Malaysian Indian Minority and Human Rights Violations Annual Report 2008 - HINDRAF

Malaysian Indian Minority and Human Rights Violations Annual Report 2008
Dedicated to, the three British trained and one Malaysia trained, Indian Malaysian lawyers imprisoned without trial indefinitely at Malaysia’s own “Guantanamo Bay” under the Malaysian draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) for championing the Indian Minority and Human Rights cause.



Executive Summary


Introduction

Overseas Indians worldwide have been granted equal opportunities and leading prosperous life except in Malaysia. This is because the Malaysian government practices and implements very serious institutional Malay Muslim religious extremist and supremacist plans, policies and practices to the extend of reducing and segregating many Indians into literally becoming slaves. Even the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) President and immediate past Cabinet Minister of 29 years standing, Dato’ Seri S. Samy Vellu has conceded as late as March 2008 that the Indians in Seberang Kuari (Penang) are living in worst conditions than in Africa. The Indians in Malaysia are openly discriminated not by the Malay Muslim people of Malaysia but the UMNO (United Malay National Organization) controlled government of Malaysia in direct contravention of Article 8 of the Federal Constitution which prohibits discrimination and upholds equality. In short the Indians are excluded from the national mainstream development of Malaysia in almost every aspect of live on a day to day basis.

But Malaysia’s UMNO controlled government has successfully over the last 51 years since independence camouflaged this reality very well by projecting, highlighting and showcasing the cream of the Malaysian Indian as being successful and prosperous. But this cream only represents a mere 1% of the 2 million Indian populations in Malaysia. About 70% of the Malaysian Indians are left to rot in the hardcore poor and poor category. For raising these very serious Indian minority and human rights violations four Malaysian Indian Lawyers
(P. Uthayakumar, M. Manoharan, R. Kengatharan & V. Ganapathi Rao) have been arrested and are currently detained without trial for 2 years, from 13th Dec 2007 and continuing indefinitely thereafter at Malaysia’s very own “Guantanamo Bay” (the Kemunting Detention Centre)

Some of Malaysia’s atrocities against its own mere 8% minority Indians in 2008 are as follows:

1. Even as this paper is being finalized on the last day of the year 2008 the Malaysian Police in their Police lock up were alleged to have poured hot water on an Indian youth’s body. When he screamed in pain, a piece of cloth was stuffed into his mouth by the Police and was stepped on with their boots. On a rare occasion NT 7 (A local TV Station) splashed his gory burned marks because, a rare breed Member of Parliament for Kapar, Mr. S. Manickavasagam (present at this conference) dared to take on the UMNO State by exposing this police brutality. But in Malaysia, when the victim is an Indian, hardly anything happens. Not only for this atrocity but almost all and every atrocity as listed herein below, this continues to this day. The Indians suffer in silence. Even the Opposition Parties, NGOs and civil society almost always choose to remain silent because the victims are, “merely Indians”. The police and all the authorities have almost always never been punished even for worst atrocities than this.

2. Indian slavery, including sex and child slavery, in Malaysia is rampant even
after 51 years of independence.

3.150,000 Malaysians Indians (third, fourth and fifth generation Indians) are
made Stateless by denying them Birth Certificates.

4. Kampong Medan “Ethnic Cleansing” of Indians (2001) – 5 Indians killed and a hundred over suffered grevious bodily injuries.

5. One Hindu Temple is demolished in every week nation wide in Malaysia.

6. Six Indians were shot dead by the police in one single day.

7. One Indian lady (8 months pregnant) was shot dead in her home (1988)

8. 90% of Malaysian victims shot dead by the police are Indians.

9. 90% of the deaths in police and prison custody victims are Indians.

10. 80% of victims of police harassment, unlawful arrests, flimsy and malicious prosecutions, inmates of police lock ups and prisons are Indians, (Note: 90%
in Item No. 8, 90% in Item No. 9 and more than 80 % in Item No. 10 are
Indians despite being a mere 8 % of the total population).

11. Six Indians commit suicide in one day. The suicide rate among the Indians is
600 % higher than the Malay Muslim community largely because of denial of
equality and equal upward mobility opportunities.

12. RM 207.9 billion (USD 54 billion) budget for 2009 and RM 230 billion (USD
60 billion) budget in 2008 for the Mid Term Review of the Ninth Malaysia
Plan but zero allocation for the hard core poor and poor Indians.

13. Indians today earn as low as RM13.00 (USD 3.50) per day as plantation
Workers.

14. 60% of urban squatters and 41% of beggars are Indians.

15. 70% of the 2 million Indians are hardcore poor or poor.

16. Penang Indian squatter families cannot afford to buy milk for their babies and stopped children from attending schools because of poverty.

