LETTER | Prime Minister Najib Razak has just concluded his three-day official visit to Sri Lanka. Special Envoy for South Asia Samy Vellu, MIC President and Minister of Health S Subramaniam were also part of the PM’s entourage.

Aiming to capitalise on this, opposition social media campaigners were quick to plaster posters of the PM shaking hands with current Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, decrying Najib for "betraying" the Tamils.

These campaigners conveniently forgot that similar diplomatic visits have been reciprocated by their own members - including the present chairman of their coalition, apart from diplomatic visits by state governments under their control, Penang and Selangor.

They also failed to add, that unlike his predecessors, or the other leaders, who only discussed trade and bilateral issues, Najib used this opportunity to highlight the plight of the Sri Lankan Tamils, and even received a visit from the Sri Lankan Tamil leader CV Vigneswaran (photo), where he pledged to assist the displaced Sri Lankan Tamils who have suffered from the civil war.

The PM has promised Malaysia’s aid to the single mothers, widowed from the war, estimated to number 45,000, and a further 11,000 soldiers who have not been able to regain employment at the end of the war.

The Malaysian government will be putting together a mission comprising government and private bodies and NGOs to Jaffna soon, to that effect.

Subramaniam also played a vital role in ensuring the welfare and wellbeing of the Tamils in Sri Lanka given due consideration by our government.

What the opposition fail to realise is that their actions would stir up sentiments on a war that is not directly related to Malaysia, and affect the good relations between not only the Malaysian-Sri Lankan government, but also between the local Malaysian Ceylonese Tamil and Singhalese communities. This sort of excessive politicking was what led to the assault of a Singhalese Buddhist monk in Kuala Lumpur last year.

This ‘animosity’ also does not make sense, especially when Sri Lanka and India itself, enjoys a long and close friendship, and Sri Lanka having an embassy in the middle of Chennai, the Tamil heartland of India.

Malaysia benefits greatly from trade with Sri Lanka. We are their tenth biggest trading partner and sixth biggest import source, with Malaysia exporting US$579.9 million (RM2.36 billion) worth of products and services in 2016 and US$483.4 (RM1.971 billion) for 2017, up to October, according to The Edge Markets.

These include rubber products, palm oil, petroleum, timber and electronics, among others.

The biggest telecommunications company in Sri Lanka, Dialog, is owned by Axiata, a Malaysian company. The Prime Minister also launched a fund by Dialog, known as Dadif, worth USD15 million, for tech start-ups in Sri Lanka. This is on top and above of the USD3.1 billion Malaysia has invested in Sri Lanka so far.

This visit also saw the inking of memoranda of understandings and agreements in areas of business including biotechnology, defence, housing, information technology and construction.

Rhetoric and politicking can only rile up people for a short time, as Malaysians, including the Indian community, have moved beyond this and can recognise the politicians who work hard for progress and prosperity, compared to those who criticise without doing anything constructive.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.