Refugee swap may increase BN votes

Since the majority of the 800 refugees who will be sent to Malaysia are Muslims, they may be fast-tracked to become registered voters, claims a senior Australian journalist.

PETALING JAYA: The Australia-Malaysia refugee swap would benefit Barisan Nasional because the 800 refugees that Malaysia will receive are Muslims who are expected to be fast-tracked into becoming registered voters.

“In a country where the terms ‘indigenous’ and ‘Muslim’ are seen almost as interchangeable, some see the present amnesty on illegal immigrants as a way of fast-tracking more Muslims on to government benefits and the electoral rolls, with the asylum seekers from Australia expected to join that preferential queue.

“The 4,000 Burmese refugees who will be welcomed to Australia are Christians, or at least non-Muslims.

“So in the ethno-religious politics of Malaysia, this is seen as a swap of 4,000 non-Muslims for 800 Muslims; as squeamish as we may feel about describing the equation in those terms, it is clearly one way in which the deal supports the interests of the ruling Muslim majority,” writes Chris Kelly, in the Australian newspaper The Australian.

The refugee swap involving 4,000 refugees who would be sent to Australia and 800 to Malaysia was signed last month in Kuala Lumpur despite protest from Malaysian opposition and NGO circles.

Kelly also noted that the 800 would gain due to the similarities in faith – Islam.

Similarly, Kelly also wrote that opposition parties are worried about the extended amnesty programme to register illegal immigrants who are pre-dominantly from Indonesia.

“The refugee swap plays directly into Malaysia’s explosive ethnic-religious divide, a fracture that continues to define the federation’s politics and deliver injustice to the country’s non-Muslim population.

“But the unspoken advantage most of the asylum seekers will have in Malaysia, should they be sent, is their Islamic faith. It will help them gain legal status, then bestow on them social welfare benefits and financial advantages,” writes Kelly.

Problems relating to electoral rolls have been an issue with the administration of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.

Early last month, Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (Bersih 2.0) marched in Kuala Lumpur calling for, among others, a clean-up in the electoral rolls.

As a result, Najib announced the formation of the parliamentary select committee for electoral reforms last week.