Hats off for helping Palestinians, shall we help others too?

My heart was filled with warmth and pride recently when I heard the news that the Malaysian government flew in 127 Palestinians to the country to provide them with medical care.

This group of refugees were flown in from Egypt and it was through negotiations with the Egyptian and Palestinian governments. According to news reports, 41 are injured patients while 86 are their family members.

Defence Minister Mohamed Khalid Nordin said that the injured were brought to Tuanku Mizan Armed Forces Hospital in Kuala Lumpur while their family members were housed in a transit location provided by the Defence Ministry.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has also said that the Palestinians will be repatriated once medical treatment has been provided and they are okay.

I applaud the fact that our government is willing to take in those who are in need and give them aid and protection. If we have the ability, then why not?

It is through this compassion and empathy that we want to be known and also to teach our people that this is the way to treat others. If we were in need, wouldn’t we want others to help us as well?

What about the Rohingya?

Following this kind and generous act that our government has done, I would like to request that we also extend this same generosity and kindness to others who are in need, like the Rohingya in Myanmar.

As far as proximity is concerned, the Rohingya are the nearest to our country and the crisis that they are facing is the same form of oppression and genocide too.

In fact, Malaysia has a long history with Rohingya refugees as well, and over the decades, the Rohingya have always seen our country as a safe haven for them to escape the violence of their home country.

However, as much as they see us as a safe haven, our country has not really been treating them that nicely, or even humanely.

There have been many instances where boatloads of Rohingya have been turned back at sea as they were approaching our shores, which eventually caused many of them to die. And those who do make it here too aren’t exactly being treated well.

With their undocumented status, they aren’t allowed to work properly, do not have access to healthcare, and their young can’t get a proper education.

Start with refugee convention

Okay, I understand that 127 Palestinians and tens of thousands of Rohingya is a big difference. But my argument here is that Malaysia and Malaysians need to do everything we can to help those in need. I repeat - everything we can.

If we can only help 127 people in need then so be it. But if we can help even more, then why don’t we? All we need is to just have a proper system.

For one, our government could sign the 1951 Refugee Convention and recognise refugees instead of just treating them as undocumented migrants with no protection.

Once we do that, then we can have a proper structure of how we can actually help them. We can even devise a plan of how to integrate them into our society so they can be useful members and contribute to our country.

If we do decide that we can only give them temporary shelter and aid, then we can also devise a plan where, while here, they can also have access to proper infrastructure, healthcare, and education, before being placed in another country that can take them in permanently.

We just need to decide to help, and then decide how to help.

At the moment, we don’t have any structure or plan to help refugees or those in need other than just picking and choosing according to global trends.

We should be able to provide aid to anyone, be it Palestinians, Rohingya, Syrians, Afghans, or anyone that we feel is being oppressed and threatened. We don’t want to wage war but we do want to help.

Helping others all the time

So yes, I applaud the government and also agree when Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said that this is not the first time the government decided to help those from conflict areas.

“There were many others who came before them (the Palestinians), hundreds of thousands of Rohingya and Achehnese refugees has also come here… we gave them protection until the tension in their countries subsided,” he said.

So instead of just doing things when there is global attention or when there is political or social mileage, how about we actually make it a part of our country’s practice? We can be a nation that helps others all the time.

So how about it, government? Let’s put our action where our mouth is. Shall we sign the 1951 Refugee Convention? I say we shall. - Mkini

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ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.