It is ironic that Dr Mahathir Mohamad now condemns the Myanmar government on the persecution of the Rohingya. However the Rohingya in Myanmar have been persecuted for so many years even during Dr Mahathir’s time as prime minister of Malaysia.

It was during Dr Mahathir’s premiership that Myanmar received formal acceptance as a member state of Asean, in 1987.Many organisations and individuals were against Myanmar  being admitted into Asean but Dr Mahathir pushed for it, saying we should engage with Myanmar and thereby persuade Myanmar to return to democracy. And Malaysia took a very long time to engage with Myanmar and still failed to persuade.

Democracy was dead in Myanmar and the military junta was running the country like a bunch of cowboys and yet Dr Mahathir recognised the regime probably for trade reasons. Malaysia’s foreign policy on Myanmar was a failure for we supported a military regime which was not democratically elected.

Now Dr Mahathir laments that Aung San Suu Kyi did not respond to his letter to her on the current Rohingya problem. Why should she respond when in 1987, when the military junta was oppressing her by incarcerating her, and Malaysia under Dr Mahathir actually supported the junta?

Dr Mahathir only voices out on human rights when Muslims are involved. Has Dr Mahathir ever voiced out on human rights violations towards non-Muslims? Wasn’t Dr Mahathir the prime minister of Malaysia or was he only for Malays and Muslims?

And why compare the Rohingya to the Chinese and Indians in Malaysia when the two are a completely different issue, where the citizenship for the two groups in Malaysia was part of the independence deal with the British.

I would think Dr Mahathir should just concentrate on the 1MDB issue and not get into other matters as it is quite clear that he is becoming blur.

M MANOGARAN is president, Malaysia Tamil Sanggam and a former member of Parliament.