Concern over Rohingya crisis is growing in Indonesia

[Indos]

Concern over Rohingya crisis is growing in Indonesia

Observers fear abuse of Muslim minority in Myanmar could give rise to regional tensions

Indonesian police form a human barricade as Muslims hold a rally outside Myanmar’s embassy against "ethnic cleansing" in Mynamar of Rohingya Muslims, in Jakarta on Nov. 25, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Ryan Dagur & Katharina R. Lestari, Jakarta
Indonesia
January 12, 2017
There is rising concern in majority Muslim Indonesia that the treatment being meted out to ethnic Muslim Rohingya by military forces in Myanmar could lead to regional tensions.

Islamic organizations have joined calls to end the conflict while Jakarta is making efforts to deal with the crisis which has forced tens of thousands to flee, amid a bloody military crackdown in Myanmar’s ethnically divided Rakhine State after border police were attacked and killed in October.

The UN estimated at least 65,000 refugees were in camps in Bangladesh, while Dhaka has said some 50,000 Rohingya have crossed its border in the last two months.

Nahdatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization has said the conflict is totally unjustified and has injured human values.

"Muslims in general feel the pain because of the Rohingya’s suffering," the organization’s leaders said in an official statement.

They called on world leaders, Southeast Asian countries and the United Nations to take concrete measures to end the violence and show humanitarian solidarity

Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second largest Islamic organization said the Rohingya crisis was "violating and trampling human rights."

Anwar Abbas, its chairman called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — an international organization with 57 member countries — to act firmly against the Myanmar government.

"If this continues then it is not impossible to invite new tensions that threaten the peace of the world," he warned in a statement.

He also expressed deep disappointment over inaction by Myanmar’s leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and urged the revocation of her Nobel Peace Prize.

In Malaysia thousands of people, led by Prime Minister Najib Razak took to the streets on Dec. 4, branding the Rohingya situation as "genocide".

Similar but smaller protests have also occurred in Indonesia.

In November, hundreds of Indonesians protested outside the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta, calling for an end to the "genocide."

Indonesia’s government has made diplomatic overtures with Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi meeting Aung San Suu Kyi twice last month: on Dec 6 and Dec 19.

Marsudi said that such diplomatic efforts have been taken to try and bridge communications between Myanmar and Bangladesh, whose relations have continued to deteriorate because of conflicts in their border areas.

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"I’m carrying out diplomacy carefully and without creating a tumult, because the Rohingya conflict is a very sensitive issue related to a fully sovereign state; the sovereignty of a state must be respected," she told Antara news agency.

Daniel Awigra, Asean program manager at the Jakarta-based Human Rights Working Group said Indonesia can be an example of the process of democratization for Myanmar.

Indonesia was built on diversity and so is Myanmar, he said, So Myanmar could see Indonesia as a state with credible democracy.

However, "what needs to be paid attention to is the agenda of sending humanitarian aid for Rohingya, investigation into crimes and security sector reform as well as the elimination of the 1982 citizenship law which rejects Rohingya identity," he said.

Father Agustinus Ulahayanan, secretary of the bishops’ commission for ecumenical and inter-religious affairs, said the Rohingya issue "is about ethnicity and politics."

He thanked Muslim leaders for not linking the issue to religious sentiments.

For the Catholic Church, he said, the Catholic community will never close its eyes to any humanitarian crisis.

"I heard that a few dioceses had launched a solidarity movement. Even a diocese, of which I cannot mention for a certain reason, had collected money during a Sunday Mass to help our Rohingya brothers and sisters," he said.

Similarly, Sahat Martin Philip Sinurat, chairman of the Indonesian Christian Student Movement, called on the Indonesian government not to link the Rohingya issue to religious sentiments.

The Rohingya issue is an issue of citizenship, not a religion-based one, he said.
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Some Anti Myanmar demonstration in Indonesia

 

[Indos]

I will use these thread to show Indonesian people contribution to solve Rohingya Crisis

First, maybe many not now that UN Panel on Myanmar who accuse Myanmar on genocide crime is lead by an Indonesian

Human Rights Council President announces appointment of Marzuki Darusman as Chair of Myanmar Fact-finding Mission

GENEVA (27 July 2017) - The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Joaquín Alexander Maza Martelli (El Salvador), has decided to establish a new composition of the Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar and appoint Mr. Marzuki Darusman (Indonesia) to serve as a member and its Chair. Mr. Darusman will join Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka) and Mr. Christopher Dominic Sidoti (Australia) whose appointments were announced in May.

