The Myanmar government has verbally granted permission for an aid flotilla from Malaysia to enter Myanmar waters from February 3. The flotilla is meant to bring 1,000 tons of aid for Rohingyas in Rakhine State.
The flotilla will only be allowed to dock in Yangon, not Sittwe as the organizers planned.
Malaysia’s ambassador to Myanmar Mohd Haniff Abdul Rahman said the approval for the flotilla came with conditions set by the Myanmar government, but he did not specify what they are, according to Malaysian daily Harian Metro.
Malaysia-Myanmar relations have spiraled downward since Malaysian officials began speaking out against Myanmar’s anti-insurgency operations in Rakhine State, which have taken a heavy toll on Rohingya civilians.
Late last year, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak held a public rally where he criticized the Myanmar government and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi for the treatment of the Rohingya community in Rakhine State, saying Rohingya are victims of “genocide”.
The flotilla was originally meant to set sail for Sittwe on January 10, but the trip was postponed after Myanmar authorities said they would not permit the flotilla to enter the country. In late December, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Islamic Organizations, which is organizing the flotilla, said it would deploy the flotilla anyway.
Myanmar Home Affairs Minister Lieutenant General Kyaw Swe called the proposition “an insult”.
Elliot Brennan, a non-resident research fellow with the Institute for Security and Development Policy‘s Asia Program in Sweden, has written that Prime Minister Najib and the flotilla organizers have been violating Asean diplomatic norms through this “flotilla diplomacy”, which has done more to close political space for humanitarian access to Rohingya communities than it has done to open it.
Meanwhile, Brennan points out, Indonesia was able to send 10 freight containers filled with food and clothing to Muslim and Buddhist communities in Rakhine State at the end of December.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo said at the time: “Indonesia’s diplomacy has achieved the task [of delivering aid] without unnecessary uproar.”
