Thank you, Chair.
Thank you for coming.
I'm new on this committee, and I am very new to the situation happening in Burma. It's an eye-opener for me. It's a tragic thing in the history of mankind when a society almost makes another group of society subhuman or non-citizens. We saw this in the United States before the Civil War.
You are suggesting that it's not necessarily religion. It's an attack on your people, similar to maybe an attack on the Jewish people in World War II or the gypsies in Europe. The rest of the country sees no place for you being there. So they're diminishing you and diminishing you as a citizen, technically.
We see this a bit in Indonesia right now. In northern Indonesia, they're doing it with the Christians. You're saying that it's not totally based on religion. It's based on a group of people they don't want in their country.
The United States Department of State says that it is more religion based. But I don't think it really matters what the reason is, because the reality is that your people are being ostracized, your people are being pushed around.
It was mentioned or alluded to that you have a new leader. She's held in quite good regard in the rest of the world. We are thinking that it's an inspiration for not only Burma but also for the region. But you don't have too much optimism about your change of command or change of leadership in Burma. You don't see that your people are going to be all of a sudden.... She is not the Abraham Lincoln who's going to make you equal. Is that the way you sense it?