Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email I made it a point to attend the gathering organised by HINDRAF (Hindu Rights Action Force) to hand over the 18-point memorandum produced from a forum held recently in KL. It was supposed to be at 10am today (Sunday August 12th) at the PM's residence in Putrajaya. Partly to see the support of the community and also to take some photos (view them at the end of the article.)
I reached the PM's residence at Precinct 10 at 9.20am only to find it very quite, just as it was supposed to be on a Sunday morning! Then it crossed my mind that the organisers possibly got confused with PM's residence and office. So, I rushed off to Dataran Putra. Reached it in 10 minutes time. There were a handful of people, probaby numbering around 50 only. They were gathered at the shady area between the mosque and PM's office. The organisers were using a hailer to get people to register themselves. There was a chartered bus dropping of some of the participants.
The weather was not hot due to the hazy conditions. As the clock ticked, the crowd began to swell. The dataran is a popular tourist destination, thus there were about 100 – 200 curious onlookers wondering what was going on. By 10.30am, the crowd could be easily about 500-600 people. The organisers began to hand out banners and posters to the crowd, and try to marshal them into position at the roundabout exit towards the PM's office. By this time, the police were alerted, and some of the crowd control officers began to line out outside the entrance to PM's office complex.
By 11am, the crowd has doubled to about 1200 people. There were rumours that the police had blocked the roads leading towards the dataran and some 10 bus are unable to reach the location.
The event proper started with a prayer, after which the organisers explained the purpose of the gathering today, which was to hand over the 18-point memorandum to PM. Unfortunately, as it was made known, the PM is away. This was followed by slogan chanting and singing of motivational songs. The media had a field day covering the event. I think few foreigners representing Al-Jazeera, and possibly BBC was there as well. Saw Nanban and MKini people too. There were also plainsclothes police mingling with the crowd, taking photos and video as well.
The organisers the explained that the crowd will march from the entrance of the PM's office and walk one round around the roundabout. Before beginning, the media was invited to take photos of the crowd with the PM's majestic office complex as the background.
The walk took about 30 minutes, by which the crowd has become about 1500 people. The roundabout were full of cars on both sides, which made the march slower. The crowd made their way around the roundabout and came full circle at the entrance to PM's office again. The crowd marched until they were about 15 metres from the gates, and separated by a row of police personnel. The crowd were then asked to sit on the pavement, while the organisers read out the details of the 18-point memorandum which included among others:
– tamil schools to be made full government-aided
– increase participation of senior government officials to 20% of the positions available
– allocate permits for taxi, lorries etc
– to allocate land for agriculture for indians
– to stop temple demolition
– to provide equal rights in all areas
– minimum wage of RM1000
– to provide proper housing for the poor.
– to help all poor families with racial barriers.
– to enact a minorities rights protection act.
– to initiate a royal commission on rights violation.
– to end special privileges.
– provide RM1million compensation for each dead person's family in the Kg Medan Massacre
I didn't not manage to catch all the points since the hailer was not powerful enough to reach the crowd. Copies of memorandum was being sold and quite a number bought them for RM5 each.
The organisers also highlighted that for the pass 50 years, no one had fought for the Indian communities’ rights. The politicians had failed the communities, thus it is up to the community to fight for itself. They also highlighted that for the last 200 years, Indians has toiled in rubber estate and railway tracks to develop the country, but in return only got displaced and rewarded with low-cost houses or longhouses, and pitiful amount of cash, compared with the FELDA schemes which receive millions in allocations. The talk on various discriminations went on for about 15 minutes.
While the talk was going on, the organisers were informed that the police will send an Indian policeman to receive the memorandum, but this was rejected by the organisers. They mentioned that they had already sent a letter to the PM informing about the gathering and since the PM had many assistants and political secretaries, he should have assigned one to be there. In the end, one of the secretaries, Hj Ahmad Yaakob came out accompanied by about 20 security officers and received the memorandum at about 12.30pm. Good thing he did, because it was getting cloudy and skies were turning dark. The organisers announced that they have asked for a meeting with the PM within a week before 31st August to discuss the memorandum. The crowd then dispersed as it started to rain.
Overall I think the police did not expect such a big crowd on a Sunday. It really made an impact as there were many media representative as well foreign and local tourists. The organisers could have provided maps or clarified about the venue so that a bigger crowd could have come. I think some were like me and went to PM's residence instead of the office. This kind of event should be organised regularly to build a stronger voice for the community. I was surprised with the crowd since my expectation was about 1000 people only, but the whole place was crowded. This will definitely make some of the political parties squirm in their seats.
