Bangladesh should have some kind of mechanism to counter Myanmar’s propaganda to let the whole world know about the truth of Rohingyas.
“We need to have a platform to counter the false narrative of Myanmar,” said former Bangladesh envoy to China and Chairman of Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies Munshi Faiz Ahmad.
It can be a state-sponsored platform or a private sector platform, he added. “This platform will identify each of the propaganda and nullify it based on facts and figure.”
He proposed that as a government cannot say all the things, the private sector platform can fill up the gap and produce counter narrative.
Myanmar’s State Counsellor and de-facto leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi’s office on Jun 20 published a press release saying, “The State Counsellor also pointed out that the hate narratives from outside the country has driven the two communities further apart and stressed the need to focus on how to resolve the issue with forward looking approach.”
It is clear that by saying ‘hate narratives from outside the country’, she meant Bangladesh.
Munshi Faiz said, “We always told them to stop the hate narrative among themselves and have harmonious life. Now they are propagating that we are spreading hate narrative.”
He said there was no hate campaign in 1962, but even then the military junta took a sharp anti-Rohingya stance resulted in first influx in 1978.
“In 1992, there was another influx of Rohingyas to Bangladesh in absence of hate narratives from outside the country,” he added.
Former Bangladesh defence attaché to Myanmar Md Shahidul Haque said, “I can say from my experience, Myanmar has very powerful propaganda machine which can beat the Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry.”
Citing example, he said in 2012, when he was posted in Myanmar, a riot broke out in Rakhine and a picture was published in the mainstream media showing that a Rohingya was throwing some liquid with a bucket to a burning house and the caption was that man was throwing fuel.
“We later knew that the man was trying to douse his house with water and most interesting thing is that the picture got national award,” he said.
He said now people don’t believe their propaganda.
Facebook is also taking measure to block the hate campaign propagated by the Myanmar people, he added.