Sorry state of Malaysian affairs
The Malaysian government has apologised to the Hindus over the premature demolition of a temple, which had contributed to the massive outcry, street demonstrations and government crackdown last year.
"The demolition should not have been carried out a week before Deepavali. The relevant authorities could have postponed it one or two months. This was wrong on their part. We are sorry for that," Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was cited as saying by The Straits Times earlier this week.
He also pledged to ensure the orderly relocation of temples built on private property.
Apart from anger over the destruction of Hindu temples in Malaysia, the Hindu Rights Action Force or Hindraf had organised street protest to make a ridiculous claim of US$4 trillion for the suffering of Indians, whose ancestors were taken to Malaysia by the British as indentured labourers 150 years ago.
Hindraf had also filed a ridicuous petition, claiming 'ethnic cleansing' in Malaysia.
Has Hindraf apologised to the government and Malaysians over the ridiculous monetary claim and petition charging 'ethnic cleansing' following the Malaysian leader's apology this week?
Please ignore this posting if Hindraf has said sorry.
"The demolition should not have been carried out a week before Deepavali. The relevant authorities could have postponed it one or two months. This was wrong on their part. We are sorry for that," Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak was cited as saying by The Straits Times earlier this week.
He also pledged to ensure the orderly relocation of temples built on private property.
Apart from anger over the destruction of Hindu temples in Malaysia, the Hindu Rights Action Force or Hindraf had organised street protest to make a ridiculous claim of US$4 trillion for the suffering of Indians, whose ancestors were taken to Malaysia by the British as indentured labourers 150 years ago.
Hindraf had also filed a ridicuous petition, claiming 'ethnic cleansing' in Malaysia.
Has Hindraf apologised to the government and Malaysians over the ridiculous monetary claim and petition charging 'ethnic cleansing' following the Malaysian leader's apology this week?
Please ignore this posting if Hindraf has said sorry.
9 comments:
The Hindraf are not telling the whole truth !.
Let it be known that the malaysian government is only trying to demolish temples that are built illegally on land designated for other utilization. And even then the govt is not simply destroying illegal temples..they are kind enough to offer assistance to relocate to newer sites so that these temples are legalized. Granted that these newer sites are sometimes a bit inconvinient to acccess, but this does not give Hindraf the right to accuse the govt of destroying temples and performing ethnic cleansing. These are baseless accussation !
And I can't believe the govt is actually apologizing when they should be applauded for upholding the law. A case of election tactics perhaps ?
Anon 5.12
you got to be the most or one of the most gullible person or a just a sucker!
Indentured Indian labours existed for a period of time in the 1700s, but by the 1800s the Kangani system was introduced where a "Kangani" or "mandor" would recruit willing labourers from his village, assemble them at a staging area in Tamil Nadu or Kerala before being shipped to Malaya to work as labourers in mainly plantations. Under the Kangani system, funds were also set up to help willing labourers finance cost of travel to British Malaya.The funds were also to help the labourers settle down in Malaya and later on at the end of their stay, to return home to teir villages in India. Perhaps the compensation asked by Hindraf is for labourers before the existence of the Kangani system. There will be a had time proving if the indians in Malaysia now are descendants of the indentured albourers or labourers seeking greener pastures brought in under the Kangani system following economic depression in India.
Indians are too weak politically to affect any meaningfull change in Malaysia. Infact even if the BN wishes, it can throw out the MIC and the other Indian based parties and still comfortably win elections !. UMNO just needs MCA and the Gerakan to maintain two thirds majority in parliament.
Common sense says that the Indians should just be happy with what the govt is dishing out to them (like the recent Thaipusam holiday for KL [which is just a meaningless gesture] & the RM20 million funds for Tamil schools[this is definitively substantial]). I think this is more than what the Indians can reasonably expect from the current govt. In short the Indians need the BN more rather the other way around.
I will try to educate you because I think you only read from the Malaysian media, which is all owned by BN politicians. So if you only read news from them, i can understand why you all have been misinformed. let me address the illegal land issue. illegal land you say? please tell me how it became illegal? it was built in british estate lands. Now when malaysia gained independence, the goverment acquired the land. And since they dont want temples there today, they say it was built on illegal land, unfortunately it was legal during british times. So its not as simple as saying they BUILT it on legal land. They built it on legal British land first. Today its their land and they dont want it there. And they say we built it on illegal land. And you guys beleive it. Secondly, Sophie everyone one in malaysia knows the way indians are butchered by the goverment, you need to ask malaysia kini how many indians have died in police custody and they will give you accurate statistics, we make 8% of the population and we form 60% in jail. We are shot more by police during raids than any other race, we are more routinely found dead in jail than any other race. Thirdly, you need to calm down. If you are getting all touchy and start scrutinising Hindraf, then just divert your keen attention on to UMNO and you will find so many more atroctities they commit and have directed to indians. Where were you when Hishamuddin pulled out the Keris and threatened the DAP in front of all present in Parliament? Where were you when Najib swore to bathe his Keris in Chinese blood? Where were you when Kampung Medan took place? Where were you when Batu Buruk took place? probably reading the Malaysian Star papers and NST and believing their propaganda. Dont fall into that trap, read independant news, didnt u see Al jazeera? didnt u see how a peaceful our assembly was attacked by the police and FRU? why cant we get a permit? Why can Khairy Jamluddin demonstrate without a permit twice? And why can he storm into a free trade union meeting without being arrested thereafter by police? Where Sophie were you during these times? reading the Malaysian star and NST again? And today you ask why Hindraf made a ridiculous claim of 3 million. If you know its ridiculous then why do u think we support it? you think all Indians are idiots, and we cant it like you have? you think we are unable to think like you have, that it IS REALLY RIDICULOUS? let me maybe point out somthing that might have slipped your intelligent mind, could it be that maybe Sophie.....maybe we really dont care what the lawsuit was about? could it be we just wanted to highlight our plight and unite the indians by educating all of us about the atrocities that we are undergoing? could it be sophie that the lawsuit was infact a front, an excuse to gather the indians and show the goverment that the whole community is not happy with the current goverment? could it be maybe Sophie that the lawsuit was just an excuse and we dont care if the lawsuit was filled for a penny or a billion? Could it be that no indian even has asked Hindraf what has happened to that case, because we dont care? But you do Sophie, you raise this 3 trillion issue like you think we care, because you have taken it literally, you have forgoteen about symbolisms and hidden agendas. I just beg you to find out more about what happens in Malaysia before making comments on us, and please, dont read the Malaysian mainstream media, at least try to read malaysia kini, they are a neutral body. Good luck.