The rakyat have realised that without making some noice or getting the media involved, nothing works. We have seen the protest in JB about increasing crime rates. We have seen people picketing on being cheated by property developers. We have seen many environmental issues being highlighted. So, I'm not surprised that we are going along the path of the developed countries who see public demonstation as a way of getting the governments' attention.
View the photos at Picasa
Update: More photos taken by organisers here and videos at YouTube and MKini too.
BTW mr.TAI LOU…..
“i experianced alot of scene in my school… and i even cant hit back any malay boys if i hav been slaped because of entered the bathroom and tat time they are smoking…cant 4 get it…haizz”
U dont have the rights to say that the situation that i hav went through is fake!
Did u was at there(at my school bathroom) and watch all scenes…(use otak sikit la,dun be lyk *some* malays”
IF my scene is fake…tiz also should be fake!
“(I was the head-prefect of the school!)”
“Please , my indian frens!! Btw Mr Indian , dont be a liar ok! When I was in 2ndary school , nothing like dat happened”
Do u think…all humans will be exactly like U!
***key!…GRR!
“ok 🙂 And dont listen to Mr Indian’s 99%-adabi-asam jawa-added stories!!!”
“WHO R U BTW! to ask ppl dun belive my story”
I didnt ask them to belive it,u a piece of ****!
“Stop gambling and drinking la!!”
Indian,malay,chinese…all do tiz stuff la!
And i noe wat r u thinking rite now….
All u wan to say is…”Indian is the best gambler”
Am i right?
**f!
Its their right..they dont need to ask u!
Chinese and Malays also gamble lar…go to any Disco club and c it urself lar!!
And for ur information…humans will die after 3-4 days without WATER…haha(take it!)
And before u type…go and learn some English Grammer…
I noe ..wat u mean is “indian lyk to hav alchohol drinks”…
Ok..ok….i ask u some thing…
If i choose 10 malays,for a test…
Can u sure that 10/10 they didnt taken alchohol for whole of their life?
Ha ha..think lar..
Every humans hav use drug(cough syrup)and alchohol(clean our skin before insert syringe)
…in their life..
Fikir betul-betul lar!!
“At least we still got Tamil n Chinese school. Y not sending your children to SK? I was sent to SK rather than SKJC 20yrs ago”
Ok..easy..answer all my Q.
1.which school hav better preferrence,SK or SJK?
2.If u hav a child,u send ur child to SK or SJK?
3.Which school is the worst(money,building structure)? SJK(T)or SJK(C)?
Think again..and again..!
“Just look at Ananda Krishna. He’s a billionaire. And an Indian!!! So y can’t any other Indian follow his foot steps”
Ok…
1.Good Fate
2.Lucky
3.Got sponsorship
4.Maybe his father a bussinessman
5.ONCE UPON A TIME!
and nw…v also want to folow his step(who dont want money in this world?)
But look at our goverment!
***!
***!
*****!
Demokrasi konon! bla…bla..bla..
“My dad always said dat eventhough our rights r limited compared to the bumis , we shud not be in despair. This is a challenge. Just like malay in S’pore. They face a lot of “challenges†bcoz they r the minority. They took the “challenges†, a lot of them became successful in the process. But still , they didnt do demonstration n etc to get their rights as the bumi!. My dad has a malay fren in S’pore who has million dolars-worth of share in GSK !!”
Its their country..their problem!
Their money..their problem
Their challenge…their problem
Its their fate!
And they can chg it too..(if they wan)
And tat wat v as INDIANS want to do now(to chg d fate of indians)
“I think the indian shud not do something like this. Western-reporters(Reuters , especially!) would be delightful when sumthing like this happened (well of course , they’ll add some ajinamoto to their stories , then BBC n CNN add some perencah adabi to their news.. Voila!! “Racial tension occured in Malaysia , worst since 1969″ blablabla an so on)”
yeah..they also like YOU!
If d M’sia GOV dun wan the news lyk this…they should handle this problem from beginning…
Indians go to police…..
Indians go to Court
Indians go to Prime Minister
Indians go to MIC
Indians go to …..(nothing more)
Indians go FOR A RIOT!
but its actually by a peaceful way…
(Mahatma Ghandi was the only person who achieve Independence for his beloved country India by Peace and silence)
Even tough v hav the Ghandi photo…the police and
the guard security start to attack the people by throwing gas canister and Green water(dun think it a ordinary water…its a water wit toxic which can cause internal toxicnation for years!)
