Perplexing Papal Priority

The dusts of Suhrawardy Udyan have settled down by now.

The much-talked-about papal visit to Burma and Bangladesh has come to an end. The visit created quite a bit of furore both at home and abroad. The Vatican staunchly defended its decision of not allowing the Pope to utter the word “Rohingya” during his Burma visit. Its spokesperson claimed that “the Pope is not going to lose any moral authority” and insisted that “still stands (intact).” Detractors, however, felt the Pope fell short of what was expected of him, given his strong track record of advocating for refugees and migrants. They held that “there should be nothing controversial about the Pope identifying people by the name they want” (Fortify Rights) and felt betrayed that he missed out “an unparalleled opportunity” to bring light to the indiscriminate violence against the Rohingya.

Terming or not terming a group by its preferred self-identification tag is not an issue of simple semantics. Intrinsically tied to this is the question of recognition of a group’s right to self-identification. An important component of Burma’s ruling elite’s genocidal agenda against the Rohingya is the denial of the latter’s self identity. Since the military takeover in 1962, the State in Burma launched a systematic campaign to destroy the Rohingya identity.