Malaysia has told India not to meddle in its internal affairs after New Delhi expressed concerns over the treatment of ethnic Indians in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told the Star daily that the government would deal with citizens according to its own laws and no other country should interfere with how Malaysia handles its domestic affairs.
"If they break any law, it is our right to deal with them in accordance with Malaysian laws," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying, after Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee expressed New Delhi's concerns over the treatment of Indians in Malaysia.
"I hope there is no misunderstanding of what is happening here. If they are talking about Indian citizens, we would understand the concern, but what happened involves Malaysian citizens," he said.
Syed Hamid and foreign ministry officials could not be reached for comments.
Last Sunday, more than 10,000 Malaysian Indians staged the community's biggest anti-government protest, sparked by anger over policies they say prevent them from getting decent jobs or a good education for their children.
Police used tear gas and water canons to disperse the protesters, many of them Tamils with their roots in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, sparking outrage and demands from Tamil politicians that New Delhi intervene.
"If they break any law, it is our right to deal with them in accordance with Malaysian laws," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying.
India said on Friday it was concerned about the treatment of ethnic Indians in Malaysia and had taken up with Kuala Lumpur accusations that protesters from the community had been harassed.
"The government remains deeply solicitous for the welfare of people of Indian origin living abroad," Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament.
"We have friendly relations with Malaysia and we are in touch with the Malaysian authorities in the related matter," Mukherjee said.
Multi-racial Malaysia has denied claims it mistreated ethnic Indians, saying that they were better off than those in India.
Ethnic Indians form 7 percent of Malaysia's 26 million people.
New Delhi's expression of solidarity came as the Hindu rights group behind Sunday's protest said its leader had left for India before heading to London, Geneva, Brussels and Washington to lobby for international support.
The Hindu Rights Action Force said that its chairman, P. Waythamoorthy, left Malaysia on Wednesday "in the light of the crackdown and threats of detention without trial."
He is expected to meet Indian leaders including the foreign minister and chief minister of Tamil Nadu.
Separately, one private immigration agency in Malaysia said.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing
RSS