The Mission will serve in an independent and objective manner and will be supported by a team of human rights specialists in Geneva with various expertise pertinent to their mandate set out by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 34/22, adopted on 24 March 2017, to “establish facts and circumstances of the alleged recent human rights violations by military and security forces, and abuses, in Myanmar, in particular in Rakhine State”.

The Mission members will be meeting in Geneva in August to discuss the approach they will employ in discharging their mandate.

As in all such cases, the Mission will make it a priority to reach out to and engage constructively with the Government and other relevant interlocutors. The Human Rights Council reiterates its hope that the Government of Myanmar will grant the Mission unfettered access to affected areas.

The Mission will present an oral update to the Council in September and submit a written report to the Council in March 2018.

Biographies of the members of the Fact-finding Mission on Myanmar

Mr. Marzuki Darusman (Indonesia) is a lawyer and human rights campaigner who served as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK (2010-2016) and member of the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea (2013 to 2014). Prior to that he served as a member of the International Independent Group of Eminent Persons for Sri Lanka, and has served as Chair of the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission as well as Attorney General of the Republic of Indonesia 1999 to 2001. In 2010, he was assigned to serve as Chair of the UN Secretary General's Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka and in 2009 he was appointed by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to a three-member UN Commission of Inquiry to investigate the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Ms. Radhika Coomaraswamy (Sri Lanka) is a lawyer by training and a civil society member of the Constitutional Council, formerly the Chairperson of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission (2003-2006) and the Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (1984-2006). She has worked as the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women (1994-2003), and as Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (2006-2012). In 2014, Ms. Coomaraswamy was appointed by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon as lead author on the Global Study on the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1325, on Women, Peace and Security. As an academic, she is a Global Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law.

Mr. Christopher Dominic Sidoti (Australia) is an international human rights consultant who, since 2000, has provided consultancy services on human rights law and practices to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, UNDP, UNICEF, the Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions and several national human rights institutions. He was director of the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR; 2003-2007), served as Australian Human Rights Commissioner (1995-2000), Australian Law Reform Commissioner (1992-1995) and Foundation Director of the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1987-1992). From 1999 to 2013 he was principal facilitator and interlocutor in a human rights initiative between the Government of Australia and the Government of Myanmar.


https://www.ohchr.org/FR/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21914&LangID=E

 

[Homo Sapiens]

Concern over Rohingya crisis is growing in Indonesia

Observers fear abuse of Muslim minority in Myanmar could give rise to regional tensions

Indonesian police form a human barricade as Muslims hold a rally outside Myanmar’s embassy against "ethnic cleansing" in Mynamar of Rohingya Muslims, in Jakarta on Nov. 25, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Ryan Dagur & Katharina R. Lestari, Jakarta
Indonesia
January 12, 2017
There is rising concern in majority Muslim Indonesia that the treatment being meted out to ethnic Muslim Rohingya by military forces in Myanmar could lead to regional tensions.

Islamic organizations have joined calls to end the conflict while Jakarta is making efforts to deal with the crisis which has forced tens of thousands to flee, amid a bloody military crackdown in Myanmar’s ethnically divided Rakhine State after border police were attacked and killed in October.

The UN estimated at least 65,000 refugees were in camps in Bangladesh, while Dhaka has said some 50,000 Rohingya have crossed its border in the last two months.

Nahdatul Ulama, Indonesia’s largest Islamic organization has said the conflict is totally unjustified and has injured human values.

"Muslims in general feel the pain because of the Rohingya’s suffering," the organization’s leaders said in an official statement.

They called on world leaders, Southeast Asian countries and the United Nations to take concrete measures to end the violence and show humanitarian solidarity

Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second largest Islamic organization said the Rohingya crisis was "violating and trampling human rights."

