Sunday, September 03, 2017

Limit to compassion for Rohingyas

MM Online - Malaysia, Merdeka and the Rohingya ‘problem’ — Zoe Randhawa (extracts):


We now share this country with millions of foreigners, both legal and illegal. They work in jobs that most Malaysians would never take up, often in exploitative conditions. Not only is their exploitation morally wrong, but it creates an impoverished, disempowered underclass of people in the country. Poverty and powerlessness are key drivers of crime and anti-social behaviour.

If those foreigners don't do those jobs, some Malaysians would have, so what's so wrong about some people, Malaysians or/and foreigners, doing them, dirty or dangerous as they might be?

I have relatives doing such jobs before, thus I fail to understand why some Malaysians like Zoe Randhawa lament the issue of foreigners who are so desperate for some form of employment taking up occupations that previously were done by some of my relatives and Malaysians?

There seems to be an over-the-top doling out of compassion, to such an extent that the do-gooders' sympathies are reserved only for foreigners but ironically none for Malaysians who previously did those dirty and dangerous jobs. This misplaced value is most surreal.

A core human rights principle is the acknowledgement that the denial of fundamental rights is a catalyst for instability.

It is to the benefit of society as a whole, Malaysians and non-Malaysians, to provide these people with basic rights.

No one is denying those foreigners their rights, but how about their responsibilities? Squatting in a foreign land like Malaysia surely demands some form of respect and responsibility towards the host country. The Rohingyas should NOT take advantage of Malaysian hospitality by misbehaving here.

The right to assemble peacefully is one of these core human rights. The right to freedom of expression is a core human right. If people are denied these rights, they feel trapped in situations with no legitimate and legal avenues to air their grievances.

Unlike Zoe Randhawa I am less charitable in my view on Rohingyas. I do not like foreigners coming to my country to cause trouble on their home politics which are not related to our national interests. I'm sick of rowdiness and lawlessness caused by foreigners, any foriegners, in Malaysia.

Compassion for the unfortunate is one thing but tolerating their aggressive demands and activities is another. Where do we draw the fine line in between?

By the by, would you tolerate Indon illegals misbehaving (illegally) here, like usurping the places of locals in market-places selling produces?

Furthermore, Malaysian expressions of sympathies for Rohingyas stem from two undesirable aspects, that based on parochial religious (Muslim) or ethnic (Indian) affiliations.

Malaysia has long have an unhealthy interfering nature in Muslim insurgencies in neighbouring countries such as Thailand and the Philippines. That's why Thailand doesn't trust Malaysia as it used to during Tunku Abdul Rahman's time. It's even said that during the post-Boxing Day tsunami relief work in Aceh, Indonesia wasn't all that keen on Malaysian military operating in Sumatra, but ironically was quite happy to see the Singapore military helping there.

Compare such current Malaysian compassion to how we had badly treated the Vietnamese during their dire moments as they fled the communists in their homeland to arrive here by boats. We even had a very nasty bigoted high ranking politician threatening to tow their hardly-seaworthy vessels out to the high seas again and/or shoot them.

If we want to be compassionate towards the Rohingyas then that should be based on universal values and not on blind religious or ethnic loyalties, and a compassion which should be universally applied to everyone deserving of such sympathies.


Oh Rohingyas Rohingyas Quo Vadis
Flotsam of Poms, you colonial debris
Like Malayan Cinapeks if you please
Though the latter, alas, could not see

That your problems are almost similar
To theirs, save an exception in religion
That's the one with moon and scimitar
Which ruled Arakan in arbitrary fashion

You couldn't mix with local Burmese
Nor consider the locals as your kind
You treated them as if they've disease
Class them as pariahs, infidels, swine

Ali Jinnah didn't want bigoted loyalty
That you offered to his pure Pakistan
Instead of pledging to Burma loyalty
You thus rendered citizenship undone

Now you cry songs & tears of  sorrow
You gnash your teeth & tear your hair
Sadly for you, there seems no morrow
A sky with storms but not weather fair

Go home to Mother Land, Bangladesh
End thy Diaspora, run to Sheik Hasina
Cease silly threats and militarism brash
Such extremities won't take you very far

Be like the Malayan Cinapeks who live
In Malaysia amidst peace and harmony
Strong has been their wish their belief
In a life of co-happiness & co-prosperity

Live anew in what once was E Pakistan
With your brethren of Bengali ethnicity
That may end your sad & sorrowful run
Which unchecked may be unto eternity

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1 comment:

  1. Suu Kyi a noble laureate you be
    Rohingyas are human league
    Natives see them like aborted babes
    Neighbours are compassion fatigue

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