COMMENT The Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom) welcomes the Asean delegates for the 26th Asean Summit 2015 in Kuala Lumpur.

Merhrom thanks the Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Foreign Minister Anifah Aman for taking up the Rohingya plight during the Asean Summit 2015.

Ethnic Rohingya have faced prosecutions from Myanmar government since 1942, before the Independent of Myanmar. Ethnic Rohingya were made stateless in our own homeland by the Myanmar government.

We faced gross human rights violations inside Myanmar for over 60 years. The United Nations recognises that the Rohingya are the most persecuted in the world.

The Rohingya issue is no longer an internal problem of Myanmar but it has become an issue in the Asean region as well as an international issue.

 

International human rights organisations as well as experts on the Rohingya plight categorise the Rohingya situation in Myanmar as slow-burning genocide as we have faced systematic persecutions from the Myanmar government for a very long period.

An estimated two million Rohingya are forced to flee Myanmar and thousand of us die either in Myanmar, in the ocean or in transit countries.

In 1978, the Myanmar government launched the Nagamin Operation against the ethnic Rohingya. An estimated 300,000 Rohingya were forced to flee Arakan State to Bangladesh and an estimated 40,000 died.

 

The gross human rights violations towards ethnic Rohingya continues until now in the Arakan State and across Myanmar. As a result Rohingya continuously flee the country and seek refuge, mainly to Malaysia.

No change

There is no change for the Rohingya situation despite many visits from the United Nations Human Rights Special Rapporteur, United Nations envoys, world leaders and international organisations.

 

The Myanmar government aims to eliminate ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar.  The government has confiscated the Rohingyas’ Nationality Card.

The government then issued the White Card to the ethnic Rohingya. In the White Card the Rohingya identity has been changed to Bengali.

The Rohingya refused to accept the White Card as it is issued to the temporary residents. Those who refused to accept has been arrested, beaten, tortured and killed. The Rohingya are forced to accept the White Card for the sake of their security.

 

Recently, the Myanmar government confiscated the White Card and the Rohingya were given another temporary paper with an Immigration Department stamp. We do not know what is the plan of the government, and what will come next for us.

 

The government also put in place a two-child policy for Rohingya family in order to reduce the population of Rohingya. This is another form of genocide.

 

Rohingyas are dying day by day not only by the systematic persecution by the Myanmar government but also with different ways and policies put in place to eliminate Rohingya from Myanmar.

 

Rohingya in Malaysia

 

Malaysia is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or the Refugee Status Protocol 1967.

However, Malaysia becomes a transit country for Rohingyas to seek refuge as there is an office of the United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees (UNHCR) in Kuala Lumpur.

The Malaysian government has allowed the refugees to stay temporarily until the UNHCR processes our resettlement to a third country.

Though our status in Malaysia is temporary, the fact is we have already existed in Malaysia for the past three decades.

 

Malaysia is not only a transit country for Rohingya but also other ethnic groups from Myanmar as well as from other countries.

Malaysia became a transit country for 150,460 refugees and asylum seekers who are registered with UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur as of November 2014.

This number will grow bigger and bigger if no steps are taken to stop the Myanmar government from its systematic prosecutions towards ethnic Rohingya.

 

Our expectations from the 26th Asean Summit 2015

 

The root cause of the problem is the systematic persecution towards ethnic Rohingya by the Myanmar government.

The solution to the Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers who are scattered in the Asean countries is to intervene directly in Myanmar policy. The Myanmar government must stop producing a large number of refugees and asylum seekers over the years for its neighboring countries.

Even though the Asean countries adhere to the non-interference policy among its member state, Asean leaders also must recognise that we are now one community - an Asean community.

Therefore the Asean member states must actively engage with the Myanmar government to stop the gross human rights violations towards its ethnic groups.

 

This year, Malaysia is Asian chair. We hope Malaysia will play an important role to engage with the Myanmar government to resolve refugee issues.

Malaysia is in right position to engage with Myanmar government as Malaysia is a home to 139,200 Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers.

 

We believe only the Asean can resolve our issues as refugees from Myanmar have become a major issue within Asean especially Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

 

While Asean leaders engage with the Myanmar government to resolve the issues of refugees and asylum seekers, we hope the Asean member states will continue to protect refugees and asylum seekers in the spirit of Asean community

 

Human lives must be given first priority before anything else if we want to call ourselves developed nations.

We must contribute in whatever way to save Rohingya from the continuous genocide. Asean cannot reach its goals until and unless the plight of the Rohingyas is resolved.

ZAFAR AHMAD ABDUL GHANI is president of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human rights Organisation Malaysia (Merhrom).