(June 12): Malaysia should step in over Myanmar's treatment of its Rohingya people and call for action to be taken instead of keeping silent, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

"We have to interfere. We have to bring this up in Asean," Dr Mahathir said during his speech at an international conference on the plight of the Rohingya held in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia is this year's Asean chair and is among several neighbouring states that have taken in Rohingya refugees who were stranded at sea in cramped boats after being abandoned by human traffickers.

Dr Mahathir said the idea of not interfering in a country's internal affairs should be done away with in Myanmar's case, labelling the events there as "genocide".

"In cases like this, we should change our idea about the sanctity of a country's independence," he said.

Dr Mahathir said Myanmar should be "ostracised" for their handling of the Rohingya.

"We call it a boat problem. It is not a boat problem. The problem is in Myanmar.

"This idea that we must not interfere in the country's affairs must have a limit."

He said that no country has the right to treat its people the way the Myanmar government has handled the Rohingya.

He also said that the treatment of the Rohingya was proof that humanity is not civilised.

"We say we are civilised. But we delude ourselves by not looking at the atrocities that are being committed around us." – The Malaysian Insider