The announcement by Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi that Malaysia would be providing Rohingyas in the country with training in semi-skilled areas should be welcomed by all. In fact, it is long overdue.
As of now, UNHCR Malaysia has registered more than 150,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, the majority of whom are from Myanmar. Since Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 refugee convention, these people are not permitted to work legally.
Although most are able to find employment in the informal sector, and the Malaysian authorities are generally tolerant of their presence, it is not without risk and danger, especially abuse, exploitation, as well as arbitrary arrest and detention.
Contrary to popular perception, refugees and asylum-seekers are in fact more likely to be victims of crime rather than perpetrators. The absence of state protection and legal status in Malaysian means that crimes against them are largely unreported.
While all ethnic minorities in Myanmar have been subjected to discrimination and oppression, the severest persecution befell the Rohingyas. Unlike the Chins, Karens, Kachins, Rakhines, etc., whose right to Myanmar citizenship is enshrined in the 1982 Nationality Law, the Rohingyas enjoy no such privilege.
Over the years, various ‘legal’ documents were issued to Myanmar residents of Rohingya origin, only to be revoked or annulled later at the whims and fancies of the military junta.
I still remember I once met a Rohingya refugee, whose impeccable English could put many Malaysians to shame. He told me he was given ‘a form of citizenship’ in the late 1960s, which made it possible for him to study law at the then prestigious Rangoon University (now renamed the University of Yangon).
He went on to practise law and had all the potential to be a high-flying lawyer, until the military regime enacted the 1982 Nationality Law under which the Rohingyas were not recognised as one of the ‘national races’.
From a promising young lawyer, this man became stateless overnight; so did the other 800,000 or so Rohingya in Myanmar. He was disqualified as a lawyer and had to resort to teaching English as a private tutor.
Still, the stigmatisation of the entire Rohingya community through state propaganda made life extremely intolerable for him, as fewer and fewer Myanmar parents were willing to send their young ones to be taught by him, he had no option but to leave the country for Malaysia in the 1990s.
By the time we met, he had been working as a street sweeper and car-wash worker in Kuala Lumpur for over 15 years. His Malay language was so fluent that he was often mistaken for a local, which explains why he was able to avoid arrest by the police.
Granted, other ethnic groups in Myanmar, too, have faced tremendous plights, but they are at least recognised as rightful citizens of Myanmar, while the Rohingya are not.
They encounter severe discrimination and hindrance in terms of employment, education and medical care, and their fate has been made worse over the past few years because the Myanmar military has been exerting greater control in the ethnic minority areas, especially states such as Rakhine, Shan, Karen and Kachin. More than 100,000 Rohingyas are now languishing in squalid internally displaced persons’ camps in northern Rakhine state.