingya. It is suggested that various factors, including the history of the Rohingya in Myanmar, the NLD's attitude towards the Rohingya, Suu Kyi's sense of obligation to her father's political legacy, and Suu Kyi's views on ethnicity, are creating a political environment in which Suu Kyi is presented with pragmatic political reasons for staying silent. Given Suu Kyi has the potential to become a future national leader, an understanding of her behaviours towards a sizeable persecuted Muslim minority is important. This is particularly the case when consideration is given to the contemporary pressures on Muslims to embrace radical politics and the implications this could have for Myanmar and the region.
K1 Aung San Suu Kyi
K1 Buddhist-Muslim violence
K1 Burma
K1 Myanmar
K1 Rohingya
DO 10.1080/09596410.2014.913850