TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Parliament members from ASEAN member states, including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar expressed their concerns after a meeting that was held to discuss the massive number of migrants in Southeast Asia failed to yield significant results.
Lawmakers from the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) expressed their disappointment on the fact that representatives of ASEAN member states had failed bring the persecution of ethnic Rohingyas in Myanmar into the discussion. In addition, APHR lawmakers also disappointed with ASEAN member states that are considered to have complied to pressures applied by a military government directly responsible for some of the most shocking and heinous policies of persecution in the world today.
Charles Santiago, Chairperson of APHR and Malaysian Member of Parliament claimed that the meeting is "just another case of ASEAN doing as ASEAN does: lots of talk with little genuine substance or resolve to take any action whatsoever on the root causes of this crisis."
"The meeting's failure to openly discuss the desperate conditions and systematic human rights violations suffered by the Rohingya population is tantamount to complicity in the crimes being committed against them. A country responsible for human rights violations cannot just veto any discussion of them in an open meeting," Santiago added.
Santiago was also angered at the fact that Myanmar's policies are openly aimed at 'cleansing' the country of its Rohingya population, a policy even the government admits to itself.
MAHINDA ARKYASA
