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ROHINGYA MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT (MPS) IN BURMA
By SU Ahmad – Arakan Magazine, September 2009
Today some people are branding that Rohingyas are Stateless people. The present military regime SPDC is saying that Rohingyas are not citizens of Burma as they are not included in so called 135 recognized ethnic people. Some Rakhine activists inside and outside have been propagating that Rohingyas are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. If these all are true, why, Rohingya can elect their own representative(s) after exercising their voting rights since pre-independence of Burma until SPDC held election in 1990, the latest election in Burma.
In the first election of 1936 the remarkable point is that Mr. Gani Markan was elected from the Community of “Burmese national” category. Thus, Rohingya were enlisted as Burmese nationals. Mr. Sultan Mahmood was Minister of Health in U Nu’s Cabinet. Mr. Sultan Ahmed was Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Minority with the status of Deputy Minister. He was one of the longest serving parliamentary secretaries. Mr. Abdul Gaffar and Mr. Abul Bashar were also Parliamentary Secretaries in Health Ministry. National Democratic Party for Human Rights” (NDPHR) was founded on 28-10-1988 by the Rohingya community in Arakan.The NDPHR took part in 1990 general election at 9 constituencies and won 4 parliamentary seats in the election, two at Maungdaw and two at Buthidaung while the fifth promising Candidate from Akyab (Sittwe) Constituency (1) U Kyaw Hla Aung, an advocate was arrested just some days before the election on a conspiracy by the local authority against him.
Finally, the majority Rohingya in Akyab voted for U Shwe Ya, the candidate of Kaman National League for Democracy (KNLD) an alliance-party of NDPHR making the fifth Muslim elected member in Arakan State. One important point is that all the candidates had to undergo a “scrutiny of citizenship” by especially Scrutiny-Commission formed with personnel from Immigration and Manpower Department and other authority concerned before the election. All those Rohingya candidates had passed the Citizenship-Scrutiny as well. U Fazal Ahmed an elected MP from NDPHR was arrested and sentenced for 5 yearsimprisonment with a false accusation that he has contact with insurgent groups. U Kyaw Min (a) Anwarul Haque who was elected from Buthidaung North from NDPHR and also a member of Committee for Representing People’s Parliament (CRPP)was sentenced to 47 years on various false charges by the present military regime. His wife and two daughters were also sentenced to seventeen years each.
Under the 1989 Election Law all citizens are eligible for voting and contesting, but associate citizens and naturalized citizens are not allowed to stand for elections. Thus, allowing the Rohingyas to vote and stand for the national election must be upheld as the recognition of Rohingyas as bona fide citizens of Burma. The Rohingya played an important role in the political arena of Burmese history. It is quite clear evidence that the Muslim of Arakan or the Rohingya have exercised the inborn rights of a citizen in their ancestral homeland for all those long years on the basis of equal footing with the rest of the ethnic communities of Burma.
1) Before independence -The Election – 1936 After the separation of Burma from India in 1935, the “Di-Archy” system was replaced by a ruling system called “91-Tana (Departments administration) . In that system, for 132 seats, a total of 132 members were elected from various communal backgrounds as below. In this election, two Rohingya were elected. The remarkable point is that those two members were from the Community of “Burmese national” category and they represented the Burmese national and not the Indian or any other group.
2) The Election in 1939 : In this election, only one member was elected from the Rohingya Community from the category of “Burmese national”. (Note: The result of this election was not taken into action due to eruption of Second World War).
3) The General Election for Constituent Assembly in 1947 : This election was organised just before the independence, mainly by the participation of U Aung San. This time, Buthidaung and Maungdaw had two separate constituencies.
4) The election in 1951 : Since this time on, Maungdaw and Buthidaung have had two constituencies par each. (Note: Daw Aye Nyunt @ Zura Begum was one of the two first woman-parliamentary members in the election-history of Burma).
5) The election in 1956 : In this period of time, the two townships, Maungdaw and Buthidaung had one constituency of Upper-House for the first time.
6) The election in 1961: In this stage, the Rohingya community involved more actively in politics. For the first time, one of the Rohingya elected member became a cabinet minister of Prime Minister U Nu’s government. He was U Sultan Mahmood charged for the ministry of Education and health. U Abul Bashor, elected member of Buthidaung constituency (2) became the Secretary.
7) Phithu Hluddaw Election in 1974 (U Ne Win’s Era ): In the era of U Ne Win too, the Rohingya exercised the voting and representing rights in the Phithu Hluddaw Election and in the election of different level of Phithu Council. Likewise, lots of Rohingya dignitaries were endorsed in the Burma Socialist Programme Party and they held higher positions too.
8) Phithu Hluddaw Election in 1978: At this stage, Rohingya were subjected to the discriminatory measure initiated by the Socialist Party and local authority of Rakhine community. They started to take the initiative to deprive the fundamental rights of Rohingya community and thus since on the Rohingya were marginalized from the Phithu Hluddaw Election. Though there was only one Rohingya member elected in this election from Maungdaw, none from Buthidaung. The Rohingya were excluded to participate in the Phithu Hluddaw elections of 1982 and 1986. However, still some Rohingya were seen at lower levels of Phithu Council and Socialist party.
9) Multi-Party Democracy General Election – 1990 : The Four elected members of NDPHR were as shown below: 1. U Kyaw Min @ Shomshul Anwarul Haque – Buthidaung ( 1 ); 2. U Tin Maung @ Nur Ahmed – Buthidaung (2); 3. U Chit Lwin @ Ibrahim – Maungdaw (1); 4. U Fazal Ahmed – Maungdaw (2).
