A heated argument broke out in the Malaysian Parliament yesterday after the country’s Deputy Foreign Minister A. Kohilan Pillay accused opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim of attempting to champion the Indian community by claiming that the Sri Lankan government had ignored the welfare of the refugees, Kuala Lumpur based web agencies reported yesterday.

A news item published by Bernama online said that earlier yesterday deputy Foreign Minister Senator A. Kohilan Pillay told the lower house of Parliament that Malaysia sees the Sri Lanka’s crisis as an internal problem in line with the country’s foreign policy.

The Bernama story said: "He said Sri Lanka had assured United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, who visited Sri Lanka’s refugee camps after the conflict ended in May last year, that it would work closely with human rights groups to address the welfare and safety of refugees.

Special UN representatives have given a positive evaluation on the progress made by Sri Lanka in addressing the issues, Kohilan said in reply to a question by P. Ramasamy (DAP-Batu Kawan).

Ramasamy wanted to know why the Malaysian government refused to condemn the Sri Lankan government over civilian deaths in the conflict and the plight of about 300,000 ethnic-minority Tamil refugees.

Kohilan said as Malaysia valued friendly relations with Sri Lanka, it supported efforts made by Sri Lanka in tackling the issues and was confident that the wishes of the international community would be fulfilled.

A heated argument ensured when Kohilan claimed that Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim (PKR-Permatang Pauh) tried to be the champion of the Indian community by claiming that the Sri Lanka government ignored the welfare of the refugees.

Gobalakrishnan (PKR-Padang Serai) interjected and argued over the remarks before he was retrained by Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia.

Kohilan said Anwar had contradicted himself as he adopted a different tune when he was in Colombo.

On Anwar’s claim that some ethnic Tamils had settled at the refugee camps for 20 years, Kohilan said the Sri Lanka government had said the refugees would be released in stages after landmines in the conflict zone were removed."