Zee JLF 2018 | Empathy may distort the understanding of subject; says Praveen Swami

Gathering at the Mughal Tent was moved as Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, Jeffery Gettleman narrated harrowing tales of Rohingya refugees. Such stories Gettleman as a journalist to have closely encountered the humanitarian crisis said were routine in Myanmar.

Upholding his job as journalist to be of ‘empathy generation’ he attempted to gather the same for the Rohingyas at the literature festival, in hope that this may lead to change in their grief struck condition. Even as the entire panel agreed to the Rohingyas to have been victim of horrendous atrocities, there was contradiction on the empathy generation. Another journalist Praveen Swami had an alternate approach to the subject. He said that such empathy generation attempts often distort the public understanding of the subject and consider the other side of the story.

However, there was none at the dais that was to defend the Myanmar army or the Nobel laureate state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi. Journalist Nick Perry said that not only she avoided to use ‘parliamentary majority’ to apply pressure on the army, the state media that Suu Kyi holds influence on ‘was instrumental in fermenting violence against the Rohingyas’. However, all of them agreed that it will be a long while and even take generations before the crisis settles.