{"id":2440,"date":"2008-10-09T16:25:22","date_gmt":"2008-10-09T08:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/others\/2008\/10\/09\/hindraf-condemns-utusan\/"},"modified":"2008-10-09T16:26:37","modified_gmt":"2008-10-09T08:26:37","slug":"hindraf-condemns-utusan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/indian\/2008\/10\/09\/hindraf-condemns-utusan\/","title":{"rendered":"HINDRAF condemns Utusan"},"content":{"rendered":"

After making police reports and voicing their plans to sue Utusan<\/a>, Hindraf also vented their unhappiness<\/a> over the paper’s continuing condemnation of HINDRAF, claiming that its politically motivated. I this is unavoidable because the paper is owned by a political party, so surely there will be an element of selective reporting.<\/p>\n

Utusan Malaysia today front-paged calls for action against Hindraf supporters who were allegedly unruly at the ministerial Hari Raya \u2018open house\u2019 last Wednesday at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n

The report entitled \u2018Tegas tangani Hindraf\u2019 (Deal firmly with Hindraf) quoted several individuals who called on the government to take action.<\/p>\n

Reacting to this, Thanenthiran said: \u201cUmno elections are around the corner. Now, they are condemning Hindraf to get Malay support…(Utusan) is trying to please its political owners.\u201d<\/p>\n

He claimed that the daily did not present a true picture of what transpired at the event and did not contacted Hindraf representatives for clarification either.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another coordinator, Jayathas said that photographs of the even available on HINDRAF website is enough to show what happened on that day. But I think, there must be independent evidence as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should go to our website and see the photos. These show very clearly that everything was done in a peaceful way. It is not our culture to create havoc in other people\u2019s house,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On suggestions in the Utusan report that Hindraf was being rude to the Malays and Islam, Jayathas said it was a non-issue because the movement merely used the opportunity to ask Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to repeal the Internal Security Act (ISA).<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can they say that we are racist? In what way? We are just asking for the ISA to be abolished,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hindraf’s legal advisor, lawyer Surendran said it was the police who acted unruly that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were intimidating and threatening to arrest people who came to participate in the \u2018open house\u2019. They (initially) prevented the Hindraf supporters from entering the venue.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne even asked P Waythamoothy\u2019s (Hindraf chairperson-in-exile) wife to remove her t-shirt (which carried a Hindraf logo),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Surendran said Hindraf has become the victim of a harsh campaign to incite hatred against the movement and Indian Malaysians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey creating something out of absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing violent happen during \u2018open house\u2019 (at) an open venue. Nothing wrong with that in a democracy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Home Ministry secretary-general Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof\u2019s suggestion that Hindraf be \u2018banned\u2019, Surendran said that the statement was \u201cabsurd\u201d and without justification.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Hindraf) is not a terrorist or armed movement. It is a mass movement of citizens calling for social improvement – not just for Indians, but all marginalised communities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Although Hindraf is not a registered body, Surendran argued that the movement exists by virtue of Article 10 of the Federal Constitution which guarantees the right to freedom of association.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After making police reports and voicing their plans to sue Utusan, Hindraf also vented their unhappiness over the paper’s continuing condemnation of HINDRAF, claiming that its politically motivated. I this is unavoidable because the paper is owned by a political party, so surely there will be an element of selective reporting. Utusan Malaysia today front-paged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[112,21,158],"class_list":["post-2440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-indian","tag-discrimination","tag-hindraf","tag-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2440\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poobalan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}