Myanmar Times deletes article accusing media of aiding ‘terrorist groups’

Try opening www.mmtimes.com/news/truth-about-rakhine-will-prevail.html
Try opening www.mmtimes.com/news/truth-about-rakhine-will-prevail.html

The Myanmar Times has deleted an article that accused mainstream media of “exaggerating the exodus of Bangalis from Myanmar,” confusing “the villains and the victims,” and “providing a smokescreen for the activities of terrorist groups.”

“Truth about Rakhine will prevail” went online at around 9am this morning and was deleted nine hours later. (A cached version is available here.)

It was written by Daw Khin Thida Aye, whose bio says she is a Myanmar diplomat and a PhD candidate in international relations at the Australia National University’s Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs.

In her screed, the author also accuses mainstream media of ignoring the magnitude of the attacks perpetrated by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on August 25, the “tens of thousands of houses” ARSA has burned, as well as the suffering of Rakhine and Hindu civilians in Rakhine State.

She argues that the misinformation being disseminated by journalists about the Rakhine crisis is perpetuating the conflict. “International policy and investment are supporting the villains and fertilizing terrorist breeding grounds,” she writes.

As a solution, she proposes that the “long-misguided policy of the rest of the world toward Myanmar must be reevaluated and recalibrated to fight against ARSA and other terrorist groups.”

“The international community needs to pay careful attention in order to differentiate between fact and fiction in the media. In this way, its policies toward Myanmar will be sound, its money will support peace-loving people, and our shared values of humanitarian aid and human rights will be saved from the terrorist threat,” she concludes.

Many of these opinions are widely shared by people around Myanmar, including by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, so we’re not so surprised The Myanmar Times published the piece. Why, though, did they delete it?

Furthermore, do Daw Khin Thida Aye’s opinions on the Rakhine crisis reflect the intellectual standards, or some secret information, held by the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs?

We’ve reached out to both the paper and the school, and we’ll post an update when we get a response.

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