Anwar Abbas, its chairman called on the Organization of Islamic Cooperation — an international organization with 57 member countries — to act firmly against the Myanmar government.

"If this continues then it is not impossible to invite new tensions that threaten the peace of the world," he warned in a statement.

He also expressed deep disappointment over inaction by Myanmar’s leader, State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and urged the revocation of her Nobel Peace Prize.

In Malaysia thousands of people, led by Prime Minister Najib Razak took to the streets on Dec. 4, branding the Rohingya situation as "genocide".

Similar but smaller protests have also occurred in Indonesia.

In November, hundreds of Indonesians protested outside the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta, calling for an end to the "genocide."

Indonesia’s government has made diplomatic overtures with Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi meeting Aung San Suu Kyi twice last month: on Dec 6 and Dec 19.

Marsudi said that such diplomatic efforts have been taken to try and bridge communications between Myanmar and Bangladesh, whose relations have continued to deteriorate because of conflicts in their border areas.

Sign up to receive UCAN Daily Full Bulletin
"I’m carrying out diplomacy carefully and without creating a tumult, because the Rohingya conflict is a very sensitive issue related to a fully sovereign state; the sovereignty of a state must be respected," she told Antara news agency.

Daniel Awigra, Asean program manager at the Jakarta-based Human Rights Working Group said Indonesia can be an example of the process of democratization for Myanmar.

Indonesia was built on diversity and so is Myanmar, he said, So Myanmar could see Indonesia as a state with credible democracy.

However, "what needs to be paid attention to is the agenda of sending humanitarian aid for Rohingya, investigation into crimes and security sector reform as well as the elimination of the 1982 citizenship law which rejects Rohingya identity," he said.

Father Agustinus Ulahayanan, secretary of the bishops’ commission for ecumenical and inter-religious affairs, said the Rohingya issue "is about ethnicity and politics."

He thanked Muslim leaders for not linking the issue to religious sentiments.

For the Catholic Church, he said, the Catholic community will never close its eyes to any humanitarian crisis.

"I heard that a few dioceses had launched a solidarity movement. Even a diocese, of which I cannot mention for a certain reason, had collected money during a Sunday Mass to help our Rohingya brothers and sisters," he said.

Similarly, Sahat Martin Philip Sinurat, chairman of the Indonesian Christian Student Movement, called on the Indonesian government not to link the Rohingya issue to religious sentiments.

The Rohingya issue is an issue of citizenship, not a religion-based one, he said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some Anti Myanmar demonstration in Indonesia

Very impressive.

Daniel Awigra, Asean program manager at the Jakarta-based Human Rights Working Group said Indonesia can be an example of the process of democratization for Myanmar.

Indonesia was built on diversity and so is Myanmar, he said, So Myanmar could see Indonesia as a state with credible democracy.

Isn't it ironic that the muslim(accused of intolerance) nation Indonesia could build a peaceful, tolerant mulicultural, multi-religious republic where every citizen enjoy same protection and rights from the state irrespective of their faith while the so called ''non-violent, peaceful Buddhist'' nation myanmar are doing every crime under the Sun for their extreme intolerance, xenophobia, cruelty, barbarity and what not. So just professing Bhuddism does not guarraty that a nation or even an individual will be a dove of peace and a beacon of tolerance.

Same argument can also be made between Sri Lanka and Malaysia somewhat.

 

[Indos]

Very impressive.

Isn't it ironic that the muslim(accused of intolerance) nation Indonesia could build a peaceful, tolerant mulicultural, multi-religious republic where every citizen enjoy same protection and rights from the state irrespective of their faith while the so called ''non-violent, peaceful Buddhist'' nation myanmar are doing every crime under the Sun for their extreme intolerance, xenophobia, cruelty, barbarity and what not. So just professing Bhuddism does not guarraty that a nation or even an individual will be a dove of peace and a beacon of tolerance.

Same argument can also be made between Sri Lanka and Malaysia somewhat.

Actually, Rohingya crisis has been mentioned many time in Friday prayer all across Indonesia. We are very aware on the problem and keep pushing the government to act more vocal on the issue. Our people in general also welcome Rohingya refugee like what happen in Aceh province.

