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Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib
Razak giving his closing speech
at the 2016 Umno general assembly at the Putra World Trade Centre,
December 3, 2016. ― Bernama pic
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Najib says Malaysia not meddling with Myanmar as Rohingya is
‘universal’ issue
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 ― Malaysia is not
attempting to intervene in the sovereign affairs of Myanmar but is taking a
strong stand against its treatment of the Rohingya people because of universal
human values, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.
“This is not intervention. This
is universal human values,” he said in his closing speech at the 2016 Umno
general assembly at the Putra World Trade Centre here.
Najib also confirmed his
participation in a mass solidarity gathering with the Myanmar Muslim minority
at Stadium Titiwangsa here tomorrow morning.
He told the Myanmar government
to “change its attitude” towards the Rohingya, adding that neither his administration
nor his party would change their stance on the matter.
An official with the Myanmar’s
President’s Office reportedly chided Malaysia after news reports emerged that
Najib was to join in a solidarity gathering tomorrow to protest against
Myanmar’s military operations in the Rakhine state, where the Rohingya are
from.
“According to Asean principles,
a member country does not interfere in other member countries’ internal
affairs. We have always followed and respected this principle. We hope that the
Malaysian government will continue to follow it,” U Zaw Htay told The Myanmar
Times yesterday.
He reportedly added that the
Malaysian gathering was a calculated political decision to win local support
and had little to do with Myanmar.
But Najib said that Putrajaya
is taking a stand on the matter because if left alone, the Rohingya issue would
affect the social safety and security of other countries, including Malaysia,
where the Myanmar ethnic groups have fled to as refugees.
An estimated 56,000 Rohingya
are in Malaysia as refugees, according to the Foreign Ministry.
“This does not mean we do not
respect their sovereignty but this has gone beyond the issue of sovereignty,”
he told a news conference later.
He said that history will judge
Malaysians if the country remained silent while the Rohingya were driven out of
their home state by the Myanmar military and its majority ethnicities.
Over a score of Rohingya people
have been reportedly killed and hundreds more taken into custody from
Muslim-majority towns since the Myanmar military started operations to nab
suspects linked to attacks on its border guard posts on October 9.
The Myanmar government has
repeatedly denied allegations of abuse but The Myanmar Times reported that
journalists and external observers have been barred from accessing the military
operation zones to independently verify information.
The Myanmar report cited UN
estimates that 30,000 people in the northern Rakhine state have been displaced
by the violence.