“[T]he totally different reactions between the plight of the Muslim Rohingyas and the mostly Muslim Palestinians or Syrians” was brought up by regular commenter AC-DC @ 2015/05/20 at 12:02 pm.
Rohingya have become a boat people like Vietnamese before them.
Vietnamese boat people were mostly ethnic Chinese. Vietnam was not their motherland. They were pendatang who steadily mass migrated there starting the 18th century although there had been pockets of settled Chinese communities earlier in Vietnam.
When the French colonized Vietnam, economic opportunities opened up for the immigrant races. This is a trend similar to the Chinese population explosion in Malaya when the British made themselves the imperial rulers here.
Similarly as with the Vietnam timeline, there were also pockets of settled Chinese communities earlier in Malaya before the immigrant population boom, i.e. the Baba and Nyonya in Malacca and the Cina Peranakan in Penang, Kelantan and Terengganu. However the bulk of the Chinese immigrants in Perak, Selangor and the rest of the west coast of the peninsula were relative newcomers.
The table below shows the sharp increase in Chinese immigrant population when Vietnam came under French colonial rule.
In the matter of five short decades from the turn of the 20th century to the early 1950s, the Chinese immigrant population in Vietnam quintupled (x5).
Birds of passage flying away
The Chinese who were third and fourth generation immigrants in Vietnam soon chose to relocate once again and beginning the mid-1970s, boarded the boats as economic migrants. The Vietnamese boat people eventually got themselves resettled in the white countries like Australia, USA and Canada.
They were transients who did not live and die in Vietnam, or die for their country.
Vietnamese boat people who were ethnic Chinese deserted Vietnam but then again, that country was not their motherland.
And today we have Rohingya who are third and fourth generation emigrants from Rakhine becoming boat people. Burma is not their motherland.
BELOW: Vietnamese boat people
Rohingya’s hop skip and jump migration
As explained a little earlier, the Rohingya were from the region today known as Bangladesh. They are not native Burmese.
The Rohingya migrated to Rakhine state (also called Arakan) in droves for jobs when the British began colonizing Burma after winning the First Anglo-Burmese War. This movement of people was easy because at that time the Indian subcontinent was under the rule of the British Raj and the Rohingya’s place of origin Chittagong borders Arakan.
Following Britain’s complete victory in the Third Anglo-Burmese War, Burma was absorbed as a province of British India. Thus the mass migration of Muslim Bengalis to Buddhist Burma was unimpeded due to national boundaries being erased.
In the northern part of Rakhine, the Rohingya are the majority population at 91 percent. Nonetheless just like the Vietnamese boat people, the Rohingya boat people too want to leave the country they had been residing in over the last several generations.
The DAP and their church people might want to help the 50,000 Rohingya currently in Malaysian camps to transit to a better preferred destination – like say, Tasmania. Let’s see some proactive effort by the Dapster evangelistas in this direction, can we?
Racist! Racist! Racist!
The BN government is now being accused by the Christians as “inhumane” for turning back the Rohingya boats.
Malays are being accused by the Malaysian Firsters as “racist” because Malays allegedly favour the pretty Palestinians over the “swarthy” Rohingya.
The Firsters are saying that if it were the Palestinians to come a-knocking on our door, they would be embraced with open arms. Or that if the Rohingya looked more like fair-skinned Palestinians or Bosnians, their reception would be a lot warmer.
Well, it is undeniable that Palestinians are good-looking. Below is Queen Rania of Jordan. She’s of Palestinian descent.
Proof that Malaysian Firsters are full of love
They keep shouting that they’re full of loving kindness and are prepared to contribute Maggi Mee and mineral water for the Rohingya’s “humanitarian relief” to prove it.
They wear their compassion on their sleeve whereas the Malay-led government is apparently showing none (or so say the Christians). By the way, we can quite safely say ‘Malay-led government’ because the Home Minister, Defence Minister, Foreign Minister and Prime Minister are Malay and as are the policy and decision makers in the matter of national security.
According to the opposition followers, those Malaysians who support the government’s pushback of the Rohingya are full of cruelty and hate.
BELOW: Hannah Yeoh has always thought that Umno-BN are wicked
No compassion in wicked, evil BN people
Going back in history (and 1957 is not that long ago), if Umno had not persuaded the Raja-Raja Melayu to agree to giving Chinese a Malayan citizenship, their descendents would today be stateless like the Rohingya and like a sizeable number of Chinese in Brunei who are not granted that country’s passport.
The Chinese, complaining that they’re “second-class citizens” in Malaysia, also claim that because of state persecution, around one million mostly Chinese and Indians have left Malaysia in a Brain Drain exodus.