Yup, Indonesia and even Bangladesh can be an example for Myanmar. I know that some Bangladeshi are Hindu but you can live peacefully.

 

[Indos]

'They are our brothers': Rohingya refugees find rare welcome in Aceh


Minority known as the most friendless people on earth find sanctuary in Indonesia’s conservative province

Krithika Varagur in Bireuen

Fri 25 May 2018 01.11 BSTLast modified on Wed 30 May 2018 15.13 BST

A Rohingya woman, Fatima Khatu, holds tamarind fruits gathered in a refugee camp in Bireuen Photograph: Krithika Varagur for the Guardian
The 79 Rohingya refugees who set off on a boat from Myanmar’s Rakhine state last month were terrified when they were intercepted and redirected by Thailand’s navy. Washing up on the shores of a country they were not expecting seemed, at first, like yet another blow.

They had set off for Malaysia where families and jobs were waiting. Instead they arrived in Indonesia’s Aceh province, on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra.

The deeply conservative Islamic province is home to Sharia law and remembered worldwide as the epicentre of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. But it is also one of the only places in the world to openly welcome Rohingya refugees, whom many Acehnese regard as their Muslim brothers and sisters.

The Rohingya, a Muslim minority from Myanmar, have been called the most friendless people on earth. Nearly 700,000 live in refugee camps in Bangladesh after fleeing violence and persecution at home, something the UN has described as having “all the hallmarks of genocide”.

Refugee boats have been turned away from Thailand and Malaysia, but in Aceh arrivals have been met with generous donations and fellowship ever since the first of nine Rohingya vessels washed up in 2015. At least 1,740 Rohingya have landed in Aceh in the past 10 years, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). Nearly all have been from the state of Rakhine.

‘Taking care of us like parents’
The most recent boat arrival, in the coastal town of Bireuen, population 40,000, came during the weekly Friday prayers a few weeks ahead of Ramadan, the holiest month of the year.

Q&A
Who are the Rohingya?
“They are taking care of us like parents take care of their children,” says Mohammad Shobir, a Rohingya man who came with his wife in the boat. “We were very scared when we landed, but these people have given us everything: food, medicine, shelter … we want to express our sincere gratitude to them.”

The refugees are staying in a temporary camp run jointly by the IOM and a local social services agency. After Ramadan they will be moved to more permanent shelter in the city of Langsa.

The first day of Ramadan was bittersweet in the camp.

“We are fed very well here but we don’t taste the food,” says Mohammad Illyas, 24, who left three children behind in an internally displaced persons camp in Rakhine state. “My family doesn’t eat if I don’t work for even one day, so right now I have no idea how they are coping.”

He had hoped to find work in Malaysia, where at least 150,000 Rohingya live. He has no plans to leave now because they are under the care of IOM and the UN and have no way to organise another boat trip.

The Rohingya are not generally welcomed in Malaysia – they have no legal right to work or to formal education – but their sheer numbers mean they can find work in the “grey market”.

Donations pile up
The camp in Bireuen is in an empty government complex of cream and dark green buildings around an open field. There are men’s and women’s dormitories and a mosque where some of the Rohingya work together with local people to conduct their prayers five times a day.

“We take turns singing the azan [Muslim call to prayer] and then the Acehnese lead us in prayer,” says Huzaifa, a 16-year-old boy known as “the imam” because he spent years in a madrasa and is proficient in Qur’anic Arabic.


There is also a health clinic and one large room devoted to donations: towers of instant noodle boxes, egg crates, cooking oil and piles of clothes. The refugees wear donated hijabs and sarongs, and the men have white pecis, the stiff caps common to Muslim men in the region, which were donated by local mosques and charities.


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Rohingya women sit together waiting for the evening call to prayer in Aceh Photograph: Krithika Varagur for the Guardian
Young Acehnese volunteers appear united in their sense of duty. They variously say they are helping out “because they are our Muslim brothers”; “because my soul felt called to do it”; and “because it’s our duty as Acehnese”.

