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Supporters at 1st Year Rally anniversary prayers

View the rest at Charles Santiago (MP for Klang) Picasa’s site.

According to report from Malaysiakini and Anil Netto, the crowd was as follows:

Batu Caves: 500 people

Penang Ganeshar Temple Waterfall Road: 50 people

Mariamman Temple, Prai: 1000 people

JB Temple: 100 people

Anil Netto describes situation in Penang:

This was the scene at the Sree Ganeshar Temple along Waterfall Road in Penang at around 7.00pm. About 50 people gathered for prayers to commemorate the first anniversary of the Makkal Sakthi (People Power) awakening. On 25 November last year, some 30,000 Indian Malaysians rallied in downtown KL to highlight their plight.

Over on mainland Penang, people started arriving at the Sri Maha Mariamman Devasthanam Temple in Prai from 7.00pm.

At 8.32pm a contact at the temple tells me a thousand people are now inside listening to speeches. Among the speakers was Penang Deputy Chief Minister P Ramasamy.

In the background, over the phone, I hear cries of “Makkal Sakthi!”. More people could have turned up if not for the heavy rain.

Plainclothes police are around and keeping a watchful eye.

In KL area, it was raining and traffic jam. Being a working day, it was hard to get to Batu Caves after 5pm. I was stuck in jam in Puchong itself, plus having a relative coming to house yesterday evening.

MalaysiaKini reports the event at Batu Caves as follows:

Despite that the movement is outlawed, police presence at the locations were minimal with hardly any uniformed personnel around. No untoward incidents were reported.

At the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Batu Caves, Selangor, some 500 Hindraf supporters braved the rain to attend the special prayer ceremony.

The prayers began on a low key at about 7pm but the enthusiasm grew as the crowd scaled the 272 steps of the temple.

With oil lamps in hand, the crowd chanted ‘Makkal Sakti Valga’ (long live people’s power) as they climbed the steps.

About 30 minutes later, the crowd descended and there were impromptu speeches from several politicians and leaders associated with Hindraf.

Again, the crowd chanted ‘Makkal Sakti Valga’ and the temperature went up several notches when those present chanted ‘Hindraf Valga’ (long live Hindraf) and ‘Uthaya Valga’ (long live P Uthayakumar) punctuated with cheers and rapturous applause.

“Hindraf is alive!” declared PKR’s Kapar MP and former Hindraf activist S Manikavasagam to frenzied cheers.

Other speakers included Selangor state exco member Dr Xavier Jeyakumar, Teluk Intan MP M Manogaran and Police Watch and Human Rights Committee coordinator S Jayathas.

The crowd dispersed at about 9.30pm.

Meanwhile, in Mariammn Temple Penang, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Ramasamy proposed that November 25 to be declared as a public holiday if Pakatan Rakyat takes over Federal government. He said he will put forth a request:

Meanwhile in Penang, some 1,000 people converged at Butterworth’s Sri Maha Mariamman Alayam for a special prayer session.

The function started at 7pm with Penang Deputy Chief Minister P Ramasamy and Hindraf coordinator RS Thanenthiran leading the crowd on a 500-metre ‘agal vilaku’ (oil lamp) march to the temple from the main road.

State executive councillors Lim Hock Seng and Phee Boon Poh were also present to lend support.

Addressing the crowd later, Ramasamy described Nov 25 as the day Indians in Malaysia experienced a political awakening.

“It was an uprising against 50 years of marginalisation and racial discrimination,” he said.

According to the DAP leader, if the opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat seized control of the federal government, it would declare Nov 25 a public holiday.

Ramasamy said he would table a proposal at the state executive council to have Nov 25 gazetted as a state holiday in Penang starting next year.

I thought that up to 3000 people were expected to be at Batu Caves, but in the end only 500 turned up. Combination of traffic jam and rain may have cause many others to be late.  Many would want to go back from work and take a bathe before going to temple.

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The Star had a mild version:

The Penang government will ensure all races have the same rights and opportunities to join the public sector and that the recruitment of state employees is not dominated by a particular race.

Deputy Chief Minister II P.Ramasamy said that as of Sept 30, 7,092 people worked for the state government, its statutory bodies and local authorities and, of the total, 81.95 percent were Malays, 12.92 percent Chinese, 5.05 percent Indian and 0.08 percent other races.

Meanwhile, opposition leader Datuk Azhar Ibrahim (BN-Penaga) said that to be fair, the state government should also ensure the Malays were given the same opportunities to join the private sector which was dominated by other races

But Malaysiakini provided the explosive parts (excerpts below):

The fireworks started when Deputy Chief Minister (II) Dr P Ramasamy accused the Umno-controlled Public Service Department (PSD) of ‘tearing up’ job application forms submitted by non-Malays.

