[Sreekar]

Malaysia hits back, tells India not to interfere
(source:www.hindustantimes.com)

Malaysia has told India not to meddle in its internal affairs after New Delhi expressed concerns over the treatment of ethnic Indians in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the government would deal with citizens according to its own laws and no other country should interfere, the Star newspaper reported on Saturday.

Last Sunday, more than 10,000 Malaysian Indians staged the community's biggest anti-government protest, sparked by anger over policies they say prevent them from getting decent jobs or a good education for their children.

Police used tear gas and water canons to disperse the protesters, many of them Tamils with their roots in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, sparking outrage and demands from Tamil politicians that New Delhi intervene.

"If they break any law, it is our right to deal with them in accordance with Malaysian laws," Syed Hamid was quoted as saying.

India said on Friday it was concerned about the treatment of ethnic
Indians in Malaysia and had taken up with Kuala Lumpur accusations that protesters from the community had been harassed.

"The government remains deeply solicitous for the welfare of people of Indian origin living abroad," Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told parliament.

"We have friendly relations with Malaysia and we are in touch with the Malaysian authorities in the related matter."

Multi-racial Malaysia has denied claims it mistreated ethnic Indians, saying that they were better off than those in India.
Ethnic Indians form 7 percent of Malaysia's 26 million people.

New Delhi's expression of solidarity came as the Hindu rights group behind Sunday's protest said its leader had left for India before heading to London, Geneva, Brussels and Washington to lobby for international support.

The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) said its chairman, P Waythamoorthy, left Malaysia on Wednesday "in the light of the crackdown and threats of detention without trial".

He is expected to meet Indian leaders including the foreign minister and chief minister of Tamil Nadu.

Separately, one private immigration agency in Malaysia said an unusually large number of Malaysian Indians had inquired about migrating to Australia after Sunday's protest.

"This week the phone has not stopped ringing," said Louis Lovestrand, director at Global Migration Solutions Sdn Bhd, a firm specialising in Australian migration and visas. "There's been an unusual rush."

-Thanks much,
Sreekar

[satish]

Just recently their own former Dep.PM said in India that it's not an internal issue of Malaysia and India has got the right to protest.I think Malaysia foreign ministry is making irresponsible statement and India must raise the voice.same thing happened few days back also when one of their minister accused Karunanidhi of meddling in the internal affair of Malaysia.

One thing is sure that Malaysia is not truely Asia.

[chanda_s]

can some one give a brief as to what lead to this protests? what is the discrimination being faced by indians?

[Sreekar]

Chanda Sir,
The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) which organised these protests calims that the 2 million malaysian indian population which compromise of 7% of total population of malaysia (27 million) are being discriminated in the field of:
1) Education (Tamil schools are in bad shape)
2) Jobs
3) Government contracts

On another note, there had been instances where Hindu Temples were demolished. The Hindraf claim, the malaysian government is presently planning to demolish some more temples in the near future.

Malaysian Indians also claim that the malaysian government is trying to do ethnic cleansing (Ethnic cleansing is like what happened in Bosnia when the Serbians killed and did everything to wipe out Bosnians from the country)

Hope the situation improves and Indians in malaysia get equal rights.

-Thanks much,
Sreekar

[Sreekar]

Ethnic Indians charged with murder in Malaysia
(source:IBNLive News | India News Homepage)

The raging controversy over the treatment of ethnic Indians in Malaysia refuses to subside. On Tuesday, 26 members of the community were charged with attempted murder of a policemen in a banned anti-discrimination rally on November 25, where more than 10,000 people staged the biggest anti-government protest.


The 26 defendants pleaded not guilty to four charges, including an attempt to kill a policeman during a clash at a temple compound in Batu Caves, just outside capital Kuala Lumpur.


"Other charges include causing mischief, rioting and illegal assembly," their lawyer M Manoharan told news agency Reuters.

If found guilty, the accused face a jail term of 20 years or life imprisonment for attempted murder.


