KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Rohingya Council created history today when it hosted a special conference to establish a committee to uphold the refugee community's interests in Malaysia.
In the conference, the Rohingya community in Malaysia were given the chance to elect their own nominees to represent their interests under the council.
A total of 200 members of the community and 25 NGOs under the council attended the event which took place at Dewan Felcra, here today.
Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, who is the chairman of the council's board of advisers said the confrence was the first step in uniting the large stateless community in Malaysia.
The former Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) special envoy to Myanmar further said the conference which serves as platform to unite NGOs dealing with Rohingyas in Malaysia was held to empower the refugee community in 11 focus areas, including education and health.
"When we speak in one voice together it is a stronger message to send to the government as well as when we deal with international NGOs and bodies under the United Nations," he said, after opening the conference.
Also present were members of the council's board of advisers; vice chairman Tan Sri Dr Siti Zaharah and General (Rtd) Tan Sri Mohd Azumi Mohd as well as their national executive chairman Datin Rohani Md Ariff.
The council was set up late last year and consists of five committees. These are: the committee of patrons, captained by the Home Minister with the membership of chief ministers and other key ministers, the council's board of advisers, the honorary committee as well as the executive and the national Rohingya committee which is represented by individuals for the community.
"We call on all NGOs related to Rohingyas to join the council. Our target was to get 100 NGOs to participate in the council by year end," said the former foreign minister.
The council's chairman Mohd Nazri Sahat said this was the first ever election to set up an entity tasked with the duty of appointing and gathering data on the refugees in Malaysia.
"This committee is important to communicate with the Rohingya community in Malaysia. They will be going door to door to get data on the Rohingya over the next six months," he added.
The NGO estimates that there are 150,000 of the Rohingya refugees . The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated there are 75,000 Rohingya and Myanmar Muslim refugees in Malaysia.
At the conference a total of 14 Rohingya community leaders were elected to the committee.
The team of six office bearers, led by Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani from the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation (MERHROM) was conferred the title of head of the community in Malaysia.
There is also one community leader appointed for each state.
Zafar who is the MERHROM president said he would use the mandate to safeguard the welfare and dignity of the community in Malaysia.
"We are most concerned about long term empowerment programmes for the community. Our main concern is schooling and education for our children. We really need help from the government on this because we don't know when we can go back to Myanmar or migrate to a third country."
"Schools run by NGOs are too basic to prepare our children for higher learning," he added.
Zafar also appealed to Malaysia to review the community's status and documentation to enable them to work in the country legally.
He also urged Malaysia to continue speaking up for the persecuted community by spearheading concerted efforts among the international community including Asean, OIC and UN to end the "genocide" subjected to the Rohingya in Myanmar.
Zahar further thanked Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for all he has done for the community.