anonymous above me, I understand your reasoning and sympathise with the plight of the Indians. But you must understand that the way the Hindraf are going about is not the right way to voice out Indian issues. The Indians have geniune greviances such as lack of educational oppurtunites, proper jobs etc, etc but even you must accept there is NO ethinic cleansing taking place here.
Even the 60 % of inmates you mention in malaysian jails are Indians is most probably b'cos these youths have little else to do apart from being trouble makers. This I admit is the govt's fault and more specifically the Indian leadership (MIC)'s fault for not looking after the interests of Indian community. As I see it, Hindraf is just using the Temples to sensationalize things and probably gain political mileage as well.
Accusations of ethinic cleansing and genocide is Dangerous my friend -- read about the Cambodian, Nazi-Germany or more recently the Yugoslavian incidents on what is ethinic cleansing.
dangerman, please accept graciously the only sorry I will offer you. We are not being ethnically cleansed.
Now that I've said this sorry, please tell me a better word i can use to best represent the way we are being slowly and systematically removed in our country. We are killed through these ways: -
1) In jail when we are arrested
2) In encounters with the police when they conduct raids
3) Through the highest suicide rates depsite being an 8% minority (due to our desperate conditions, it is a known fact in medicine, that poverty results in more cases of depression and consequent suicide)
4) when riots in a kamoung with indian deaths still have not been investigated and the case closed with no arrest or court case.
Dear dangerman, what word shall I use for these killings of my ethnic community in Malaysia? Please advice. Sure as hell it aint ethnic cleansing, so what is it?
"But you must understand that the way the Hindraf are going about is not the right way to voice out Indian issue".
I disagree with you completely on this note. I dont see anything worng by demonstrating. They deomnstrate in london every weekend in trfalger square for various issues. In America, there are people demonstrating everyday in front of the white house. in the hospital I work in, evangelical church groups demonstrtate almost every month for abortions. I am not even a citizen of the UK and they gave our group a permit to demonstrate in front of British parliament. In India people demonstrate all the time for the simplest issues, and let me remind you, that all these countries are super powers today not because they tried to quell all their demonstrations. Demonstrations never did any harm to a country, most of the time in fact they were aprt of important revolutions. Let me also remind you that UMNO demonstrated against the Malayan Union 50 years ago, have they forgotten how their history? so why are thye being hypocrites? let your citizens demonstrate, give them a permit and make the FRU protect them, not attack them, have UMNO never been to a country and seen all the peaceful demonstrations that happen around the world?
about sensationalising the issue, i dont care if they do or dont, and so what if they want to get political mileage, and glad if they do, in fact i want them to. They're representing me more than my goverment is. So yeah I'll vote Hindraf if they were a party any day. And so will the rest of the indian community in Malaysia. We really have nothing to loose anymore.
And stop picking on these issues and start focussing on the real issue. That way we'll solve everyones problems, give us equality.
Anonymous, I am very glad that you see that it is not ethnic cleansing. The correct word to use is Racism. Yes thats it...Racism. Race politics have out-lived their useful shelf life here...maybe in the first 30 years of this nation's history it was valid...but definitevely not now in this enlightened age.
But sadly, all the major kingmakers in the local political scene are racist by nature from UMNO (which contains too many racist bigots who mostly do no good for the nation) to the others such as MCA, MIC, PPP (all creating a UMNO like atmosphere simply to be like them)....all are aligned in racist lines. This must change. (Sadly Hindraf is not helping in this...)
We must accept the fact that we are living in a country with a muslim majority population and this must be recognized. So certain norms and culture will come from this religion. But we must also realize that Islam itself does'nt differentiate along race lines....and this fact must be realized in UMNO for meaningful change to take place.
UMNO (and its blind allies) sadly have created, whether knowingly or unknowingly, an apartheid system (much like South Africa before the 1990s). Change can take place only when it comes from the inside. Of course external pressure can help (like how the Europeans / Americans pressured the white racist govt of South Africa to give up power)...but ulimately the change must come from within through self realization and reflection....
good, then the mere fact that you are talking about the discrimination and that it has come to the forefront of national politics in Malaysia means credit should go to HINDRAF for raising the issue. Now the goverment can undergo their 'self realisation and 'reflection' and the Malays can be good muslims by providing equal oppurtunities to every citizen. If HIndraf wasnt there, then our most understanding and fair malays would not have even thought about how they are treating us Indians and other citizens in malaysia. I dont understand how they can even vote for such a policy and sleep at night.
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