Anwar Invites Myanmar Junta Chief to Take Back Rohingya — SkimNews
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- Anwar Ibrahim announced on 16 September that he would invite Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing on an official state visit if Yangon agrees to take back thousands of Rohingya refugees.
- Min Aung Hlaing commanded Myanmar's 2021 coup and the 2017 military campaign that drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into exile; he held staged elections this year to declare himself president.
- Anwar's reversal follows months of hate speech and Change.org petitions signed by hundreds of thousands demanding Rohingya expulsion, plus the July eviction of more than 100 Rohingya from their homes on Penang by local residents.
- Pakatan Harapan has lost three state elections in Negeri Sembilan, Johor and Sabah; a Merdeka Center survey between 12 March and 9 April put Anwar's overall rating at 52%, seven points lower among Malay voters.
- UNHCR figures show 215,600 refugees and asylum-seekers registered in Malaysia as of end-February 2026, with Rohingya numbering around 126,144; Malaysia's next general election must be called by early 2028.
- 166 civil society organisations and more than 140 individuals from Malaysia and beyond called for an immediate halt to the deportations, declaring that "cozying up to genocidaires while criminalizing their survivors is… immoral."
- Refugees repatriated to Myanmar face possible forced conscription into the ongoing civil war, with male returnees at risk of torture or imprisonment on suspicion of backing opposition groups fighting the junta.
Why it matters: Anwar's pivot from his 2023 UNGA denunciation of Myanmar's "barbarism" to courting Min Aung Hlaing recasts refugee policy as electoral survival: his PH coalition trails in Malay-majority states with polls due by early 2028, and deportees face forced conscription in Myanmar's civil war — yet Malaysian government-linked sources say no Rohingya are currently on the deportation list.
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