Ravi Niko, another lawyer for the ethnic Indians, told CNN-IBN over the phone that the defence will raise "constitutional issues" against the ruling. "They have all been chanrged under Section 307 of the Penal Code. The defence will raise doubts against the charges. However, we do not know when the trial would start," he said.

Niko also told CNN-IBN how these men were arrested. "They were arrested yesterday and were taken to a remand home. Then, they were produced in court at 4:30 pm but were released when it was time for court to shut for the day. They were again produced again and were charged with murder," he said.


''It's very shocking,'' Manoharan told The Associated Press. ''This is a clear victimisation of the Indians by bringing forth a malicious prosecution that is race-based.''


All accused are aged between 19 and 46 and were remanded pending another court appearance on Wednesday. They were released on bail but police rearrested them at their homes before dawn on Tuesday in a surprise raid, Manoharan was quoted as saying.


The 10,000-strong rally was the largest protest involving Indians on the streets of Malaysia in at least a decade.


They were protesting the affirmative action policy of the Malaysian government and were also supporting a $4-trillion lawsuit filed in London in August by Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), a rights group demanding that Britain compensate Malaysian Indians for bringing their ancestors to the country as indentured laborers and exploiting them.


They say discrimination persists in Malaysia because of the policy favouring Malays, who form about 60 per cent of Malaysia's 27 million people. They also complain of religious discrimination, citing state authorities' demolition of several Hindu Temples in recent years.


More than two-thirds of ethnic Indians - the country's second-largest minority population after ethnic Chinese - who are mostly Hindus and constitute about eight percent of the population, live in poverty.


They also complain the government is becoming increasingly Islamic and is denying them their religious rights, citing the demolition of dozens of Hindu temples.

Ethnic Malays form about 60 percent and control the government. Chinese make up a quarter of the population and generally are much wealthier than Indians, most of whom earn low incomes and work in menial jobs.


The government denies that discrimination exists, and has accused the rally organisers of trying to create racial animosity. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has warned he might enforce a security law that allows indefinite detention without trial to prevent future demonstrations.


However Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail denied there was any racism involved and the policeman received stitches on his head after being attacked with bricks and iron pipes.


''This has nothing to do with race,'' he told the AP. ''We follow the law. It applies to everyone under the sun.''


The clashes also found an echo in India when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manomhan Singh, expressing deep concern at the treatment meted out to the ethnic Indian community.


Tamils constitute the largest percentage among the Indian minority in Malaysia Karunanidhi pointed out in the letter that the people of Tamil Nadu were disturbed over the Malaysian police using water cannons and tear-gas shells against the Indian demonstrators.


However, Malaysian authorities reacted sharply to Karunanidhi's appeal and asked him to “lay off.”


Malaysian Justice Minister Nazri Aziz asked Karunanidhi to mind his own business, saying the matter has got nothing to do with him.


"His place is in Tamil Nadu, not Malaysia. He should worry about his own state. His own state has got problems," news agency PTI quoted Nazri Aziz as saying.

-Thanks much,
Sreekar

[Sreekar]

Should India care for ethnic Indians in other countries?
(source:Latest News, India News, Latest India News, Breaking News From India – The Indian Express)

My first surprise discovery about Malaysia many years ago was that its national language Bahasa, a derivative of bhasha, is full of Sanskrit words. The second was a recent visit to a Hindu temple at the Batu caves, just 13 km out of Kuala Lumpur, which is indeed one of the wonders of the world. Dedicated to Lord Murugan (son of Shiva), it is located in a cavern atop a 400 million-year-old limestone mountain.
The exhaustion due to the 272-step climb was offset by the sight of marvellous carvings from Hindu mythology, depicting scenes from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the lives of revered Tamil poets. “You should come here at the time of the annual Thaipusam (puja of Murugan’s mother) festival,” my Tamil guide told me. “A million devotees gather here, many of them, like those in north India, coming on foot as kavadias, from far corners of Malaysia.”

