While Thailand has set a meeting to deal with the Rohingya refugee crisis, Malaysia as Asean chair has failed to take the lead in initiating immediate action, said PAS.

“This is a humanitarian crisis that is critical. Malaysia ought to come up with concrete solutions.

“It’s useless if we only beat our chests that we are Asean chair, but at the same time fail to solve the issue that is happening at our very borders,” said PAS information chief Mahfuz Omar in a statement today.

He said Prime Minister Najib Razak as Asean chairperson should hold an emergency meeting among Asean leaders to pressure Myanmar to end the persecution of the Rohingnya Muslims.

“It is extremely shameful for Malaysia as Asean chair when our neighbour Thailand has already started efforts by holding an emergency meeting of its own on this issue on May 29,” said the Pokok Sena MP.

After a week of criticism over his silence on the ongoing crisis, Najib finally spoke up yesterday saying the problem needed to be tackled by the Asean and international communities.

However, he did not specify any concrete plan of action except that the government has spoken to Myanmar and are awaiting their response .

'Attitude regrettabe'

According to the Bangkok Post on Friday, the ‘Special Meeting on Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean’ will bring together senior officials from 15 countries, although Myanmar has already said that it may opt out.

“We need to come up with a solution that receives everyone's consideration […] I want other countries to understand us,” Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was quoted saying.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported yesterday that Foreign Minister Anifah Aman will be meeting his Bangladeshi counterpart in Kota Kinabalu today.

Among others, the issue of Bangladeshi and Rohingya ‘illegal migrants’ will reportedly be discussed, following a landing of over 1,000 refugees from these groups in Langkawi on Monday.

"It is one of the topics and a very important issue in the agenda," he was quoted saying.    

However Mahfuz said the government’s attitude in not taking immediate action was “regrettable” as the refugees’ lives are on the line as they “float along our borders”.