Time to get tough on Rohingya issue or stay home
Foreign Minister Anifah Aman must raise tough
questions on the persecution of the Rohingya at the Asean Foreign Minister’s
meeting.
By Charles Santiago
Finally it looks like Myanmar is buckling under mounting
international pressure.
The country’s most famous personality, state counsellor and
Foreign Minister, Aung San Suu Kyi, has asked for Asean Foreign Ministers to
come together for a briefing on the fast-deteriorating Rohingya humanitarian
crisis, next week.
Although Suu Kyi has come under heavy criticism for
dismissing the allegations of heightened violence against the Rohingya, this is
certainly an opportunity for Malaysia to show it is serious about advocating
for the minority community whom the United Nations describes as one of the most
persecuted people in the world.
The meeting should not be treated as a form of political
cover for the Myanmar government.
Asean foreign ministers should use the opportunity to
address the crisis head-on. They must impress upon Suu Kyi the importance of
protecting civilian life and ensuring that abuses are properly and urgently
investigated.
Few weeks ago, Prime Minister Najib Razak broke ranks with
Asean’s non-interference policy and observed the killings of the Rohingya in
Rakhine state as targeted persecution.
It’s now time for the Malaysian government to make good its
concern for the Rohingya, who have been butchered, murdered, burnt and raped
since October this year.
Instead of passively listening to a briefing by Myanmar,
Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman has to ask the tough questions – did the
Myanmar military undertake systematic ethnic clensing and commit crimes against
humanity against the Rohingya in Rakhine state.
This is important given recent revelations by Human Rights
Watch satellite imagery; suggesting over 1,500 buildings have been burned down
in the Rakhine area in the past two months and revealed patterns suggesting
that the Myanmar military is responsible for the arson.
There are easily 150,000 Rohingya in Malaysia. And they are
in a legal limbo here.
Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee
Convention and therefore the government doesn’t recognise the rights of the
asylum seekers or refugees.
As such the government must ratify the convention, recognise
the rights of the Rohingya, allow the refugees to work and send their children
to school before it can indulge itself in sloganeering at a political rally.
The Rohingya have very little access to medicine and are too
poor to afford the costs of medical attention for critical cases. This too must
change.
Asean is known as a toothless tiger. The long meetings,
countless conferences of heads of states and endless meetings between foreign
ministers don’t bring about effective change.
These remain a mere back-slapping routine at dinner tables.
This must change and Malaysia can spearhead that shift if it
cleans up its own backyard and allows the Rohingya and other refugees the
dignity of being treated with respect and the space to ensure their rights are
met.
Malaysia, at the briefing session, can pledge to change its
policy to recognise the Rohingya and other refugees.
And it can then surely raise tough questions and hard issues
about the Rohingya with Myanmar and Suu Kyi.
Charles Santiago is the DAP Member of Parliament
for Klang.