the issues of rohingya refugees test malaysia’s chairmanship on asean as previously malaysia together with indonesia and thailand rejecting boats carrying rohingya asylum seekers from reaching their shores mainly due to domestic concerns on illegal immigrants. but with the criticism from united nations human rights chief zeid ra’ad al-hussein to the three countries for turning away the asylum seekers, the malaysian and indonesian leaders decide to held a meeting with the two finally agreed to provide temporary shelter for the rohingya under “humanitarian concerns” under a term that the international community should assist to repatriate and resettle these refugee to another third world countries soon as malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 refugee convention with the united nations been told not to use malaysia's compassion to allowing more refugees to seek shelter in the country as it is also against the long-term solution for malaysia to repatriate illegal immigrants in the country. furthermore, the ethnic conflicts and violence between myanmar ethnic groups brought by the asylum seekers has threatened the safety of malaysian citizens in their own homeland. the continuous acceptance of muslim refugees from unstable countries under the excuse of “humanitarian concerns and religious sympathy” especially during mahathir administration of strong islamic foreign policy that was continued until this day by najib received backlash from the malaysian general public as this has been perceive that the government are putting more priority to foreigners than its own citizens suffering especially with the rampant crimes and social problems committed by the asylum seekers in malaysia.