Posts Tagged ‘Marginalisation’

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india PM urged to act after hindraf rally

November 28th, 2007
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Act against 'sufferings' in M'sia, Indian PM told
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/75382
Nov 28, 07 2:08pm

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been urged to take immediate action concerning the state of the Indians in Malaysia.

The premier’s intervention was sought by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi and other politicians in the state following the mass rally held on Nov 25 in Kuala Lumpur.

newspaper, Karunanidhi wrote to Manmohan on Tuesday asking him to employ the necessary measures regarding the “sufferings and bad treatment” of Tamils in Malaysia.

Karunanidhi said the people of Tamil Nadu were disturbed over the happenings in Kuala Lumpur.

The daily reported that he also conveyed their concern over the treatment being meted out to the Tamils living in Malaysia for a very long period of time.

On Sunday, some 30,000 Indian Malaysians took to the streets in a protest organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).

The rally was held to support a lawsuit by Hindraf against Britain for bringing Indians to Malaysia as indentured labourers and exploiting them for 150 years.

The suit sought a declaration that the Reid Commission Report 1957 failed to incorporate the rights of the Indian community when Malaya was granted independence and this had allegedly resulted in discrimination and marginalisation to this day.

Police used tear gas and chemical-laced water to break-up the rally, which also saw scores of people being arrested.

'Treated like slaves'

Meanwhile, another Tamil Nadu politician and popular actor Vijayakant also called on the Indian prime minister to act on this issue.

In a news report, Vijayakant, who is the founder leader of the DMDK party, said: "The Tamils were taken there 200 years ago by the then British rulers to work in the plantation fields but the way police dispersed them by firing tear gas showed that the Malaysian government is still treating them as slaves.

He alleged that Malaysia was "becoming a Sri Lanka" where the government "sidelined Tamils from all government departments".

He warned that ignorance by India to intervene in this issue could create a situation similar to that of Sri Lanka, which is gripped by ethnic strife. "What started as a spark, is now burning all over Sri Lanka," he said.

The Nov 25 rally received widespread coverage in the Indian as well as international media. The event was reported, among others, in the UK, US, China, Taiwan, Australia and the Philippines.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's warning that the government could invoke the Internal Security Act (ISA) against the protestors has also received wide media coverage.

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minister azmi says many indians studying medicine as proof community is well off

November 27th, 2007
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'Indians are not marginalised'
source
BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, Tue.:

The Indians in Malaysia are not marginalised as claimed by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), the organiser of Sunday’s illegal assembly, a cabinet minister said today.

Pointing out that the rally was evidently politically-motivated, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid said the Indians were given ample opportunities including advancing themselves in education.

Azmi said that during his visits to universities in Indonesia, the Caribbean countries and Russia, most of the Malaysian students studying medicine were Indians.

“Why must they talk about being neglected? We have more Malaysian Indians studying medicine in Indonesian universities compared with the Malays and other races.

“So from where the money came from? Definitely they got it from the opportunities to earn money in this country,” he told reporters after opening a conference on Forestry and Forest Products Research.

Illegal rallies would jeopardise foreign investments to the country which would in turn harm the nation’s economy and the people’s well-being, he added.

Thousands of Hindraf supporters gathered in the heart of Kuala Lumpur last Sunday to support the handing over of a petition to the British High Commission asking Queen Elizabeth II to appoint a Queen’s Counsel to represent the Indian community in a class action suit against the British Government for bringing Indians as indentured labourers to the then Malaya and exploiting them.

Hindraf has filed a US$4 trillion (RM13.5 trillion) suit in London claiming that the British were to blame for the marginalisation of Indians in Malaysia.

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kit siang suggests parlimentary committee to investigate indian community problem

November 27th, 2007
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this can be one of the recommendations that MIC can make use. save their time trying to think what to suggest!

Lim: Don't ignore cry of desperation
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/75326
Nov 27, 07 1:41pm

If the cabinet is truly serious about addressing the long-standing grievances of the Indian Malaysian community, it should back a proposal for a parliamentary select committee. 

Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, who issued this call after earlier mooting the idea, said the ‘committee on the marginalisation of the Indian community’ should have three months to come up with a report.

He described the Hindraf rally in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, which drew some 30,000 Indian protestors from all over the country, as a “cry of desperation”. 

The rally was in support of a US$4-trillion class-action suit filed against the British government for bringing the Indians here as indentured labourers and exploiting them for 150 years.

“The Barisan Nasional leaders, led by Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, should stop their truculent and confrontational responses to the demonstration,” Lim said in a statement today.

“Instead of threatening all sorts of dire consequences against the Hindraf organisers and supporters, the cabinet should acknowledge the legitimacy of the long-standing grievances of the Indian community (which is) becoming the most marginalised group.”

Other ways of showing that the government is serious, he said, is by releasing all 136 Hindraf supporters arrested during the demonstration and not to charge the organisers. 

The government should also hold an open inquiry into allegations of excessive force by the police, which saw water cannon being deployed and teargas being fired during the six-hour stand-off with protesters. 

Urgent issues

In listing the issues that the select committee should address, Lim added that it should be sufficiently empowered to make recommendations on: 

  • Increase in the number of Indian youth dying in police custody
  • Worsening socio-economic inequality between the Indian poor and rich and between other communities
  • Ineffective redress of social ills in the community
  • Policy on financial allocation for Tamil schools
  • University intake policy, which is a major source of distress for the community
  • State unwillingness to help resolve the Maika scandal
  • Closure into the Kampung Medan killings, as a public inquiry has not been held into the racially-motivated incident of 2001
  • Low-cost housing needs of the Indian poor
  • Aggressive displacement of the Indian rural poor due to the breakdown of the plantation economy
  • Rampant demolition of Hindu temples and disregard of the religious rights and sensitivities of the Indian community

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Why I walked on Nov 25 by Geetha K 27/11

November 27th, 2007
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Why I walked on Nov 25
http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinionsfeatures/75320
Geetha K
Nov 27, 07 12:31pm
Before the break of dawn on Sunday, I received a SMS informing me that thousands of Indians had gathered at the Batu Caves temple in Kuala Lumpur and truckloads of Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel were also there. My blood chilled.

Debates on why I would walk and why I wouldn’t be walking became irrelevant. It was why I HAD to walk.

Around 8am, by the time I had arrived at the heart of all the excitement, scores of Indian men drenched by the water cannons were heading away from Jalan Ampang. It appeared that the authorities had started their peacekeeping duties very early.

People whizzed along on motorcycles, the police presence was overwhelming and the anxious protestors were mostly upbeat.

As I walked along Jalan Kia Peng, I experienced, for the first time, the stinging sensation of tear gas. Prior to this, little did I realise how painful and nauseating it would be. And this was not even a fresh blast. It made me wonder how I would handle being in the thick of things-if that were to happen.

And It happened, not too far away.

The lethal cocktails were fired liberally as people scurried about to escape the choking fumes. Between tears and dribbling saliva, I continued my march through the city’s business heartland.

Like all species subjected to constant persecution, the protesters too soon became immune to the warnings, threats and chemical attacks. They kept their resistance and played the game to the end. There was the Queen’s figurehead on one banner and numerous posters of Mahatma Gandhi – I couldn’t help smiling as I thought of how some of my more posh friends, Indians included, who would sneer at such imbecilic measures.

Leaderless, but not clueless

But back to the Great Indian March! The crowds were obviously leaderless but clueless they were not.

Eavesdropping on sporadic bits of random conversations was the best way to get into the pulse of this long suffering race. Something neither Nat Tan or Haris Ibrahim could have achieved, I assumed. But something both would have been proud to be part of.

When Haris did make an appearance (as a Bar Council observer, not a participant mind you), he was treated like some sort of a hero – going by the way a small crowd thronged towards him and his mates.

The clear embarrassment on the lawyer’s face was evidence of how desperate the crowd was.

