LAHORE: In the morning session at the TkinkFest, Azeem Ibrahim who has authored a book on the Rohingya, talked about their history, and how they got in the state that they are in today, and spoke of the current situation and the solutions.

He told of the time he had been smuggled into Myanmar where he researched on the community, and later wrote about them. He discussed the violence that they were subjected to.

It was in September when the new wave of ethnic cleansing started and eventually about a million were displaced to Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazaar where they were now living in temporary camps.

In 2015, Azeem was smuggled into Myanmar, where he studied the Rohingyas, who lived in massive camps and were deprived of basic human rights along with everything else. They did not even have permission to marry, because the state would not grant them so.

“Despite the level of brutality they have faced, the Rohingyas are the softest people I have ever met, and they do not have a shred of resentment or violence inside them,” he said. “They do have a significant amount of frustration inside them.”

Slowly the authorities have militarised the areas where the Rohingyas have been living.

“The majority of Myanmar follows a Buddhist sect called the Theravada, which is a militant form of Buddhism and has warped ideas about anyone not belonging to this school of thought,” he explained. “Their belief is that the Rohingyas in fact are only subhuman, and are in fact half insects, so cleansing them means that it’s a good thing. Aung San Suu Kyi also belonged to this sect,” he added.

But it has been a long-term dehumanisation process which has led to this kind of thought. Suu Kyi does not even call them Rohingyas, she calls them ‘those in the Rakhine’.

Suu Kyi, he said, may not be controlling the military but she does support them and didn’t step down either.

“Unfortunately the UN has failed in this regard,” he said. “Myanmar has signed agreement with Bangladesh saying they will take some of the refugees back, but that’s no solution. They will all be sent back to nothing, because their villages have been burnt, and they will face more hatred,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tariq Khosa, Ali Cheema and Hassan Abbas gathered together to discuss policing and counter-terrorism at a session moderated by Ejaz Haider. They agreed that without effective policing there could be no effective counter-terrorism strategy.

Haider asked the panel if the police force was decentralised or centralised as their organisational structure, and what was their functional structure.

Mr Khosa, gave background of the subject saying the modern police force was designed in 1829 in London, which previously had only watch and ward officer, and if things went bad then military had to be called in. When the new system came about, a separate investigation wing was launched and later the Scotland Yard was founded.

Basically, the police were now regarded as a public service, not a “force”, he said.

In the aftermath of 1857 war of independence, the British modeled it after Irish constabulary, he added.

He said following the partition the colonial style police that was meant to suppress the natives was followed blindly till 2002 when the Police Order came about.

The new order was based on the premise that police should not be politicised.

In short, he said, the police should have been controlled by a democratic and independent institution not a political government.

Hassan Abbas who has served from 1995 to 2000 as a PSP officer said it was ignorant to push the police aside when making a counter-terrorism strategy because it was the police who knew more on the grassroots level about what was happening and about the groups operating. “They have more information than those working in the highest levels,” he said. “Counter terrorism and police are linked because of the law enforcement model.”

All the panelists agreed that the police did have a culture of impunity and corruption and the whole system was the reason, but a lot of higher officer who were known for their integrity should push for change more.

Dr Ali Cheema, who has recently researched with senior police officer Zulfiqar Hameed on urban crime, said the changes are needed in both the counter-terrorism strategy and the police.

Mr Khosa said both the military and the civilian governments had failed in designing the basic counter-terrorism policy because they had ended up militarising it, when in fact the military’s part should have come last. “A long term perspective is needed which is just not there,” he said. He said it was impotant to develop a local government model as well and police professionalism had to be enhanced.

No change would come without political will, he concluded.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2018