By M.S. Anwar | March 27, 2017
It is no longer unknown to the world how different
Myanmar regimes, throughout its history, have subjected the Rohingya community
to a systematic genocidal process for decades and why. The genocidal process
going on for decades silently escalated to a different level when the Myanmar
State sponsored violence against the Rohingya people in June, 2012. The
genocidal operations by the Myanmar government, unfortunately, have not yet
ceased and are still very much on albeit varying in nature from time to time.
The UN organizations, various human rights groups, many
human rights experts and activists have called the atrocity crimes against the
Rohingya as Crimes against Humanity, Ethnic Cleansing and even Genocide.
However, the efforts taken by one leader has well accelerated the slow course
of the Rohingya plight and created more pressures on the Myanmar government to
address the plight. That leader is none other than the Malaysian Prime Minister
Dato’ Sri Najib Tun Razak.
What sets the PM Najib apart from other distinguished
people that have raised voice against the Rohingya persecution is that he is
the first top official of a nation to call the ‘Rohingya Genocide’ a GENOCIDE
while addressing thousands of people in a mass rally in Kuala Lumpur on
December 4 last year. Never ever before him has a President, PM or any Top
Level Official of any other country ‘called a spade a spade’ regarding the
Rohingya genocide. Besides, prior to his KL rally, the Malaysian Foreign
Ministry officially released statement calling the crimes against the Rohingya
as ‘Ethnic Cleansing.’ That itself speaks a volume.
However, the PM has been facing his shares of criticisms
on the domestic front in Malaysia after taking up the Rohingya issue. His
critics have accused him of exploiting the issue for politically oriented
benefits. Let me not mess much in the Malaysian internal politics as this
write-up is to express the opinions of the general Rohingya community on the PM
Najib taking stand to help them solve their plight. Based on the feedbacks
given by the Rohingya people at home and abroad, the overwhelmingly majority of
them gives a heartfelt welcome to his initiative and sees it as a silver lining
on a dark cloud.
An elderly Rohingya man in Maungdaw I have recently
spoken to said “we have been facing genocide for a long time. But no government
has voiced for us. Hence, the initiative taken by the Malaysian government
gives a hope for living here.”
Likewise, leaders, activists and other influential
figures in the Rohingya community believe that the initiative taken by the PM
Najib and his government is a win-win situation and there’s nothing wrong in
it.
Muhammad Noor, the Managing Director of Rohingya Vision
TV and a Rohingya himself, said “PM Najib has been facing undue criticisms
after taking up the Rohingya issue. He’s a leader of a nation and so, it’s
natural for the people to consider everything he does is politics. Even if he’s
doing politics, that’s not a negative politics harming others but rather a
positive one helping a people subjected to GENOCIDE.
“I believe singling out his initiative to support the
Rohingya out of so many other issues and criticising him for the same is unfair
because the Rohingya communities itself welcome his move and are grateful to
him for that. We, indeed, appreciate his efforts.
Moreover, the Rohingya refugees in Malaysia are
overwhelmingly optimistic about the PM Najib’s efforts to solve the dire
Rohingya plight at home, while also being concerned about improvements of their
lives in Malaysia. Mr. Hafiz Ahmed, a Rohingya Refugee on his way back home
after the KL rally where the Malaysian PM took part on 4th December 2016, said
“we today felt very alive as the Prime Minister Najib voiced against the
killings of our people in Arakan. This is a ray of hope for us. And with this,
we also expect our lives here will become easier than before sooner or later.
But we have to be patient.”
Nevertheless, apart from an on-going trial project by the
Malaysian government to legalize some 300 Rohingya refugees to utilize them in
the country’s labour force, no significant changes on the lives of the Rohingya
refugees in Malaysia seem imminent yet. There are legal barriers and laws
prohibiting the refugees from having access to basic necessities such as education,
healthcare and livelihoods (employments) because Malaysia considers refugees as
illegal immigrants because it is not a signatory to 1951 UN Refugee Convention.
Henry Koh, a Malaysian Lawyer currently working for the
Fortify Rights, during a meeting with him in late December 2016, said “Malaysia
has to ratify 1951 UN Refugee Convention if it indeed intends to improve the
lives of the refugees. However, that rectification is not imminent yet. Still
Malaysia can do a lot for the refugees especially the children without any
ratification as Malaysia became a signatory to 1989 UN Child Rights Convention
in 1995.”
On the other hand, some frontline Rohingya activists like
Mr. Tun Khin, the President of Burmese Rohingya Organisation in UK (BROUK),
consider the efforts being taken by the PM Najib are timely and very crucial in
solving the Rohingya crisis. And that it has also made things easier for the
activists like him in lobbying various governments across the globe and brought
the Rohingya issue once again in the International spotlight.
“He has taken a very big step towards helping the
Rohingya and solving the core issue. His efforts are making things easier in
our works as well. Sooner or later, I hope things for the Rohingya refugees in
Malaysia will also improve”, said Mr. Tun Khin during his recent visit to
Malaysia.
The Prime Minister Najib, on his blog post after
conversation with Zimbabwean Islamic cleric Mufti Ismail Menk, wrote “I would
also like to add that the meeting ended on a sweet note, in which Mufti Menk’s
assistant (the gentleman on the left in the picture above) told me that he is
Rohingyan and he was there at the flagging-off of the Food Flotilla For Myanmar
humanitarian aid mission. He thanked us Malaysians for helping and caring for
our Rohingyan brothers and sisters.”
During the PM also talked to Mr. Farudullah, a Rohingya
businessman in Malaysia who also closely works with Rohingya Vision TV and
attended the meeting with the PM as an assistant of Mufti Ismail Menk” said
“the PM himself raised the Rohingya issue in his conversation with Mufti Menk.
I was very glad to see his sympathy and concerns for the Muslim Ummah
especially in this case, Rohingya. He is very gracious to do that. We are very
grateful to him. May Allah bless him!”
All in all, the Rohingya community at home and abroad
expresses heartfelt thanks to the PM Najib and his government for their efforts
to improve the Rohingya situation at home (where the core problems like) and in
Malaysia; and duly acknowledge their contributions. The Rohingya community is
also hopeful that Malaysian government will continue their efforts until
sustainable and durable solutions to the Rohingya problems are found.
Last but not the least, the Rohingya community are ever
grateful to the Malaysian people at large for welcoming them and giving them
refuge when they are being killed and chased out of their motherland by the
ruthless tyrants in Myanmar. They are also thankful to those Malaysian
lawmakers, MPs, NGOs, activists and journalists relentlessly advocating and working
for them for them for decades.
Note: This ‘opinion piece cum thank-you letter’ is based
on the feedbacks given by the Rohingya community at home, in Malaysia and other
parts of the world and written upon their request.
M.S. Anwar is the editor of Rohingya Vision TV. He can be
reached at: editor@rvisiontv.com
Read here: https://goo.gl/rBEQRf