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Vol.3, No. 8
ISBN-1096-438X June 20 , 2016
A PUBLICATION OF BUDDHIST RAKHAING CULTURAL ASSOCIATION
NEW YORK CITY, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

www.rakhaingguardian.org

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THE HERMIT CRAB
Maung Tha Hla
Hermit crab, which is a marine invertebrate animal, occupies and carries about empty shell of
other univalve adapting itself to the newly acquired outward appearance. The core parallel is
that the Bengali interlopers who usurped ethnicity of other brought themselves into the
ostensible semblance of a new race as distinguished from what they constitute.
In the case of hermit crab what it does is the nature of things; but what the Bengali immigrants
did hoaxing into a different ethnicity is the brazen deception and intrigue affected by politically
motivated ambition.
Racially referred to by the generic term Dravidians, the alien Bengalis who are beset by identity
crisis, assumed the" Rohingya" ethnicity as the last resort in a series of identity theft in their
efforts to give a legitimate reason for the institutionalization of them as an ethnic minority in
hopes of a good chance to gain bona fide citizenship, paving the way to the advancement
towards the statehood.
As a matter of fact, the factitious name " Rohingya" is not the one and only appellation that the
Bengalis have been gambled with; the identity theft goes back a long way.
Unable to do well in the national politics using the name " Mujahadins of Arakan", which is
anointed with Islamic insignia, several attempts were made by the immigrant Bengali Muslims
to insinuate themselves into local roots, such as "Arakan Muslims", "Rakhaing Muslims" and
even "Rakhaings", without the Islamic emblem.
The indigenous Rakhaings and alien Bengalis are two fundamentally distinct peoples with
different ethnicity and culture.
The Rakhaings are traditionalists and homogeneous. To them being a Rakhaing is Mongoloid by
race and Buddhist by faith. Neither race nor faith alone constitutes the unique breed of Rakhaing.
No Rakhaing professes any other religion but Buddhism.

By the same token, the Bengalis are of the Dravidian stock and exclusively Muslims whose life
was conclusively governed by the deeply ingrained faith.
On this account, to purport the Bengalis as "Rakhaing Muslims" is to expunge the Rakhaingness
in terms of ethnicity and Buddhist identity; in other words the individuality of Rakhaing
Buddhist is transposed into the personality of Bengali Muslims. Therefore, the Rakhaings are
adamantly opposed to the use of the denomination" Rakhaing" being paired with the word
"Muslim" to the advantage of the Bengalis in order to denote them as an ethnic group.
The same goes with the term " Arakan Muslims" or " Arakanese Muslims" since Arakan
represents the Buddhist land of Mongoloid Rakhaings who are denominated as Arakanese.
Besides, the settled Bengalis are just not concentrate in Rakhaing state alone; they have
penetrated into the interior of the nation and fanned out to the Mon, Karen, Shan and Kachin
states. If the Bengali Muslims were to be baptized after each ethnic locality where they reside,
would they be called "Mon Muslims", "Karen Muslims" and so on and so forth, branching out a
variety of ethnic groups from a single Dravidian strain?
Now the controversy over the legitimacy of arrogated ethnicity has gone virile. On the one hand,
the natives abnegated the alleged "Rohingya" ethnicity challenging the validity given the fact
that there had never been recorded in the official documents the existence of a group of Bengali
Muslims by the name of "Rohingya" during the time of Rakhaing monarchy, Burmese
occupation or British Imperial rule; nor did they have historical roots in the land.
On the other hand the demagogic Western proxies, who disputed the historical relevance on the
face of Bengali claim, were blindly engrossed in the perverted mantra exerting that people can
call themselves by any name they wish.
But some names are forbidden for the intent. It may be noted that the name "Nazi" is tabooed in
the free Western society. The word "Zionism" is anathematic to the Muslim world, and the theme
"Reconquista" is reproofed in the United States.
The term "Rohingya", which has been interdicted in Myanmar is just not a name for the sake of
specification but it is a political concept suffused with Islamic separatism laying emphasis on
self-identification of Bengali as a political polity who should have a political place in the Federal
Union of Myanmar and a free Islamic state in Rakhaing state.
The question is that the filthy Bengali tricks have prevailed upon the prejudicial publicists who
rallied solidly behind the Bengalis in support of the belied term" Rohingya", which in the
Bengali vernacular is the inhabitants of Roshan/Rohang, the land of Rakhaing, much the same
as Latinos who are natives of Latin America but do not necessarily belong to any particular
group or race of South America.
3

