Posts Tagged ‘Marginalisation’

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johor MIC provide statistics

December 21st, 2007
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I suppose this is to counter the damage by Mr Siva from JIBA.

1. 9 million for past "several years" for 70 schools. Let's assume several years is 5 years. (9,000,000 / 5 / 70 = RM25714 per school per year.)

2. "RM2mil was allocated last year to build new Tamil schools, renovate classrooms and buy equipment." That should read as "build new buildings for existing Tamil schools".

3. "12 new sites for such relocation, including in Taman Tun Aminah (2ha) and Permas Jaya (2.4ha) and a piece of land in Kulai valued at RM9mil.". Obviously land in JB side is expensive and if the school is not located next to sewerage ponds, it should be costly.

4. " Johor had 70 Tamil schools and all of them received aid from the government".  This is provided under law. But what are the efforts to  convert them to FULLY-AIDED status?

5. "He said the state government had recently allocated RM500,000 for the construction of a Hindu crematorium at Kebun Teh here." This is funny indeed!  Of course crematorium is by govt. We don't want people contributing to open burning by cremating the dead in public areas, do we?

I feel something is not right. The way the information is given, it sounds as if the people are living here due to some hospitality or charity of authorities. But things like education, burial, housing are responsibilities, not charity to be given when liked.

MIC rep: Johor always meets needs of Indians

source

JOHOR BARU: The state has never marginalised the Indian community and has given attention to their educational, religious, social and cultural needs, Johor MIC liaison committee chairman Datuk K. S. Balakrishnan said. 

He said the state had granted RM9mil over the past several years for the development and modernisation of Tamil schools while RM2mil was allocated last year to build new Tamil schools, renovate classrooms and buy equipment. The allocation was the result of the request made by Johor MIC and the work was carried out by the district offices, he said. 

Balakrishnan, who is Unity, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Committee chairman, said the state government had also provided alternative sites for the relocation of Tamil schools when their existing sites had to make way for housing and industrial development. He said the state government so far provided 12 new sites for such relocation, including in Taman Tun Aminah (2ha) and Permas Jaya (2.4ha) and a piece of land in Kulai valued at RM9mil. Johor had 70 Tamil schools and all of them received aid from the government, he said, adding that these schools also received tuition aid from the Johor Education Foundation. 

Balakrishnan said the aid provided by the state government proved untrue the allegations of marginalisation of Indians by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf). 

He also said that the state government had so far provided 19 alternative sites for Hindu temples that had to make way for development. He said the state government had recently allocated RM500,000 for the construction of a Hindu crematorium at Kebun Teh here. 

On housing, he said the state government had reserved 10% of the units in low and medium cost housing schemes for the Indian community but was prepared to raise the quota to 50% in places such as Labis and Chaah where there were many Indians. – Bernama 

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68 percent of indians subscribe to Astro

December 17th, 2007
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I read with interest the interview with Astro's CEO on last Saturday's BizWeek section in the Star. The interview highlighted few numbers which I think is worth thinking about. Now, the accuracy of the numbers is based purely on what the CEO says, so we assume it to be true. Let's see what she said below:

CEO: There are 5.8 million TV households in Malaysia and we have about 2.2 million customers. That's about 39% household penetration. That's overall, but now we start slicing and dicing. If we look at spoken language, we have 37% penetration for the Malay language customers. For the Chinese-speaking customers, we have 48% of total Chinese households in Malaysia. For the Indian-speaking customers, we have about 68% of the total Indian customers in Malaysia. 

