Selective International Affair

1. When Gaza was attacked by Israel, everyone in Malaysia came out strongly vilifying the atrocious carnage. Every single day we saw news about Gaza. Many ministers spoke about Israel's arrogance and how the people should abhor and detest the country and its people.

2. Some parties have also urged the people not to buy or use any products that in some ways related to Israel or American which is seen as the strongest Zionist alliance. Coca Cola was one of the products high in the boycott list. Coca Cola responded that a boycott will undermine the local economy since 60% of their employees are Muslim.

3. Many NGOs particularly those affiliated to Malay and Muslim causes organized emergency fund collections to be channel directly to the Gazans people to rebuild their lives. Commercial banks put up donation campaigns via their Automatic Teller Machine urging Malaysians to contribute to the Gazans, complete with specific account number to transfer our money to.

4. The attack on Gaza has even got it to the parliament. The Gaza motion was tabled by Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Members of Parliament from both Barisan Nasional and opposition parties unanimously agreed to the motion.

5. But hey! do you remember that the motion about illegal immigrants in Sabah has been single handedly shot down by none other than a Sabahan speaker himself. The motion about illegal immigrants in Sabah didn't even get the chance to be read in parliament. It was rejected solely on grounds of technicality.

6. It is heartening really to see how sensitive Malaysians can be. We do not condone violence in any forms against humanity. And we would help in any way possible to assuage the wretched who suffer because of violence, natural disasters or any other form of calamities. Like the ones occurred in Sichuan earthquake and also the Hurricane Nargis in Myanmar. But the amount of support and assitance offered to China and Myanmar were mere peanuts as compared to those in Palestine.

7. I don't know if you notice it or not, but Malaysians particularly those in power and NGOs are clearly very selective in their international affairs. Whereby they are selectively overly unfair in their comments and actions. Just look at the quantum of support given to the Gazans as compared to those suffering in the crisis in Sri Lanka. Think about it, what is the difference between the people in Gaza and those in Northern Sri Lanka?

8. The crisis undergoing the Tamil people in Sri Lanka is no less severe than what had happened in Palestine. Why do Malaysians pay least attention towards them? Where are the NGOs such as Gabungan Pelajar Melayu Semenanjung? Pemuda UMNO? Where are the UTM students who organized special outdoor prayer for the Palestinians? Why not pray to God to stop the killing, for peace and wellbeing of the Tamils in Sri Lanka?

9. Why not convene a special Parliamentary session to condemn the carnage in Sri Lanka? I think you and every like minded Malaysian can extrapolate or speculate the reasons behind Malaysian selective international affair, but we could not make the implicit explicit.

10. In the meantime let us look back and think. That if our government and NGOs can be very unfairly selective in their international affairs, then would it be much different to our internal affair?