The Middle Nation

The loud ring tone of my work deck phone startled me. It was from the medical superintendent office. I instantly smelt trouble was on the way but they only wanted me to translate in Myanmar for them. It is very unusual that they ask my help for this matter because they already have an officially appointed Myanmar translator in a phone call away. I gleefully took that as an opportunity to catch up with my country man and eagerly rushed towards his cubicle. The patient was in his late sixties and beside him was a young man of early twenties who seem to be his son. At the door I met puzzled looking Myanmar translator whom I acquainted on several occasions. The patient and his son couldn’t speak a word of Burmese. Because of their look I initially guessed they were from Rachine state ( a western state of Myanmar that share Border with Bangladesh) and unfortunately they couldn’t understand any Rachine dialect. The son who was suspiciously looking at me from the beginning, whispered into to his father in Bangla ( language spoken in Bangladesh and West Bengal of India) cautioning him to be careful with me who is from Myanmar. What they didn’t know was I understand few basic words in Bangla because of my Hindu Bengali Heritage. Then I called Bangla translator who happened to be able to communicate with them. Later the Bengali translator disclosed to me that the patient was from Bangladesh and he took the Usual Pathway to get the refugee status. But he was not willing to explain to me in detail. After next few days, I was able to achieve enough rapport with the family and they explained me the meaning of the usual pathway which is in fact the biggest human migration plot in human history and it left me with disgust and sorrow for my country. It was quite understandable that Bangladeshi people wanted to migrate to Myanmar in 50s and 60s but what I had never understood was why this migration process never cease in present-day Myanmar which is not less miserable and poor as Bangladesh. In some areas we may even lag behind. The reason they came into Myanmar was to use the notoriety of Myanmar and to claim the refugee certificate. There was actually a full package deal and a migration broker made a script ready which usually depict how brutal Myanmar military and local Rachine people are. They smuggled people into Myanmar after series of bribery until they reach southern Thailand and Penang island in Malaysia where subdivision of the gang with the help of influential and clever gangsters , redistribute their people to a third country in most cases either US, UK or Australia. The destination and route are very much dependant on money you can spend and they even have their influence in both Myanmar and International authorities such as United nations. Now the country is under the democratic government ( NLD) and to use the image of the country as a bully is increasingly difficult. Once their Master plan is about to fail because of the report drafted by Kofi Annan et al they started to show their real face which is the reason for present day catastrophe happening in Rachine state. If Myanmar government and military take strong action, they will, with the help of their influence on international media and organization, paint the darker picture of “ miserable lives of Rohingya people” and could smuggled out more people from their country. Undeniably there are two communities, Muslim majority and a handful of local Rachine people staying in close proximity to each other. (Outsiders usually think Buddhists are majority and Muslims are minority but ,in reality, in Rachine state, a strip of coastal land far from other part of the country, Muslims are majority) Some of them are living in Myanmar for several generations. People from both communities were victim of poverty and poor education. Religion was time and again used by various parties to create havoc in the region. On the outside, this is a fight happening because of religious intolerance but what I understand of the situation is the interplay of over years of political mismanagement, bribery, unethical donation claiming practices of multiple NGOs, Human and drug trafficking, which makes my country, an unfortunate middle nation.