V are innocent when the attack happen!
“The indian shud use MIC as their channel of disagreement towards govt policies”
Goverment Police+MIC = Useless
“Not HINDRAF”
Go and find what means it!
then talk bout it!
“Malay teachers usually pukul malay students more than indian or chinese so dat they can educate “anak bangsa sendiri†”
Better if u say like this….
Malay teachers give extra mark and better class to malay student then other race student..
Am i rite becoz i been counter this situation !
SMKBBSB….****!
by the way…
Hav u been work at restourant before?
U must be a Fish Curry specialist..
Tiz becouse…ADABI and ajinomoto..bla bla
Get lost…u dun hav proper manner of typing…
Suddenly u insert d perencah lar..bla..bla
Owh..yeah!
U must be malays becoz….hehe..”ur a malay”
U menghasut orang lain supaya mereka akan mengetepikan saya!
Sure not la.>!
Ur story more ***b a** than me la!
grr….anyway!
Who wants to see the piece of malays ****!
Thiz malays totaly a **i* in this country!
http://forum.mykmu.net/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=14324&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Bye….i wont forget u Tai Lou!
Im sure….im much better than u!
Valge Hindu !
Valge Tamilan!
Nalai Namethe!
Lastly…i agree something wit u..Mr.TAi lou
We need to kick MIC if nessecery…!
ok- tamil schools to be made full government-aided
ok- increase participation of senior government officials to 20% of the positions available
ok- allocate permits for taxi, lorries etc
ok- to allocate land for agriculture for indians
ok- to stop temple demolition
ok-to provide equal rights in all areas
ok- minimum wage of RM1000
ok – to provide proper housing for the poor.
ok- to help all poor families with racial barriers.
ok- to enact a minorities rights protection act.
ok- to initiate a royal commission on rights violation.
no- to end special privileges.
no- provide RM1million compensation for each dead person’s family in the Kg Medan Massacre
why you all want to end the bumi special privilges???
actually at kg medan its not the massacre, its a gang fight, So how about the malay who were killed there?? we want u all to pay 10 million ringgit for each person familly.. can u??
no- to end special privileges.
no- provide RM1million compensation for each dead person’s family in the Kg Medan Massacre
why you all want to end the bumi special privilges???
actually at kg medan its not the massacre, its a gang fight, So how about the malay who were killed there?? we want u all to pay 10 million ringgit for each person familly.. can u??
*********************************************
yes,i agree with that…
how about the malay wh were killed in the massacre????
and why you all want to end the bumi special privilges???anti???
and about the rm1k wage,it’s ridiculous.
not just indian wage is under rm1k la…
that just not right…
if you said that 50 years Malaysia had been independent,and you want the rights as an indian,i think you all have already had it…
do you willing to go back or stay in India than living in Malaysia???
and i think your answer is NOT?rite?
it just a nonsense…
Abg Long:
No – End to special priviledges
We want to end because after 4 generations born in Malaysia like me can’t live with this social stigma. A pakistani muslems who just migrated, his son will be a Bumiputra. We can’t live with this stigma anymore.
If malays don’t want us here in Malaysia, we have have no where else to go. This is our only land. But if UMNO and Malays don’t want us, please say it clearly. The Prime Minister should make an official statement that this country don’t need non-muslems(a muslem can be a Malay) and give us may be 10 yrs to get out of this country. At least we can apply for international refugee status and complaint to international human rights body to take action on Malaysia for doing this. Just don’t put one foot there and one here. Please decide. Give us equal rights in this land or just kill / throw us out to die in open world.
**My daughter should never grow up in this social stigma – it’s my fault if I let it happen.
Thank you
Do you think that what u all do is the best think???…who are u..where aru u came from???/doesnt remember right…there u go…u want some equal???we are called BUMIPUTERA…our ancestors live here..how bout yours???…u want sometin`???..There will be A good feedback from us who called MALAYS..///
all of your great grandmthr/fthr had agree with all the rules…
and only after 50 years,all of you want your rights??
but why not 50 years before??
not malay who bring all of your first generation here in malaysia.why must you hates malay?
malay born here.and this is our country…
why you want to end up the special previleges??
you are only the next generation of your late generation who were brought here by british…
and what the government gives to you is fair and you deserve it…
if you want your rights in all of these matters,it’s okay but not the other 2…
– tamil schools to be made full government-aided
– increase participation of senior government officials to 20% of the positions available
– allocate permits for taxi, lorries etc
– to allocate land for agriculture for indians
– to stop temple demolition
– to provide proper housing for the poor.
