KUALA LUMPUR: If there’s a war crime taking place in the world today, and if it’s not happening in Palestine, don’t expect Malaysia to take a stand against it.
This is what Pakatan Rakyat MPs are saying today after the Speaker of Parliament rejected an emergency motion to debate Malaysia’s stand on the United Nations resolution calling for investigations into human rights violations during the final months of the 26-year Sri Lanka civil war.
According to Subang MP R Sivarasa (PKR), Putrajaya does not seem to understand the universality of human rights.
“It should not matter if you’re Tamil, Singhalese, Muslim, Christian or Buddhist,” he told reporters at Parliament House.
“If war crimes have been committed against you, it doesn’t matter whether you’re Palestinian attacked by Israeli tanks or whether you’re Sri Lankan attacked by Sri Lankan tanks. It doesn’t make a difference.”
“By remaining silent or supporting the Sri Lankan government on this issue, it shows that our human rights position is completely hypocritical.”
The resolution on Sri Lanka, moved by the United States, is due for a vote this Friday at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council. Malaysia is one of the 47 members of the council. The resolution calls on the government in Colombo to probe alleged atrocities caused by both government troops and Tamil rebels.
As many as 40,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the last months of the conflict, which ended in May 2009 with the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. The resolution does not sit well with Colombo, which denies that government troops committed war crimes.
Affecting ties with Sri Lanka
The motion rejected in the Malaysian Parliament was submitted last week by DAP’s M Manogaran, the MP for Teluk Intan.
Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia, who made his decision in chambers this morning, said discussing the matter would affect Malaysia’s “good relationship” with Sri Lanka.
Manogaran tried to raise the matter when the Dewan Rakyat was in session, but Deputy Speaker Ronald Kiandee said his motion had already been rejected.
“I’m not raising a question on Sri Lanka,” Manogaran told reporters afterwards. “I’m just giving a notice to move the house to be adjourned to debate on the resolution given by the US. I don’t agree that it has to do with internal affairs. If we can’t debate it here, where can we debate it?”
Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul (PKR), who visited Sri Lanka a few months ago, said the case of the South Asian nation was no different from that of Palestine.
He deduced, however, that the Barisan Nasional government was less concerned with Sri Lanka because most Malays were oblivious of the sufferings of people there “even though a lot of them are Muslim”.
As far as the government was concerned, he said, the Sri Lankans held no political mileage.
Klang MP Charles Santiago (DAP) accused Malaysia of being opportunistic when it came to human rights.
“We all support the Palestinian cause because we believe in the sovereignty of the nation, the people,” he said.
“That same foreign policy must be extended to be people of Sri Lanka. But when it comes to Sri Lanka, it’s really opportunistic foreign policy making.”
Manogaran urged MIC to state its official stand on the resolution.
He said Malaysian Indians would want the MIC ministers to raise the issue in the next cabinet meeting, which is this Friday, the same day of the UN vote.
MIC Secretary General S Murugessan said that his party would state its official stand in two days’ time.
“We will conduct a meeting this evening to discuss the matter,” he told FMT.
Double standards
Manogaran, pointing to the Malaysian support for Muslim insurgents in southern Thailand and the southern Philippines, said: “It is clear that the BN government practises double standards in foreign policy.”
He also said Indians in Malaysia would be embarrassed if Malaysia were to vote against the UN resolution.
A political analysist sharing Pakatan’s view warned the BN government of a possible backlash if it failed to support the resolution.
A Thiruvengadam, who writes a political column for Tamil dailies, said the coming general election might turn out to be “another political tsunami” brought on by the Sri Lanka issue.
Source : http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/03/19/war-crimes-bn-accused-of-hypocrisy/
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