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Aung San Suu Kyi did not deserve Nobel Peace Prize: Jimly
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This picture taken on Aug.25 shows ethnic Rakhine people fleeing from a conflict area in the Yathae Taung township in Rakhine State in Myanmar. The impoverished western state of Rakhine, which neighbours Bangladesh, has become a crucible of religious hatred focused on the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, who are reviled and perceived as illegal. immigrants in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. (STR/AFP/File)
M
yanmar Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has come under fire amid the ongoing violence against Rohingya people in Myanmar that has reportedly left hundreds dead and thousands of other displaced in the Buddhist-majority country.
Former Constitutional Court chairman and Islamic scholar Jimly Asshiddiqie has said that Suu Kyi did not deserve to receive the Nobel peace prize that was awarded to her in 1991.
“She did not fight for humanity but only for herself,” Jimly said after an Idul Adha prayer at the Al Azhar mosque in Jakarta on Friday as quoted by kompas.com.
Read also: RI distributes aid to Rohingya as govt continues pressure
The Guardian published an article about the criticism from more than a dozen Nobel laureates toward Suu Kyi for the military crackdown on the Rohingya minority.
An open letter to the UN security council from a group of 23 activists, published on the Facebook account of Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2006, warned that "the army offensive had killed of hundreds of people, including children, and left women raped, houses burned and many civilians arbitrarily arrested."
Meanwhile, anti-corruption activist Emerson Yuntho has initiated an online petition to request a retraction of Suu Kyi's Nobel Prize.
Jimly also urged Buddhists in Indonesia and the rest of the world to care about the Rohingya.
Jimly said a report published by The Advisory Commission on Rakhine State initiated by former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan was a good start, but that a cultural movement was also needed.
“[The role of] Buddhist figures is important. It would influence internal politics [in Myanmar]," he said. (dra/bbs)