Saw Myint from the office of the United Nations high commissioner for refugees in Bangkok has been visiting the camp and says the reception given to the Rohingya had been “unique” in the region. “The refugees cry when expressing their gratitude. The Achehnese are very pious, humble, helpful.”

‘I am a survivor too’
Zulfikar is an Acehnese man from the social affairs ministry and is in charge of running the camp. He has been sleeping in the camp and has put all other duties on hold.

“My wife hasn’t seen me in 22 days!” he says cheerfully. “According to our maritime law in Aceh, we don’t ask any arrivals’ religion, race and so forth,” he says. “The most important thing is saving lives, not national law.”


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Acehnese cakes and sweets to be consumed at sundown. Photograph: Krithika Varagur for the Guardian
Indonesia does not officially recognise refugees and is not a signatory to the 1945 UN convention.

“I’m a survivor of the [2004 Boxing Day] tsunami too, like many people in Aceh,” adds Zulfikar. Aceh bore the brunt of that tsunami with a death toll of more than 100,000. “We all know what it is like to live through a disaster.”

Absent family
The first fast of Ramadan is broken at 6.45pm. In the afternoon about 40 volunteers cook the evening’s feast: rice, fish, noodles, cucumber salad, beef in a coconut milk curry, fried and spiced eggplant. All the ingredients come from donations.

A Rohingya woman named Fatima Khatu, the fiancee of Mohammad Shobir, cooks a spiced chicken recipe from home called kurar gustu rendi. Some other Rohingya men shake a tamarind tree in the compound to make juice from the pulp.

At sundown everyone gathers , the women and children on one tarp and the men on another. When the evening call to prayer finally sounds they gulp down fruit punch and eat dates, the traditional fast-breaking food, and then polish off a selection of Acehnese sweets, including slabs of jelly and buns stuffed with sweet shredded coconut.

The men pray together on a large, raised platform in rows, while the women retreat to their dormitory building to pray in private.

But beneath the celebration and the relief, anguish remains. “We are glad to have food here,” says Fatima, who left two children behind in Rakhine. “We are very lucky. But nothing else is certain. We don’t know how our families are.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...s-rohingya-refugees-find-rare-welcome-in-aceh

 

[waz]

Good to see peaceful protests which highlight the suffering in Burma.
I just came back from Indonesia, beautiful country and people.

 

[Indos]

Good to see peaceful protests which highlight the suffering in Burma.
I just came back from Indonesia, beautiful country and people.

Thanks @waz

Yah I know that you visited Bali.....Have you visited other region as well like Jakarta, West Sumatra, etc ??

 

[waz]

Thanks @waz

Yah I know that you visited Bali.....Have you visited other region as well like Jakarta, West Sumatra, etc ??

No thank you for the thread.
Yes I visited Bali, sadly it was meant to be an all round trip i.e. 6 days in Lombok, 6 days in Bali and four in Jakarta, but due to the earthquake all my days were spent in Bali. I couldn't risk it with young children. I did handover millions of Rupiah (good charities) to the restoration of houses for my brothers and sisters in Lombok though.
I will return and see Sumatra, Sulawesi, Flores, Raja Ampat etc. I'm even thinking of coming next year again, God willing.

 

[Indos]

Indonesia wants end to Rohingya crisis, Jokowi tells Myint

Marguerite Afra Sapiie

• The Jakarta Post
  

Singapore | Sat, April 28, 2018 | 11:45 am

Rohingya refugees walk down a hillside in the Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox's Bazar in November 2017. Hundreds of desperate Rohingya people still cross the border to Bangladesh every week, six months into the refugee crisis. (AFP/Ed Jones)

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has reiterated Indonesia's commitment to assist the Myanmar government in solving the Rohingya crisis.

Shortly after arriving in Singapore to attend the 32nd ASEAN Summit, the President held a bilateral meeting with Myanmar's new president, Win Myint, on Friday afternoon, during which Jokowi expressed concern over the ongoing crisis.

Jokowi said Indonesia was ready to provide any necessary assistance for Myanmar to secure the repatriation of Rohingya refugees from their camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar back to Rakhine state.

"Indonesia only has one interest, namely to see a stable and peaceful Rakhine, where people, including the Muslims, can live in peace," Jokowi told Myint during the meeting.

