The recent demand of Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) leader P. Uthayakumar to meet the Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, after the foiled 25 November 2007 planned demonstration to present a petition against the British, through their High Commission in Kuala Lumpur, received so many adverse responses and reactions.
The attempt was seen as a gross and indecent blatant lie with malice and an attempt to discredit Malaysia in the international arena, which include the call for the suspension, if not sacking from membership of Commonwealth, at the recent concluded CHOGM meeting in Uganda, Africa.
Some politicians in India already reacted to HINDRAF’s call. This, was responded by Foreign Minister Dato’ Seri Syed Hamid Al Bar’s in a statement:
December 03, 2007 15:30 PM
| Don’t Interfere In Our Affairs – Syed Hamid |
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KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 3 (Bernama) — Malaysia has every right to handle its own internal issues as it sees fit and other nations should respect the sovereignty of the country, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said Monday.
He said that regardless of ethnic origin, Malaysians have been Malaysians for the past 50 years.
Thus, they are subjected to Malaysian laws and legislation, he told reporters today when asked about concerns raised by India regarding the treatment of Malaysian Indians following an illegal rally organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) last month.
“This is Malaysia. We’ll deal with our problems and issues according to our laws. Other countries should be mindful of our rights,” said Syed Hamid.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had said that Hindraf was spreading blatant lies with the intention of arousing hatred among multiracial Malaysians.
— BERNAMA |
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The P. Uthayakumar’s demand to meet the Prime Minister Abdullah was responded by Minister of Information Dato’ Zainuddin “Zam” Maidin, deemed another ‘circus attempt’:
December 03, 2007 20:20 PM
| Hindraf Unqualified To Meet With PM, Says Zainuddin |
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LANGKAWI, Dec 3 (Bernama) — The group calling itself the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) is unqualified to meet with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to discuss the problems of the Indian community because the organisation is not recognised by anyone, Information Minister Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin said today.
“It would be unbefitting a prime minister to meet with a discredited organisation which had stooped to the level of street thugs and violated the laws of the country,” he told reporters after a visit to the media centre at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) 2007 exhibition, here.
He also said that it would be inappropriate for the prime minister to meet with a group which had sparked off chaos and resorted to violence to threaten the government.
Zainuddin said any effort to meet with the country’s leaders to express any dissatisfaction should have been made before Hindraf acted to organise the illegal rally and not after.
Thousands of Hindraf sympathisers joined an illegal rally on Nov 25 in Kuala Lumpur to support what they claimed was 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 then Malaya in the 1800s and exploiting them.
Hindraf is seeking a four trillion pound sterling (RM27.7 trillion) compensation through the suit filed in London claiming that the British were to blame for the alleged marginalisation of the Indians in Malaysia.
Zainuddin said Malaysia had representatives and leaders from various communities, and the government recognised the MIC as the political party championing the cause of the Indian community in the country.
He said the Indian community, via the MIC since the era of Tun V.T. Sambanthan, had collaborated to gain independence for the country and that the community should accord respect for the MIC as well as Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu who was its current leader.
Zainuddin said the Indians had achieved much progress compared with the time before independence when they came to the country as plantation workers, adding that many of them were now professionals — including even those who supported Hindraf.
“We also regret the action of certain quarters who have taken advantage of the situation to allege that the president of India and the chief minister of Tamil Nadu supported the Hindraf action,” he said.
A Hindraf leader, P.Uthayakumar, had told Bernama yesterday that the organisation wanted to have a meeting with the prime minister to raise the problems confronting the Indian community in the country.
Last Friday, Abdullah described as harsh a claim by Hindraf that the government was involved in ethnic cleansing of Indians in the country.
— BERNAMA |
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This was a blogreader Dzulman’s comment, in an article earlier published in this blog, on the subject matter:
HINDRAF is indeed a big hindrance. After 50 yrs of independence and after so much advancement and clear improvement in the general livelihood of the Malaysian Indians, suddenly HINDRAF surfaced screaming that the Hindus were facing ethnic cleansing and so-called mini genocide. Ethnic cleansing and genocide whether mini or maxi could only happen if there were bloody wars, civil wars, in a country and when that happens the whole world will know and take notice. Has there been any civil war in Malaysia?
The affluence achieved by the Indian or Hindu community in Malaysia is something that can be clearly seen everywhere. There have been more cases of Malaysian Indians buying over property especially shop houses from the Chinese. Something the Malays rarely could do.
Could a community or racial group allegedly been marginalised, suppressed or whatever could ever achieve such affluence?
As statistics show there are more professionals from the Indian or Hindu communities although as a whole this racial group is in the minority.
Religious freedom is very apparent everywhere. Where on earth in a non Hindu country one finds a Hindu temple smack within a super mall. Also how could the biggest statue of a Hindu God could be allowed to be erected in Batu Cave, KL if as alleged that there is religious repression. Hindu shrines and temples can be found and seen practically everywhere, at road junctions, within housing estates and by the road sides where often construction of roads have to detour or diverted to avoid demolishing a temple that happens to be in the way. I bet one cannot find such temples of shrines built at the whims and fancies of the devotees in clean Singapore.
Yes there were temples that were demolished by the authorities and so also were some mosques and suraus and such demolitions were NOT religiously motivated but simply as part of enforcing the law. There erected in contravention of the local laws. HINDRAF never quoted the figures, dates and places the temples or shrines were demolished.
