Vietnamese Refugees Debated

Whether the Malaysian government is right or wrong in its threats to shoot or tow back out to sea any more Vietnamese refugees attempting to land in its country was the subject of a lively exchange at International Commission between delegates from Waikato and Auckland universities at NZUSA's August Council. The debate also brought home the very real fear of reprisals faced by overseas students who take part in political activity while in New Zealand. Waikato delegate Robert Teh, who supported the stand of the Malaysian government, was quite willing to have his name published, but the Auckland delegate specifically asked that his name not be mentioned.

The Commission had before it a motion calling on NZUSA to condemn the action of the Vietnamese government in respect of the refugees and demanding that the governments of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia "treat the refugees in accordance with the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights".

Waikato's Robert Teh said he agreed with the first part of the motion but not the second, regarding Malaysia and the other governments. "You should see the situation there (in Malaysia). The government is doing its best not to have another civil war as in 1969. I support them in trying to lesson the tension," he said. The Auckland delegate disagreed, saying that the action of the Malaysian government should be condemned. "They signed the Declaration of Human Rights and therefore they should treat the refugees on humane grounds."

"But they've already got 76,000 refugees and the exodus has got so much greater," replied Teh. "The government has to try and push the other powers to speed up their processing. Malaysia has spent $9 [unclear: million] the last few years on refugees and it is only now that it has got to be too much."

The Auckland delgate however was unimpressed, and said that the Malays government was discriminating against the Vietnamese refugees, because at the same time as it was closing its doors to them, [unclear: it] was welcoming "hundreds of thousands" of refugees from the Phillipincs. [unclear: "The] Vietnamese refugees are a taxing problem but the problem is being exploited by [unclear: the] government to further its racist [unclear: policies] The Western nations are also [unclear: very] hypocritical, because when they go to refugee camps they pick those with skills and the strong ones," he said.

Despite Waikato's stand, however, it voted in favour of the motion when it was put, as did all the other universities, with the exception of Canterbury, who abstained. A related motion demanding the New Zealand government to [unclear: actively] sponsor the immigration of [unclear: Vietnamess] refugees and cease applying discriminatory selection procedures was passed unanimously.

Mark Wilson.