3 implications of Najib’s Rohingya remarks
Apart from helping to shore up his image in Malaysia, the PM’s remarks have brought into question Asean’s non-interference policy and indicates a possible shift away from Asean values, says article in The Diplomat.
KUALA LUMPUR: Sunday’s rally condemning atrocities against the Rohingyas in Myanmar might indicate a shift away from Asean values to universal values.
According to an article in The Diplomat, the rally to protest the atrocities against the Rohingyas in Myamar on Sunday, and Prime Minister Najib Razak’s strong condemnation, has also helped achieve Najib’s “domestic political motives”.
The article says, importantly, Najib’s remarks at the rally have sharpened existing tensions between global and local values, ideas of regional integration and national sovereignty, and questions of transnational and national responsibility.
It notes that Najib’s strong rebuke of Myanmar and Myanmar State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi marked the first time a Southeast Asian leader has condemned the Myanmar state’s actions in such strong terms.
Najib, it says, is under immense domestic pressure following allegations of corruption over the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, including the latest protest by Bersih 2.0 for clean elections and clean government.
The Malaysian government has also been accused of human rights violations by Laurent Meillan, acting representative of the UN Human Rights Office for Southeast Asia over the arrests of several activists involved in the Bersih rally.
“In this light, there is little doubt that Najib’s statements are at least partly designed to shore up his human rights record and regain much-needed political capital.
“State violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar has taken place since at least 2012, and it’s hard to overlook the particular timing of Najib’s unprecedented response.”
“But this was not simply the case of the wrong person saying the right thing at the wrong time. Najib’s statements reflect several political dilemmas that lie at the heart of the refugee question in Southeast Asia.”
The article mentions three elements arising from Najib’s remarks. His words “imply that he is acting on a universal duty of response – and holding Suu Kyi to the global ideals that are seen to underwrite her Nobel Prize.
“This is a deliberate departure from the position, long held among Southeast Asian policymakers, that regional and local values hold sway in Southeast Asian contexts. Building on the “Asian Values” discourse, Southeast Asian leaders and diplomats have previously stressed the region’s “incommensurable differences from the West” as reasons to question the universality of human rights.
“Najib’s statements suggest a clear pivot away from the default Southeast Asian position, and besides voicing indirect criticism at his own region’s lackluster human rights record, they may also imply that the global community (and the support it can offer) seems somewhat closer to Najib at this point than his immediate neighbours.”
Second, is Najib’s position on the Asean Charter. Najib said: “There is an article in the Asean charter that says Asean must uphold human rights. Are they blind? Don’t just interpret things as you choose.” In any case, he added, “this is not intervention. This is universal human values.”
These remarks, says the article, come in the wake of palpable friction among Asean members over conflicting territorial claims in the South China Sea and the involvement of China and the US in the region.
“Noninterference by regional and global powers alike has been a core tenet of Asean’s institutional stability since its inception, and has been credited for promoting peaceful relations in Southeast Asia especially since the end of the Cold War.
“However, Najib’s comments have flagged up the uncomfortable truth that this insistence on traditional state sovereignty may be less and less tenable in the present global context, and especially with regards to transnational migration.”
Third, “Najib’s focus on the “root cause” of refugee flight – Myanmar’s internal abuses against the Rohingya – successfully presents the crisis as a national issue, and sidesteps the glaring evidence that countless refugees are trafficked across the region in horrific conditions, and fall victim to the combined effects of patchy law enforcement, organised crime, and Southeast Asia’s insatiable appetite for cheap labour.”
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Many, the article in The Diplomat says, end up in Malaysia and Thailand or in refugee camps in Indonesia. And because none of these countries are signatory to the Refugee Convention, few enjoy the legal right to work or corresponding protections against abusive employers.