Deputy Foreign Minister Hamzah Zainuddin today justified Malaysia’s participation in the Commonwealth Head of Governments Meeting (CHOGM) held in Sri Lanka as a method to resolve the problem plaguing the island state.

“Malaysia is part of a Commonwealth committee working together to push for balanced development.  We have agreed to set this agenda as part of Sri Lanka’s post 2015 development.”

“It is about CHOGM in Sri Lanka not CHOGM on Sri Lanka,” he said.

Hamzah who is also Larut MP said this was the method used to resolve the Sri Lanka issues, post 2015.

He made the clarification during a committee level debate on development expenditure matters.

MP M Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh – Barat) earlier questioned the government’s rationale for attending CHOGM despite calls from various parties for Malaysia to boycott the event.

The DAP leader asked whether Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had raised concerns and highlighted the issue of human rights violations to his Sri Lanka counterpart, President Mahendra Rajapakse, during CHOGM.

“Has the PM spoken about the human rights issues which is a core value of the Commonwealth?” he asked.

He said that apart from the 100,000 ethnic Tamil minorities who were killed during the Sri Lankan civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan Army, over a period of 20 years. About 200,000 Malays and Muslim minorities were equally affected by the civil war in the northern region of the country.

The violation of human rights was highlighted by British Prime Minister David Cameron while India and Canada proceeded to boycott the summit. – Free Malaysia Today