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Lecture | Ethnic cleansing in Myanmar: How could this happen? | Gerry van Klinken
15/03/2018 @ 17:15 - 18:15
WHAT’s NEW?! Spring Lecture Series: Ethnic cleansing in Myanmar: How could this happen? By Gerry van Klinken.
The cognitive dissonance shock of 2017 was the ethnic cleansing against Muslim Rohingya by Myanmar soldiers and militias. This is a nation that adheres overwhelmingly to the Buddhist religion of the “liberating insight,” that defies the military to elect as their First State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize-winner whom they respectfully call “The Lady.” That nation then engages in “textbook ethnic cleansing” (according to the United Nations). Despite a barrage of criticism from outside the country, within Myanmar the military is now more popular than ever.
The atrocity not only represents a moral puzzle, it raises serious questions about democracy and citizenship in Myanmar, indeed in the Global South. In this lecture we ask how this could happen, what it means for democracy in Myanmar today, and what, if any, difference we in Europe can make.
WHAT’s NEW?! is a lecture series organised by LUCIS and the department of Middle Eastern Studies. The lectures focus on current research on Islam and the Middle East.