Malaysia, as its fabulously successful tourism promotion campaign advertises, is in many ways ‘truly Asia’. Its 2.7 crore population has Malays (60 per cent), ethnic Chinese (24 per cent), ethnic Indians (10 per cent) and indigenous tribes (6 per cent). Like neighbouring Indonesia, Malaysia too has until now displayed remarkable tolerance of religious pluralism, which is rare for a Muslim-majority country. Sadly, a different and unflattering reality of Malaysia has come to light in recent years: how its government has been subjecting the People of Indian Origin (PIOs) in general, and Hindus in particular, to discrimination, injustice and persecution. Islam is Malaysia’s official religion. All Malays are, by the constitution, Muslim. The law bars their conversion out of Islam, but permits proselytisation of non-Muslims. There was the famous case in 2005 of M. Moorthy, an Everest climber who became a national hero. After death, he was buried according to Islamic rites. Reason: the Sharia court upheld the Muslim claim that Moorthy had converted to Islam just before his death, a contention that his widow stoutly refuted. The high court rejected her appeal, saying that since she was not Muslim, she could not testify in a matter pertaining to Islam.

On November 26, for the first time in Malaysia’s history, some 30,000 ethnic Indians held a protest rally in Kuala Lumpur, with posters of Mahatma Gandhi and banners that read, “We want equal right”. It faced a severe police crackdown. Last week, I met P. Waythamoorthy, chairman of the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF), which had organised the rally. Currently in India to mobilise support for the ‘forgotten’ and ‘persecuted’ Malaysian Hindu community, what he said was indeed worrisome.

“Thousands of Hindu Temples have been demolished in Malaysia in the last 50 years. Most of these were clan temples built more than 150 year ago by people from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala, who had been brought here by the British to work in rubber plantations. Hindus are stripped of their dignity and self-respect by this vindictive act. There has been a systematic campaign to Islamise the Malaysian state, which has alarmed not only the Hindus, but also Buddhists, Christians and Taoists,” he said.

Moorthy said: “A majority of ethnic Indians are pushed to the lowest rung of the economic-educational-employment ladder. We have the lowest per capita income, highest number of beggars and squatters, highest suicide rate, and lowest intake in government jobs and universities. Indians are treated as third-class citizens.”
Moorthy, however, was quick to add: “Hindus in Malaysia have always been loyal, law-abiding and peaceful citizens.” Three of his colleagues have been charged with sedition — “for speaking the truth” — and 31 others face murder charges, under a law that denies them bail.

The developments in Malaysia — the condition of Hindus in Bangladesh is far worse — pose an important question before India’s political and intellectual class: should India care for ethnic Indians in other countries? Or should our government simply sit quiet on the plea that this is an internal matter of a foreign country, in which it cannot interfere? Since the issue concerns primarily the Hindus, our ‘secularists’ will most likely advise the UPA government to ‘lay off’, which is exactly what Malaysian authorities have told our government leaders. The advice must not be heeded. India has a moral duty to act whenever ethnic Indians anywhere in the world suffer racial or religious persecution.
But will Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi speak out in this matter? And will leading representatives of the Muslim community in India condemn the ill treatment of Hindus in Malaysia? I believe that in matters like this one, Malaysia and the rest of the world must hear the enlightened voice of Indian Islam.

-Thanks much,
Sreekar

[Sreekar]

Hindraf appeals to India for help
(source:The Times of India: Breaking news, views, reviews, cricket from across India.)

Having "exhausted" all legal avenues and other channels against alleged marginalisation, Hindraf, spearheading the protests by ethnic Indians in Malaysia, has appealed to New Delhi to stop the "ethnic cleansing" in the Muslim-dominated nation.

Hindraf had exhausted all legal avenues and all channels. "So we are going international. Now I want to go to mother country (Indian) to ask for help, what else can we do, where else do we go," P Uttayakumar, a founder member of the Hindu Rights Action Front (Hindraf), said.

The lawyer-turned activist said ethnic Indians here were by and large "fear riddled, timid and scared", but the largest ever demonstration by the community last month showed that they wanted to be free from years of oppression and be heard.

