Daily Times

Listening to the rhetoric of world leaders, lawmakers, intellectuals, rights activists, generals, judges, diplomats and bureaucrats, we are given the impression that the moral, social, economic and political apex of human civilisation has been achieved, the world has been transformed into a heavenly place, the peace, progress, prosperity and development of all of humanity has been achieved, speedy justice is being delivered at every doorstep, cast, creed and colour discriminations, have been eliminated from society, no child in the world is denied his or her right to seek knowledge, no innocent is forced to labour, women are not being persecuted, people have not been denied their basic right to live with freedom and liberty and that we have become the real champions of democracy, freedom, liberalism, justice, morality, fraternity, brotherhood and equality.

If we, as a society, are so brilliant and as prolific as we pretend to be then who is trampling this blood-soaked humanity under their feet? Is there some other species from the heavens responsible for the wholesale tyranny, oppression, bloodshed, injustice and inequality inflicted on our fellow beings? Who is responsible for human miseries? None other than our collective hypocrisy and double standards are the basic causes of human tragedy taking place around the globe.

The inaction of the international community over the persecution of more than one million Rohingya Muslims by the state and non-state actors of Buddhist majority country Myanmar has once more cast some serious doubts over its ability as well as commitment to resolve world conflicts. Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, does not recognise the Rohingya as an ethnic group, calling them Bengalis, and has denied them citizenship. Other than the thousands killed in anti-Rohingya riots in Myanmar, more than 100,000 Rohingya Muslims have been confined to camps where they live in utterly inhumane conditions.

Thousands of impoverished boat people, mostly Rohingya Muslims fleeing the persecution at home, were left stranded in the sea as human smugglers abandoned their boats amid a regional crackdown that has unearthed the graves of dozens of people who died while being kept hostage in illegal trafficking camps.

Most countries in the region view the boat people as a burden; refugees have been ping-ponged back and forth between Southeast Asian nations including Muslim countries like Indonesia and Malaysia. Other than the mere lip service and hollow words of Southeast Asian countries in a regional conference on the boat people crisis held in Bangkok on Friday May 29, nothing substantial and concrete has been done to stop the persecution of the poor Rohingya Muslims or to rescue the boat people. However, the US has pledged three million dollars to help the International Organisation for Migrants (IOM) deal with the crisis, while Australia has pledged $ 4.6 million towards humanitarian assistance in Myanmar.

Ironically, the Rohingyas do not make it into any geopolitical or geostrategic equation to draw sufficient international support. No one cares as the apartheid Myanmar regime commits its genocide and violates their basic human rights. The so-called champions of the Muslim world are busy slaughtering one other and investing billions of dollars in arms, ammunitions and proxy wars. They have, so far, kept their eyes closed and lips tight over Rohingya suffering and allow the concept of the ummah (Muslim community) drown in the Bay of Bengal once more. The poor African country Gambia is the only Muslim country to offer the resettlement of Rohingya Muslims into their country, asking the international community to help rescue and resettle the boat people but, unfortunately, these pleas have fallen on the deaf ears of a human fraternity of more than seven billion people. Where is human conscience? Where is the conscience of the Muslim world, if there exists anything like the Muslim world in the first place?

In the Charlie Hebdo incident, 17 people were brutally murdered in cold blood in January 2015. An estimated 3.7 million French citizens took to the streets of Paris. During the same days, Boko Haram insurgents in Nigeria committed a massacre of unbelievable proportions in Borno state. Over the period of just a few days, the terrorist group killed more than 2,000 people. By every objective measure, Boko Haram’s vicious massacre in Nigeria dwarfed the tragedy in France, so much so that the Nigeria bloodshed was described as one of the worst terrorist attacks in modern history. However, it went largely ignored. Why such double standards?

Just recently, Islamic State (IS) slaughtered more than 400 people, mostly women and children, as it captured the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. Ibis, an ancient species of northern bald bird, was able to grab the ‘civilised world’s’ attention as the ‘free and vibrant’ western media lamented over the probable extinction of the endangered ibis bird by IS but there were very few feeble voices raised for the poor 400 human souls brutally massacred in Palmyra. Why would the international community raise a voice against the extremists as it hold the baton of peace in one hand and a weapon in the other hand for the savages? Regime toppling, arms sales to war-ravaged regions, proxies and the clandestine activities are our foremost priorities. No one dares to ask why countries like the US, UK, France, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are breeding monsters that wreck havoc in Syria and Iraq? In the presence of vigilant cyber security almost all over the world, how can extremists, especially those operating in Syria and Iraq, run social media driven recruitment campaigns and get off scot-free? Where do they get finances, arms, ammunition, training, harbouring and travelling documents from? We do not want to answer such questions as we are all stabbing each other in the back. One nation’s terrorist is the intelligence asset of the other and vice versa.

One is baffled to see the double standards of the international community as it acts with extreme vigilance and haste to divide Sudan to create an independent state in its south and liberate East Taimoor from Indonesia but also sees that the same international community has failed to address the sufferings of the Palestinian and Kashmiri people for more than 60 years. Instead of stopping the oppressors and aggressors with an iron-fist, the international community asks both oppressed and the oppressors to act calmly and effectively, allowing the oppressors to fulfill their heinous designs. The west zealously chants slogans of freedom, democracy, liberty, human rights and women rights but the same west, for its vested interests, supports the kingdom and the Sheikhdoms in the Middle East.

For any probable dream of peace, progress and prosperity for the human race on this planet, as nations, we badly need to change our collective behaviours. We ought to agree on some kind of moral framework while defining our national interests and that interest must not conflict with the overall larger interest of the whole of humanity. We must bridge the gaps between what we profess and what we actually practice. Otherwise, self-inflicted human tragedies will be inevitable.

The writer is an IT professional and passionate writer and speaker. He can be contacted at meetkashi514@gmail.com