So we see the phenomenon of Vietnamese and Rohingya boat people and Malaysian Chinese “plane jumpers” (i.e. flying to the Western countries and then disappearing into the underground).
And there is a Palestinian diaspora as well. They live in Jordan, Lebanon and other host countries. The ones living in Gaza and the West Bank refuse to budge despite the Israeli bombs dropped on them.
The difference between Rohingya and Palestinians is that Palestinians are native and the ones who are displaced still want to go back to their land of olive groves. (Israel cannot and will not allow “the right of return” to the refugees – a position which is wholly understandable from the Israeli point of view.)
Do the ethnic Chinese Vietnamese boat people who have resettled in the West still wish to return to Vietnam if given the choice?
Why don’t the hateful Malays wanna be Firsters too?
I do not believe if the Rohingya were to sail to Japan or Korea that either countries would take them in, not even one boatload of 500.
And furthermore, the Japanese and Koreans would surely not be calling their governments “inhumane” and “merciless”.
Malaysian-ness of the Malays is questioned
The Japanese and Koreans are homogenous societies. Malaysians are a plural society.
Monocultural and monolingual societies are more cohesive. Or another way (one aspect) of looking at it, we can say that people in the homogenous countries tend to think more alike as a collective. In multiracial Malaysia, public opinion on the Rohingya is split.
If Malays had followed the example of Burma and refused to grant citizenship to the immigrants, then Tanah Melayu would today be largely monoracial. The British converted the Malay peninsula into a polyglot society.
Now the Malaysian Firsters are insisting that Malaysia is an “immigrant country” (examples Australia, USA) and hence, there is no reason to shut our door on the Rohingya. It is only the “hate-spewing, divisive, race-obsessed ignoramuses” who can be so heartless as to turn their back on the boat arrivals comprising “pregnant women, children, the elderly and the sick”.
Nevertheless, it is suspect whether the Firsters would welcome the Rohingya into their own gated communities in the affluent suburbs.
The Firsters want the nama harum of being seen as merciful and compassionate in the social media but it is still left to the “backward-thinking”, “pathetic” people to carry the can (take responsibility) for the Rohingya.
Firsters love Muslims and hate racism
If the Malays had acted like the Burmese at the time of both countries’ independence and denied citizenship to the immigrant races , then the Malays would not today have to put up with the constant screams that they’re “Racist!”
Mind you, some of the foremost Firsters can’t even make the cut elsewhere, such as Hannah Yeoh whose application for Permanent Residence (PR) in Tasmania, Australia was binned.
The self-professed colour blind Firsters proclaim they’re not racist. It must be the rest of us who are xenophobes for our inability to love the Rohingya as much as the churches do.
The Council of Churches Malaysia has rebuked the Malaysian government for being “inhumane“.
What does it mean when our authorities are characterized as not possessing any humanity?
This is inhumanity!
The animal abuse below happened a few days ago in Kuala Lumpur. Someone cut off the puppy’s limbs and tail, and left it to die.
After six hours of bleeding and suffering, the puppy breathed its tortured last.
Why don’t churches teach Malaysians to be better people?
The churches are suddenly like Nobel Prize freedom fighters overnight for the Rohingya cause.
Come on lah. What’s with the churches calling Malaysian government officials “inhumane”?
Are our Malaysian leaders perpetrating calculated cruelty as alleged by the evangelistas?
Should there be an unfortunate single fatality in the Rohingya boats, we might well expect the evangelistas to beat their tin drums telling the world how beastly the Malaysian leadership is. Mark my words.
Rohingya
- Koyak lah when cabinet ministers begin channeling Marina Mahathir
. - Najib gomen caves in to pressure
. - Council of Churches says govt “inhumane”, wants more “compassion” to be shown
. - Rohingya suspected of bringing to M’sia their blood feud against Buddhists
. - Foreign NGOs criticize Malaysia’s Rohingya policy.
. - Leave your Prada at home, Hannah, and volunteer to cook a meal for the Rohingyas
. - Will Hannah Yeoh give the Rohingya work as her children’s babysitter?
. - Last time we didn’t allow Vietnamese boat people to stay either
. - Rohingya might want to sue the British ala Hindraf class action suit
. - Haruskah pelarian Rohingya dibenar untuk menetap di sini? (tinjauan pendapat)
Helen Ang 
to hell with the council of churches.
and to hell to with those firsters that says malay muslims in general gives bias treatment when it comes to rohingyas compared to Palestinian.