"To me it is 50 years of marginalisation, suppression and oppression. It has been years of permanent colonisation of Indians in Malaysia. The floodgates just broke with the demonstration," Uttayakumar said.

Sitting behind a desk piled up with files and with the statuette of a blindfolded woman carrying scales of justice, Uttayakumar said the government was persecuting Hindraf for leading the protest. "That is why they are persecuting and prosecuting Hindraf supporters," the lawyer said as his phones continuously rang.

He defended his statement about "ethnic cleansing of Indians in Malaysia" which had sparked angry reaction from the ruling party saying the situation was worse than the one in Bosnia where members of a community were selectively killed.

"In ethnic cleansing 'a la Malaysia' it is worse because you are living and suffering," Uttayakumar said.

Uttayakumar alleged that Hindu Temples were relocated near sewerage tanks and Indians were not given opportunities or had no upward mobility.

A police crackdown on at least 10,000 people during the November 25 protest against the alleged marginalisation of ethnic Indians had sparked uproar with India summoning the Malaysian envoy.

Malaysian government has vehemently rejected allegations of discrimination against the community with Minister of Works Samy Velu, himself an ethnic-Indian, saying that the unemployed members were either "lazy or choosy. He also alleged that were lured by money to join the anti-government protest.

Uttayakumar, however, denied that the large turnout at the rally could have been prompted by people's hopes of getting a million US dollars each.

"The November 25 rally caught the government by shock. I believe they would take stock but to what extent we have to wait and see," the Hindraf founder said, adding "we are asking for a change in mindset. We want to meet the prime minister."

"We will close down Hindraf if anyone can show that we promised them millions of dollars," he said.

He said that his brother Wyathamoorthy had in his speeches across the country to ethnic Indians talked about the four trillion dollar demand but not promised any money.

Uttayakumar said the 31 Indians arrested on charges of attempted murder after the protest near Batu caves "did not make any sense."

"These people were all inside the temple praying and 500 policemen were outside. How could 31 people attempt to murder one policeman," he asked.

The protesters wanted to march to the British High Commission to hand over a memorandum. The memorandum blamed the British for bringing Indians to Malaya 200 years ago as indentured labourers and exploiting them.

"The memorandum asked the British Government to give the ethnic Indians in Malaysia British citizenship or give four trillion US dollars in compensation," Uttayakumar said. This amounts to almost one million dollars per Indian in this country.

He felt India could help ethnic Indians secure seats in Medical and IT institutions there and offer scholarships to Malaysian Indians for IT training.

He felt that if India offered a dual citizenship with a repatriation clause "many lower rung Malaysian Indians may want to go back and live with dignity there."

He added that he was proud to be a Malaysian Indian.

Uthayakumar, urged India to impose a trade embargo against Malaysia, saying pressure from "our mother country" is the best hope for local Indians who complain of being marginalized in this Muslim-majority country.

India is now an economic powerhouse, and Malaysia would be sensitive to New Delhi's "pressure, query and scrutiny," he said.

Uthayakumar said there are three ways India can pressure Malaysia: impose a trade embargo on Malaysia, cite Malaysia for crimes against ethnic Indians, and give Indian citizenship to Malaysian Indians.

The statistics are disputed by many private groups. Indians in India "may not be much better off but at least you live with some dignity," Uthayakumar said.

"I love Malaysia, but Malaysia does not want me. I want to be Malaysian but ... by way of their acts and their deeds, Malaysia does not want me."

-Thanks much,
Sreekar

[Sreekar]

US asks Malaysia to allow freedom of expression
(source:The Times of India: Breaking news, views, reviews, cricket from across India.)

The United States on Monday called on Malaysia to allow freedom of expression and assembly as the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi widened its crackdown on dissent.

"We have repeatedly raised with Malaysian authorities our belief that citizens of any country should be allowed to peacefully assemble and express their views," department spokeswoman Nancy Beck said.

"We also stated in our annual human rights report our belief that the Malaysian government places significant restrictions on the right to assemble peacefully," she said.

