I am writing this quickly, as I have a plane to catch later today. I will be heading to Kenya as Chairman of the Standing Committee on International Relations and International Trade of the Malaysian Parliament.
I will be leading a small delegation of five MPs; three from the government including myself and two from the opposition bench. We have three objectives;
(a) improve Global South Parliamentary links, especially with Africa, as the continent has been on a solid trajectory of growth that started a decade ago;
(b) firm up and diversify our trade tries, last year Malaysia exported RM5 billion of goods to Kenya; and
(c) learn from the Kenya successful experience in effective and humane management of refugees. We will travel by economy class and be in Nairobi for four days. Since there is no direct flight, the to and from travel will take two whole days.
In this article, I would like to share in a limited way, my observations and thoughts of my other recent travel to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. I was there for 6 days on a mission to study and then make recommendations on the unfolding Rohingya refugees’ crisis as Chairman of the Malaysian chapter of ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR). APHR is a regional NGO that has 150 current and former MPs. This was not a Malaysian Parliament mission but a human rights initiative.
For context; recall that the Rohingya crisis started eight years ago in 2017, when the Myanmar military began a genocide campaign to ethnically cleanse the Rohingya from the Rakhine State. More than a million refugees fled to neighbouring Bangladesh, and were placed in camps in Cox’s Bazar.
Another very large number of Rohingya refugees ended up in Malaysia. Officially, there are 120,000 UNHCR registered Rohingya refugees in Malaysia, however the unregistered number is unknown. Best estimates point to the unregistered population to be a lot more than the registered population.
This is the largest refugee crisis in the world and both Bangladesh and Malaysia are the primary hosts to the refugees and as such, it is in both countries’ best interests to end the ongoing Myanmar Civil War and ensure the safe and dignified return of the Rohingya to Myanmar. Hence my focus on this matter and Myanmar, as a human rights advocate and foreign policy chairman.
Since the Myanmar Civil War started four years ago in 2021, the plight of the Rohingya refugees have somewhat been over-shadowed by the armed conflicts across Myanmar. However, with 83% of programs cut from the Trump administration starting this year, all global refugee aid programs including that in Cox’s Bazar, are now on the verge of collapse. At Cox’s Bazar, I met officials of the Bangladesh government, UNHCR, IOM, Save the Children, who described the massive scaling back of health services, nutrition and also the complete suspension of education for refugee children.
The most basic fundamental need of food supply, is estimated to run out by end of November 2025, unless more nations pledge to fill up the shortfall from the USAID cuts. Currently, a refugee is being allotted USD12 or RM50 a month for food, that is RM1.70 sen per day. The situation is already dire and will become much worse soon. In addition, Bangladesh is a lower-middle-income country and will not be able to cope without immediate external aid.
When I met Prof. Muhammad Yunus, the Chief Advisor (interim prime minister) in Dhaka, I shared several long-term strategies with him. Three weeks earlier, when Prof. Yunus was in KL, we started this same conversation. Having visited Cox’s Bazar and spoke to many actors and stakeholders there, I felt more confident on my assessment and refined my recommendations to him. I also met Md. Touhid Hossain, the Foreign Affairs advisor and continued our deep policy discussion. We had met twice previously in Kuala Lumpur over the last three months.
I stressed to both eminent Advisors that the Rohingya need first and foremost, a recognized leadership structure so that they are represented in all matters to do with the future of Myanmar. Without a seat on the table, the Rohingya will never be able to secure any dignified return to the Rakhine state. I also shared some views of geo-politics, the posturing of the super powers and the divided and multi-faceted ASEAN perspectives. Since Malaysia is in a similar dire situation as Bangladesh on the matter of Rohingya refugees, I urged both governments to work more closely and to co-ordinate better our actions.
Time is running out, if aid do not arrive soon, the camps will face starvation and famine by Christmas. Lastly, I pointed out that we have an opportunity to make this a priority agenda item in the upcoming ASEAN Summit in the end of October, and that Bangladesh should make that call to the Malaysian government.
