Rohingya unlikely to get genuine sympathy from our politicians

YOURSAY | 'They can't even keep their own backyards clean, do you seriously think they have the time?'

Do they really care about the Rohingya?

TC Chan: Our prime minister is concerned about the Rohingya? My toes are laughing. About a year ago, we weren't so welcoming or concerned when they came in boatloads.

What has changed? A pricked conscience?

Existential Turd: From championing the rights of Malays, to upholding Islamic laws and values, and now to the Rohingya issue, they have cynically exploited these issues to their own end.

They have systematically denigrated everything they claim to uphold.

Demi Rakyat: Do they really care? Of course not. How can you expect people who by definition are selfish and greedy, to care? It's impossible.

Wandering Star: These two bedfellows - Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang - could not even keep their own backyards clean, do you folks seriously think they have the time to care for these stateless children?

Rohingya, return to where you came from - you will get no compassion from these hypocrites.

SusahKes: In the movie ‘Godfather 2’, when a US senator whom the key character, Michael Corleone, needed to curry favour from tells him that he hates "their kind", the godfather replies, "Senator, we are all part of the same hypocrisy."

How true the statement made in 1974 was, and it remains true to this day. And that is my reading of this latest Umno-PAS stage act.

Anonymous 601731444366344: Instead of championing the cause of the Rohingya, please do what you are chartered to do by the constitution for the people of Malaysia. We are already broke.

Anonymous #33227154: Why waste our resources on the Rohingya? We should channel our resources to help our original bumiputera, the Orang Asli instead.

I wonder if our government is getting some kind of gain by championing the Rohingya.

Such hypocrites, doing this while letting our Orang Asli suffer. And we never see Umno or PAS demonstrating against Islamic State’s killings of non-Muslims.

Anonymous_1401675508: It's politics, my friend, politics. It's for the survival of Umno.

Rohingyas: The whos and whys behind their suffering

Analyser My Foot:. The protest was a show. Do you think we believe your ‘wayang wayang’? Look at the plight of the Orang Asli. They condemn the killings in Myanmar, but do they really know what is happening there?

If you asked the Myanmar people, maybe they would tell a different story. They are demonstrating because the Rohingya are Muslims, if not, they wouldn't even lift a finger to help.

Sleepy: The Rohingya are Muslims, but no country, especially now, wants to be remotely associated with a 'Muslim cause', including Muslim nations except the occasional protest, which is more for political survival than for Muslim unity.

Voice: If there is real genocide of the Rohingya, there would be condemnation from the world and the UN. Why is there no such condemnation? Even the former UN secretary-general has clarified that there was tension but not genocide.

Why did Myanmar's military rulers enact a law to recognise 135 distinct ethnic groups but not the Rohingya and five others? What have the Rohingya and five others done?

Our leaders should know the cooperation framework within Asean and not readily intervene in our neighbour's internal affairs. Furthermore, we know nothing much about the ethnic confrontation in Myanmar.

No country knows better than Myanmar itself. They should not just listen to one side of the story from the Rohingya here.

To send a top military chief to Myanmar to apparently salvage the friendship just after their insistence on holding the Rohingya rally will not help much. The damage has been done.

Just A Malaysian: I have friends who are volunteers teaching Rohingya children to read and write. A big Buddhist organisation in fact has it as part of their social programme. There are many Christians too spending their own time to help the Rohingya children.

Muslim groups can also contribute to the well being of the 50,000 refugees staying in Malaysia by ensuring their kids get proper education and break the poverty cycle. Trying to colour the conflict as a religious war is irresponsible and counter-productive.

The conflict has a long history and both sides have inflicted injury on each other through the passage of time. Being emotional will not help, since this issue is pretty complicated and needs statesmanship to resolve.

Muslims can do more on the ground level to ease the pain and suffering of the Rohingya.

Fairnsquare: It is quite clear that Umno is now making its struggle a religious one and hopes to garner religious support.

Hence its sudden love affair with PAS. The support for the Rohingya is to get Muslim votes, as it is seen to be supporting a 'Muslim cause,' which in Myanmar is a political issue.

We should only give humanitarian aid and support through the UN and not be dragged into the politics of Myanmar.

If I recall the late Abdul Razak Hussein, quite wisely, advocated neutrality and non-interference within Asean. Now this is also being eroded by politicians who have their own agendas.

What next?

-Mkini