Against the unsatisfactory result for the 2012-13 educational year, over 28 percent Arakanese students passed the examination last year. Meanwhile, the students of Mon State topped the list in 2012-13 academic session with 47. 38 percent of passing.

Interacting with Narinjara, an official of Rakhine State education department informed that the higher authority was looking over why the rate of passing of students in Arakan was low this year.

“I can not say the reason behind the disappointing result of the students of Arakan. The high ranking officials in our department are now examining the real cause for the poor performance this year,” the official said.

But there are few people in education department itself, who believe that the sectarian violence that broke out in various places of Arakan during June and October last year made a negative impact on the reading habit of students.

Even many schools and other educational institutions of Arakan remained closed for many days last year because of the deteriorated law and order situation. Many students in the violence affected areas left schools for weeks.

The final assessment this year held in March, where only 8 students from Arakan passed the matriculation examination with gold marks. Similarly 20 students from the State received distinction marks in five subjects.

When a student scores over 80% mark in six subjects namely English, Mathematics, Economics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology, he or she is given a mark of distinction in Burma.  All the six subjects carry question papers with 100 marks each.

A group of Bangladeshi Buddhist stay in a school in Maungdaw.

“They were brought to Maungdaw from Paletwa, a border town with India, by two machine boats. The Bangladeshi Buddhists had arrived in our Buthidaung jetty at around 8 pm and stayed the night in Aye Zayi monastery. Next morning, they were shifted to Maungdaw,” said Ko Zaw Lun, who received the team in Buthidaung.

The Bangladeshi Buddhists comprising 23 families, who hail from Chittagong hill tract area of south Bangladesh, had recently crossed the border through passes to arrive in Paletwa of south Chin State for refuges.

The Burmese authority received them at Kyauk Taw of Arakan State, which is  closer to Paletwa and later sent them to Maungdaw, a Muslim dominated locality for providing shelter.

A senior monk in Baho monastery of Maungdaw, while talking to Narinjara over phone informed that over 1000 Buddhist families, who came to Burma from different place of Bangladesh, had already arrived in the Maungdaw township in the last two months.

Prior to the 86 Buddhists team, a group of 48 Bangladeshis comprising 12 families reached Maungdaw in the first half of June, revealed  the senior monk.

“Till now, it is the last batch arriving in Maungdaw and they are still staying in our monastery. Later they are expected to shift to their shelters those are arranged by the local authority,” he added.

The authority has put the Bangladeshi Buddhists, who had left Bangladesh for the continued repression in respect of social, economic and religious freedom there, in many model villages throughout Maungdaw township.

Ma Onmar Tun, 32 died after their neighbour U Maung Took attacked her in the evening nearby her residence and she finally succumbed to the injuries.

According to the family source, the popular Arakanese singer and his wife Ma Onmar Tun  had altercations  with U Maung Took in several occasions before the incident.

On the Monday evening incident, the assailant U Maung Took suddenly stabbed the lady by a knife and fled from the location.

The cremation of Ma Onmar Tun, who is the mother of three children will be held on Wednesday at Manzi graveyard in Sittwe, a family source disclosed.

The incident took place in Bandarban hill district and Cox’s bazaar areas, when the Burmese citizens tried to enter Bangladesh illegally through different international border passes.

The commanding officer of 42 battalion of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at Teknaf said that 67 Burmese nationals comprising various ethnic minorities of Burma were detained during their approach to enter Bangladesh through the Naff river between 12:30 and 2 pm of June 16.

In another incident, the BGB personnel arrested 32 Muslims including women and children when they tried to get an entry into Bangladesh through Sabrong union of Teknaf township, a bordering town with Burma.

All the Burmese nationals were later pushed back by the Bangladesh border authority with the route they used to enter into the neighbouring country.

It is learnt that the Bangladesh border authority normally pushes back the Burmese nationals rather than handing over the encroachers to the Burmese counterpart.

The delegates representing both the Arakan based political parties agreed to unify and emerge the new political party for the benefit of Arakanese, said party officials.

The combination meeting between RNDP and ALD delegates was organized in the office of Rakhine Thahaya Association of Yangon that is going on since June 15.

The final accord is going to be signed today by the delegates. The meeting is attended by six delegates from each party and also been graced by some prominent monks and citizens.

Mentionable is that both RNDP and ALD are the biggest political parties of Arakan. The RNDP won 35 Parliamentary seats in 2010 general election and the ALD won 11 Parliamentary seats in 1990 election. The ALD did not participate in the last general election of Burma.

The delegates from both the parties also discussed about their future strategy and activities in the unification meeting.

The two day long consultation meeting concluded on June 15, said the officials and local media sources.

It was the 7th round of FOC meeting, where delegations from both the neighboring countries reviewed various bilateral issues related to political, economic and security cooperation between Burma and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh foreign secretary Shahidul Haque led the 11 members’ team from his country, where as deputy foreign minister U Thant Kyaw led the 20 member Burmese delegation.

Shahidul Haque stressed on resolving the longstanding repatriation issue of Muslim refugees in the meeting and called for early resumption of repatriation process relating to the Burmese refugees taking shelter in Bangladesh. The process was stalled due to the outbreak of communal violence in Rakhine State of Burma last year.

The Burmese delegation assured in the meeting that the repatriation process of Muslim refugees from Bangladesh would be resumed soon as the situation turns normal and stable in Rakhine State.

