Recently I had a thought-provoking conversation with one of the Rohingya Muslims in Qatar who had recently fled Myanmar to escape the ongoing turmoil. He told me stories of members of his community being tortured and burnt to death by extremist Buddhist factions. Depressingly, the situation in Myanmar has been worsening in recent months.
In January, it was reported that 48 Rohingya Muslims had been brutally murdered in Rakhine State. As with many previous incidents, the government turned a blind eye towards this outrageous attack.
For Muslims in Rohingya, killings, tortures and starvation have became a horrific reality. The situation has been exacerbated by the recent order made by the Myanmar government to expel several aid groups including Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which had offered medical assistance to nearly 700,000 individuals in Rakhine State. MSF, which had been working in Myanmar for close to two decades, is no longer able to offer help to thousands of desperate Muslims in the country. According to Tom Andrews of United to End Genocide, a US-based activist group, the brutalities that have been taking place in Myanmar are now threatening to become the world’s next genocide.
Myanmar has a reputation as one of the most uncompromising states. Mr Andrews argues that not only has the army failed to safeguard a large number of already persecuted individuals, it has been associated with the use of torture and rape against Myanmar’s minorities.
The army is alleged to have frequently forced Muslim villagers, including children, into unpaid work, even though the International Labour Organization, a UN agency, has repeatedly issued condemnations against such acts. Several reports suggest that many Rohingya women are forced to work as prostitutes by Myanmar’s state forces.
Appropriation of lands owned by Muslims reportedly still persists, particularly farmland in several areas targeted for new villages and Buddhist settlers.
According to the UN refugee Agency, these land appropriations, along with the aggregate impacts of the discriminatory regulations on employment, movement, and educational opportunity, have caused tremendous adversity, heightened poverty and widespread malnutrition among Rohingya communities in Myanmar.
At the same time, it is reported that nearly 140,000 Muslims in Rohingya live in conditions of complete fear, discomfort and seclusion in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
These people have limited access to food, shelter, water and medical assistance.
Even though there are many aid organisations that are ready to offer assistance, the government prevents them from doing so.
The sectarian violence has displaced thousands from their homes. Some have fled to Bangladesh while many have migrated to Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. But none of these countries have welcomed these displaced people with open arms. As a result, a large number eventually go back to Myanmar to face the atrocities.
A frightening increase in religious and ethnic divisions and systematic human rights violations are being inflamed by well-funded anti-Muslim hate campaigns led by Buddhist extremists.
It cannot be ignored that the government has failed to put an end to the atrocities and is, instead, aggressively pursuing more coercive legislation against the Muslim communities.
Moreover, the international community has largely maintained its silence on the situation. Myanmar made several public promises during Barack Obama’s diplomatic visit to Rangoon in 2012. Only a few have become a reality.
Yet, as Mr Andrews puts it, Washington is “doing business as usual” with Myanmar.
In addition, although several human rights groups have called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to press Myanmar to end its inhumane practices, it has barely paid lip service to these requests.
Muslims in Myanmar need real, genuine and serious efforts by both the Myanmar government and the world community to end this ongoing misery.
It is difficult to see when all of this is going to end, but one thing has to be made clear: if all of us remain silent, Myanmar’s Muslims will continue to pay a heavy price.
Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is a freelance writer based in Qatar
Leap of Faith
Michael J Mazarr
Public Affairs
Dh67
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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Villains
Queens of the Stone Age
Matador
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Pakistan squad
Sarfraz (c), Zaman, Imam, Masood, Azam, Malik, Asif, Sohail, Shadab, Nawaz, Ashraf, Hasan, Amir, Junaid, Shinwari and Afridi
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MATCH INFO
Manchester City 1 (Gundogan 56')
Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Solomon 69')