Jokowi highlighted the fact that dozens of Rohingya refugees had arrived in Kuara Bireuen Beach in Aceh by boat last week.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people fled Myanmar following a military crackdown against the ethnic minority in Myanmar's Rakhine state, which the UN has dubbed an act of "ethnic cleansing".

The bilateral talk was the first meeting between Jokowi and Myint, who assumed Myanmar’s presidency last month after his predecessor, Htin Kyaw, stepped down.

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi was absent from this week's ASEAN Summit. Suu Kyi has long faced global pressure due to the unsolved crisis.

Jokowi also encouraged his Myanmar counterpart to implement the recommendations issued by the Advisory Committee for Rakhine state, which is led by former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, to solve the humanitarian crisis in the region.

The committee issued a report last year that proposed a series of measures to resolve the conflict, such as to allow humanitarian aid workers to enter the affected areas in northern Rakhine and set up an independent investigation into the allegations of crimes. (ahw)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/...nd-to-rohingya-crisis-jokowi-tells-myint.html

 

[Indos]

Rohingya crisis a political hot potato in Indonesia
President Joko Widodo is under political pressure to respond more forcefully to the spiraling humanitarian refugee crisis in Myanmar
By JOHN MCBETH JAKARTA, SEPTEMBER 25, 2017 2:35 PM (UTC+8)

Protesters hold a rally near the Myanmar Embassy in Jakarta to protest against government treatment of Rohingya Muslims, on September 6, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Darren Whiteside

Myanmar’s brutal ethnic cleansing of its Rohingya Muslim minority has fast become a political hot potato in Indonesia where, despite the lone efforts of his foreign minister, President Joko Widodo is under pressure to do more than what may be realistically possible.

Stirred up by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and other hardline groups who have always had an eye for issues that attract mainstream Muslim support, the controversy is something that can’t be ignored by a populist president looking to win a second term in 2019.

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But with Malaysia — already home to 60,000 Rohingya — reluctant to join in, and the rest of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) grouping sitting on their hands, Widodo has found it difficult to confront a problem that threatens to create an enclave of Palestine-like outcasts and spark wider Muslim-Buddhist tensions in the region.

His government has already barred Islamic groups from protesting against Rohingya crisis at Borobudur, an Indonesia-based 9th century Buddhist temple complex popular with foreign tourists.

Although Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) latest poll has Widodo riding high on a 68% approval rating, impressive for a president now more than halfway through his five-year term, he knows that any Muslim-related issue requires careful handling.

University students rally near the Myanmar embassy during a protest against the treatment of Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar government, in Jakarta September 8, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Darren Whiteside

Opposition leader Prabowo Subianto, whose alliance with Islamic forces brought down ethnic Chinese Jakarta governor Barsuki Purnama earlier this year, has been vocal in urging the government to do more to help the estimated 1.2 million Rohingya, about a third of whom have been forced to flee across the border into Bangladesh.

A surprise choice for the Cabinet in 2014, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi can’t be faulted for the effort she has put into trying to head off the current crisis, shuttling quietly between Myanmar and Bangladesh in an effort to fill the gap in communications between the two neighbors.

Marsudi first went to Naypyidaw, the Myanmar capital, last December to persuade embattled State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi to sit down with Asean foreign ministers and find a way to head off the looming crisis. But nothing came of the subsequent December 18 meeting, or of other appeals from Jakarta for the Myanmar government to look for a peaceful solution to the spiraling crisis.

More recently, following the outbreak of violence in Rakhine state on August 26, Marsudi returned alone to Naypidaw, this time sitting down with both Suu Kyi and Myanmar military commander Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Those meetings produced only a vague promise that Asean could play a role in humanitarian relief efforts.

Last year, Indonesia launched a US$3 million program to build a hospital and other facilities in Rakhine, administered by Muslim and Buddhist nongovernmental organizations. It has also flown relief supplies including rice, tents and sugar to the Bangladesh coastal town of Cox’s Bazar, the center of the current relief operation.