17. One Indian young mother could not be cremated until after 3 days because of poverty.
18. RM80 billion (USD 21 billion) government guaranteed PNB (Permodalan
Nasional Berhad) shares benefitting almost 9 million poor Malay Muslim
share holders but the almost 2 million poor Indians are excluded.

19. 99% of deserving Indian students is denied the 847,485 public university places. Indians excluded completely from the 120,000 university (UITM)
Places which have a campus in every state.

20. Only one overseas government PSD (Public Service Department)
Scholarship awarded to do medicine for the deserving 2 million Indians.

21. Remawathy, the sixth best student in Malaysia who scored 13 A1s in SPM
(O Level) was denied a government PSD scholarship.

22. Only one medical seat is made available at the University of Malaya against a 2 million Indian population in Malaysia (2004)
23. Foreign medical college Degrees from Ukraine, Russia, Romania, India and Indonesia with almost all Malaysian Indian private students suddenly were derecognized by the Malaysian government.

24. Government PTPTN study loans and scholarships denied to Indians studying medicine, law, engineering etc in overseas.

25. Even in the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) sponsored AIMST University
and TAFE College, government PTPTN loans and scholarships are denied to the Indians.

26. Government PTPTN loans and scholarships denied to almost all the Indian
students studying at the scores of private universities and institutions of
higher education.
27. A very negligent number of Indian students offered full residential schools,
such as the MRSM junior science colleges and scores of other elite schools.

28. 371 Tamil primary schools with about 100, 000 Indian children denied full government financial assistance.

29. Almost all the above Tamil schools are all in cowshed like pre war structures.

30. Indians are even largely excluded from the KEMAS and PERMATA, government run kindergardens.

31. 99.9% of deserving Indians denied agricultural land schemes for the
hardcore poor and poor in the semi government run FELDA, FELCRA,
RISDA, FAMA, ]Agropolitan in the 13 State Government Land Schemes.

32. Indians in the civil service today have been reduced to 1% from about 50%
in 1960s.

33. 99% of the deserving Indians denied licenses, permits, government contracts
and project business loans and opportunities.

34. 99.9% of the hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs created and to be
created by the Entrepreneur Ministry, Rural Development Ministry,
Agriculture and Agro Based Industry Ministry, MARA, SME Bank, Agro Bank,
etc. with hundreds of billions of government funds denied to the Indians.

35. RM 2.5 Billion AIM loans were given to 190, 900 poor households earning below RM2000 per month. But the Malaysian Indian Business Association
President, Mr. P. Sivakumar was reported to have said that the
government’s AIM did not provide micro credit loans to all the 200 Indians it
had recommended.

36. “Scrap metal businesses destroyed by ex Chief Minister the Selangor State, Khir Toyo (of UMNO)”, says Indian Scrap Metals Association Secretary, Mr. Param, a total number of 1118 (almost all Indians) scrap metal business licenses were cancelled in the last three years.

37. Hundreds of thousands of poor Indian squatter colonies demolished with no
or very little alternative homes.

38. Thousands of police reports have been lodged on the foresaid UMNO
controlled Malaysian Government’s atrocities but almost zero action has
been taken.

39. All our scores of Public Interest, Litigations and Suits concerning the most
serious of the foresaid issues have been dismissed by the Malaysian High
Courts or have not seen justices being done. The most senior of the 48
Malaysian High Court Judges who resigned with effect from 1/12/08 were
sent to “Booth Camps” with selected Judges and Judicial Officers to
indoctrinate those attending to hold the view that the UMNO Government’s
interest was “ more important than all else when we are considering our
Judgments”.

40. Hindraf’s 18 Point Demands dated 12/08/07 to the Prime Minister for equality
and equal upward mobility, be included and not excluded and segregated
from the national main stream development of Malaysia had been
completely ignored and rejected.

41. There is a 2 Million Indian population in Malaysia but zero Indian majority Parliament and State seats. The current Indian majority seats have been
jerry mandered.


42. 100,000 unprecedented Hindraf People Power Peaceful Assembly that was
held on 25/11/07 was cruelly crushed, 241 arrested and maliciously
prosecuted including for attempted murder of a policeman, a charge which is
an impossible charge in law where bail was denied.

43. All the above atrocities are just the tip of the iceberg.


Conclusion

Malaysia has not only very successfully projected to the world its world tallest Twin Towers but also has very successfully suppressed the aforesaid atrocities against the Indians over the last 51 years. These atrocities are backed by researched news reports and publications as per my (full) paper which is also presented and distributed herein at this conference.


Thank you


P.Wathaymoorthy
Chairman
HINDRAF

All Malaysians have special rights

All Malaysians have special rights"Therefore, the rakyat must unite and never raise issues regarding Malay rights and special privileges because it is a quid pro quo in gratitude for the giving in of citizenship (beri-paksa kerakyatan) to 2.7 million non-Malays into the Tanah Melayu federation....Thus, it is not appropriate for these other ethnic groups to have citizenship, only (later) to seek equality and privileges," said Tengku Faris, who read from a 11-page prepared text.

