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I am writing this message in an attempt to shed some light on the poster that appeared in the tent on Monday night. As many of you already know, the poster was made by Ella (G12) and myself. There are many aspects that I would like to address so if you are curious please read on; a fair warning though, there is a lot to get through.
Why we put up the poster:
To start off, I’d like to apologise for the misunderstanding around the intended audience behind the poster. I understand that it may have come across as a direct attack towards the UWCSEA administration, however, our intentions were to provoke thought and discussion amongst the whole UWCSEA community. This is due to the frustration we felt about the lack of dialogue after our UWC Days, Focus Days, and Write for Rights campaign. The Rohingya Refugee Crisis is a cause that I feel very deeply for. It has been the subject of numerous UWC Days and has been extensively studied by all grade groups. It is extremely disheartening, however, to see UWCSEA to continue to engage with Myanmar, by sending students to SEASAC there for example, especially when the human rights violations occurring are firmly against everything we stand for as a school.
Our mission statement reads:
“The UWC movement makes education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future.”
The purging of an ethnic minority, and our school’s tolerance for it, goes against all of our schools values of peace, justice and understanding. Therefore, I wanted to spur conversation so we as a community could bring about change in regards to our school’s stance on countries that commit human rights violations on such an immense scale. This is why we put the poster up; we were aware that the timing was not ideal. We understood that the SEASAC destination was already put into place and the teams would be leaving by the end of the week. Our aim wasn’t for there to be an immediate change, as that would have been impossible since fees had already paid. Instead, we aimed to create dialogue within the school community as teams were getting ready to depart.
The contents of the poster:
Ella and several other students put up the poster on Monday night. By Tuesday morning it had been wheeled to the High School office. We were told that we were not able to put it back, and proceeded to arrange a meeting with Ms Bray in order to discuss both the poster, and the wider moral and ethical issues regarding our schools stance on travelling to Myanmar. At the meeting, Ms. Bray explained that certain aspects of the poster were considered to be inflammatory, and had inadvertently hurt students. Ms. Bray felt that our poster polarised the community: by expressing our views, it left those who did not agree to be excluded in the dialogue. This was not the intent and we thought that we were combatting this with our original question at the bottom of the poster - Why? This is why when we restructured the contents of the poster, a broader question was asked leaving more room for discussion. As a few of the terms in the poster sparked controversy, I would like to clarify why we specifically chose to include these.
“UWCSEA has failed to use its voice”:
The biggest issue surrounding this phrase was interpreted as referring to the school’s heads of administration. Although I understand why this is so, this was not the intention. This statement referred to the UWCSEA community as a whole who, in my opinion, has failed to speak up about the injustices. I believe that it is a ‘failure’ because as students, we have talked at great lengths about awareness, but failed as a community to take action. We are a community committed to care, but have failed to have a dialogue on our role in supporting this regime. We have discussed this issue wholeheartedly for one day, but failed to engage with the issue beyond that one day. Despite not being the intended subject of our poster, in my eyes, the heads of administration are at fault as well. Their position, as explained by Ms. Bray, mirrors Singapore’s position on the matter, which is to work with Myanmar to ensure lines of communication do not close and to exert a positive influence on the country. We have had many opportunities to begin to create change, and spark discussion within the wider community of international schools. Last year at the end of the academic year, a SEASAC meeting was held during which we could have offered to hold events scheduled for Myanmar at our own campus. We did not take this opportunity. This issue has now been put forward as a topic of conversation for the next SEASAC AGM. The failure, to me, lies with the fact that none of this was communicated to the student body. Ms. Bray recognises this flaw and hopefully, any future advancements will be shared with us so no misconceptions arise relating to how the college handles the situation. As far as I understood, Ms. Bray’s view is that UWCSEA is creating a steady push within the confinements of what they can do at the moment. However, I stand with my belief that UWCSEA has failed, and I understand that others believe that this is too strong of an evaluation.
“77% of G9s”:
These statistics were attained through the survey results of this year’s G9 UWC Day and appeared on our poster in attempt to display the will of part of the student body. The reason why this part was omitted in the second poster was for two reasons. The first was that the votes were submitted by tutor group: this means that not every individual’s voice was accounted for and therefore not an accurate representation of the will of the student body. I accept this reasoning and admittedly it slipped my mind when making the poster. The second was that, according to one of the G9 Heads of Grade that was present at the meeting, some students believed that the vote was a hypothetical; they did not think that their opinion would influence any action. From what I’ve heard this is debatable: some were aware of the impact and hoped that their vote would inspire change, while others did not think it would be taken into account. What I find especially saddening about this, is that when asked a question about our stance and how they feel about it, some students do not think that their opinion matters.
