Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has been accused of opportunism for lashing out at Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi over her treatment of the Muslim Rohingya, which he has branded “genocide”.
But Najib’s maverick behaviour threatens to undermine Asean leaders and the entire organisation unless they take a stand on the issue. No member can afford to stand idly by while an ethnic group faces deadly persecution within Asean, which claims to be a people-centred community. Worse still would be employing the Asean doctrine of non-interference to justify such negligence. What is the point in integrating as a community if members cannot address an issue which affects the whole region?
No Asean member-country can justify turning its back on the Rohingya crisis, since this is a longstanding regional problem with deep-rooted causes. (Courtesy of nationmultimedia.com)
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