The Mexican immigrants in the United States are not regarded as a different race just because
they are on the other side of the common border. Likewise, the Bengalis in Rakhaing state do not
make a new race. They are part of the Bengal community across the border. The point is whether
they were brought in as slaves in the days of Rakhaing monarchy or as coolies under the British
colonial rule, or the new-sprung arrivals in the post-independent decades, they are all Bengalis in
blood and spirit irrespective of variance in time and circumstance wherein each group was
involved with ingression.
In perspective the term Bengali is simply defined as the people from Bengal, and the British
colonists called them Chittagonians as they originated from the Chittagong District of Bengal.
But reality asides, the word "Bengali" is execrative to the immigrant Bengalis on the false
presumption that they are treated as interlopers from Bangladesh.
The Bengalis also are indignant being addressed in the cognomen " Kalar" contingent upon the
same being misconstrued as derogatory. The term "Kalar" is the local jargon derived from Pali
word "Kula", which connotes alien race or foreign nation. In a sense it implies the people of the
lands extending from the west of Rakhaing state. The word is further clarified in the essence of
terminology "Kula-Sammegga" which, articulated as "Kula-Thamegga" in Myanmar language,
means "Nations Organization" > United Nations Organization.
In fact nothing is to be whined about the term "Bengali" or "Kalar" unless it is taken for
subjacent connotation constituting the general sense of insult.
The Bengali immigrants might have optated to undergo variety of impersonations making their
case to the advantage of political viability and legal advancement but there is a general
denomination "Muslim", which is affixed to the names such as, " Bengali Muslims", "Arakan
Muslims" and " Rakhaing Muslims".
The word Muslim means an adherent of Islam.* The Bengalis are followers of Islamic religion.
So why should not they take pride of being Muslims as part of the Muslim world, the Ummah
(Arabic), rather than to defile the purity of Islamic ethics by orientating themselves with nom de
guerre of infidels?
In the face of uproarious objection against the word " Rohingya" , which is now under taboo
nationwide and given the opposition to the terms, "Rakhaing Muslims" and "Arakan Muslims"
by the native Rakhaings, the term Muslim is the key to the solution of the terminology issue,
since it is used commonly in Myanmar, thus ameliorating the taunting sensibility that has
wounded both communities.

Agent provocateurs who trade on the "Rohingya" issue weighing heavily against Myanmar
should henceforth nurture a constructive, realistic approach and stop throwing fuel on the fiery
controversy, avoiding the terms abominable to the natives.
The international players who trended idealistic benchmark picking up the human rights mental
presented themselves in a significant vested interest in their role.
Pressuring the people of Myanmar on the ground of human rights violations, vacuously pivoting
the moral compass won't persuade them to accept the fake ethnicity, which was wangled in a
holistic approach to carte blanche citizenship leading to the establishment of the Islamic state
which they pledged to accede to their former homeland, now Bangladesh.
Myanmar a traditional Buddhist land has lately been under criticism blemishing the perfection of
its people, having them charged with discrimination against the Bengali Muslims. The people
might have been accused of being hatemongers and heartless as is the country tarnished having
prejudicially painted it in a much different picture; but on the contrary, it ranks highest charitable
nation among 145 countries according to the Charities Aid Foundation's 2016 World Giving
Index.
By Buddhist traditions the people are reasonable in their attitude towards the nationals of other
countries with different cultures and faiths. But there are limits, practical or otherwise, to the
Buddhist generosity and patience.
The ethical conducts, "none-violence", "loving-kindness", and "not to harm to living beings"
should not be unduly stressed upon the Buddhists to fully abide by the principles, who have an
existential right to defend their nation and their religion as others do.
______________________________________________________________________________
* The Perennial Dictionary of World Religions, Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc., New
1989, pg.508.

York,

*********
Maung Tha Hla is founder president of the Buddhist Rakhaing Cultural Association of the
United States of America. He is the author of THE RAKHAING and ROHINGYA HOAX.