THE demand for citizenship and equal status for Rohingya has been echoed by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. The nonagenarian leader blasted Myanmar’s treatment to Rohingya and expressed his disappointment over Aung San Suu Kyi’s failure in this regard. We welcome Mahathir’s courageous stance by asking for the rights of the persecuted Rohingya people breaking all diplomatic norms and strategies and putting humanity above all. In an interview with Associated Press, the oldest leader said it is grossly unjust what they have done — killing people or mass murder is not the way civilized nations behave. We hope Malaysia would come up with more humanitarian aid for refugees and mount pressure on Myanmar for accelerating the Rohingya repatriation process.
Since 2017, Malaysia has been among the countries in the Asia-Pacific playing an active role on Rohingya issue, both on its own as well as in chorus with other countries and groupings including ASEAN. One of the manifestations of Malaysia’s assistance to the Rohingyas was construction of a field hospital in Bangladesh. Besides, Malaysia hosts more than 62,000 Rohingya for years.
Bangladesh is stretched beyond capacity for allowing the Rohingyas residing here. Repatriation cannot occur safely in a short period, and doing so would be both dangerous and premature. We see Myanmar government’s lack of openness and transparency with the international community has made the situation more critical. In addition, the World Food Programme’s recent report has highlighted emergency-level child malnutrition and food shortages in Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.
We are hopeful that Malaysia’s continuous efforts to alleviate the ongoing Rohingya crisis would prompt other countries to follow suit. Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak in December 2016 publicly condemned Aung San Suu Kyi and called for Muslim solidarity worldwide to help the Rohingyas.
As an age-old leader of a Muslim country, Mahathir can play a historic role to unite the Muslim countries in one platform to raise their voice over Myanmar’s repression against a Muslim minority community – Rohingya.
Diplomatically Bangladesh is a sitting duck with no weight. It is a terribly helpless situation for the refugees from Myanmar who are suffering miserably. Myanmar has forced its own people to enter Bangladesh as an act of aggression. Our initial reaction was to appease the Myanmar government and earn international acclaim for sheltering the refugees — a policy of no active thinking. There is no initiative to resolve the crisis either seeking solidarity among Muslim countries or showing teeth in the face of aggression from Myanmar.