Police permits are required under Malaysia law for public assemblies, defined as a gathering of five or more persons, but the State Department's rights report says senior police officials and political leaders influenced decisions on granting or denying some permits.

It said "a more restrictive policy" was applied with government critics, opposition parties, and human rights activists.

Beck's remarks on Monday came after Kuala Lumpur widened a crackdown on dissent following two mass rallies last month, with three legal actions taken Monday that rights groups and opposition leaders condemned as anti-democratic.

Ahead of elections, dozens of Malaysian government critics have been rounded up and now face trial on counts including attempted murder and sedition.

Abdullah has threatened to invoke draconian internal security laws that allow detention without trial, citing past racial violence in the multicultural nation dominated by Muslim Malays as reason for restricting street protests.

"If the choice is between public safety and public freedom, I do not hesitate to say here that public safety will always win," he said in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

The United States often hails Malaysia as a moderate Muslim democracy but the image took a knock when a series of indiscriminate destruction of Hindu Temples were highlighted by some groups recently.

A US Congress-appointed commission expressed concern last week at the destruction of the temples and other alleged discrimination faced by religious minorities in Malaysia, one of Southeast Asia's more developed economies.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom also urged the administration of President George W Bush to raise the matter with Kuala Lumpur and "insist that immediate measures be taken to protect sacred sites and prevent further destruction."

The government, which cracked down on two mass rallies last month, took three separate legal actions Monday that rights groups and opposition leaders condemned as anti-democratic.

Among them was a revival of sedition charges against three leaders of ethnic Indian rights group Hindraf, which organised a November anti-discrimination protest that drew 8,000 people. The court had earlier allowed them to walk free on the charges, which carry a penalty of three years in jail.

Lawyers and their supporters were also charged in connection with a human rights march that they mounted in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday which was broken up by police.

Another prominent lawyer, Edmund Bon, was also charged with obstructing a city official who tried to remove protest banners from Malaysia's Bar Council building.

Twelve opposition figures were rounded up over the weekend in connection with an electoral reform rally last month which drew nearly 30,000 people who police dispersed with tear gas and water cannons.

-Thanks much,
Sreekar

[lalitha]

Malysia was never a very good friend of India, always having supported Pakistan over India in many international Islamic fora. it is only now that Malaysia is realising the huge economic giant in India. But old habits die hard. Surprising that it is the same Malaysia that has always expressed its concerns on Kashmir.

Satish, I liked your remark.

Originally Posted by satish

Just
One thing is sure that Malaysia is not truely Asia.

[Sreekar]

Malaysia drops attempted murder charges against 31 Indians
(Source:Hindustan Times: Latest Breaking News from India, Cricket, Bollywood, World, Business, Videos)

Malaysian prosecutors on Monday dropped attempted murder charges against 31 ethnic Indians who took part in a massive anti-government demonstration, a step that might assuage the feelings of the community protesting their alleged marginalisation in the Muslim-majority country.

Amid cheers and applause from relatives and friends of the detainees, Attorney-General Gani Patail also dropped all charges against five students who were part of the group of 31 activists of the non-governmental organisation Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), arrested last month.

The charges of causing mischief and illegal assembly remain against 26 of the protesters, all of whom pleaded guilty at the Klang Sessions Court this morning.

All 26 were freed on bail, and will go on trial on December 27.
The so-called 'Hindraf 31' were slapped with the attempted murder charge, punishable by 20 years in jail, for allegedly injuring a policeman during the rally outside Batu Caves, which houses the temple of Lord Murugan.

Hindraf had given the call for the rally, declared as "illegal" by the government, which saw over 20,000 ethnic Indians assemble in front of the iconic Petronas twin towers and outside the Batu Caves on November 25 to protest alleged marginalisation of the community in the multi-racial country.

"I could be very strict but I don't think this is the time to be that strict," Gani Patail said adding that freeing them would be the "best course of action" in the public and national interest.

-Thanks much,
Sreekar