Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar has questioned why Aung San Suu Kyi, the face of Myanmar's pro-democracy movement, for not helping her country's Rohingya community.

"Where is Aung Sun Suu Kyi, the so called ' jaguh dunia ' (world champion) ?" asked the livid deputy home minister, when met at the Parliament lobby.

"What is she doing now? Why is she silent on Rohingya's issues? That's why I didn't accept her from the beginning."

Wan Junaidi said Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient, is idolised worldwide and said this devotion has proven to be misplaced.

He said the Rohingya community's plight has persisted for some 200 years and Myanmar authorities has yet to resolve the matter.

"This is not (supposed to be) our problem. This is not even Asean's problem. But both Asean and us are facing the problem now," he said.

He said critics of Malaysia and Asean countries handling of the matter should instead train their guns at Myanmar.

Meanwhile, Suu Kyi's spokesperson took the highly unusual step yesterday of urging Myanmar to give the stateless Rohingya people in the country a chance to get citizenship, as reported

by Channel NewsAsia .

"If they are not accepted (as citizens), they cannot just be sent onto rivers. Can't be pushed out to sea. They are humans. I just see them as humans who are entitled to human rights," Nyan Win told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting between political parties and President Thein Sein in Yangon.

Deal with social problems

Wan Junaidi said Malaysia has to send out the right signal in dealing with the Rohingya issue to avoid the influx of refugees to the country.

The Santubong parliamentarian cautioned that we may need to deal with social problems, lose out in terms of employment, as well as face the re-emergence of diseases which has been gone for decades.

He also blamed the illegal immigrants for the return of turbeculosis (TB), Hepatitis B, C and D.

Activists estimate that some 8,000 Rohingya people are currently stranded on overcrowded rickety boats in the Andaman Sea.

These people are seeking refugee status in Malaysia to flee alleged persecution and had sought the help of human traffickers to make the perilous trip by sea.

However, a crackdown in Thailand had disrupted the trafficking ring, which involved corrupt government officials.

This has resulted in human traffickers abandoning the ships at sea, leaving those on board to starve and set adrift.

Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai authorities have resorted to towing these ships out of their oceans in order to prevent them from landing.