I was gratified to learn that the protest was not about the money, the queen or even the world learning about their plight. It was simply an act of breaking the shackles, which was something the average Malaysian who had never experienced life as a marginalised, ignored, economically, educationally and socially deprived Indian, could understand.

Against the backdrop of the gleaming, iconic twin towers, thousands of Indians had gathered, a sight never witnessed by our nation’s capital before. The few women present were mostly middle-aged, dressed not in the least like the swanky Klites.

It was quite painful to stand there and watch these women being hauled up and pushed into police trucks, with a look of fear etched on their faces – not unlike stray dogs rounded-up by local council officers.

If this was the treatment meted out in public imagine what they must have faced back in the police stations.

Police and thief

Rows and rows of FRU personnel, plainclothes police officers, fire engines, dog units, red cross teams, low flying helicopters and thousands of defiant, I must say resilient, protesters played cat and mouse for a good six hours.

Some protestors even resorted to flinging the tear gas canisters back to where they came from, much to the shock of those who had fired them. This brought back childhood memories of playing police and thief, but this time around, it was not clear as to who were the good guys and bad guys.

At about 1.30pm, the march drew to an end with the appearance of P Uthayakumar who delivered a short, but stinging speech, declaring victory for the poor.

The poor, who he said have had their places of worship destroyed by the dozens, whose economic share had dwindled, whose number of vernacular schools had dropped, whose enrollment in institutes of higher learning had reduced and whose participation in the civil service had nosedived.

Now which other race in Malaysia could say the same? I would love to hear the PM’s answer on this, especially after his utterly lame response of ‘there are poor people amongst all races…”.

True, but which other race faces this much of marginalisation and discrimination?
Even more galling is the PM’s pledge to continue working with the MIC .

Are you Mister Prime Minister too stung and blinded by the overwhelming use of tear gas by your loyal faithfuls?

But really, why did I walk on Sunday? To compare events as they happened and as reported by the mainstream Malaysian media was one agenda of course.

I also did not want to be filled with questions and doubts when reading postings on the electronic media, which many members of our ruling elite accuse of being ‘full of lies’.

Nevertheless, the reason closest to my heart was simply to be there in flesh and spirit for my fellow Malaysians.

GEETHA K is a Kuala Lumpur-based freelance writer.

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Fearless Indians fight for rights

November 26th, 2007
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Fearless Indians fight for rights
http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/75289
K Kabilan
Nov 26, 07 4:17pm

news analysis “Let’s see how makkal sakti (Tamil for ‘people power’) works now,” was Hindraf chairperson P Waythamoorthy’s reaction, just after he and two other key leaders were arrested 48 hours before the rally planned by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).

And on Sunday, the people – almost all from the Hindu community – responded impressively by taking part in the rally which attracted an estimated 30,000 from all over the country. 

Waythamoorthy (right) and his brother Uthayakumar (left)are the prime movers behind Hindraf. Apart from often being the first to react with a grassroots presence whenever an incident involves the community, they have also held a successful nationwide roadshow to remind Indians of their rights.

In the process, Hindraf has tapped the anger within the community, and it was shown by those who participated in the rally and the thousands of others who were prevented by the police from entering Kuala Lumpur.

The real heroes, though, were the protesters.

This was a crowd which is angry with the way Indian Malaysians are being treated. They are fed-up with being downtrodden. They are frustrated with being treated as third-class citizens in their own country.

So, they had no hesitation about accepting Hindraf’s invitation to come to Kuala Lumpur to express their anger despite the prior warnings issued by the polic and political leaders – and in defiance of a restraining order that could see them jailed for contempt of court. 

As many told Malaysiakini, the most recent demolition of a Hindu temple in Klang was the catalyst for their presence.

‘Hear our voice’

Many of the protesters were out-of-towners. They have been deprived of a forum and the opportunity to say their piece. Many are also MIC supporters, now with full regret that the only Indian-based party in the Barisan Nasional has been helpless in stopping temple demolitions.

