A GROUP of human rights lawyers reproved Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin today for telling the Rohingya community in Malaysia not to be “big headed” as they are refugees.

Lawyers for Liberty coordinator Zaid Malek said it was astonishing that the home minister had found it necessary to comment on a viral video of two children who were apparently rude while asking for alms from people.

“What is even more puzzling is that the minister escalated it to paint broad strokes that all Rohingya refugees are ‘big-headed’ or problematic,” said Zaidi in a statement.

“What kind of ministerial criticism is ‘big-headed’? Are there no big-headed Malaysians? Are we all angels that we chastise an entire race?”

Hamzah last week warned the local Rohingya community, who are United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) cardholders, not to be stubborn and to be aware of their refugee status.

Hamzah said while the Malaysian government sympathised with them, it would not hesitate to take action if they caused problems.

“We only help on humanitarian grounds but don’t become big-headed as I would not like anyone to think they are above our laws.

“We do not want any other problems to arise, like the incident at a traffic light in Kuala Lumpur where members of the public were insulted. This shouldn’t be happening in our country,” he said.

Hamzah said this when asked to comment on a video clip of Rohingya children begging and acting aggressively towards motorists in Cheras.

Zaid today said it was racist to brand an entire race the way the minister did.

Zaid said a home minister should not be stoking xenophobia.

“He should have been more concerned over whether the children were being exploited and about the underlying causes that led the children to resort to begging in the first place. The most hard-hearted person would have had sympathy for children in this plight,” he said.

Zaid said the minister should be aware that there were no social and economic protections for refugees in Malaysia, which makes them extremely vulnerable to exploitation or cause them to resort to unpleasant means to survive.

“They are painfully aware of their legal status as refugees in Malaysia by the daily hardships they have to endure on a day-to-day basis and do not need any reminder of it,” he said

“If the government truly wants to help the Rohingya on a humanitarian basis, the first thing it should do is to treat them like the victims of their terrible circumstance as escapees from genocide and not frame them as targets of societal hatred in Malaysia.” – January 11, 2022.