For a minority race, we are nearly double of the majority race in terms of astro subscricption. The breakdown did not specify in terms of cost, but I suspect that most indian household would have taken the cheaper packages between RM37 and RM89 or so. This is because the Tamil channels are free (excluding the impending Maharajah package). This may be the same for the Malays. So, I can assume that the Chinese are the most contributing customers since their packages cost a lot. Next question is why are many Indian households subscribing to Astro? One can easily say that the Indians are doing well, not marginalised, are richer than the bumiputeras etc. But I suspect that there's nothing worth watching in the free channels (RTM, TV3, etc.), causing Indians to fork out extra cash to watch Tamil programs. There seem to be less Tamil movies or shows (yeah, there one on saturday midnights I think). There are Hindi movies which take up the Indian slots. The gradual reduction of Tamil programs sound like marginalisation and discrimination to me. Hindraf might call it ethnic cleansing 🙂

Are all those mega serials and Kodambakam movies good for the community? I personally feel no, but the current trend shows that the community needs (or wants?) entertainment. Old folks want to watch serials, the rest watch movies or songs or the variety of shows over the 6 channels.

If we assume 4 people in an Indian household, 1.8 million will translate to 450,000 households. 68% of that is 306,000. Meaning there are roughly 306,000 Indian houses that has Astro!

CEO: The next way of slicing and dicing is to look at the rural and urban segments because people in the two segments look for different content. We have 51% of total urban households in Malaysia about 17% of rural households.

This seems clear cut. Those in the urban areas are more educated and exposed to global issues. Thus, with higher disposable income, they are able to subscribe to Astro packages. Those in the rural areas may feel satisfied with the local Malay programs and not interested in global issues or international channels.

 

CEO:Simplistically, our growth for the past year has been from the Malay customers. In our last quarter, we added 94,000 customers, of which 10,000 are Indian customers and the balance are primarily Malay households. And that has been the trend for the last couple of quarters. 

If you ask me who will be our next 1 million customers, they will be predominantly Malay households and more and more semi-urban. We've already got 51% penetration in the urban areas and we have to know that we will be going more into the semi-urban to rural market. 

What that means to us is one thing – our sales and distribution network will have to be realigned. If it's predominantly urban today, we've got to shift that to where our next customers will be, by geography and by the marketplace that we're looking at.

Indians are still subscribing to Astro, but soon the market will become stagnant as the subscription rate increases to 80% or more. Then, we can see more segmentation – mini packages to cater for various subgroups and ages.

CEO: For instance, we are very strong in Chinese content. Among our 645,000 Chinese-speaking customers, we have a viewership rating of 80-odd%, which means more than 80% of the time, a Chinese-speaking customer is watching Astro. So, only less than 20% is spent watching free-to-air. It's even higher for the Indian-speaking market – 90% of the time, they're watching channels such as Vaanavil, Sun TV and Vellithirai. They are watching Astro.  Our issue now is the Malay customers. They come on to Astro because they like the fact that it is a multi-channel platform and all that, but the free-to-air TV is fairly strong. Our viewership number for the Malay customers is about 55%. Since they form 1.1million of our total households to date, which is half, our challenge is to increase our relevance and viewership among our Malay customers.

This seems to reinforce my suspicion that the average Indian has nothing to watch in free channels and is regularly glued to Astro whenever he/she has a chance. Same goes for the Chinese. Astro have them covered, now is to target the Malay market. Thus we can see more concentrated efforts to capture the semi-urban and rural households, and at the same time try to increase the viewership from 55%.

In addition, we'll look at the Astro brand. What is the Astro brand? What is its value proposition? At which point does the Astro brand extend to other areas? Recently, we launched AstroView (an entertainment magazine, previously called Astro Guide, that serves as a viewing guide for Astro subscribers) because we see it as an extension of the Astro TV experience.

The CEO forgot to mention that the magazine is not free after being relaunched as AstroView. Its free for a period of time, and then the customers will be charged.

Full interview is at http://biz.thestar.com.my/bizweek/story.asp?file=/2007/12/15/bizweek/19771336&sec=bizweek

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Uthayakumar arrested this morning

December 11th, 2007
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Uthayakumar arrested this morning
http://www5.malaysiakini.com/news/75895
Fauwaz Abdul Aziz | Dec 11, 07 10:18am

Lawyer P Uthayakumar was arrested this morning in Bangsar and taken to the Jalan Duta Sessions Courts in Kuala Lumpur.

