“Do not sabotage the government’s effort in curbing Covid-19 in the name of ‘human rights’. Does our country have the resources and capacity to accommodate these refugees?”

- MCA vice-president Tan Teik Cheng

COMMENT | The “plight” of the Rohingya has somehow united the far-right and progressive elements in social media, and the vitriol against the community – online at least – has brought out allegations of scapegoating and pleas for “empathy” for this community.

The PN’s government move to deny a boatload of “Rohingya” refugees from entering Malaysia is a good start as far as I am concerned, but using the excuse of the coronavirus pandemic as some sort of prophylactic against charges of “inhumane treatment” is complete horse manure, if you ask me.

We should be denying and curtailing the influx of Rohingya into this country, who for years have been living off the political machinations of the Malay Muslim political establishment. When it was convenient to use these “economic” migrants for political and religious purposes, Malay political operatives from both sides of the divide were using them as examples of the “injustices” the Muslim community faced in the world and using them as a rallying cry for local Muslim solidarity.

Of course, there has been no discussion or accountability of the millions of dollars of aid from Muslim countries and Western organisations for the benefit of the Rohingya community, nor has there been accountability for the numerous Rohingya organisations that claim to advocate for the community but have been assimilated into various Muslim advocacy groups in the country.

It is pointless talking about how the situation started, the geopolitical shenanigans of Myanmar, Bangladesh, the US and China. What we are dealing with is the economic fallout of decades of political and religious manipulation of the state and the misguided intentions of non-Malay participants in creating a powder keg of racial imbalances in the majority Malay community.

Working-class Malays already handicapped...