Najib says will put foot down at OIC meet
The prime minister said he will push the UN to grant recognition to the Palestinian state. — File picMECCA, Aug 16 — Malaysia will state its firm stand on issues in three Muslim countries at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Extraordinary Summit taking place here.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the issues were the turbulence in Syria, the recognition of the Palestine state by the United Nations (UN) and the oppression of Muslims in Myanmar.
Najib said he would touch on these issues in his speech early this morning and to state Malaysia’s stand.
“We will support a proposal to suspend Syria’s membership in OIC because the situation in the country is worsening to the extent people are losing lives and property,” he told reporters, here, yesterday.
The prime minister is heading the Malaysian delegation to the extraordinary summit that started on Tuesday.
Najib said Malaysia was of the opinion that the time had come for the government of Syria to stop the violence and to respect the rights of its people who wanted a democratic election to be held in the country.
On the issue of Palestine, he said Malaysia would press for the UN to recognise Palestine as one of its member nations.
He said OIC had to make a stand on making Palestine a sovereign nation, and a member of UN, a reality.
“The issue of a Palestine nation is an issue which is close to the hearts of Malaysians and we want Palestine to be recognised by UN at its conference this September,” he said.
Najib said Malaysia also wanted the OIC to continue to champion the lot of the Rohingya Muslims who were allegedly oppressed and victimised.
He said the OIC had set up a committee known as Fact Finding Mission Committee to visit Myanmar and get the actual information on the situation there.
“I had written to President Thein Sein and he had replied by saying that the issue (the oppression of Muslims) was not as big as portrayed by the outside world, and, as such, we wait for the report and fact finding to get complete information,” he said.
Najib said that in Malaysia alone there were more than 90,000 Rohingya refugees, and the government endeavoured to help them.
He also said he had met with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and discussed bilateral relations between the two countries.
“Pakistan had asked for Malaysian private companies to invest in the industrial parks there to balance the two-way trade which is in favour of Malaysia.
“Pakistan is an importer of Malaysian palm oil, but does not have a commodity to be exported to Malaysia. I stated that the matter will be discussed in a more in-depth manner,” Najib said. — Bernama
