A video posted on YouTube on December 2 shows Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi speaking to members of the Myanmar diaspora in Singapore and laughing along with her audience at ‘external fabrications’ about the Myanmar government.
In the video, we hear Suu Kyi read out a question submitted on paper by a 28-year-old audience member, which asks the Lady how she interprets ‘external fabrications’ that pose challenges to her government.
The video was uploaded by user Haikal Mansor, whose channel includes over a dozen videos about the Rohingya and a few others about human physiology. The video’s subtitles claim that the unspecified ‘external fabrications’ refer to reports of a ‘Rohingya ethnic cleansing and genocide’.
“Can these fabricators succeed? As your children, what types of preparations do you think we should be undertaking…. Please let us, your children, know your views on these fabrications,” the audience member asks.
The question ends with the petitioner signing off as “Your loving son and good Burmese citizen, who has been supporting you since the age of 8 – in 1996.”
At that point, Suu Kyi and her audience break out into laughter.
In her response, Suu Kyi says: “The fact that you already know these to be ‘fabrications’ is already of major help to our government. If they are playing these tunes of fabrications, you just play your own tune back to them. In the end, what matters is that we are not swayed or influenced or buying into these fabrications.”
“Let me stress this: as long as our Burmese public do not buy into these fabrications, these fabrications cannot really become any serious problem – beyond them becoming really annoying.”
Then, after applause from her audience, the State Counsellor shifts gears slightly.
“But at the same time, all governments and all leaders can make mistakes. If our government needs to make changes in the way we govern, I request you all, the public, to come forward boldly with suggestions and ideas that rest on good intentions,” she concludes.
While most commenters on the video hurled slurs at Suu Kyi and questioned the value of her Nobel Peace Prize, at least one took issue with the video editors’ interpretation of the exchange as being related to the Rohingya.
“Arbitrary subtitles. The topic was all about fabrication. Very generalized. Subtitles in the blanket make it specific to fake news of Rohingya,” the commenter wrote and later deleted, according to another commenter.
Referring to reports of human rights abuses against the Rohingya as fake news or external propaganda is among the favorite strategies used by Buddhist nationalists in Myanmar to delegitimize the Rohingya and absolve the Myanmar government of guilt in their persecution.
Though it’s true neither the audience member nor Suu Kyi mention the Rohingya in the video, what are the chances this reference to fake news is a reference to an etirely different sort of so-called fake news in Myanmar?