Indonesia President Joko Widodo (C) and Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi (L) stand beside aid for Rohingya Muslims at Halim Perdanakusuma military airbase in Jakarta, September 13, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Beawiharta

But the most recent bout of what the United Nations has said amounts to ethnic cleansing, Suu Kyi’s recent speech seeking to play down the severity of the crisis and the wall of silence from the rest of Asean has left Widodo with limited options on what to do next.

In the meantime, Prabowo describes his government’s response as nothing more than image-building and rails against the fact that Indonesia lacks the political muscle to influence events in Myanmar. “Let us strengthen the Indonesian nation so that people fear Indonesia,” he said in a recent speech.

But Jakarta’s offer to send peacekeeping troops has fallen on deaf ears and even a newly-formed United Nations fact-finding team, led by former Indonesian attorney-general Marzuki Darusman, has so far been denied entry into Myanmar.

Darusman, who has taken part in UN investigations into the assassination of former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto, alleged genocide in Sri Lanka’s civil war and human rights atrocities in North Korea, is reluctant to condemn Suu Kyi just yet.

“It shouldn’t be treated in a courtroom context,” he says. “She is positioning herself. I thought her speech was clever. By asking why people are leaving ‘in numbers’, she clearly knows what is currently happening and is pointing a finger at the military.”

Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a speech to the nation on the Rakhine and Rohingya situation, in Naypyitaw September 19, 2017. Photo: Reuters/Soe Zeya Tun

That’s not how most observers saw her remarks, but Darusman clearly wants to recognize the difficult position Suu Kyi finds herself in when the military still holds the balance of power and has never been reluctant to use it.

Lagging badly in the polls, even though he has yet to officially declare his candidacy, the tough-talking Prabowo must be careful in how he aligns himself with hardliners, given the different dynamics a national election brings.

Most analysts do not believe what happened in the Jakarta gubernatorial election this year can be transplanted on to a country-wide stage – unless, of course, Widodo makes a similar mistake to Purnama, which seems unlikely given his more cautious nature.

When Prabowo spoke at an FPI rally in support of the Rohingya earlier this month, he wisely poured cold water on their calls to send armed followers to Rakhine. “You must be cool,” he counselled them. “Use your head and your brain.”

With the Sharia-based Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) already his sole partner in the opposition, overplaying the Islamic card could bring him into conflict with his siblings, all of whom are Christians and not altogether comfortable with his alliances.

Presidential hopeful Prabowo Subianto (C) on the campaign trail. Photo: AFP/Stringer

Now that media tycoon Hari Tanoesoedibjo has shifted his support to Widodo, Prabowo will also have to rely on the generosity of the business community if he and his Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), are to mount an effective challenge in 2019.

Ethnic Chinese businessmen usually spread the largesse around come election time, anxious not to put all their political eggs in one basket in a country where their domination of the economy is a sore point among Muslim conservatives.

After the events of the past year, including Purnama’s jailing on blasphemy charges, they would be expected to favor Widodo. But many are unhappy with the president’s poor management of the economy, his failure to unravel confusing regulations and trade policies that have stalled imports.

After 16 so-called deregulation packages little appears to have changed on the ground, with Widodo continuing to pursue a strategy that allows for more state and bureaucratic control and, inadvertently or not, blunts his drive for badly needed foreign investment.

Unless Indonesia can break out of stagnation and grow beyond the current 5% in the next one and a half years, Indonesia’s impotence over the current Rohingya crisis will be the least of the president’s worries.

http://www.atimes.com/article/rohingya-political-hot-potato-indonesia/

 

[Place Of Space]

You people had better reflect and apologize for the Black May, then sh!t out the concerns on Myanmar issue.

 

[Indos]

You people had better reflect and apologize for the Black May, then sh!t out the concerns on Myanmar issue.

I have already said in the special thread discussing May 1998 tragedy that no Chinese death or rape ever happened. It is found by fact finding committee established to find the truth behind the tragedy. The death victims are all native Indonesians, around 100 of them in Jakarta. The death victims is caused by the burning building. The photo circulated on the internet is taken from Sampit tragedy, which is a violence in Sumatra between ethnic dayak and ethnic Madura. Some Dayak people looks like Chinese so it is easy to make any slander.