To the SEASAC athletes:
I am aware that many athletes felt that they were the targets of the poster, and this was not the intention. Although I wish that students would take the initiative to not attend the event, I understand why this would not have been possible. Athletic scholarships, pre-paid fees and plenty of B and C team players to replace them, these are only a few of the reasons that I (someone who isn’t going through the same process and thus has limited knowledge) could think of that would prevent an athlete from not attending. I understand the limitations. I want to clarify that our quarrel is not with the student athletes, nor with the students from ISY (host school), or with SEASAC. We aren’t campaigning against these people - we are campaigning against our school’s involvement with any country that violates human rights concerns. The current political situation does not change the fact that I have tremendous respect for the students athletes and that I support them in their endeavours.
To the Burmese Students:
The Burmese students may have felt targeted by the contents of the poster. This is understandable - it is unpleasant to have your peers scrutinize your country, especially when it makes up a large part of your identity. I have nothing against any Burmese person and did not intend to hurt any students, however, I do want to say the following: as a UWC student, we should not be offended by anyone’s views, but rather, take it as a learning opportunity, as it is a matter of their own opinion, such as this post is of mine. When it comes to ‘superpowers’ - powerful countries that have a strong presence in international media, such as the US, people aren’t afraid of sharing whatever opinions they have on the political situation. This is because we hold these countries accountable - but it seems more difficult to do the same when we switch the focus to Asian countries, or to countries that form ethnic minorities. I think this is because these countries were not founded on western ideals, therefore making it difficult for people to hold them accountable due to cultural relativity, and the lack of information we have on such countries. However, it has never been easier to stay informed in 2018. We can read up on a country’s history, traditions and culture in a matter of a few Google searches. I encourage everyone to do so, as not only am I able to hold my government accountable for its actions as an American, but I can also do so for any country that is hindering the human development and rights of its people.
So, to the Burmese students: I understand that you are not a representative of your country and I apologise for the scrutiny you may have faced due to this poster.
Steps to take:
UWCSEA’s position, as aforementioned, mirrors Singapore’s. Singapore operates within ASEAN, which wants to leave lines of communication open and exert a positive influence over Myanmar. The two sides, in my views, are as follows: Operating from the inside means that we continue to participate in SEASAC, funding the government in hopes that the money isn’t mismanaged and that it is put to constructive uses to rebuild the economy. After all, historically we have seen that extreme parties have emerged from poverty (ie. the communist parties in Russia) and if economic contribution means that the country has an opportunity to rebuild itself and cease the ethnic cleansing, why not? However, this has been the approach for two years, and matters have only gotten worse. I understand that change does not occur overnight, but will it ever?
The other option is to open dialogue with all SEASAC schools, regarding our issues and our desire to not support Myanmar during this period of violence, thus sending out an international statement condemning the actions.
To me, the latter is the more ethical, moral and more in keep with what our school values are. The most important step forward is to open lines of communication between the heads of administration and the student body. This allows us to be informed of the changing views our school holds towards the crisis and allows us to get involved in issues that concern us.
We should also keep the dialogue open between students, the views that have been expressed have all been valid and well argued. It’s been very exciting to witness the student’s voice grow in such a manner. If you have read until here, I thank you for your time.
Notice:
The above are my personal views in which I have attempted to express them to the best of my ability. If there are any issues you find with this, please feel free to contact me. Once again, these are my opinions I do not wish to spread hate. I respect anyone’s opinion on the matter and can only hope that people respect mine. I have tried my very best within this process to keep the importance of mutual respect at the forefront of all decisions.
Finally, I want to thank all of those who participated in spreading the message. Whether this was by designing a sticker or proudly wearing it, writing on the poster or sharing your views online - it all added up to strengthening our student voice and taking our own action. We should strive to create more opportunities like this in our community when we see injustices in the world we must speak up. Holding a mirror to our own community's complacency and to the actions that make us complacent, is the hardest mirror to look into. It takes courage. It is difficult. It is confronting. These are the conversations that we, and the world needs to have. They are why we as an institution exist. And we're not done having them.
To learn more about the issue, check out our other two posts on the Rohingya Crisis