These tall stories by HINDRAF are dangerous, provocative, without substance, manipulative and basically they have ignored the simple rudiments of history especially that understanding and give and take which the founding fathers agreed upon prior to the establishment of Independent Malaya. Can the HINDRAF leaders openly say what have their forefathers surrendered as part of the give and take understanding as compared to the Malays who have to shed away that portion of their rights enshrined in the Malay states.
Are the Indians or Hindus not represented in the Government or don’t they have avenues that they should have gone through to vent whatever displeasure thay have against the Government and why was the need to seek the help and at the same time wash dirty linen in the international public?
They have no love for Malaysia. If they are citizens the should have exercised their rights as citizens first employing all avenues via their political or legal representatives. To seek the intervention of a foreign head of state on something that has been concocted is simply unpatriotic, treacherous and their contents are seditious.
In Tamil Nadu the mass media are hopping mad with the alleged ill treatment of ethnic Hindus by the so-called Muslim Govt. The MIC President in a statement over RTM supported the statement made by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu by saying that he was such a nice man and had not meant anything adverse. Some Indian business it seems did ask Dato’ Seri Rafidah Aziz who was in Mumbai lately whether it was safe for Indians to do business in Malaysia. A most uncalled for remark.
The remarks and reactions are influenced by irrational emotions as Malaysia/India relationship is not something new and whatever that have been alleged could have been checked via both High Commissions.
What HINDRAF has been doing is also to tell the world that the MIC has miserably failed to help the Indians except to those around the MIC President. So it is incumbent upon the MIC to save themselves and the Nation unless of course what HINDRAF is doing is part and parcel of MIC’s other plans.
The PM SHOULD NOT MEET WITH THE HINDRAF leaders. Let the issue be tackled by the professionals as there could be legal actions from both sides. A properly organized psy-war psy-ops be launched both within and without the country. There are facts abound that can clearly call all those allegations by HINDRAF as pure bull-shit and those foreign groups are being pulled by their noses by the HINDRAF leaders.
The Govt must be correctly aggressive and Ministers must know what they are talking about. Sometimes the rhetoric by group of people like the HINDRAF should evoke such strong responses or reactions instead the Govt should clearly and in plain language set out for everyone to see the proof that everyone has a fair share in Malaysia.
The Malays who often been alleged to have a bigger chunk of the cake is because they have surrendered more of their portion in order to allow others in and be around. The nation Malaya was not created but established from among the MALAY STATES that already existed prior to the arrival of the British administrators. This special historical factor which non-Malays (even so-called liberal Malays) want to ignore and which HINDRAF are basing their demand for equal treatment.
The continued existence of the Sultanates and even the special customary laws in Sabah and Sarawak make this nation now known as Malaysia special and different. The world does not know. It is therefore the bounded duty of the Foreign Office to launch a more rounded rebuttal and retaliatory actions to put the picture right.
Indians are known to be argumentative and emotional especially on matters affecting their ethnic group. They do not like to be told they they are being made a fool by those from the lower caste. Herein lies the weak area of which those responsible for the psy-war and psy-ops should endeavour to exploit in their efforts present the correct picture in India and eslewhere where HINDRAF are trying to propagate their cause.
According to the Star, it was the HINDRAF protesters who violated a Hindu place of worship in Batu Caves. When the Police moved into the protesters, it was put forth as invasion into the holiness place of worship.
This circus attempt by HINDRAF leaders have gone far too much. Defaming Malaysia in the international arena with a formal request to a foreign nation and adducing them to get involved with domestic political scenario should be deemed as treacherous. The HINDRAF’s blatant lies could provoke fury and severe reaction/retaliation by the Malay-Muslim majority, thus create gross inter-racial and inter-faith digression, instability and disparity to a supposedly much valued harmony and understanding, amongst the rakyat. That, should be regarded as a “threat to national security”, ‘clear and present danger’.
According to his interview with a Singaporean daily, he was quoted as saying “I can’t rule out violence”. Translated, that means “We are looking for trouble”. ‘Troublemakers’ + Foreign Intervention = ?
In short, this was a strategic “coup d’etat“.
On another note, HINDRAF’s effort to distablise and disrupt unity, with malice, on to defame Malaysia in the international arena received support of another ‘troublemaker’, Anwar Ibrahim, who attempted the same methods, in gaining power through similar ‘coup d’etat’ for his own self interests, not too long ago. Typically master opportunists Anwar Ibrahim, who will easily discredit Malaysia for his own narrow and struggling political mileage whilst abroad.
Their attempts to mock the legal process and law, which include violating a ‘rare’ court order obtained by the Police to refrain the intended illegal assembly on 25 November 2007, clearly depicts their total disregard and disrespect for order and establishments.
Maybe taking the leaders, participants and supporters of HINDRAF through the lengthy and costly legal process is not the best solution to handle this, especially for planned ‘troublemakers’. With their ability to lie for narrow and self serving political agenda, disregard for law and order and militant attitude, HINDRAF is no different from the Al Mau’nah, Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (KMM) and Communist Terrorists. The Government should resolve to other processes and means, to protect the interests of the majority and the well being of the nation at large. All of us should move forward without the ‘disruptions’ of people ‘who simply mock “the system” by throwing spanner to the works’.
*Graphics are uploaded from Rocky’s Bru.
