The book would also be in tune with the recent open letter to Aung San Suu Kyi from the concerned exiled group of individuals, who coined the phrase that Burma might be “sleep-walking into the abyss of racial hatred and religious bigotry”.

If this description of the present situation is real the more it will be impossible to build a bridge between ethnic and civil nationalism, or should we say, a mixture of harmonious cohabitation through the fusion of commonly accepted national identity – which is still in the making, ongoing and debating among the stakeholders – and civic identity that is anchored in democratic principles and adherence of universal human rights, rather than ethnically based one only.

But it is all the more important to ponder on awareness-building if we are to turn hatred into peaceful cohabitation, if not out of pure love.

Peaceful co-existence, accommodation and cohabitation are only possible, when the majority of the society could clean itself from ethnocentrism and racism, in words and deeds. So long as we are tolerating double-standard or having exception to apply the said values either to one ethnicity or a group of people, racism and ethnocentrism sets in. And then peaceful cohabitation becomes an impossible dream.

In a nutshell, awareness-building that respect humanity and democratic principles are the key to resolve the problems.

Link to the story: The rising tide of hate