Conspiracy Talk Leading Myanmar Down a Dangerous Path

Posted by AsiaViews | Dec 4, 2017 | 0 |

Frontier Myanmar

Nov 29, 2017

We rightly demand exacting standards of people in positions of high responsibility, but power and profile do not make people superhuman.

The attacks on an Associated Press journalist last week are the unsurprising consequence of a national discourse that has steadily become more tribal, more malignant and more dangerous in recent months. In a legal system committed to the principles of justice, those responsible for the death threats levelled against the reporter would now be subject to a police investigation. Instead, one of Myanmar’s leading voices stands accused of deliberate deceit in a campaign to undermine the country; she now endures a ferocious smear campaign in the court of public opinion, by forces whose own questionable relationship with the truth deserves greater scrutiny.

Ms Esther Htusan has a proud record. As one of the youngest ever recipients of the Pulitzer Prize — the first Myanmar reporter to win journalism’s highest accolade — she was last year feted as one of the local media industry’s greatest talents by the same media outlets now rushing to condemn her. Her reporting helped end the captivity of hundreds of Myanmar migrant laborers who had endured years of slavery and torture in Thailand’s notorious fishing industry.

This same journalist was on Saturday described as an “evil soul” by the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar, in a hectoring editorial lecturing the Associated Press on media ethics. This newspaper is vetted by the Ministry of Information and all of its content has the imprimatur of the government of the day. It is also the newspaper that said foreign media reports of the 2007 monk protests were a “skyful of lies” manufactured by foreign agitators trying to undermine the stability of the country.

This torrent of vitriol was provoked by Htusan’s report on the speech of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to European foreign ministers, erroneously suggesting that the State Counsellor had blamed international terrorism on illegal immigration. In the present political climate, and with the storm of international condemnation Myanmar has faced over the past three months, it was not a trifling mistake. Yet it was corrected as soon as possible, when an official transcript of the speech was made available seven hours after it was delivered.

That is more than can be said for one media outlet, strident in its own criticism of the reporter, which last month pulled an article on militant attacks in a Bangladeshi refugee camp without explanation or apology after the belated realisation it was based on information that was more than one year old.

The truth is that nobody in public life is infallible. There is no surgeon that is not haunted by the errors of judgement they made on the operating table. There is no politician that can say their work was always above reproach. And there is no journalist who has not suffered the humiliation of committing an error to print. We rightly demand exacting standards of people in positions of high responsibility, but power and profile do not make people superhuman. The manner in which these mistakes are rectified is a more genuine window into an individual’s character than the mistake itself.

Many of Htusan’s critics would know this from their own long careers in the media. Yet no such grace has been afforded of a woman who now stands accused of deliberately smearing the leader of the country. The sort of paranoid and malicious claims levelled against her are enjoying a renaissance at this troubled time in Myanmar’s history. In a submission to a UK parliamentary inquiry on the Rakhine crisis, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs cited extremist authors claiming that Muslim countries are planning a takeover of Myanmar by stealth. National Security Adviser U Thaung Tun has claimed there is an international conspiracy to destabilise the nation.

These ideas, once the exclusive preserve of the military and the nationalist fringe, are now repeated by senior members of the civilian government. Any criticism of the government or the military is framed by this outlook, and so can be disregarded. The notion that there is a conspiracy against this country has mobilised and animated the public into lockstep behind Myanmar’s leaders. Htusan has been made into a public enemy because the alternative — that there is no conspiracy at all — is too grave to contemplate. We have been led down a dangerous path.

(https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/conspiracy-talk-leading-myanmar-down-a-dangerous-path)

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EXTRICATING NDONESIAN CHILDREN FROM ISIS INFLUENCE ABROAD

Indonesia urgently needs to revisit the possibility of repatriating the neediest of its young citizens stranded abroad, whose families had earlier joined ISIS. Most of these children are in camps in northern Syria but there are also small numbers in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Iraq. “Extricating Indonesian Children from ISIS Influence Abroad”, the latest report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) argues that the government could begin by bringing back small groups of unaccompanied children under ten years of age, who pose minimal security risk and are most vulnerable to deteriorating conditions in the camps.“The problem is that health and security conditions are worsening by the day in the Syrian camps, and the children are growing older,” says Dyah Kartika, IPAC analyst. “They need access to schools, a nurturing environment, and medical attention. If the government waits too long, the children will be further exposed to ISIS ideology.” The new report examines a 2019 list of Indonesians in camps and prisons run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The Indonesian government has been trying to verify their citizenship, but with pseudonyms, misspellings and bad transliterations, it is a daunting task. At the time the data was collected, between March and June 2019, there were 555 Indonesians in SDF camps and prisons, including 367 children. Among the children, approximately 277 were under the age of ten and 34 were unaccompanied. In June 2021, there are fewer than ten children who are both unaccompanied and under the age of ten that could be prioritized for return. Bringing back children of ISIS families is no easy task. The report analyses the main challenges faced by the Indonesian government. These include definitional issues, bureaucratic competition, the difficulty of verifying nationality, evaluating the toll of exposure to conflict, assessing security risk, and finding relatives or others willing to provide care once the children are returned. In addition, COVID has meant stringent restrictions on travel, placing further obstacles in the way of repatriation. There are several models for rehabilitation of children exposed to violent extremism in Indonesia that could be modified to accommodate the needs of children repatriated from abroad. The report examines these models and argues that the government does not need to have every detail of rehabilitation programs in place before it starts extricating children from ISIS influence. It can start by bringing back the most vulnerable children and then modify programs as needed.

“It’s important that the government see these children as victims” says Dyah. “They deserve a chance to be children again.”

Conspiracy Talk Leading Myanmar Down a Dangerous Path