KUALA LUMPUR: The global Rohingya community today apologised to the Malaysian government and its people for the "irresponsible statement" made by Zafar Ahmed Abdul Ghani.
The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and advocacy groups representing Rohingya refugees called on Malaysian authorities to take stern action against the president of the Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organisation in Malaysia (Merhrom).
"Otherwise, he will continuously issue such statements disregarding the country's national interests and its peoples' feelings and sentiments.
"We, the Rohingya refugees, strongly condemn him for issuing such statements. However, we have no authority to prevent him from doing so," they said in a joint statement signed by 17 Rohingya groups.
The undersigned organisations noted that the statements by Zafar, under the "self-styled name" of Merhrom president, have triggered unprecedented negative sentiments among some members of the community against the Rohingya refugees in Malaysia.
"We, the Rohingya refugees, have never elected Zafar Ahmed as our president. He is not our leader, in fact, we have no leader in Malaysia, and he has no right to issue statements on our behalf.
"Therefore, all Rohingya are against such unrealistic and irresponsible statements.
"He has been used by our enemies both here and in Myanmar to tarnish our image and disrupt our temporary peaceful refuge in Malaysia, while waiting to return to Myanmar or resettle in third countries," the statement read.
The statement said Zafar could neither write nor read English or Bahasa Melayu or any other language well, yet he keeps making irrelevant statements concerning Malaysia, which could be damaging for Rohingya temporarily staying here.
They appeal to the Malaysian government and the people to sympathise with them, as they are living in vulnerable situations and are genocide survivors.
"We, the Rohingya refugees in Malaysia, are worried and in a state of fear due to the growing negative sentiments against us as a result of such statements.
"We are ever grateful to the Malaysian government and its entire population for allowing us to stay here temporarily until our return to our country or resettlement in third countries."
The statement was jointly signed by Arakan Watch, Human Rights Association for Rohingya (HURAR), Ethnic Rohingya Committee of Arakan (ERCA), Rohingya Arakanese Refugee Committee (RARC), Rohingya Education and Development Organisation (Read), Da'wah & Empowerment Association for Rohingya (Dear), Rohingya Cooperative Society (RCS), and Rohingya Association in Malaysia (Ram).
Others are the Rohingya Islamic Society in Malaysia (RISM), Rohingya Youth Care (RYC), Malaysia, Rohingya Youth Development Forum (RYDF), United Islamic Rohingya Organisation for Development (Unrod), Women for Rohingya (W4R), Rohingya Islamic Centre (RIC), Australian Burmese Rohingya Association (Abra), Arakan Rohingya Youth Association (Arya), and the Rohingya Writers Network.