“This is the end. We have come here to protest against how the government treats us. They can beat us today. They can put us in prison. We don’t care. We want to tell the government that we are fed up,” said 52-year-old S Aiyakannu from Old Klang Road.

His son Palani led a three-bus convoy from up north.

“For us, it is like a life or death situation. If our voice is heard today, good. Otherwise, this frustrated community will have to show that we can’t be taken for a ride at all time,” he added.

Others shared his sentiments. Many have not seen Waythamoorthy or his brother Uthayakumar but have heard of their movement to mobilise the community fo the rally.

“We have had enough of this bad treatment. They (government) can’t push us any lower. This is the limit. I am not here to support Hindraf’s suit against the UK government but I want to be here to show my anger,” said K Suresh from Sungai Petani.

The majority of the crowd was well-behaved, showing expected grit in the face of the heavy police presence and eventual use of water cannon and tear gas.

Every time they were sprayed with chemical-laced water and tear gas, they retreated only to come forward, in a bigger number.

Many carried posters of Mahatma Gandhi to symbolise their pacifist stand, and carried none of the banners and posters usually associated with political rallies.

The protesters gathered at about nine locations around Jalan Ampang and the KLCC . Every time there were stopped from marching forward, they would disperse and regroup at another spot. (See map below)

At times, they even manage to disperse and regroup behind the police line, forcing the FRU trucks and street personnel to turn around or alter their positions.

Ready for battle

Eyewitnesses say that reports of protesters hurting the police are exaggerated. In most spots, it was the other way round with the protesters taking the brunt of tear gas and chemical-laced water.

While no one disputes that police response had initially been retrained, the kid gloves came off the moment they started arresting the protesters for breaching the court order that banned the rally. Some were dragged along the road and hurled into waiting police trucks.

Even as they were being arrested, many submitted without resistance or complaint. One old man was heard saying that he was proud to be arrested over a cause for his community.

Similar sentiments were heard when the protesters were hit with water and tear gas.

“We are people who work hard to live. We don’t work in air-conditioned offices like the KL people. We work under the sun and rain. We are hardy. Let them hit us with anything. We will stand still,” said Raman, a bus driver from Batang Berjuntai, Selangor.

Comical moments

Although emotions sometimes ran high, there were some light-hearted moments at the expense of the police, which lifted the spirits of the protesters.

On one occasion, police fired rounds of tear gas at their own men, totally missing about 1,000 protesters standing in the vicinity.

Seeing the men-in-blue running helter-skelter brought them joy, as much as seeing a Caucasian jogging in the middle of a stand-off between protesters and the police, oblivious to the tension around him!

The police did their best to disperse the crowd. After realising that tear gas, water cannon and arrests were not doing the job, they started telling the protesters that Hindraf leaders had submitted the memorandum as planned to the British High Commission.

They also said that Hindraf leaders had called for the protesters to disperse.

The protesters however were not buying any of this, telling the police to just let them march to the high commission and disperse from there.

“Never mind about the memorandum. Just let us walk peacefully right up to the high commission,” said a young man who was soon arrested for breaching the court order.

By the end of the six-hour cat-and-mouse game, it were the police who grew tired. Towards the end, they only concentrated on protecting their cordon around the high commission.

Wake-up call

One thing is sure. This was not a political protest. This was a protest against the marginalisation of the Indian community. It was a case of the community hitting the streets because they have no where else to take entrenched problems.

The show of force must surely be a wake-up call, not just for the community but also for MIC and the government.

Government leaders and the police can insist that the gathering was illegal but an overwhelming people power proved on Sunday that sentiments on the ground should not be neglected.

The Hindraf rally was the second mass protest this month – after the Bersih rally on Nov 10 – and the third if we include the lawyers’ ‘Walk for Justice’ in Putrajaya last month. 

The protesters on all three occasions had no fear whatsoever in making their stand – and at each event, the police could not find a definitive tactic to put them off their purpose.

If the momentum continues, the people power as envisaged by Waythamoorthy, could well lead to changes that are long overdue.

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