JUNE 15 — It is ironic that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad now condemns the Myanmar government on the persecution of the Rohingyas. However the Rohingyas in Myanmar have been persecuted for so many years even during Tun’s time as Prime Minister of Malaysia.
It is during Tun’s premiership that Myanmar got formal acceptance as a member state of Asean. In 1987. Many organisations and individuals were against Myanmar being admitted into Asean but Tun pushed for it saying we should engage with Myanmar and thereby persuade Myanmar to return to democracy. And Malaysia took a very long time to engage with Myanmar and still failed to persuade.
Democracy was dead in Myanmar and the military junta was running the country like a bunch of cowboys and yet Tun recognised the regime probably for trade reasons. Malaysia’s foreign policy on Myanmar was a failure for we supported a military regime which was not democratically elected.
Now Tun laments that Aung San Suu Kyi did not respond to his letter to her on the current Rohingya problem. Why should she respond when in 1987 when the military junta was oppressing her by incarcerating her and Malaysia under Tun actually supported the junta.
Tun only voices out on human rights when Muslims are involved. Has Tun ever voiced out on non-Muslims human rights violations? Wasn’t Tun the prime minister of Malaysia or was he only for Malays and Muslims?
And why compare the Rohingyas to the Chinese and Indians in Malaysia when the two are a completely different issue where the citizenship for the two groups in Malaysia was part of the independence deal with the British.
I would think Tun should just concentrate on the 1MDB issue and not get into other matters as it is quite clear that he is becoming blur.
* M. Manogaran is president of Malaysia Tamil Sanggam and a former Member of Parliament.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
