"The immediate Rohingya migration crisis ? of gangster criminality, vessels set adrift, people starving and bodies exhumed ? is galvanising action among those who can?t accept such evil. Efforts to avert these humanitarian tragedies must be supported. But we cannot ignore the source of the problem right here in Myanmar, where northern Rakhine State has become inhospitable to its Muslim population. It does not help that Rakhine State remains the second-poorest administrative division of Myanmar, and lacks almost all social and physical infrastructure. Seeking to placate a vocal and sometimes violent Rakhine Buddhist element, the Myanmar government has disavowed responsibility for the Rohingya. The fact that many thousands of Rohingya voted in Myanmar?s 2008 constitutional referendum and then again in the 2010 general election makes it hard to accept at face value the claim that they are ineligible for the privileges granted to the country?s other ethnic and religious minorities. What really sets them apart is their Islamic faith, Bangla language and physical appearance. They are judged harshly as foreigners who can never belong among Myanmar?s official national race groups, of which there are 135..."