NVC: A Masterminded Plan of Alienation

Yan Naing

1. NVC, National Verification Card has just introduced in 2014 by the Myanmar government and has been forcing Rohingya to accept it since 2015. U Then Sein, the president of quasi-democratic government of Myanmar denounced that they did not have Rohingya in them and they had better to be settled in a third country or kept and fed in concentration camps by UNHCR in 2013 aftermath of 2012 state sponsored violence in several parts of Rakhine state.

After decades of attempts to strip off the basic human rights of Rohingya introducing new laws, practices, and subjected specifications against Rohingya, Myanmar government has introduced a new policy to fully alienate Rohingya within their own ancestral country that is none other than NVC national verification card.  The bearer of the NVC means a foreigner who wants to settle or stay within Myanmar territory and have no right to possess any properties, cattle, lands and no right to do business, move freely without prior approval of officials.  The card can only be interpreted as a time frame approved for him/her to stay within specified places until to be issued another official document, naturalized citizenship or associated citizenship card after unknown time of scrutiny. 

2. Myanmar government has introduced new constitutions of law and policies from time to time since its independence in 1948. There are 1948 constitution of law, 1982 citizenship law and 2008 constitution by the military Junta in 2008. Nowhere NVC was mentioned though 2008 constitution has left nothing for Rohingya rights to stand as nationals or legal residents of Myanmar.  Myanmar has already depopulated Rohingya by the launch of different targeted operations and by the implementation of different policies and specifications against them. NVC is the most effective and the latest policy to fully alienate, internally displaced and deport or enslave within their own native country.

3.The Article 9 of the 1948 constitutions of the union of Burma- ” There shall be but one citizenship throughout the union; that is to say, there shall be no citizenship of the unit as distinct from the citizenship of the union”. Myanmar issued two categories of citizenship-; NRC, national registration cards and foreign registration cards and Rohingya were not FRC holders but NRC holders. That means that Rohingya were nationals of Myanmar not foreigners or illegal migrants. In the national radio channel of the union of Burma ” Myanmar Ahthen”, Rohingya language programm was broadcast daily for 15 minutes together with other ethnic languages such Mon, Pa’o language, Lahu and so on.

They were included in the prescribed school and University syllabus books _ geography of class 10 and module no. 1001 of first year Geography in the University of Yangon as one of the ethnic groups of Myanmar and their early existence within the country. They were elected as members of parliament and were voters to choose their own candidates.  No race in Myanmar was superior or inferior than Rohingya, there was but one citizenship except foreigners. And again, Rohingya were not foreigners. Brig. Gen. Aung Gyi, Vice Senior Chief of military, said that Rohingya were their brothers not Bengalis nor illegal migrants in the official speech delivered to the publics in an open-area surrendered of Mujahids in 1962. These are few of the historical points of Rohingya’s indigenous and national status that they enjoyed in Myanmar.

4. Rohingya deny NVC because they are very aware of their future with it in Myanmar. Among the activities upon arrival of the returnees, the first one is to issue NVC. Why do the people need to be verified again and again instead of their early existence? Are the people migrating to Myanmar from other countries or is Bangladesh deporting its people into Myanmar? Because they know that they have successfully deleted and seized the documents of Rohingya identity and early existence via multiple subjected operations against Rohingya and relocation of Rohingya from southern Rakhine to northern most Rakhine Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships who were allowed to take along jewelries with them but not a single piece of paper that will interpret their identity and early existence in Rakhine. Deletion and seizing of family census with Rohingya ethnicity on its column by NASAKA, and reissued a new one with BANGALI on its column of ethnicity. Rohingya will extinct in Myanmar after nearly a decade by holding NVC because it is a land marked policy of genocide. It is a genocide card for Rohingya ethnic minority.

5. Myanmar brainwashes the world community as well as Bangladesh in terms of national verification card that they are going to grant citizenship to Rohingya through NVC process. Why has it become a process to apply for national identity with NVC only for Rohingya and why not for other races who migrated into Myanmar just few years ago? Were there such provisions of laws in Myanmar to apply for national identity with NVC or just enacted a new one specifically for Rohingya? Because there is not a single proof that a non-Rohingya has ever applied/apply for NID with NVC or through its process.

The Myanmar minister for International Co-operation, U Kyaw Tin Swe said in the VOA interview with the Chief of VOA Burmese department, Ko Kyaw Kyaw Thien that they would/could not issue national identity upon arrival and they had procedures what Rohingya would have to go through NVC procedures. After one year of probation, they could apply for national identity.  He added also that all of them are the people in our box-file of immigration office that is a clear-cut reason for Rohingya to deny NVC because it can NOT be granted to those people of Myanmar who have any kind of government official document, those who are white card holders (that cannot be issued to foreigners), and NRC holders.

Those Rohingya who have not at least one kind of Myanmar government official document or not in the file of immigration office or not of their parents’ list in immigration office will be glad to accept NVC and its procedures that they have scheduled for Rohingya inside Myanmar and returnees from Cox’s Bazar camp.