by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Monday, 9th March 1992:
DAP welcomes and supports the Malaysian Government’s stand demanding a halt to the Oppression and persecution of the Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar military regime.
DAP welcomes and supports the Malaysian Government’s stand demanding a halt to the oppression and persecution of the Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar military regime.
The DAP had made repeated calls to the Malaysian Government for the past month to take a firm stand against the repeated viola¬tions of human rights of the Rohingya Muslims resulting in over 100,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing the western Myanmar state of Arakan into Bangladesh.
The DAP had also called on the Malaysian Government to take the initiative in ASEAN to speak out against human rights violations by the Myanmar military regime.
For instance, on 12th February, the DAP called on Malaysia and the other ASEAN governments to protest against human right viola¬tions by the Myanmar military regime as in the continued detention of Burmese Opposition leader, Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and the repression of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
On Feb 21, DAP called on the Malaysian government to send a government relief mission to the four Daerah Cox Bazar refugee camps for the Myanmar Rohingya Muslims at the Bangladesh-Myanmar border to provide humanitarian assistance to the 20,000 Myanmar Muslims who were in desperate
straits without food supplies for a week.
In that statement, the DAP urged Malaysian and the other ASEAN governments to act as one to bring pressure to bear on the Myanmar military junta to halt its gross violations of human rights and called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the gross violation of
human rights in Myanmar.
On February 22, DAP suggested that the ASEAN Foreign Minis¬ters should convene an emergency meeting to consider ways and strate¬gies to get the Myanmar military junta to stop its abuses and violations of human rights. DAP also proposed that the Cabinet should lodge a formal protest with
the Myanmar military junta condemning its abuses and violations of human rights, in particular over
the contin¬ued detention of Aung Sang Suu Kyi and the persecution of the Myanmar Rohingya Muslims.
Although the Malaysian Government has taken over a month to take a stand on the oppression and violation of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, it is better late than never.
Five-Point DAP proposal to Malaysian Government to embark on a campaign against the oppression and persecution of the Rohingya Muslims.
DAP formally proposes that having decided to take a stand against the oppression and persecution of
the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, the Malaysian Government should take the following five measures in a campaign against the violation of human rights and the oppression and persecution of the Rohingya Muslims by the Myanmar military junta:
1. Cabinet should lodge a protest against the Myanmar military junta for its gross violation of human rights as in the continued detention of Mobel Peace Laureate, Aung Sang Suu Kyi and the oppression and persecution of the Rohingya Muslims;
2. Malaysia should propose the convening of an emergency meeting of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Conference on the persecution and oppression of Rohingya Muslims. If Malaysia and the ASEAN governments had taken a forth¬right and clear-cut stand against the human rights violations of the Myanmar military junta right from the beginning, especially in refusing to return power to the people after the Myanmar general elections in 1979 and the continued detention of Myanmar Opposition leader, Aung Sang Suu Kyi, the persecution of the Rohingya Muslims would not have reached the present level.
3. The ASEAN governments should jointly request the convening of an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the violations of human rights in Myanmar and to consider means and strategies including economic sanctions to get the Myanmar military junta to respect human rights.
4. The Malaysian Government should send a government relief mission to the Bangladesh-Myanmar border to provide humanitarian relief to the 135,000 Rohingya Musiim refugees. The formation of an all-party Committee in Malaysia to work for the restoration of human rights in Myanmar and to end
the persecution and oppression of the Rohin¬gya Muslims by the Myanmar military junta.