I admit there was some violence happened but mostly it was all about burning Chinese businesses. Even in US Chinese business also become the victim of the riot. As we all know, the criminals always take advantage of any riot.

You need to understand that behind the tragedy is the deaths of university students during anti Soeharto demonstration. Chinese becomes victims on the tragedy due to people minds linking the Chinese with Soeharto regime. Soeharto for instants favors Chinese businessman like Liem Sio Liong (Salim group) that makes this group as the largest conglomerates at that time. People then make an assumption that Chinese and the regime are connected, so when the people hate the regime, the Chinese become the target since they are the weakest one.

The violence itself was conducted by some people (minority), you cannot generalize Indonesian as all criminals. As a Muslim we are told not to do any thing that can violates human right. We are told in Quran to establish justice in the world. I was there during the riots and what I can see is that the riots are teenagers. I was there to calm the situation with my fellow university students activist.

It was the past. We are getting better now. Go ask any Chinese Indonesian in PDF whether there is any discrimination toward them. The situation where different with Myanmar where the Muslim still experience injustice, even they are regarded as non citizen after 1980 law.

 

[Sam.]

Very impressive.

Isn't it ironic that the muslim(accused of intolerance) nation Indonesia could build a peaceful, tolerant mulicultural, multi-religious republic where every citizen enjoy same protection and rights from the state irrespective of their faith while the so called ''non-violent, peaceful Buddhist'' nation

What weed you are smoking??

The May 1998 riots of Indonesia (Indonesian: Kerusuhan Mei 1998),[1] also known as the 1998 tragedy (Indonesian: Tragedi 1998) or simply the 1998 event (Indonesian: Peristiwa 1998), were incidents of mass violence, demonstrations, and civil unrestof a racial nature that occurred throughout Indonesia, mainly in Medan in the province of North Sumatra (4–8 May), the capital city of Jakarta (12–15 May), and Surakarta (also called Solo) in the province of Central Java (13–15 May).

Justice for Buddhist Chinese.

 

[Place Of Space]

I have already said in the special thread discussing May 1998 tragedy that no Chinese death or rape ever happened. It is found by fact finding committee established to find the truth behind the tragedy. The death victims are all native Indonesians, around 100 of them in Jakarta. The death victims is caused by the burning building. The photo circulated on the internet is taken from Sampit tragedy, which is a violence in Sumatra between ethnic dayak and ethnic Madura. Some Dayak people looks like Chinese so it is easy to make any slander.

I admit there was some violence happened but mostly it was all about burning Chinese businesses. Even in US Chinese business also become the victim of the riot. As we all know, the criminals always take advantage of any riot.

You need to understand that behind the tragedy is the deaths of university students during anti Soeharto demonstration. Chinese becomes victims on the tragedy due to people minds linking the Chinese with Soeharto regime. Soeharto for instants favors Chinese businessman like Liem Sio Liong (Salim group) that makes this group as the largest conglomerates at that time. People then make an assumption that Chinese and the regime are connected, so when the people hate the regime, the Chinese become the target since they are the weakest one.

The violence itself was conducted by some people (minority), you cannot generalize Indonesian as all criminals. As a Muslim we are told not to do any thing that can violates human right. We are told in Quran to establish justice in the world. I was there during the riots and what I can see is that the riots are teenagers. I was there to calm the situation with my fellow university students activist.

It was the past. We are getting better now. Go ask any Chinese Indonesian in PDF whether there is any discrimination toward them. The situation where different with Myanmar where the Muslim still experience injustice, even they are regarded as non citizen after 1980 law.

We have several sources to get close to the conprehensive truth, including a large number of victim's memoirs and physical disability remained. Your description is one aspect, the actuality is much much cruel and bloody.

 

[hussain0216]

Is anything being done to the burman buddists in retaliation?

Only reaction and consequences will deliver results

We have several sources to get close to the conprehensive truth, including a large number of victim's memoirs and physical disability remained. Your description is one aspect, the actuality is much much cruel and bloody.

Does it matter?
We live in a brutal world, just like you dont care about uighur or Rohingya deaths why should they care about chinese