– to help all poor families with racial barriers.
– to enact a minorities rights protection act.
– to initiate a royal commission on rights violation.
50 years before,Malays lives in hard way.
only eat what they have with no works in their own country…
at least indians have works given and earn some money.
and chinese were the richest ethnics…
so why you must kill our previleges???
Malaysia is our country and our first generation born here!!….
we have the rights for the previleges…///
MP: not sure why you mentioned my name. anyway, just to clarify islam is the language of the federation. malaysia for me is not an islamic country like saudi arabia. its a half-half thing. no here nor there situation. our PM already clarified (in a confusing kind of way saying we are unique country).
i agree that people of same religion tend to help each other. however, when you do it at expense of other fellow citizens, it doesn’t sound right. the foreigner who become pseudo-bumiputra due to marriage or religion suddenly behaves as if he owns the country and equates himself as founder/owner who fought for independence. how does the other citizens feel? so, should the rest too convert to islam and enjoy the privileges? Opps, it won’t be a privilege if everyone gets it.
dear sir, the privileges are ok to a certain extent. however the policies and actions that are simply derived from the privileges end up making many people unhappy. example – declare racial composition of employees, business must have bumi partners, discount for all properties, funds only for bumiputra, etc. for me, privileges (especially economic ones) were put in place to help to a certain extent. like a disability help. when you are no more disabled, you should discard the crutch lest it becomes an addiction. or you should assign the privilege to the more deserving ones.
as for salary, minimum wage of rm1000 is beneficial to all, not only indians. if we can afford to pay foreigners rm300-800 basic salary, surely can try paying rm1000 for locals.
Ananda Krishnan’s struggles? i dont think he came from estate. pls correct me if wrong.
anyhow, the gathering serves as a wake-up call to MIC. let’s see how they react to safeguard their position for next election and in BN.
Mr. Poobalan..,
lets not talk about why malays be given special priviliges or why pakistani muslims sons become bumiputera in Malaysia, its simple, if MALAYsia wasn’t started of with malays then maybe we would never get those special priviliges.as for the pakistani’s son, its is well known that Malaysia is and islamic country, so as an islam, we do help any brothers of islam we can,just like u hindus or christians or any other religions..which religion doesnt help their own followers?.. put aside religion, i’ve seen and heard of millions of gatherings, reformation, demonstrations all around the world.. i can guarentee u that most of them never works,instead of gatherings, meeting the MIC would be better, discuss the matter and perhaps some of the ideas might be considered.look at Ananda Krishnan struggles before and look now? top ten richest man in Malaysia.i don’t think the ads in the newspaper says maximum salary is below RM1000 if ur an indian, so RM1000? think twice..its not the race, its the knowledge, qualification and attitude that is for count.(this goes for malays too) owh and plus do look for job/business opportunities too.improving your way of life is the only way.
if he can why can’t you? you and him were born naked,weak and without knowledge, equall, its how u choose to live like, not how u are living like.
im a malays
i was putera umno
i have lots of indian friends
but demonstration are just not the way
chinese can make money in malaysia
why not indian?
why you guys blame the malays?
this is our only land too
Hi All,
HINDRAF is a lousy organisation with lots of errors and there is no proper logic in their arguments. Lets say after the government gives in to Hindraf demands, ten years later, we will still see the poor becoming poorer and the rich becoming richer… why because of the inept greed of man to pursue wealth at the expense of others to show off and to rely on status and power. This not because of race… but because of gap between the rich & poor… things will not change if the rich dont make space for the poor. Ghandi once said “There is enough for everybody in the world but not enough for one man’s greed”
Hindraf, dont mislead the people… there is no ethnic cleansing here… look at the streets here.. do u see darfur, do u see sri lanka, do u see Northern Ireland, do u see bosnia… do u see Westbank & Gaza strip, do u see kosovo ???
Maybe the leaders of Hindraf should stay for a year in the above countries and then come back to Malaysia. Then will be grateful to God for all the blessings that God have given us in this beautiful country.
Use your head, dont use your emotion. Look all around you, does anyone really come forward to help the poor… NO.. because everybody is concerned about themselves..
