Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

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Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

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Aung San Suu Kyi no longer an honorary Canadian citizen

October 2, 2018

OTTAWA – In the eyes of Canada’s Parliament, Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s is no longer an honorary Canadian citizen.

The Senate passed a motion on Tuesday to make official and complete what MPs voted to do last week: revoke her honorary Canadian citizenship, over the ongoing Rohingya crisis.

The motion from Independent Sen. Ratna Omidvar called on the Senate to join the House of Commons in calling to revoke her honorary citizenship, recognizing the treatment of Rohingya Muslims by the military in Myanmar as genocide.

Despite international pressure, Suu Kyi has repeatedly failed to condemn atrocities committed by the military against the Rohingya Muslim population. At least 10,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed -- a conservative estimate, according to the United Nations -- while more than 700,000 have been forced to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. The UN has called the situation “textbook ethnic cleansing.” Suu Kyi has said only that it “could have been handled better.”

Last week, MPs agreed unanimously to strip Suu Kyi of the title. She made history, becoming the first ever person to have their honorary Canadian citizenship revoked.

Suu Kyi was honoured by Canada in 2012 for her decades-long fight for democracy in Myanmar. She took the nation’s highest office in 2016, although much of the country’s power has remained with the military.

Both the House of Commons and Senate bestowed honorary citizenship upon Suu Kyi in 2007, and so both chambers of Parliament had to revoke the title for it to be officially considered complete.

“It is my hope that revoking Suu Kyi’s honorary citizenship to this country will allow us to take further steps to address the Rohingya refugee crisis,” Sen. Omidvar tweeted shortly after the Senate adopted her motion.

“It is my hope that revoking Suu Kyi’s honorary citizenship to this country will allow us to take further steps to address the Rohingya refugee crisis,” Sen. Omidvar tweeted shortly after the Senate adopted her motion.

Speaking in the Senate foyer after the motion passed unanimously, Sen. Omidvar said that while it is a symbolic move, it’s not the end of the road.

Only six people have ever been granted honorary citizenship by Canada. That list is now down to five names: Raoul Wallenberg; Nelson Mandela; Tenzin Gyataso, the 14th Dalai Lama; Karim Aga Khan, the Imam of Shia Ismaili Muslims; and Malala Yousafzai.

Sen. Omidvar said that having Suu Kyi maintain the title would be “a slight on the privilege of Canadians and in particular, because honorary citizenship is given so seldom and it’s given only to people who we want to signal, and single out, as leaders in a global world.”

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/aung-sa ... -1.4118459
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Re: Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

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A righteous decision. She's certainly not turned out to be the leader everyone hoped she would.
fountainhall

Re: Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

Post by fountainhall »

I try to think of excuses for her. She sacrificed so much for so long and cultivated the image of the moral leader for her country. I don't believe that was a sham. Equally we know that her power within the country is limited with the Army wielding the real power.

But to stand by silently knowing full well about the slaughter, the rapes, the throwing of little children into fires, the destruction of hundreds of villages and the forcing of not many less than 1 million souls into desperate refugee camps in another country is more than a disgrace. It is the equivalent of her actually approving and taking part. I believe that is close to being a war criminal. It saddens me so much to say that. In my book she has descended into a gutter of immorality.
loke

Re: Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

Post by loke »

But maybe she is not really in control and will be shot if she try to do things differently. Just speculating of course,
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Re: Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

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loke wrote:But maybe she is not really in control and will be shot if she try to do things differently. Just speculating of course,
Oh I think we're all aware she's not in any way "in control". Pretty sure the authorities there would love to have simply shot her many years ago but they know the international condemnation that would bring and the sanctions that would come with it. She is probably the one person in the country who could speak out against these atrocities and live to tell the tale.
fountainhall

Re: Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

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Captain Kirk wrote:She is probably the one person in the country who could speak out against these atrocities and live to tell the tale.
Surely the problem is that she has not said even one word in the year that this genocide has taken place. I realise she must face many restrictions but she was perfectly happy to speak out against the generals when under house arrest. I used to hold her in high esteem. Now I think she is near to a disgrace. Tough words I know. But it's clear she is only prepared to look after the Buddhist Burmese. The Rohingya mean nothing to her.
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Re: Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

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fountainhall wrote:
Captain Kirk wrote:She is probably the one person in the country who could speak out against these atrocities and live to tell the tale.
Surely the problem is that she has not said even one word in the year that this genocide has taken place. I realise she must face many restrictions but she was perfectly happy to speak out against the generals when under house arrest. I used to hold her in high esteem. Now I think she is near to a disgrace. Tough words I know. But it's clear she is only prepared to look after the Buddhist Burmese. The Rohingya mean nothing to her.
Have I been misconstrued? That's what I was saying.
fountainhall

Re: Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

Post by fountainhall »

Not quite, with respect. You suggested she is the one person who could speak out. My point is that she has not spoken out - not one word, whereas she was perfectly prepared to do so during her earlier long periods of house arrest. Also the words I used in my post to describe here were pretty damning.

But we are both on the same page.
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Re: Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

Post by Gaybutton »

fountainhall wrote:But we are both on the same page.
Unfortunately it seems like most of the rest of the world isn't. Has the world learned nothing from The Holocaust? Is the world going to let it happen again?

I don't know what makes anyone think revocation of honors or protests condemning Myanmar will change anything. Why doesn't the UN send in a coalition to put a stop to it and rescue these people? I don't even see Islamic countries lodging protests.

If the world doesn't stop this from happening, these people are doomed. Then we can all wonder who the next ethnic group to be persecuted will be.


"I don't want to forget. I don't want anyone to forget ever. Otherwise in another country, to other people, it might happen again."
- Edith Evans (Dr. Parmentier), 'QB VII'
fountainhall

Re: Canada senate revokes Suu Kyi's honorary citizenship

Post by fountainhall »

I totally agree. And I condemn in the strongest possible terms what has happened to the Rohingya.

But what can the UN or the world do to stop it? After all, they did nothing to stop the evacuation of the Palestinians from their lands. They have done nothing to stop the exodus of 6 million plus refugees from Syria. They have done little to stop the massive emigration crisis from Africa to Europe. And they are now doing nothing to stop the mass emigration of a million or so Venezuelans to other neighbouring countries.

Germany showed immense moral leadership by taking in about 1 million Syrian refugees and permitting them to settle there. But at what political cost to Chancellor Merkel and her party whose term in power may well not last the next election? Nationalism is on the rise in several European countries, especially Hungary where it is largely on the back of the refugee issue - to the point where Hungary is in danger of being thrown out of the EU. Italy has finally stopped taking in boatloads of African refugees. The USA has all but closed the door and its moral leadership in this regard is disgraceful.

Meanwhile, nearly 1 million Rohingya live in utter squalor in camps in the the relatively poor country of Bangladesh. Jordan is not much more economically advanced but it has accepted 1.4 million Syrian refugees of which around 650,000 live in camps. Venezuelans and those from central Africa are desperate to get into any country that will take them.

Elsewhere the Wahabi religious dictatorship in Saudia Arabia fights its proxy war with Shi'a led Iran in Yemen, a country slowly being destroyed. And the world talks, mutters but just sits by and watches while gladly selling arms to whomever will buy them.

It's right that we should ask questions. It's right we should be outraged. It's wrong that we consider it someone else's problem. But as to what we can do about it, no-one seems to have any solution that will be effective short of nuclear war somewhere on the planet.
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