His fiancee S Indradevi who was with him during the arrest told Malaysiakini that Uthayakumar was not informed of the reason of his arrest.

She said two police cars stopped Uthayakumar’s car at about 9.20am opposite the Bangsar Shopping Complex and four plainclothes policemen rushed at him before grabbing him.

“They just told us that he was being taken to Jalan Duta. I was really scared. I am still trembling in fear from what happened this morning,” she said by telephone.

Lawyer M Manoharan said the arrest could be related to Uthayakumar’s role in the rally organised by Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) on Nov 25.

“I believed he will be charged for illegal assembly. There could be more arrests coming later in the day,” he said when contacted.

At the same time, Manoharan is also not ruling out a charge under the Sedition Act for Uthayakumar, over a speech he had made in July at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. This was Hindraf’s first public gathering.

Uthayakumar is Hindraf’s legal adviser. The rally – to highlight the marginalisation of the Indian Malaysian community – attracted about 30,000 people.

Last week, 31 of the protesters were charged with the attempted murder of a policeman. They were also charged with causing mischief. Sixteen of them were charged with illegal gathering as well.

Another round of arrests has been threatened by the police.

Uthayakumar and two other Hindraf leaders – P Waythamoorthy and V Ganabatirau – are currently out on bail on a sedition charge. Yesterday, the Shah Alam High Court ruled that the discharge order for the trio made two weeks ago was made in error.

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2004 survey shows indians earn more

December 5th, 2007
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perhaps the statistics should be separated to show malays, other bumiputras, chinese, indian, others, and foreigners.

the term bumiputra and malays are at times freely interchanged to suit certain needs and can cause misrepresentation.

Govt study shows Indians earning more

source

THE average household income for the Indian community in 2004 stood at RM3,456 a month. 

In contrast, Bumiputeras only had a monthly average household income of RM2,711, while Chinese RM4,437. "This is a five per cent improvement from 1999, where the monthly average household income for Indians was RM2,702," said Rural and Regional Development Deputy Minister Datuk Zainal Abidin Osman.

In his reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Dr Wan Hashim Wan Teh (BN-Gerik), he said the Hindu Rights Action Front's (Hindraf) claims that the Indians were poor and marginalised in Malaysia were false. Wan Hashim had wanted to know the status of the Indian community to ascertain whether there was any truth to Hindraf's claims of marginalisation.

"Millions of our citizens live comfortably compared to those in Tamil Nadu. In BN's opinion, there is no need for Hindraf to meet the prime minister. Go through the MIC."

Zainal Abidin explained further that in 2004, Indians only registered a poverty rate of 2.9 per cent compared with Bumiputeras at 8.3 per cent, the highest in the country. Poverty rate for the Chinese stood at 0.6 per cent. "The number actually showed an improvement because in 1999, the Indian community's poverty rate was at 3.5 per cent."  He reminded everyone to base their statements on facts and figures, and not allow false stories to affect the wellbeing of all Malaysians.

Earlier, Zainal Abidin told Wan Hashim that the government aimed to reduce the poverty rate from 5.7 per cent in 2004 to 2.85 per cent by 2010, and fully eradicate hardcore poverty by 2010. "Specifically for rural areas, the government aims to reduce poverty from 11.9 per cent to 5.95 per cent by 2010, and at the same time, fully eradicate hardcore poverty," he said.

Deputy minister: Indians better off than Malays
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/75602
Fauwaz Abdul Aziz
Dec 3, 07 6:31pm
There is lower poverty among the Indians compared to the Malays and the former also enjoy higher household incomes, the Dewan Rakyat was told today.

According to Deputy Rural and Regional Development Minister Zainal Abidin Osman (BN-Nibong Tebal), the monthly household income for Indians in 2004 was RM3,456, while it was RM2,711 for Malay households and RM4,437 for Chinese.

