The CBS weekly show 60 Minutes has finally released its story about Myanmar.
In the works for months, the report is called “The New Burma,” using the country’s old name. Unfortunately, there’s not much “new” about the piece, which is more of a backgrounder.
However, longtime 60 Minutes Correspondent Bill Whitaker does conduct good interviews with Aung San Suu Kyi, President Thein Sein and, of course, hardline monk Wirathu, who has probably been approached more times by the media than Suu Kyi and Thein Sein put together at this point.
As usual, Wirathu pulled no punches.
When asked, “Do Muslims have a place here in Burma?” Wirathu said something so explicit and inflammatory that Whitaker had to paraphrase it.
“We can’t repeat his actual response, it’s R-rated,” Whitaker says. “But essentially he said, ‘Muslims were defecating on Burma, threatening its very existence.’”
“You don’t like them very much,” Whitaker responds.
“I don’t accept them,” Wirathu says, adding later that Muslims “will only be satisfied when the whole world converts to Islam.”
He also called Suu Kyi “useless” and dismissed the Dalai Lama as nothing more than a power broker whom he doesn’t respect.
Like we said, not much new here. In fact, the taping of the interview with Wirathu seems to have taken place earlier this year.
Photo / Wikicommons
