The Hidden Plight of Double Minorities: Unaddressed Injustice Against a Forgotten Population
The following essay was submitted by Christopher Win.
It has, based on my own experience, never been easy to have been brought up in a double minority - a minority within minorities - without inferiority for ethnic, language and religious minorities in certain countries are always subjected to significant social and institutionalized disparities in their socio-economic life and basic human services, contributing to an increase in poverty and other forms of deprivation. Life of the people, especially children from these marginalized groups can be challenging, perhaps traumatic is a better word as they are treated unfairly and differently than those from dominant ethnic groups and may be denied the same resources. As a result, they feel isolated and alienated in their communities, and schools, and struggle to find acceptance. Experiences of facing abusive language, discrimination, and racial prejudice on the basis of their ethnic or socio-economic background within a larger minority group lead them to physical, mental, and emotional stress and trauma.
Institutionalized and societal discrimination has always been a major issue for minority groups. As a guy who belongs to a double minority known as Maramagri (a group of around 10,000 populations across the country; much smaller than Rohingya and Rakhine) from the Rakhine state of Burma, the experience I have gone through depicts a vivid example of how inequality exists in smaller minority groups ranging from institutionalized to societal. The younger generation of Maramagri including me was, highly because of our features and the language we speak, denied our rights to citizenship and to freely travel despite both of our parents being citizens and our ethnic group being included in the so-called 135 officially recognized ethnic races of Myanmar. The Maramagri people have Indianized features and speak a dialect close to that of Rohingya.
The institutionalized restrictions and policies in Myanmar are what make it difficult for minorities like Maramagri and Kaman to access basic rights and services. Stripping my citizenship resulted in me requiring special documents from authorities to travel even within the Rakhine state, and in order for the document I needed, I had to resort to bribery and had no other choice. Limiting freedom of movement and the right to leave or return to a place and discriminating on the basis of race are blatant violations of international human rights laws which ensure the protection of the rights of minorities.[1] Given the corruption and bureaucracy associated with traveling out of the state, my community members experienced an amplified level of difficulty when attempting to plan any long-distance trips such as a trip to Yangon. To make matters worse, the number of allowable travel days was limited to a mere 45, clearly inadequate for the purpose of either finding medical aid or taking pleasure in a novel environment like Yangon. It was not until 2011 that the long-deprived Maramagri, who had been denied citizenship for many decades, were finally provided with NRCs (National Registration Cards). Still, it is evident that the authorities remain unwavering in their endeavor to bind minorities such as the Maramagri solely within the confines of Rakhine.
The Burmese military has long been noted for violations of international law. This includes infringements of the right to life, liberty, and security of a person, abuse of freedom of movement, and violations of freedom of religion or belief. Despite the Maramagri people having NRC cards in hand, they still face additional bureaucratic hoops and lack the same fundamental rights even today to freely travel as other minority groups, reinforcing their lack of equality. Even despite the time of democracy that existed before the coup, immigration officers would, on my way to Yangon, always ask me off the bus due to me being identified as Maramagri in the NRC and force me to recite Buddhist prayers, implying it is impossible for me to travel if I practiced a religion different than Buddhism. Besides, they never asked anyone else who was from other majority groups or lacked Indianized features to get off the bus. This clearly indicates the Maramagri people have been and still continue to be subjected to discrimination and injustice.
The deeply ingrained prejudice and pervasive culture of violence directed towards minorities creates not just a plight of systematic structural but also societal injustice, bigotry, and marginalization. Societal discrimination is evidenced in the way minority groups are bullied, exploited, and physically harassed. Reflecting on my own experience, I had to endure not only different forms of physical bullying but verbal harassment with a classmate at one incident telling me “You, Kalar (a discriminatory term often used to refer to those who have Indianized features) are not human”. This particularly reflects one of the myriad causes of double minorities’ well-founded inferiority when there is a sense of hostility and exclusion among younger generations, which can lead to further alienation and division between different cultural backgrounds.
At a time when individuals have the right to expect fair treatment and respect, the inhumane injustices experienced by those from my ethnic group show how far we have yet to go in terms of human rights protections for minorities. I recollect one particular incident when I, a then 8-year-old boy, was brutally slapped in the face by my teacher for something I did not do, favoring the other student from the bigger minority group. Having pre-knowledge from my father (who was also a teacher) about the legal bounds to which a teacher could resort in terms of discipline, that a stick could only be used to administer punishment below the knees without causing harm, I was heartbreakingly dismayed and, despite my stoicism since childhood, I couldn't help but to shed a few tears. This unconscionable behavior from the teacher highlights the pervasiveness of societal discrimination towards minority groups, even in school classrooms. It is even more disheartening to see that a 4th grader was made to experience such discrimination and physical abuse. The restrictions and physical and mental bullying on me, however, are only the tip of the huge iceberg when it comes to the forms of discrimination that double minority people experience.
The plight of double minorities is a tragedy all too often forgotten in the international headlines of inter-communal violence between the Rakhine and the Rohingya. Being much smaller minorities and without the protection of one of the two aforementioned ethnicities – their voices remain tragically unheard. Maramagri, for instance, was the victim of violence and hatred by both the Rakhine and Rohingya groups in Myanmar highly because of their features, language, and religion. In 2012, the residential houses of the Maramagri people were burned down by the Rakhines during communal violence between the two groups, forcing them out of the city, Mrauk Oo. In 2012 and 2017, their villages in Maungdaw were destroyed by the Rohingyas. Due to being a minority within minorities, their plight has gone almost unnoticed and such destruction could even be classified as a form of genocide, given the degree of detriment wrought in the light of their populace’s insignificance and vulnerability.
It is deeply saddening to witness the immense discrimination and violence that minorities within minorities have to endure. Systemic and societal inequalities, prejudice, and physical abuse have been ongoing issues for double minorities. Oftentimes, these vulnerable communities are forgotten in conversations about human rights and are left without protection and justice. While the Burmese military has long been violating human rights and vandalizing minorities' freedom of movement, language, and religion, there is still a long way to go in terms of providing human rights protections for these minorities. It is the responsibility of the international community to ensure that these minority groups receive the same fundamental rights as those from dominant ethnic groups, and work to promote positive cross-cultural dialogue and mutual understanding, not hatred and discrimination. Most importantly, the global community ought to adopt firm and uncompromising measures against the junta for its protracted calculated victimization of ethnic minorities in Myanmar so that justice is fully served.
[1] Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights