It doesn’t take much to spark a protest in Yangon these days.
This time, all it took was a word (albeit a controversial one).
A coalition of nationalist monks were angry with the embassy after it issued a statement using the word Rohingya to refer to Muslims living in Rakhine State.
The statement was a message of condolence to those who died in a ferry accident earlier this month off the coast of the state.
But the patriots don’t recognize the word and neither has the government, insisting that the Muslim minority is from Bangladesh and should be called “Bengali.”
It’s a somewhat familiar grievance, but the US has rarely been at the focus of it, even though it has frequently used the term. US President Barack Obama has also not shied away from the word.
Nothing really happened yesterday. Wearing anti-Rohingya garb, waving signs and shouting slogans, they stayed for a few hours and left peacefully.
The US embassy did not back down from the word, telling Myanmar Now that everyone has the right to self-identify.
