It was a pleasure to read your thought-provoking article.

However, I'm uncertain of what to think of Aung San Suu Kyi's (ASSK's) position.

It is undoubtedly a horrible thing that is happening with the Rohingya population. But ASSK doesn't have significant power to be able to act to do anything about it. The military holds 25% of the seats in the House of Representatives.

Any change to the constitutional position of the Rohingya requires a 75% supermajority in the House, which means that military opposition to such a constitutional amendment would be a no-go, especially because the opposition USDP - who hold 8 seats after the 2020 elections - votes as a bloc with the military.

Add to that the fact that the powerful Buddhist nationalist groups, like Wirathu's 969 Movement, are virulently anti-Muslim.

I think ASSK is caught between a rock and a hard place. ASSK could try to take a strong moral stand for the Rohingya, but she will almost certainly be pilloried by the nationalists and the military for it. She might press harder to try and change the predominantly negative views of Rohingyas in the Bamar majority of the population, but what if her moral authority fails to persuade enough of them to view the Rohingya more favourably? Such a move would run a real risk of undoing many of the hard-won developments since the 2015 elections and, in return, gain very little that would help the Rohingya people.

So, yes, I feel torn between my hope that ASSK would do SOMETHING about it, and my fear that there is very little she alone CAN do.

Either way, the Rohingya get the short end of the stick, which is the biggest tragedy of all.