Archive for the ‘Indian’ category

200th day under ISA for HINDRAF 5

June 24th, 2008
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29th June 2008 will mark the 200th day under ISA detention for the 5 HINDRAF leaders (detained since 13th December 2007). What is the opinion or comment of the Indian community on this? What do you, the man (woman) in the street have to say? Agree? Disagree? Hurt? Angry? Don’t Care? Feel hopeless?

Should they be released? Should they be brought to court for a fair trial? Should we instead ask for those who claim these people are linked to terrorists to be put under ISA?

Having a hard time wondering how long is 200 days? Well, sit back and think what you have done since 1st January 2008. Changed career, met a new love, bought new things, voted in elections, paying higher for petrol, met new friends, watched plenty of movies, attended weddings, graduated, went for holiday, involved in new hobby, learned new skill, moved house, got married, and many, many more things would have happened in the last 6 months. Feels like a long time doesn’t it?

Share your thoughts please.

Kampung Pandan Indian Settlement gets eviction notice

June 23rd, 2008
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Kampung Pandan community’s worry had become a reality since they have been given an eviction notice. Before the elections, the community openly said that since 1980s, BN representatives could not do anything to help. Even meeting between Samy Vellu and officials from City Hall was not fruitful. They ended up supporting PAS candidate.

The residents were worried about the tamil school, temple and madrasah located there.

To quote from earlier posting:

“Samy Vellu told us he is so close to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that he can flick Abdullah’s ear. He hasn’t done anything since,” said Rajoo.

So, the community had a demonstration on Sunday protesting the eviction notice.  According to NST, 200 police were placed to guard the 150 “squatters” who have lived there since before independence time.

This is going to be a problem from FT Ministry, MIC, PPP senators, and all those who said that temples WON’T  be demolished. What will happen to the school? Dare they step up and solve the problems, or cite more technicalities and rules to hide their inability to keep their promises? If they can’t do it, don’t make empty promises. Something that Pakatan Rakyat states are being accused of as well.

Kampung Pandan Indian Settlement Action Committee chairman Suresh Kumar said the protesters were not objecting to the notices, but they want more time to further discuss the issue with City Hall.
“How can they serve us a one-month notice on June 10, asking about 3,000 people to move out by July 8? The 270 houses have been here for 51 years,” he said.

“They offered us rented units in the DBKL low-cost flats in Kampung Muhibbah, Puchong, in the past but we declined because it was too far away.”

He said there were several issues they wanted to discuss with City Hall, adding that they wanted to know what the plans for the redevelopment of the squatter land were.

They want City Hall to build low-cost flats where their houses are located and give them the units for free as compensation. They also want compensation for the demolished temples and for them to be rebuilt by City Hall.

Hindu Rights Action Force coordinator S. Jayathas and Pas officials were present.

NST

job fairs see less indians participating

June 23rd, 2008
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I’m kind of surprised that Dr S.Subramaniam is saying “it was disappointing that the participation of the Indian community in job fairs was not encouraging.” He also mentioned that “indian youngsters should take an initiative to attend job fairs so that they could look and apply for jobs which might be suitable based on their qualifications.

Time to time, I do attend such fairs (and also those related to education) and can notice significant number of Indians roaming around. The awareness is there to a certain extent.

I know that concerned members of the community do take the initiative to spread information on such job fairs via emails, forums, and SMS. That reaches many of the Internet-enabled students and graduates. As for those in the outskirts or without Internet access, they have to rely on media and also more conventional methods. This is where MIC, IPF, NGOs, and various temple committees come into play. These people should be having good network of contacts, and thus able to use their premises to display news on job fairs. Newspapers which are own by political parties do highlight such fairs from time to time, but more prominence should be given.

When you provide something that is beneficial to the people, people will come to you. No need to waste money on publicity campaigns or rebranding exercises.

Of course there are those fraction of people who wait forever for things to fall onto their laps. But that is common among all communities.

Now, the next questions will be: How many of those who attend get selected? Are job-seekers wary of discrimination by employers? Are the job-seekers qualified and well equipped with the necessary skills?

Sayonara Vigneswaran

June 22nd, 2008
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Today’s NST analyses the reasons on why efforts are underway to get remove of MIC youth chief S.A. Vigneswaran from him post. Similarly, few other MIC youth leaders (S.Ramis-deputy, M.Kumaresan-secretary, K.Raj Kumar-information head, and S.Murugesan-CWC representative) who are above the “retirement” age of 41 would be asked to relinquish their post.

Meanwhile according to NST, his deputy, S. Ramis said some of the youth council members who, too, were asked to leave, would meet Samy Vellu in two weeks to seek an explanation. “Not all of us want to seek legal opinions on the age limit. We just want to ask Datuk Seri why we were asked to leave,” he said.

The NST says that members are not buying the reason given by MIC leadership on the removal of Vigneswaran.

Why was S. Vigneswaran, the once blue-eyed boy of the MIC president, asked to vacate his Youth chief post only now, two years past the due date?  This is the million ringgit question on the lips of those interested in MIC politics.

The party constitution says that the youth chief must vacate his post when he reaches his 41st birthday, yet Vigneswaran was allowed to stay on beyond the age limit. He is now 43.

Many are asking why not wait until he finishes his term, which ends next June, since he was an elected chief?

Vigneswaran had also been skipping CWC meetings and the Selangor MIC AGM recently.

Youth wing members said Vigneswaran’s absence from several central working committee meetings and the Selangor AGM further fuelled speculation that he could not see eye to eye with Samy Vellu.

A senior member of the party argued that since the Youth chief was elected, he should be allowed to finish his term. She also questioned why the Puteri and Putera chiefs were allowed to stay even though both had exceeded the age limit.

“If it was because Vigneswaran did not attend meetings, then he should have been referred to the disciplinary committee, not told to vacate his post,” she said.

Sources in the party said the sudden move to ask Vigneswaran to vacate his post was to ensure that he would not openly question the party supremo at the MIC annual general meeting next month.

» Read more: Sayonara Vigneswaran

Uthaya at Taiping Hospital 19 june

June 22nd, 2008
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The video is a bit blurry. Taken by vicganeshvarathevar

 

 

There also some photos posted at Raajarox courtesy of Siva (Taiping Hindraf).