I would like to add that these firsters conveniently omitted the time factor regarding the attention given to both people. Palestinian struggles has started as early as 1947 and the conflict has yet to come to an end. whereas the plight of rohingyas merely started around the 90s when they were not recognized by the Burmese authority and resentment escalated to an eventual 2012 rakhine riot.
so, it is not a surprise that malay muslim tend to sympathize more towards the struggle of Palestinian because it has a long history and well documented supported by the words of the quran. in time, rohingya might attract a similar kind of reaction.
and what about the fate of Bosnian who suffered in war during the 90s? I remembered the news headlines were always about Bosnian even overshadowing what happened in Palestine. not to mention the aid given by our government and people to the extend of giving asylum to a number of Bosnian people here. luckily it was a short conflict and bosnia is on her way of rebuilding.
Jentayu, did you notice your last paragraph actually contradicts what you said earlier?
So you justify the different treatment of the Palestinians versus the Rohingyas by saying the Palestine conflict has been ongoing for much longer.
So how about the Yugoslavian war? I too remember in the 1990s of news reports about that ongoing war and the Bosnians in the English and Malay media. Sympathetic articles of the plight of the Bosnian refugees. Front page photographs of fair-skinned and light haired European Bosnian victims. Proposals for mass asylum and resettlement in Malaysia. Our country did not have to wait long to show our sympathy to the Bosnians.
Take in the Rohingyas then and send the evagelistas to Myanmar. That would help solve the problem because then they can help the Rohingyas in Rakhine itself instead of howling here in safe Malaysia.
Agreed. Also, if there’s going to be high incidences of clashes resulting in deaths between the Rohingyas and Buddhist Burmese, then the DAP Firsters plus the biased Church will blame the Malay govt again. Bastards and wicked wicked wicked DAP and their gangs. Hannah Yeoh the fat slob is wicked wicked and evil. Huhuhu…
I wonder; what stop PR from accusing BN from using Rohingyan as phantom voters.
Btw, Malaysia is also under pressure from International Muslim community. Being critisized as a Muslim country who does not help fellow Muslim is a hard criticism not to caved in into.
Those who mock Malaysian Muslim who prefer fairer skin Muslim such as Bosnian et. Al. are not firsters only. Malaysian Muslim are doing it too. Perhaps the firsters were taking cue from Malaysian Muslim.
– See more at: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/south-east-asia/story/least-100-killed-bloody-clashes-migrant-vessel-20150520#sthash.obkXIrNO.dpuf
We mustn’t forget that Myanmar nationals were the highest number of murder victims among foreigners in Penang last year. The Rohingya brought their blood feud with Buddhists to Malaysia.
The government is allowing illegal immigrants belonging to a foreign race to come here and kill their countrymen belonging to a rival religion. Remember that the throats of some of the murder victims were slit and the heads of others decapitated.
Bukankah tindakan menyerap PATI ini hanya mencari penyakit? They are just undesirable elements who will further destabilize our society.
And the government caving in to pressure or being held to ransom is displaying the worst sort of flip-flopping. My online poll has attracted 820 respondents, with 61% or close to 500 voting ‘No’ – don’t let the Rohingya stay.
This is the voice of the silent majority. Doesn’t the government care or heed how “orang kita” (particularly the segment that votes BN) feel?
Cik Helen,
Thank you for writing about this topic.
There are those here who claim to ‘know about’ the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet they’ll make use of the Palestinians’ plight to cast a negative light on the Malays.
I guess anything goes as long as they can feel superior to Malays and get to call Malays and the government “racists”.
I think ‘know about’ means they can repeat the talking points given by their political masters.
Dah la kurang cerdik, hati busuk pulak.
“The difference between Rohingya and Palestinians is that Palestinians are native and the ones who are displaced still want to go back to their land of olive groves. (Israel cannot and will not allow “the right of return” to the refugees – a position which is wholly understandable from the Israeli point of view.)”
The only way to resolve the conflict is to have a just peace that are acceptable to both parties, not a peace enforced by arms and the feeling of superiority of one party over the other.
That “just peace” seems to be far away, however. One of the main reason is that there are Bible-thumping Christians (lots and lots of them, everywhere) who do not wish to see peace. Probably has something to do with their desire to have Jews in one place, the Second Coming etc.
And these Christians are vocal and politically influential in some countries, esp the US, the only country that could push Israel towards peace as they did over Sinai after the 1973 war.
re: “Bible-thumping Christians (lots and lots of them, everywhere)”
Too many. Rimas dibuatnya mereka.
re: “And these Christians are vocal and politically influential in some countries”
Yup, including in our country. It feels like they’re pushing us with our back against the wall.
‘Malays are being accused by the Malaysian Firsters as “racist” because Malays allegedly favour the pretty Palestinians over the “swarthy” Rohingya.
The Firsters are saying that if it were the Palestinians to come a-knocking on our door, they would be embraced with open arms. Or that if the Rohingya looked more like fair-skinned Palestinians or Bosnians, their reception would be a lot warmer.’
