Malaysians in Qatar are upset with the Malaysian embassy officials in Doha here for inviting only a selected number of Malaysians for a dinner to celebrate Malaysia Day at a leading hotel here recently.

Some Malaysians feel this has something to do the recent visit here by International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapha Mohamed. During the visit, Mustpaha hosted a dinner cum discussion with Malaysians at the Malaysian-managed Holiday Villa.

During the briefing, the YB invited Malaysians to raise current issues affecting Malaysian businessmen here in Qatar. Many Malaysians openly complained about the failure of the Malaysian Embassy to cooperate and support Malaysians here.

One Malaysian said he had been working with a leading Qatari construction and development company at the boardroom level for many years. He said to date, no Malaysian embassy official had visited the CEO or chairperson to pitch for work whereas the Singapore ambassador holds regular dialogues and pitches work for Singporean companies and Singaporean products.

Another Malaysian criticised the Malaysian embassy officials’ inability to speak Arabic whereas the Singaporean ambassador, who is a Sikh, speaks fluent Arabic and makes the local Qatari officials feel comfortable.

Senior officials from major Malaysian engineering and construction firms attended the minister’s briefing. One complained that Exim’s bank’s failure to support Malaysian companies here and in the Middle East for the past 25 years was a case in point.

One firm has suffered massive losses due to a lack of understanding of local issues. Most private sector officials assigned here said that their lack of knowledge of the local business and economic environments was the main cause of the failure of Malaysian businesses.

One Malaysian resident complained that even Malaysian-produced ‘kacang goreng’ was being exported to Qatar by a Singaporean company. He said the Malaysian embassy did nothing to pitch for work or even promote Malaysian products.

Some said that Thailand has four to five restaurants here and they market their products through popularising the restaurants. The Thai embassy officials are very active in promoting their country both for tourism and consumer products.

During the dialogue, the minister was unable to answer many specific questions raised by Malaysians here. He said he will advise the Malaysian embassy to be more active. The charg é d'affaires was seen busy making notes.

At the end of dialogue, the minister asked his 20-member delegation to stand up in order to be recognised by the Malaysians in Qatar. Sadly, the Malaysian delegates were so slow that the minister had to practically plead to them three times.

Finally, the Malaysian team got up from one corner of the room. The minister reminded them two times not to group together in one place but to mingle amongst the Malaysians here in Qatar.

Some Malaysians in Qatar feel that the embassy may be upset due to the above incident and avoided inviting all Malaysians to celebrate ‘1Malaysia’ function. As the monies to celebrate Malaysia Day comes from Malaysians, it is unfair to invite only some Malaysians and not most.