KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 — Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi had refused to meet Malaysia to discuss the killings of the Rohingya, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today.
Najib said Suu Kyi, who took over the Myanmar administration eight months ago, had outrightly refused to meet Malaysia’s foreign affairs minister, Datuk Seri Anifah Aman, for a meeting on the matter.
“I asked the foreign affairs minister to go. I ordered him. I asked [him] — Aung San Suu Kyi said what? She said [to Anifah] — ‘If you want to see me on bilateral issue, yes. But I’m not willing to see you to discuss the Rohingya issue’.
“How can that be? We must discuss everything! What is the meaning of community of nations? What is the meaning of being the Nobel Prize winner? Nobel Prize means to uphold human rights!” Najib exclaimed, to thunderous cheers from the floor.
Singapore’s state-owned media agency Channel News Asia (CNA) reported Suu Kyi as accusing the international community of stoking enmity between Buddhists and Muslims in Rakhine, where an army crackdown has killed almost 90 Rohingyas with thousands fleeing the country for Bangladesh, where they are also shunned.
She reportedly appealed for the world to understand Myanmar’s ethnic complexities, adding that the military operation was only launched after attacks on the country’s security forces last October, which the Myanmar government has blamed on Muslims.
In his speech today, Najib also called on international communities and his Indonesian counterpart, President Joko Widodo, to join Malaysia and hold solidarity rallies in the republic.
“We want to send a message to the government of Myanmar. We want to tell Aung San Suu Kyi. Enough is enough! Enough is enough!
“I also want to ask president Jokowi, tell Indonesians to gather. Don’t just protest Ahok only. Ahok ahok lah, but Rohingyas must also be defended in Indonesia. They can gather in Jakarta. Gather!” he told the cheering crowd.
Najib was referring to the mass protests held in Jakarta by the Muslims there to voice anger against the state capital’s governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, better known as Ahok, for allegedly insulting Islam.
In his speech, Najib specifically called on the United Nations (UN) and the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) to help the Rohingya.
“We ask other bodies to act. OIC must also act. OIC, please don’t just sit, please do something. UN, please do something. The world cannot sit by and watch genocide taking place,” he added.
The gathering ended at noon after the Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia handed a declaration to Najib and to a Myanmar representative, urging the Malaysian government to help end what Malaysia has termed as the “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya and condemning Myanmar’s treatment of the ethnic minority.