Ini FITNAH DAJJAL, Melayu kutip semua; yang hidung kemek, yang mata sepet, yang hitam legam semua depa bagi warganegara?!
Awat tak suruh Singapore ambik sikit? First World maa? Kan Singapore nak tambah populasi lagi dua tiga juta orang? Ini lah masanya!
Atau Singapura nak ambik Cina mainland saja? Macam Gong Li?
Yup S’pore will only take Chinese expecially from PRC but actually any Chinese will do…..If China crumbles tomorrow, they’ll take the China Chinese people anytime …
“If China crumbles tomorrow, they’ll take the China Chinese people anytime …”
Can they handle just 0.1% of the 1.357 billion people in this island state of 716.1 km2?
“The Japanese and Koreans are homogenous societies. Malaysians are a plural society. Monocultural and monolingual societies are more cohesive. Or another way (one aspect) of looking at it, we can say that people in the homogenous countries tend to think more alike as a collective. In multiracial Malaysia, public opinion on the Rohingya is split.”
Racially homogeneous Koreans is split into North Korea and South Korea. Both nations are hostile to each other. North Korea always threatens to bomb Seoul into a moonscape.
The populace is not hostile on account of ethnicity or ethnic differences. Germany and Vietnam reunified. Carik-carik bulu ayam …
re: “North Korea always threatens to bomb Seoul into a moonscape.”
That’s the problem when you have the Kims and their fanatical, brainwashing ideology. Likewise the Lims.
The Dapsters are hostile to me but it’s not because I’m Chinese. It’s because I do not support the DAP and their ABU-UBAH doctrine.
Let us do a what-if?
If back in the 70s, the Malaysian and Singaporean governments accepted all the Vietnamese – who are Chinese, what would Malaysia and Singapore be like today?
“The populace is not hostile on account of ethnicity or ethnic differences.”
It is still hostility. The result has been a war with millions of Koreans dead, and hostility that still lingers until today.
Compared to inter-ethnic relations in our country, we have been relatively peaceful.
Korea was occupied by the Japanese. When Japan lost in WW2, the victorious Allies (Americans) sliced the Korean peninsula into two like a watermelon, and the North became communist while the South came under American influence.
The two Koreas became pawns in the Cold War between Russia/USSR and the communist bloc ideology vs Americanism. The Korean War was ignited when the North invaded. Ya lor, the aggressive Kims. The trouble caused by outside interference and dictatorial dynasties.
If there’s a lesson for us to learn from Korean history, it is “We must beware the Lims”.
re: “Compared to inter-ethnic relations in our country, we have been relatively peaceful.”
So why are Dapsters always labelling the Malays as racists and supremacists. Not grateful for the peace and stability, meh?
“The two Koreas became pawns in the Cold War between Russia/USSR and the communist bloc ideology vs Americanism. The Korean War was ignited when the North invaded. Ya lor, the aggressive Kims. The trouble caused by outside interference and dictatorial dynasties.
If there’s a lesson for us to learn from Korean history, it is “We must beware the Lims”.”
The irony is you frequently talk about how Najib needs to be a ‘war general’, “blood and iron”, restricting the alternative media, and how the iron fist needs to be used on government critics.
re: “restricting the alternative media”
TMI perangai macam setan. The nine Raja-Raja Melayu through their Penyimpan Mohor Besar lodged a report with the police. TMI fitnah everybody from the Sultans to the Muftis to Majlis Fatwa, MAIS, JAIS, Muslim NGOs, Umno ministers to ex-prime ministers … the list is endless.
Not only should TMI be restricted, it should be shut down.
re: “iron fist needs to be used on government critics”
Yes, if they cannot stop their fitnah. Do like S’pore and LKY. Sue them to bankruptcy. We’re dealing with politicians and their operatives yang perangai macam setan.
re: “The irony is you frequently talk about how Najib needs to be a war general”
Yup. Gotta fight fire with fire.
‘So why are Dapsters always labelling the Malays as racists and supremacists. Not grateful for the peace and stability, meh?’
ACDC tak jawab. Biar saya tolong jawab.
Ketuanan Cina ala Singapura!!!
Suggestion for Hannah Yeoh.
Employ two Roghinya maids to take care of your household. Employ one Rohingya security guard (since they have been robbed) for your parents and a maid to take care of them. City Harvest could employ a dozen security guards and maids. OKM could employ a hairdresser.
‘Employ two Roghinya maids’
Mulan I suggest she ambik one, the Cina looking ethnic Karen and another one, the India looking ethnic Rohingya. One for each daughter according to respective bangsa. And she can tweets about it till kingdom comes!.