They will always be poor oppressed marginalised indian, malay and chinese people for as long as the rich continues to ignore the plight of the poor. This is happening in every community in every country of the world.
OPEN YOUR EYES WIDE.
good start…mr.poobaalan…
hope the gov to do some thing about it for poor ppl….
mr..farhan..i respect what you said…..tQ
we never ask anything from malay facilities..and malays are not our enemy..n .not at all..(i have alot of malays friens)
but we need to stop..something that disturb us..and we dont want our kids future like this..?now we became minority…yes..SO can you stop other to say us as minirity…
well u said….by u this is our own land too..
those day some thing happen to our country…
but hindraf..never againts the country or malays..we need something too take over by the gov for indians.
im a malays
i was putera umno
i have lots of indian friends
but demonstration are just not the way,…
…..as said by mr.farhan
then why..in cabinet..they can say go to hell,our counry,tak suka keluar dari ini negeri.Yyy
since in the cabinet meeting can say like this mean…next what..can be happen.amazing!!!!
this ppl alredy set-up in their mind…they should stop..talk like this…
first and foremost,don’t mind me for asking this but I’ve noticed that most of this site’s visitors talked about unity and making their own existence felt…don’t any of u think that unity must be with everyone that lives in Malaysia?we’re suppose to be Malaysians,not indians,malays or chinese…
over the past 50 years we have seen great success and achievements by all in Malaysia and even though we can’t deny that some of our fellow malaysians do get left behind but just think about it,did the government really did not look after us?did they really just think about us when it’s time for election?
what i’m trying to say is some of the points in Hindraf is not only preposterous,it is also unreasonable.
1st is the request that all tamil school to be fully subsidized by the governments.there are also chinese schools around and they are doing well on their own.if u want the best and that your children to be well supported in education,why not just send them over to normal schools?there are a lot of government supported schools around. as for positions, y don’t everyone just stop focusing in government bodies and look at the whole economy placements,there are already more indians and chinese in top and senior positions all over private sector. is that not enough yet?
next about rights,lands and permits..it is not easy to get lands nowadays and as per agreed by our ancestors before they achieved merdeka,bumiputra’s shall be granted and always be kept special as they are the ones who actually belong in tanah melayu before it became Malaysia. not to say that indians and chinese are not malaysians but certain things are meant to be the way they are and it must be respected at all cost.after all,at the end of the day,what matters most is pure hard work,sincerity,truthfulness and effort that makes the best in getting what we wanted…so instead of asking for it,why don’t all of us work hard and compete for it?
then about the minimum wage of 1k,i know and i understand that it is almost impossible to survive with small wage,I’m also an employee and living is not cheap nowadays but we need to understand that money does not grow on trees and not all employer are willing to pay high wages. a good pay is a well deserved pay if we really work for it and in this case,instead of demanding the government to set a minimum wage,why not try looking for a job that pays better and literally forcing all the cheap paying employers to increase their wage pay rate?
about the compensation,don’t u think that it is a bit out of reality to demand for 1 mil each?as i recalled,kg medan is not the only incident where innocents get killed,and mind me,it’s not massacre because there are actually some1 from the PDRM who took action and responded to the case. a massacre is when a number of people got killed and nobody bothered to even try stopping it.and on top of that,there are also cases all over the country where malays and also chinese also got killed in such ways and there are some of the cases where the culprits was indians…so don’t any of you think that somebody should also compensate those victim’s families?just to be fair and have justice served right?
just to wrap up my argument,again i need to stress out that what we all must do is to look at ourselves,reflect and try to make our race and community better so that all of us became more respectful of each other and also to avoid any of us getting stepped on.moreover,the world is all globalised now,everything is about competing and giving it all out to achieve more.so please,stop asking and start working more for it.doing racist claims and making protests does not solve anything and it will only make things worst for all.just look at the world,a lot of countries had done this and all it causes is pain and suffering,be thankful for the peace and serenity that all of us enjoyed up until now.
may god bring peace and harmony to all alive and takes all pain and suffering from us,have a good day malaysians and think about everyone before doing anything because what u do,does not only effect u but everyone around u
-raj-
hoping to have better living quality after all this things hat had taken place ..
whatsoever that taken place might not be an event of our gov wants but to think about our growing kids & where would indians standard as whole would be in yrs to come .. HINDRAF moves would had been awakening for aLL
*keeping fingers crossed still for better living*
makkall satti, i’m proud been an indian……………………..carry on guys