Some of Harvard’s Muslim population are upset that the newly elected head of Myanmar’s government, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, has been chosen to receive the Harvard Foundation’s 2016 Humanitarian of the Year prize.
Although Suu Kyi began a 15-year house arrest in 1989 for protesting the country’s dictatorship, and then won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her efforts in promoting democracy, the students claim she hasn’t done enough to protect the Rohingya, Myanmar’s Muslim minority.
Harvard Islamic Society Director of External Relations Anwar Omeish said Suu Kyi’s selection was “really jarring.”
“I think for us we see the type of rhetoric surrounding the Rohingya in Myanmar, the similar war on terror rhetoric that creates violence against people across the world and that affects us here,” she said.
“War on terror rhetoric” is responsible for the violence … ?
Harvard Foundation Director S. Allen Counter wrote in a statement that the Foundation has met with a small number of Islamic students who plan to protest Suu Kyi’s visit Saturday.
“We believe that the protest of this distinguished Harvard Foundation guest, who is widely respected by Harvard students and faculty of all ethno-cultural backgrounds, including Harvard Muslim students and faculty, is hurtful to our Burmese/Myanmar students and improper,” Counter wrote. …
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Organizations unaffiliated with Harvard also criticized the award. The Burma Task Force USA, a group that advocates for an end to persecution of the Rohingya, has called and sent emails to the Harvard Foundation to express its concern, according to Media Relations Director Jennifer Sawicz.
“The message [this award sends is] that our educational institutions care far more about surface images than the complex truths,” she said, “Yes, Suu Kyi did fight for democracy and that’s great, but this isn’t a democracy award, this is a humanitarian award.”
Counter counters that the Foundation’s speakers and honorees are chosen from student and faculty nominations, and that “as in all aspects of the Harvard Foundation’s work, [it] focused on the constructive and the betterment of humankind through interethnic understanding and respect.”
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