Burma’s Missing Dots – The Emerging Face of Genocide

This book is a damning account of the twists and tricks of racists in Burma, including the SPDC, to pervert the history of Arakan to dehumanise the Rohingya people.  It comprises a number of scholarly and assorted articles by Dr. Abid Bahar who has researched the plight of the Rohingya people since 1978, when he witnessed first hand one of the many periods of expulsion of Rohingya from Burma.

Dr. Bahar’s works details the plight of the refugees and also seeks to unearth the history of the Rohingya people, and the attempts over many years to deny the Rohingya citizenship of Burma, and the acts of genocide committed by the SPDC and their cohorts among fascist Rakhine ultranationalists.  

In this book, Dr.Bahar’s version of history gives a rationale for explaining how the Rohingya came to Arakan as early as the eighth century.  This obviously doesn’t sit well with the SPDC whose tame scholars claim that Rohingyas first came to Burma following the first Anglo-Burmese war in 1824-26 – a blinkered reading of historical documents to implement persecution of Rohingya Muslims by the xenophobic SPDC and it’s predecessors.

Dr. Bahar also describes what for me are works more akin to Nazi propaganda than history – the works of Rakhine ultranationalists who persist in demonising Rohingya in attempts to support the SPDC racist theories.  In fact the works refer to Rohingya as a ‘virus’ – a term used by German Nazis when referring to Jews.  I think that this disgusting term when applied to our fellow human beings says all I need to say about the racists who use it!

There are some criticisms of Dr. Bahar’s work; but which mostly do not detract from the thesis: that Rohingya’s are a native people of Burma with as much right to respect and human rights as other peoples of Burma.  Firstly regarding the admittedly controversial aspect of the history of migration of peoples and the timeframe within which Rohingya and Rakhine peoples came to Arakan; Dr. Bahar’s historically valid evidence is slight (as most histories acknowledge) and he calls on word similarities to support his theory – this at best to my way to thinking is of secondary support.  It must be clear to all who study this area of Burma that with written documents few and far between, there is an urgent need for further academic study (preferably by independent scholars respected by all parties) and for archaeological excavations in appropriate places – something which the SPDC will thwart as it promises to uncover their lies and deceptions.

As a collection of articles written over a number of years, there is, unsurprisingly, repetition of much of the material.  It would have been better to Dr. Bahar to produce some more original articles covering other aspects of his work.

Lastly, there are numerous spelling mistakes (including one of dates out by a century!) which can lead to some confusion – better proof-reading, particularly of translated material is essential!

Despite the criticisms, I would recommend this book to anyone truly interested in Burma’s history and in uncovering the history of the Arakan and the Rohingya people.  It certainly uncovers the crude machinations of racists masquerading as democracy activists!

Author: Dr. Abid Bahar
Paperback: 262 pages
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation (6 April 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1441593780
ISBN-13: 978-1441593788

Amazon (UK):          http://www.amazon.co.uk/Burmas-Missing-Dots-Abid-Bahar/dp/1441593780