When the NUG’s only Rohingya minister walks away

Guest contributor Shafiur Rahman At the end of July, I exchanged some messages with Aung Kyaw Moe, the Deputy Minister for Human Rights of Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), the shadow administration formed by elected politicians and others opposing the military coup. At the end of our WhatsApp conversation, he cryptically told me that there would be news coming soon. I asked him, “good or bad? ” He replied, “both.” The very next day, he resigned from his post. He was the only Rohingya representative at the ministerial level. In his resignation post, he declared that he can serve the Rohingya better outside the NUG. That is quite a verdict from the person appointed to prove that Rohingya could have a meaningful place inside the country’s democratic opposition. As of August 17, I can find no public NUG statement acknowledging Aung Kyaw Moe’s resignation, accepting it, thanking him, naming an interim successor, or anything whatsoever reaffirming its approach to Rohingya representation. That is significant. His appointment was widely cited as evidence that the NUG had learned from the failures of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), the civilian government ousted in the 2021 coup, and was genuinely committed to building a more inclusive Myanmar. Without doubt, the NUG benefited from Aung Kyaw Moe’s presence. It allowed the NUG to point to a Rohingya deputy minister in meetings with Western officials/donors and human-rights organisations. It could be said that the NUG had moved beyond the chauvinism and denial that helped make the Rohingya so vulnerable under previous governments. Now, suddenly, Aung Kyaw Moe’s departure forces an uncomfortable question for them. Was he brought in to reshape policy, or to make the NUG look better while policy remained effectively unchanged?