아세안

Tracing their history from the ancestors of Arabic seafarers who arrived in Myanmar as early as the 8thcentury, the Rohingyas are Muslim minority groups occupying the western State of Arakan and we reonce considered citizens of Myanmar under the1948 Constitution and civilian administration until the military rule assumed into power in1 962. This study, which looks into the possibility of re-integrating the Rohingyas into a free and democratic society of Myanmar, considers the review of the 1982 Citizenship Law and the effect of this law to the Rohingyas. More specifically, it looks into the provision of the law that renders them stateless, consequently denying most of their basic rights without permission. This study is descriptive and it makes use of available qualitative data. The Rohingyas were not recognised as indigenous group and were excluded from the national government’s list of ethnic nationals. Given the lack of documentation to prove their citizenship, the Rohingyas were marginalised, threatened, and persecuted. The cycle of violence, rebellion, and crackdown of Rohingyas by the government of Myanmar resulted in waves of hundreds of thousands to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh. While some of them are repatriated to Myanmar, others remain in Bangladesh while still others struggle to reach the shores and tried to settle in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, and even Indonesia. For most of the Rohingyas, life became miserable and deplorable after the enactment of the 1982 Citizenship Law. This study also discloses that the Rohingyas can be possibly re-integrated to the mainstream society of Myanmar if the government is willing to do so and if it accepts the Rohingyas as one of the indigenous ethnic minorities of the country. Records in the past show that the Rohingyas are Burmese people; and that being distinct from other citizens of the country, in terms of religion and race, does not satisfy the reason of declassifying them as stateless. Basically, it violates Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that states that everyone has the right to a nationality and no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Lastly, this study reveals t