Subscribe in a reader | Subscribe by Email After MHS, MIBA, Gerakan, HAF, and HINDRAF, now is DAP’s turn. Oh yeah, not to forget, the Indian community also wishes for the same. Want to know what that is?
What else if not “Free Hindraf ISA Detainees” call!
Gerakan’s statement:
MIBA’s statement:
MHS’s statement:
HAF’s statement:
Pak Lah told to free Hindraf 5
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/80237
Mar 22, 08 12:14pm
Malaysia’s opposition on Friday pressed for five ethnic Indian activists, including a man who won in recent elections, to be freed from indefinite detention under a tough security law. Lawyer Manoharan Malayalam, standing for the Democratic Action Party (DAP), was elected from his jail – soundly beating the government incumbent in the state seat on March 8.
DAP leader Lim Kit Siang said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi should free the five, leaders of rights group Hindraf, who were detained last December under the Internal Security Act (ISA).
They had organised an unprecedented mass rally claiming discrimination against ethnic Indians in November. Police used tear gas, water cannon and baton charges to break up the protest, which drew at least 8,000 people.
Lim called for the “immediate and unconditional release (of) the five Hindraf leaders from ISA detention as proof that Abdullah has ‘heard the voice’ of Malaysians to start the process of ‘national healing’ after… the general election.”
Abdullah’s Barisan Nasional coalition won the election on March 8 but with a reduced majority and lost an unprecedented five states to the three-party opposition alliance of the DAP, the Islamic PAS and PKR. It was the ruling party’s worst election result since 1969.
Swearing-in in detention centre
Lim said the election result showed that ethnic Indian support for the government had plunged.
Manoharan’s lawyer Karpal Singh told AFP he had filed an appeal to the Federal Court, the highest in the land, after the High Court last month rejected a freedom bid by the five. Manoharan will be sworn in as a state assemblyman in the detention centre if he was not freed, he added.
His wife, lawyer S Pushpaneela, also urged Abdullah to step in and release the men. “Only the prime minister has the power to release him. He should let him (Manoharan) and the others go now to gain more confidence from the people. It looks like people have completely lost their trust in him,” she said. Pushpaneela said with Manoharan in detention, she has to undertake most of his duties as state assemblyman in the Kota Alam Shah constituency in central Selangor state.
By now the BN government under the leadership of Pak Lah should have realized that the main reason for many of the BN leaders losing in the recent election as well as 5 states to the Barisan Rakyat was WAS THE WAY THE BN HAD TREATED AND MARGINALISED THE MALAYSIAN INDIANS.
To add insult to injury the 5 Hindraf leaders who stood up to expose the plight of the poor Indians who had contributed to the progress of the country for centuries were demonised, castigated, branded as traitors and terrorists and put under detention using a most convenient weapon, the ISA.
It is not too late to take stock of the situation in a very rational and concrete manner. It is not enough to admit mistakes. Mistakes especially where people have been arbitrarily detained (imprisoned without being charged for specific crimes in a court of law) should be released IMMEDIATELY if the BN is sincere about national ( inter-race and inter-faith) reconciliation.
Pak Lah and his arrogant advisors had underestimated the resentment and hatred of the people towards the establishment that had let them down terribly. When all avenues for redress were shut and locked down under the mistaken impression that the masses can be bought over by freebies, people decided to show what “makkal sakthi” is all about.
Delaying the release of the 5 leaders of the Hindraf to appease the racial bigots in the UMNO even after one of the five , Mr. Manoharan had been elected by the people does not auger well for the BN and Pak Lah. His election alone should serve as a benchmark of the people’s hatred towards the wayward policies of the BN.
The clarion call to release the 5 Hindraf leaders unconditionally is getting louder by the day. Heed the call or BN would become irrelevant soon.