The rising anti-Rohingya stance among Malaysians

Recently in mid-April, a boat full of Rohingya refugees were denied entry by the Malaysian coast guards, and resulted in the boat being adrift in the ocean with no where to turn to. The passengers subsequently died of starvation (around 32 of them), after the boat had to turn back to Bangladesh, before being rescued by the Bangladeshi coast guards.

Since then, there have been many discussions about the Rohingyas and whether what Malaysia did was ethical. Some questioned if Malaysia did the right thing, however, the overwhelming majority of public opinion stated vehemently that what Malaysia did was right, because we were only securing our borders from illegal immigrants.

And, I am of those who agree with this statement. Letting this boat in will only usher in many more boats to come later since it will only encourage others to come as well. How many more refugees are we willing to take?

My stand on the Rohingya issue: I agree that it is a humanitarian issue, and we should bear some responsibility to help our fellow human being who have been seriously persecuted and had to flee their country. That's what we have been doing all along, and we did it to the Vietnamese refugees in the 70s when they flee the Vietnamese war by sheltering them here in a special island Pulau Bidong (almost all these refugees have moved on to Australia).

With the Rohingya, we have done our part and we have accepted around 150,000 of them here in Malaysia. I personally had two Rohingya acquaintance, who worked at a mini mart at my university during my undergraduate studies. One of them had a United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), while the other, as told by the first guy, didn't. The second apparently is an unregistered illegal refugee, and I do not know how he got the job at the mart. My hunch is that the owner of the mart decided to turn a blind eye to help him. I myself did not ask the person about it, but they were just two normal people.

I however, reject the current rising xenophobia displayed by many Malaysians, especially Malays (as far as I have noticed), towards the Rohingya. As I mentioned earlier, the boat incident sparked fresh discussions about the Rohingyas especially online discussions, and afterwards several incidents led to more hate and anger from many sectors of the Malaysian public towards Rohingyas. I wish to state that I disagree with this behavior as it is driven by blind nationalism, extremism, racism and xenophobia. People should calm down! Even if there are certain bad apples among the Rohingyas, we should not paint every Rohingya with the same brush and should not degrade or dehumanize them.

First incident: The viral letter from the president of a Rohingya society.

The first incident that went viral was a letter written by the president of a Rohingya association in Malaysia who demanded (maybe this is too harsh a word, rather, asked) that certain rights be accorded to the Rohingya refugees in the country as human beings. The requests include the following:

1) To give permission to the Rohingyas to work legally according to their capabilities
2) To make it compulsory for employers to insure the Rohingya staff
3) Reducing the medical cost for injured employees.
4) Not to arrest Rohingyas who work.

Please read the letter first to understand the background. The Rohingyas are usually restricted in the job sectors and many employers do not take care of their welfare due to their status as refugees. Many of them do not have refugee status due to the difficulty to obtain it. Some may need to wait until 6-12 years to get them (maybe that explains why the Rohingya that I knew did not have a refugee card).

If you ask me, I do not think that these requests warrant such outbursts that you see displayed by many Malaysians, especially Malays. What is wrong with asking that Rohingyas be covered with insurance? Aren't they human beings like you and me that need such protections? What is wrong with asking for a reduction of medical costs? What is wrong with asking permission to work legally?

The Rohingyas in this country came in several waves.Some have been here since the 1990s, and they also face the same restrictions, some came later. If they are already here with a refugee status, but not given proper protection, then this is just being cruel to them. If they are here as refugees, but they are barred from all kinds of jobs, then this will just drove them to poverty and open up the possibility of them involved in crimes.

For those who are here illegally, not much can be said but the process of giving them refugee status should be expedited, or if not, repatriate them back. I personally have worked overseas before when I was studying in the UK. Yes, it was a menial job, washing dishes and being a cashier, but I had fun. The people there respected me, from my supervisor, to the customers. The customers do not know that I'm a student there, they might think I'm just a foreign worker, but I didn't feel looked down upon, at least not that much for me to remember any untoward incidents. So I feel for the foreigners here, they are human beings, like you and me, that just want to live, work and have a family.

Second incident: The three Rohingyas who insulted the 'Malays'.

A viral video last week about three Rohingyas who challenged and insulted Malays was shared on social media. I don't know why people want to use these three individuals to say that they represent all Rohingyas. Surely, it is not fair at all to say that just because there are some irresponsible individuals of a certain race, it means all of them are the same?

Third incident: Malay man scolding Rohingya for not obeying MCO.

The four minute video shows a man scolding a Rohingya because he went out to cut grass, even though the Rohingya has explained that a Malay guy called him up. There are also cases in my neighbourhood where an Indian Malaysian was out cutting grass for a neighbour, so please do understand, there are certain people that are cutting grass despite the MCO.

Now, is he wrong to do that? Probably, but why should this be an example of Rohingyas being a nuisance and all Rohingyas should share the blame? The video was shared and most commenters hurled insults to the individual and asked them to leave Malaysia (even though there are many cases of Malaysian disobeying the MCO before this).


Xenophobia, that's what it is. At the time of writing, the issue of the Rohingya seemed to have died down, which is good. I've seen many commentators saying that the Rohingyas deserved what happened in Myanmar, which is disgusting to see. No one deserve such treatment from anybody!

The Myanmar army not only destroyed Rohingya villages by burning them, they also tortured, killed and raped countless Rohingyas, all in the name of fighting terrorism. If you want to fight terrorists, then go an aim the terrorists! Why are you killing every single person related to the race of the said terrorists which have nothing to do with it. The Myanmar government needs to be held responsible, and indeed they have shown some responsibility by agreeing to allow Rohingyas to return to Myanmar, especially after the United Nations formally concluded that genocide did indeed occur in the country.