Abstract:
An estimated 700,000 Rohingyas have fled Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh since the tatmadaw’s (Myanmar’s armed forces) August 2017 ‘clearance operations.’ This has turned Cox’s Bazar into one of the world’s fastest growing and largest refugee settlement. Although state-directed violence in Myanmar’s ethnic peripheries is not unique, the state’s attitudes towards the Rohingya community are qualitatively different to other major ethnic groups in the country. Identity politics are a powerful factor shaping the ongoing mass violence against the Rohingya community. The “othering” of the Rohingya community as illegal “Bengali” migrants that are not a part of the Myanmar nation is a long-term state-led process. Whereas some critics argue the crisis in Rakhine state exposes Myanmar’s apparent democratization as a false dawn, this paper argues that genocidal violence against the Rohingya “others” is part-and-parcel of Myanmar’s consolidation into the tatmadaw’s disciplined democracy.
Short bio:
Dr Roger Lee Huang is Lecturer in Terrorism Studies and Political Violence with the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University. He received his PhD from the Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong as a Hong Kong PhD Fellow. He has previously worked at Lingnan University, the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan and Academia Sinica (Taiwan) and has interned with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Yangon, Myanmar.
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