Plight of the Rohingya should be on Asean's radar

A DIPLOMATIC shouting match seems to be underway between Malaysia and Myanmar, with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak accusing the Aung San Suu Kyi government of ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya people from Rakhine state.

Mr Najib described the actions of the Napydaw forces in Rahkine as amounting to "genocide" no less. "UN please do something. The world cannot sit by and watch genocide taking place," he told a rally in Kuala Lumpur last week. Of course, Myanmar denies any such thing and points out that a border post was attacked by militants in October and their armed forces were merely dealing with the problem.

To begin with, Mr Najib's vitriol against Myanmar's de facto leader is misdirected. Although Ms Suu Kyi has gamely defended the country's sovereignty and thus its prerogative to conduct its own affairs as it sees fit, the plain truth is that she simply has no say (never mind control) about what is being done to the beleaguered Muslim minority community.