COMMENT | Is this the best solution for the Rohingyas?

COMMENT | A most difficult column to write, this is. I have been juggling with my emotions, facts, idealism, and realism. Here are my thoughts as if written under an intense emotional difficulty.

Don’t get me wrong about the Rohingyas. I have contributed hundreds of ringgit to an NGO helping with education of the children of the people.

I had questions about them. They were booted out of Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia. Is it because they are not grateful to the countries harbouring them? Good contributors to the state they are in? Why is it we are now seeing their demands here? Did the alleged rape incidents in Myanmar by the Rohingyas fuel the anger of the monks and the junta? How true is it that they, through their links with local jihadists, are said to have killed Buddhist monks, battle the authorities, and create mayhem in Rakhine? Are they actually Bangladeshis refugees, rather than a distinct ethnic group called the Rohingyas? Are they in Malaysia paying themselves through a syndicate of human traffickers?

We need to read more on those above. But reading these events from 1971, post-British India history and the birth of Bangladesh, this story sounds like the incident that sparked World War I. The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Isabella by a Serbian rebel. I like to find parallels in history and to discern lessons from historicity of things. I was old enough to understand the issue of Pulang Bidong, of the Hai Hong. Of the Vietnamese refugee and how they created chaos, challenging the fishermen and security forces, in Terengganu. A lesson learned about opening doors. Arms wide open.

Anyways I thought: Would it be great if members of PAS, DAP, and also Suaram or any concerned citizens open their homes to adopt Rohingya families to...