Ph Rep Wants Action Against Rohingya Traders Gets Slammed By Activist

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North-South Initiative’s executive director, Adrian Pereira (left), says the remarks by Klang MP V Ganabatirau are ‘extremely racist and xenophobic’.KUALA LUMPUR: A Pakatan Harapan MP has urged the home ministry to take action against Rohingya traders operating stalls at the  Pasar Besar Meru in Klang, a call which a migrant activist labelled “extremely racist and xenophobic”.
Klang MP V Ganabatirau claimed that the presence of the Rohingya traders had prevented local people from doing business there.
“They are not only working but becoming towkays (bosses). If we wait (any longer before taking action), Meru will become Selayang 2,” he said, referring to the wholesale market in Selangor, which has in the past become a hotbed for anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Ganabatirau said this when debating the 2023 Supply Bill in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He claimed that enforcement officers from the home ministry and the Klang Municipal Council, among others, had not gone down to the ground to resolve the problems.
“How long are we supposed to tolerate this?” he asked.
In January 2021, it was reported that Rohingya traders who were United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cardholders were allowed to work at the Pasar Besar Meru until the end of April that year.
In an immediate response, North-South Initiative (NSI) executive director Adrian Pereira slammed Ganabatirau’s statement as being “extremely racist and xenophobic”.
Pereira said Ganabatirau had displayed “stupidity and ignorance” on the issue.
He said the survival instincts of the Rohingya, who had fled persecution, had led them to start their own businesses, but this did not mean they were competing with Malaysians.
“It’s times like this that I wish Charles was back,” he said, referring to Ganabatirau’s predecessor, Charles Santiago, who he said understood the issue at hand.
“For saying things like this, Ganabatirau has put the community in more danger.”
Pereira said Ganabatirau’s call for the home ministry to resolve the issue was misguided as the refugee issue came under the National Security Council’s purview.
“Asking the home ministry to intervene shows he is ignorant,” he said. - FMT

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