Wings issue stern rebuke to Myanmar over ‘ethnic cleansing’

THE plight of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar was a hot and emotive topic at the Umno wing assemblies.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and his Puteri Umno counterpart, Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, launched into it right off the bat during their policy speeches, issuing a stern rebuke to the Myan­­mar government for the atrocities committed against the Rohingyas.

Khairy started off his address to Umno Youth delegates by playing a heart-wrenching video on the suffering and devastation faced by the Rohingya, a minority community.

There was an urgent demand for Asean to review Myanmar’s membership in the regional body following accusations of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine state, he said.

“The principle of non-interference (of Asean) is void when there is large-scale ethnic cleansing in a member state,” he said.

Non-interference is one of the six core principles established during the formation of Asean, with member states traditionally refraining from meddling in one another’s internal affairs out of respect for their sovereignty.

Mas Ermieyati urged international and regional bodies to take a strong stand on the violence against the Rohingya people.

She also wants Aung San Suu Kyi, who is Myanmar’s foreign minister and de facto leader, to be stripped of the Nobel Peace prize she re­­ceived in 1991.

“We should learn from these events. What is happening in Myan­mar can also happen here if we are negligent,” she said.

Both Umno wings, in denouncing Myanmar’s cruelty, also called for more urgent action to end the torture and bloodshed.

Wanita Umno’s Skuad Sayang launched a special fund for the Rohingya yesterday.

Various Muslim NGOs and political parties are set to gather in Stadium Titiwangsa on Dec 4 to pro­­test against the Myanmar government.

The peaceful demonstration is a follow-up to last Friday’s march to the Myanmar Embassy from the Tabung Haji complex to hand over a memorandum voicing solidarity with the Rohingyas, many of whom have fled to Malaysia.