He said this was a five percent improvement for the Indians compared to 1999 when their household income was RM2,702.

He said the poverty rate and hardcore poverty in 2004 among Indians was at 2.9 percent, 8.3 percent among Malays and 0.6 percent among the Chinese.

This was also an improvement for the Indians from 1999, where the rate was 3.5 percent.

"Because of this, we must hold on to the true facts and figures and not allow emotions and tall tales to influence the people," he said.

Explain to Hindraf

Zainal Abidin was replying Dr Wan Hashim Wan Teh (BN-Gerik) who asked for clarification of the per capita income and the incidence of poverty among the various communities.

"Let's explain this issue to (Hindu Rights Action Force) Hindraf in this august House where the ethnic Indians are situated… and the number of professionals (among Indians), isn't their percentage high in comparison with other groups?" asked Wan Hashim.

"Millions are living comfortably (in Malaysia). It is as if they are in Nirvana compared to the circumstances in Tamil Nadu." 


Wan Hashim was referring to claims by Hindraf, a group advocating rights and better treatment of Indians, who they claim have been discriminated, marginalised and exploited.

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rafidah shocked over sharanya

December 5th, 2007
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Blooger Sharanya under attack from Rafidah Aziz

Shocked by ‘apartheid’ report

source

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz was shocked during a recent work trip to India to find a newspaper there carrying a front page article that claimed that Malaysia was practising apartheid against Hindus. 

Holding up the DNA newspaper of Nov 28, the International Trade and Industry Minister said that the article quoted a 22-year-old Sri Lankan-born poet who had spent 17 years in Malaysia, as saying that she fled Malaysia last month to escape “systematic racial harassment.” 

“Fleeing Malaysia? Oh my goodness gracious. Can you imagine? This is really telling lies,” Rafidah told reporters yesterday after chairing a Wanita Umno meeting. 

The Wanita Umno chief said that the poet, Sharanya Manivannan, had also claimed in the article that there had been cases in Malaysia of “body-snatching” of Hindu corpses by the authorities so that the deceased could be buried according to Muslim rites. 

She said that the poet, however, had never mentioned that these men had converted to Islam. 

Rafidah added that Sharanya had said in the article that “countless (Hindu) temples have been demolished and idols smashed – oftentimes in the middle of prayer sessions and devotees attacked”. 

“What a lie. Words like this are terrible. The article really hurts,” she said. 

Rafidah was heading a trade mission to India from Nov 26 to Dec 1 when she came across the newspaper article at one of the five-star hotels there. 

“I was shocked. Obviously there is already an international network set up,” she said, adding that she believed that this was politically motivated. 

During the mission to New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai, the minister said she was asked once or twice about the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) Nov 25 demonstration in Kuala Lumpur. 

She said she explained that it was untrue that Hindus were being marginalised in Malaysia, adding that Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) director-general Datuk R. Karuna Karan, who accompanied her on the trade mission, was himself a Malaysian Hindu. 

“He (Karuna) is a perfect example of those who get to the top. He’s not there by chance. MIDA is the organisation we put our trust in to get billions in investments.  

“And Datuk Karuna is the chief because he’s the best,” she said, adding that his predecessor too was a Hindu. 

Rafidah slammed Hindraf for using religion for its political purposes. 

She said that if there were groups that felt sidelined, they should use the proper channels to let the Government know their grievances in black-and-white, rather than taking it to the streets and to the Queen of England. 

Hindraf has filed a US$4 trillion (RM13.5 trillion) suit in London, claiming the British is to blame for the marginalisation of Indians in Malaysia, as they had brought them to the then Malaya as indentured labourers and exploited them. 

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the system of democracy practised in Malaysia, though dissimilar to that in the other democratic nations, is fair and transparent. 

“Our democracy is founded on our history, cultural values and our traditions.  

“The important thing is that we give every citizen the right to fairly elect anyone they wish to make up the Government,” he said in the Bicarawara interview programme on RTM1 last night. 

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