Archive for September, 2008

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Parti Sosialis Malaysia, the newest opposition party

September 10th, 2008
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Parti Sosialis Malaysia PSM, who officially got registered recently, is the newest opposition party with a ADUN and a MP (Kota Damansara and Sungai Siput). They have clarified that they will remain in the opposition (Malaysiakini):

… it’s secretary-general S Arutchelvan had reporters and party members in stitches when he declared: “We will never join BN (Barisan Nasional), we can guarantee you that.”

The party will also cooperate with Pakatan Rakyat on a minimal basis and if there is invitation to join PR, it will discussed at its congress.

During PSM’s recent congress in Port Dickson, one of the resolutions proposed by members was not to join the Pakatan coalition due to ideological differences.

Speaking on this, Arutchelvan said PSM and other Pakatan parties have always had differences in opinion on economic matters, in particular the issue of free trade.

PSM has always been against the free trade market ideology advocated by certain quarters within the ranks of other Pakatan parties.

“We believe that the free market ideology is here to crush and enslave workers. We have different perspectives (from other Pakatan parties) on policies of economics,” said Arutchelvan.

Both the ADUN and MP (Kota Damansara state assemblyperson Dr Mohd Nasir Hashim and Sungai Siput member of parliament Dr Michael D Jeyakumar) will remain independent in the views, says Arutchelvan.

“They will continue to fight for justice and for the people, a belief that defines PSM. Just because we contested under the PKR flag does not mean we have to carry their views,” he said.

“We already sent letters to the Speakers from both the Parliament and the state assembly to have their party’s name changed to PSM now that we have the official status,” he added.

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HINDRAF candidates lose in DAP CEC elections

September 10th, 2008
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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?”

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Update on Rajeshvari 2

September 10th, 2008
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Rajeshvari’s saga continues with more confusion. If earlier reports mentioned that she only spoke little Malay, could not remember her IC, and could not provide details of her background, today’s Star quoted Rajeshvari as saying:

“I know it’s my fault that I could not produce or remember my IC number but I did give the officers my address and school’s name only to be told that these did not exist,” she said. She claimed she told them this several times in Bahasa Malaysia but they did not believe her. “I was never a bright student and left school at 13 but I can still converse in basic Bahasa,” Rajeshvari added.

I think conversing in basic Bahasa Malaysia is not enough nowadays. Any foreigner can pick up the language within months. So, its important to carry your IC, or the police report if you lost your IC. My view is that now, Rajeshvari seemed to blame the officials for not doing enough to investigate her claims. Won’t be surprised if she takes legal action against the department.

Rajeshvari who earlier said she did not want to meet anyone, finally met her mother and sister:

M. Rajeshvari, 22, who was detained for 11 months at the Lenggeng Immigration depot here for not being able to remember her identity card number, was reunited yesterday with her mother and sister, whom she had not met or spoken to for more than three years.

Her sister Vigneswari, 26, said the family had no idea of the troubles that had befallen her and were shocked when they saw Rajeshvari on the front page of The Sunday Star. “I picked up the paper on Sunday morning as usual and was completely taken aback when I saw my sister’s picture. “She had left home some time ago and we heard from a relative that she was in Kuala Lumpur but we had no idea she was in trouble,” she said at The Star office here yesterday.

Her mother M. Parameswari, 47, was equally overjoyed to see her daughter again. “Not a day went by without me thinking about her. “She left home with her friends and we did not want to force her to come back. I always believed she would come back and now she has. “This Deepavali is definitely going to be special for us,” she said.

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400 youths join MIC

September 9th, 2008
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Great news indeed for MIC, if its true. 400 youths joining the Sepang division is a major achievement for MIC.

The MIC’s rebranding exercise has encouraged more Indians to join the party, with more than 400 youths joining the Sepang division in Selangor, division chief Datuk C. Krishnan said.

He said the division, the first in Selangor to recruit members in large numbers, hoped to attract more new members in the future.

“They (the new members) are confident that the MIC will be able to represent their needs,” he told reporters here yesterday.

MIC vice-president Datuk S. Sothinathan and Youth coordinator T. Mohan were also present.

Krishnan said the move by the party headquarters to separate the Youth wing from the MIC branches had generated keen interest from youths to join the party.

He was confident that more Indian women would join the MIC following a proposal by party president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu to detach the Wanita movement from all MIC branches so that they could function as a separate entity.

The MIC now has more than 630,000 members with 3,700 branches throughout the country. Samy Vellu is also on a mission to regain the trust of the Indian community. Mohan said the wing had already submitted a list to the headquarters to form 287 branches.

“We hope to form about 750 branches by year’s end,” he said,

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Update on Rajeshvari

September 9th, 2008
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More update on Rajeshvari – The Star reported that the girl’s family are looking for her now, but according to Rajeshvari, she’s not interested in meeting them. And more surprisingly, the girl has some friends with whom she is currently staying with. The family background is reproduced below.

SEREMBAN: M. Rajeshvari, who was freed last Friday after being wrongfully detained in an immigration depot for 11 months, caused a scare when her family could not locate her over the weekend.

However, Malaysian Indian Youth Council vice-president Andrew Raju, who helped free Rajeshvari, finally got hold of her yesterday. Rajeshvari, he said, told him she was staying with friends but stressed that she was not ready to meet anyone, even her family.

Her family members have been looking for the 22-year-old after her story appeared in Sunday Star.

Her father, who only wanted to be identified as Murugiah, had been worried about her whereabouts.

When contacted in Kampar yesterday, Murugiah, a driver for Perak Unity and National Integration and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman and Keranji assemblyman Chen Fook Chye, said: “I just want to find my daughter. She has been missing for so long.”

His wife Parameswari, 47, and daughter Vigneswari, 26, are in Kuala Lumpur to look for Rajeshvari.

Earlier, Vigneswari said her sister left home two years ago and the family believed that she had been living in Sungei Besi. She said her sister stopped schooling at 13 while in the Remove Class. “We heard she got married in Kuala Lumpur but we were shocked to read her story.”

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