Myanmar – The Structural System of Exclusion

(Insight Myanmar) Mohammed Siraj, a Rohingya researcher, political analyst, educationist, and aspiring legal scholar, is currently a refugee residing in Bangladesh. His work primarily focuses on citizenship, constitutional reform, education, and human rights. He has taught in refugee camps and led projects at the Rohingya Academic Research Institute. Furthermore, he has studied the oppressive legal and political structures that he believes have led to the Rohingya crisis. From the outset, his main argument has been clear: the Rohingya crisis is not merely a humanitarian emergency, but a political and institutional predicament deeply rooted in discriminatory laws, particularly in Myanmar's citizenship framework and constitutional arrangements. His personal life reflects the hardships and suffering faced by his ethnic group. Siraj once aspired to be a doctor, but his family was forced to flee from Myanmar to Bangladesh during the mass exodus of the Rohingya population due to military atrocities, forcing him to change his ambition. Despite limited educational opportunities within refugee camps, he continued his studies and later pursued research-related training. He also faced legal barriers due to his statelessness. Even when he received offers for university admissions, he could not utilize these opportunities due to the lack of a passport or other travel documents. His shift from medicine to law was, in his view, because the law has shaped and created structures that systematically exclude Rohingya from citizenship, political participation, and protection. Siraj repeatedly highlights the issue of statelessness, describing it as one of the biggest barriers in his life. This is because it restricts mobility, blocks access to university education, and narrows future prospects even before a student can make meaningful choices. He attended the University of the People, an online university, but he states that this path is merely a temporary solution rather than a true answer to the larger problem. Generally, the deeper barrier for Rohingya students remains their legal status. Without citizenship, passports, or recognized school-leaving certificates, accessing higher education will continue to be difficult. His research work is also based on these conditions. At the Rohingya Academic Research Institute, a community-based education and research organization in refugee camps, he analyzes and supervises projects aimed at enabling Rohingya to document their history and rights in their own voices. He says that the organization is run by volunteers and, despite a lack of resources, has significant academic aspirations. Its goal is both educational and political, empowering the marginalized community to articulate their own narratives rather than relying entirely on others to interpret their experiences. Siraj strongly emphasizes that clear ethical standards, such as protecting the safety and anonymity of participants, must be followed in such research work, especially when documenting experiences of violence, displacement, and discrimination.