According to the former UKM lecturer, this was among the tactics employed by the Umno-dominated government to stop non-Malays from joining the public service and to ensure that the government sector is controlled by one community.

“It’s a lie that non-Malays lack interest in joining the government sector. The truth is they were denied the chance to join,” he said in response to a written question.

“There are instances when government officers have torn application forms of non-Malays,” he added, drawing flak from the opposition.

However, the deputy chief minister insisted that his argument was based on facts unearthed during his own research on the lack of non-Malay participation in the public service.

According to statistics disclosed by Ramasamy, the public service sector in Penang has a total of 7,092 employees, with 5,812 Malays (81.95%), 916 Indians (12.92%) and 358 Chinese (5.05%).

The state public administration has 2,886 Malays (92.16%), 165 Indians (5.27%) and 79 Chinese (2.52%).

Statutory bodies have 191 Malays (71.54%), 46 Chinese (17.22%) and 30 Indians (11.24%), while local municipalities have 2,735 Malays (74.1%), 721 Indians (19.5%) and 233 Chinese (6.3%).

Later, Ramasamy explained to the House that the state government would conduct a study to implement a new policy to rectify the ethnic and gender imbalanaces in public employment based on meritocracy.

To a question by Umno’s Azhar Ibrahim (Penaga) on whether a similar plan would be extended to the private sector, Ramasamy assured the state government’s commitment to wipe out racial and gender discrimination in all sectors.

When Azhar demanded for the state government to unveil its plan in the next assembly sitting, Ramasamy hit back that the opposition was not qualified to give a time frame for the new Pakatan government to resolve an issue.

Hmmm..quite an arguement!

Popularity: 1% [?]

A bit of old news - DAP CEC elections which happened on the same week as the Permatang Pauh by-election. NST carried an interesting viewpoint - that of HINDRAF being sidelined by DAP. How? By virtue of not electing two of HINDRAF ISA detainees (Manoharan and Ganabatirau - both DAP members) into the CEC. The duo got 38th and 39th placing out of 58 candidates, but only the first 20 are chosen to be in the CEC.

According to NST:

DAP gave the Kota Alam Shah seat in Selangor to detained Hindraf lawyer, M. Manoharan, in exchange for full backing from Hindraf to capitalise on Indian sentiments. The NGO also called on its 5,000 members to vote for the opposition in the general election.

It worked. Manoharan won the seat comfortably with a 7,184-majority, despite not campaigning even a single day’s (his wife campaigned for him instead).

But the CEC elections may indicate that HINDRAF’s efforts are not appreciated by DAP members. So claims, a person claiming to represent Ganabatirau. K.P. Samy, the main bailor for the 118 Hindraf members charged with illegal assembly and a friend of Ganabatirau’s and Manoharan’s, had high hopes of the two making it to the CEC.

“They only got 15 per cent of the votes,” he said. “Indians played a major role in the last general election. Hindraf played a major role. But these heroes of Hindraf were not recognised. They should be honoured. “We don’t expect victory but 15 per cent of the votes is like total rejection. We must send a strong signal to the party that it has to be racially representative.”

Two of the successful candidates, Kulasegaran and Dr Ramasamy disagreed with KP Samy.

However, re-elected party vice-chairman Kulasegaran, who had 500 votes, making him the fifth, most popular CEC candidate,said Hindraf had not been forgotten. “They still got a sizeable number of votes,” he said, adding that DAP members were practical when it came to voting in leaders who could perform for the 90,707-strong organisation.

“In fact, Hindraf came about with the controversy in late 2005 over Mount Everest climber M. Moorthy’s conversion to Islam. When it first happened, who was the first to take up the case? “It was DAP lawyers, not P. Uthayakumar (another detained Hindraf leader) and gang.”

Ramasamy, who was elevated from international secretary to deputy secretary-general, said the party had always championed the Hindraf cause.

“The secretary-general of the party has repeatedly urged the release of the Hindraf detainees under the Internal Security Act. It is just that the party polls are highly competitive, that’s all,” he said.

A delegate from Kuala Lumpur, K.A. Ramu, also denied Hindraf was being sidelined. “With the two Hindraf CEC candidates in detention, of course, it was impossible for them to go to the branches and canvass for votes. At the end of the day, popularity matters,” said Ramu.

KP Samy disagrees: “Manoharan could not go out and campaign in the general election. Yet he won resoundingly. How do you explain that?”

Popularity: 1% [?]