The Bangladesh delegation proposed to form a joint committee to exclusively deal with issues of repatriation in relation with the undocumented Burmese nationals taking shelter in their country. The Burmese delegation took note of the proposal for active consideration, informed a Burmese foreign ministry official.

Burmese minister Thant Kyaw, while responding to Bangladesh’s willingness to import natural gas from Burma, apprised the meeting about the ongoing process of floating bids for offshore and onshore gas blocks. He however assured that Bangladesh would be given priority in meeting Dhaka’s domestic energy needs.

Delegates representing both the countries also agreed to address the entire range of trans-boundary crimes along the international border jointly with a comprehensive effort. They also discussed about Dhaka’s proposal for a ‘security dialogue’ within the FOC framework.

Both the governments also reiterated their commitments to uphold ‘zero tolerance policy’ against the unauthorized use of their territories by any person or group for subversive activities.

Ko Thet Naing of MSDN informed that the police superintend of Dagon township police station did not allow to hold the protest programme against the Malaysia government staging demonstrations in front of their embassy in the former Burmese capital.

Responding to the MSDN application, the police officials asserted that the protest programme would be ill-timed, as some high ranking Burmese administrators including deputy foreign minister U Zin Yaw and deputy social security minister Daw  Win Maw Tun are visiting  Malaysia to solve the problem related to the migrant Burmese in that country.

It is understood that at least seven Burmese migrants have been killed and 10 others got injuries, when local gangs started attacking the migrants in different parts of Malaysia since May 30 this year.

“We wish the Burmese migrants taking shelter in Malaysia also get equal rights as the other foreigners (in Malaysia) enjoy there. Our (Burmese) people should also get the security as the other do. That is why we wanted to stage a peaceful protest in front of their embassy in Yangon,” said the MSDN  leader Thet Naing.

The protest programe was scheduled to start at 10:30 am on Saturday (June 15),  but the plan was cancelled after the police denied permissions. Few youths came to the front of the Malaysian Embassy with an aim to join in the protest, but soon they left the location, a witness said.

Another MSDN activist Ko Nay Myo Zin argued that the condition of Burmese people living in Malaysia remains pathetic and it would only deteriorate in future if proper initiatives are not taken on time.

It was decided in a meeting held in Rangoon, the former capital of Burma, to merge the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP) and the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) into one party with an aim to fight for the cause of Arakanese people.

“The delegates representing both the parties have agreed to emerge both RNDP and ALD into a single political party in today’s meeting,” informed Dr Aye Maung, the president of RNDP.

The unification meeting on Saturday have arrived in three important agreements including 1) to combine two parties as a solo party to lead Arakanese people effectively,  2) to emerge accordance with Burma election commission rules and principals  and 3) to form an unification committee by the delegates representing both parties.

“We will continue our meeting tomorrow to discuss about the unification process between the two parties. We will also discuss and resolve the policy, strategy and tactic in the meeting. Need not to be mentioned that we are interested  to carry out the unification process effectively and without any delay,” added Dr Maung.

The unification meeting started at 9 in the morning in the office Rakhine Thahaya Association, where six delegates from each party attended. The meeting was also graced by over 20 prominent Arakanese senior citizens representing various social groups as observers.

U Aye Tha Aung, the president of ALD, while speaking to Narinjara over phone expressed happiness at the outcome. He personally welcomes the decision related to the unification of RNDP and ALD.

“Our final aim is to unify all Arakanese political parties into a single entity. We are struggling hard for long time to achieve the goal of  unification among all Arakanese groups. I must say all the Arakanese people living inside Burma and abroad would welcome the outcome of today’s meeting,” revealed Tha Aung.

RNDP president Dr Aye Maung is expected to lead his team, while  ALD vice president U Kyaw Myint will lead the other team.

“The meeting will be held at the office of  Rakhine Thahaya Association in Yangon and it is scheduled to start at 9 am. The leaders are optimistic about the meeting,” said U Tha Tun Hla, a leader of RNDP.

Besides the delegates of both the parties, prominent monks and representatives from social organizations will also attend the meeting as observers.

“The initiative to combine the parties has been supported by the members of both the political parties. Hence we expect a satisfactory outcome,” said ALD president U Aye Tha Aung. He expressed optimism while Narinajara interviewed him recently.

It is understood that Arakanese across the globe are enthusiastically looking forward to the Saturday meeting as the development has the potential to change the faces of Arakanese living inside Burma and abroad.

Ko Min Aung, a central committee member of National League for Democracy in Taungup informed that two medical doctors are being appointed in Ma Ei township hospital and Wra Ma village sub-hospital. Both the hospitals are located in the Taungup township of central Arakan.

Earlier Ko Min Kyi alias Maung Mae staged the protest program alone for one hour. Through his demonstration starting at 8 am, Min Kyi expressed his furies against the authority for not appointing any physician in the town hospital for seven months.

An official source confirmed that Dr Htet Pin Soe has been appointed in Ma Ei township hospital and Dr Aung Naing Soe is appointed for Wra Ma village sub-hospital.

“It is a victory for the people. The local residents express happiness at the appointment of the government doctors and also appreciate Min Kyi for his initiative,” the NLD leader added.

Though the authority has taken the initiative to appoint two physicians after the solo protest, the local police have asked Min Kyi for not staging any such demonstration in future.

Min Kyi is even forced to sign an agreement by the police declaring that he would not stage such protests in future without the authority’s prior permission.