‘Myanmar refugees given voting authority’ – UNHCR alert

KUALA LUMPUR – The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has expressed its concern over news reports which claim that its ongoing exercise to register Myanmar asylum-seekers in Malaysia is actually a front for registering ‘foreign voters’ for the upcoming general election.

The international aid body has reacted with alarm over the reports, which allege, among others, that more than 10,000 Myanmar nationals at the KLFA Stadium in Cheras were being registered as Malaysians, on the condition that they were Muslim.

The same reports claim that the thousands of asylum-seekers were not only being given Permanent Resident (PR) status but permanent citizenship by the Malaysian government, thus enabling them to vote in the general elections.

This was the gist of the reports published by pro-Opposition news portals Harakah Daily and Keadilan Daily.

UNHCR representatives in Malaysia have denied the reports, and stressed that the data-gathering process is part of the aid body’s ongoing effort to register the asylum seekers in the country.

WAITING: Asylum-seekers seen loitering at the area outside the gathering hall. Some were seen trying to enter the hall but was turned away due to overcrowding.UNHCR spokesperson Yante Ismail said that they were alerted to the reports and moved quickly to issue a statement clarifying the issue.

“We have already sent the statement to Harakah andKeadilan Daily, but it amazes me that they did not choose to carry the statement. We sent it and asked them to rectify it (their reports) but they did not bother to correct it,” she told Malaysian Digest.

Yanti said she was taken aback at the reports, as the claims have no basis whatsoever.

“I was alarmed at this and I hope that this can be corrected,” she said.

Yanti had earlier explained that UNHCR was conducting a data-gathering exercise of unregistered asylum-seekers from the Rohingya, Myanmar Muslim, and Myanmar Tamil groups from Myanmar.

During the exercise, UNHCR would be gathering basic biodata and contact information of these communities.

“This is to assist UNHCR in our future programmatic planning, including future registration exercises. For planning purposes, UNHCR needs to know who the unregistered asylum-seekers are in the country, and data-gathering exercises such as this helps us to know this.

She said while there are some 100,000 refugees and asylum-seekers already registered with UNHCR, they estimate that around 10,000 or more asylum-seekers have not yet registered.

“This exercise aims to provide us a clearer idea of how many unregistered Rohingyas, Myanmar Muslims and Myanmar Tamils there are in Malaysia. Since we started last week, we have seen a few thousand people, but this has also included persons not from the three ethnic groups mentioned.

DETERMINED: Many refugees were seen lingering around the stadium’s parking area, waiting for the entrance to be re-opened for the data-collection exercise.“We will have a better picture once this exercise is over and we have a chance to analyse our data,” she said.

On Tuesday, Harakah Daily and Keadilan Daily had reported that the KLFA Stadium in Cheras was playing host to a mass registration exercise for Myanmar nationals, and offering them Malaysian citizenship.

Both portals had quoted a Facebook posting by a user, Shirley Gabriella, whom via her Nov 2 entry, claimed that she had on that same day witnessed more than 10,000 Myanmar nationals waiting to be registered as permanent citizens.

“However, there was one requirement. They have (sic) to be a Muslim. The person who approved the citizenship today actually registered each individual to declare if they are Muslim.

“If the answer is yes, then they must prove it by saying some prayer quote from the Quran bible (sic),” the user wrote in her posting.

The post was picked up and reproduced by the two portals. Keadilan Daily, in its report headlined ‘Almost 10,000 Myanmar Nationals Get ICs To Become BN Voters?’, raised a poser on why was it necessary to provide citizenship to foreigners.

“Is Malaysia so short of citizens until it needs to give citizenship to foreigners? Will these thousands of Myanmar nationals be allowed to vote in the general election to ensure victory for Barisan Nasional?

“This expose will most likely unravel the incidences where Myanmar settlements in Pekan, Pahang, were given citizenship to save (Prime Minister Datuk Seri) Najib Razak’s political career,” the report stated.

Harakah Daily had published an almost identical report, but attributed it to a pro-Opposition blog,www.milosuam.blogspot.com.

Efforts by Malaysian Digest to contact the Facebook users were unsuccessful to date.

This is not the first time that Keadilan Daily has come under scrutiny for a misleading news report. On Sept 25, the portal had produced an article which claimed that 1Malaysia exercise books, bearing the PM’s face on the cover, were being distributed in schools nationwide.

The article had quoted Parti Keadilan Rakyat leaders slamming Najib’s ‘desperate move’ in targeting schools to further the government’s political agenda.

Malaysian Digest later revealed that the books were part of an independent art project. The creator of the books, June Low and Adila Abdul Malik, slammed the portal for using their material as political propaganda.

They demanded an apology and retraction from the portal. Keadilan Dailyresponded with an apology and clarification soon after.  - MD

 

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