As a Malaysian who believes in a social contract based on the notion that ‘all Malaysians are created equal’, I do not understand the ‘royal statement’.

If it comes from the Biro Tatanegara (BTN), I can understand the confusion. But this is from a royal house.

This statement was valid 50 years ago, before Independence. This is an outdated statement that is not appreciated by the children of those who have laboured for this nation.

I believe we should look forward to institutionalising ‘special rights for all Malaysians’. The word ‘special’ is in itself special. Culturally it can either denote an enabling condition or a disabling one.

In the study of religion, one is bestowed a special place for living life well or for doing good deeds. In educational studies, ‘special education’ caters for the needs of those with a disabling physical, emotional or cognitive condition.

In all these, ‘special rights’ are accorded based on merit. One works hard to get special offers and into special places.

In the doctrine of the ‘divine rights of kings’, one's special right is the birthright. Louis XVI of revolutionary France, Shah Jehan of Taj Mahal fame, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, Shah Reza Pahlavi of Revolutionary Iran, King Bumiphol Adulyadev, and the sultans of Melaka were ‘special people’ who designed institutions that installed individuals based on rights sanctioned through a ‘mandate of heaven’.

Such people use specialised language to differentiate who is special and who is not. Court language is archaic, terse, meant to instill fear and to institutionalise special-ness.

The language of the street or market is fluid, accommodating, meant to instill open-ness and institutionalise creativity at its best and further development of the ‘underclass’ at its worst.

This continuum of language, power, and ideology is characteristic of histories of nations. In Malay history, istana language is enshrined in the hikayat and in Tun Seri Lanang's Sejarah Melayu. Street language used in Malay folklore and in bawdy poems, pantun and stories of Sang Kancil.

Class consciousness, many a sociologist would say, dictates the special-ness of people across time and space. Historical-materialism necessitates the development of the specialised use and abuse of language. One can do a lot of things with words. Words can be deployed to create a sustainable and profitable master-slave relationship.

A better argument
Let us elevate the argument so that we will have a better view of what race, ethnicity, nationalism and cosmopolitanism means.

I propose we review what “special rights of the Malays" mean in light of 50 years of Independence and post-March 8, 2008.

I agree we must give credit to those working hard to "improve the psychological well-being of the Malays" and for that matter for any race to improve its mental wellness. This is important. This is a noble act.

The question is: in doing so, do we want to plant the seeds of cooperation and trust - or racial discrimination and deep hatred? Herein lies the difference between indoctrination and education.

These days, the idea of Ketuanan Melayu is going bankrupt, sinking with the bahtera merdeka. It works only for Malay robber barons who wish to plunder the nation by silencing the masses and using the ideological state apparatuses at their disposal.

In the case of the BTN it is the work of controlling the minds of the youth. Its work should not be allowed any more in our educational institutions. It is time our universities especially are spared counter-educational activities, especially when they yearn to be free of the shackles of domination.

Over decades, many millions of Malays and non-Malays have not been getting the right information on our nation's history, political-economy, and race relations. History that is being shoved into us or filter-funnelled down the labyrinth of our consciousness is one that is already packaged, biased, and propagandised by historians who became text-books writers.

History need not be Malay-centric. Special rights for all Malaysians should be the goal of distributive and regulative justice of this nation, not the "special rights of a few Malays". History must be presented as the history of the marginalisd, the oppressed and the dispossessed of all races.

We toil for this nation, as the humanist Paramoedya Ananta Toer would say, by virtue of our existence as anak semua bangsa ... di bumi manusia. Malaysia is a land of immigrants.

In this regard we can learn from the former British colony called America. Whatever its shortcomings, it is a land of immigrants and is still evolving. A black man or a woman can become president. This is what America conceives itself to be and this is what Malaysian can learn from. Can a non-Malay become prime minster if he/she is the most ethical of all politicians in the country?

No one particular race should stake a claim to Malaysia. That is an idea from the old school of thought, fast being abandoned. Each citizen is born, bred, and brought to school to become a good law-abiding and productive Malaysian citizen, is accorded the fullest rights and privileges and will carry his/her responsibility as a good citizen.

That is what ‘surrendering one's natural rights to the state’ means. One must read Rousseau, Locke, Voltaire, and Jefferson to understand this philosophy. A bad government will not honour this - and will fall, or will sink like the bahtera merdeka.

The history of civilisations provides enough examples of devastation and genocide as a consequence of violent claims to the right of this or that land based upon some idea of ‘imagined communities’. We must teach our children to make a history of peace among nations. This must be made into a new school of thought: of ‘new bumiputeraism’ that encompasses all and does not alienate any. Life is too short for each generation to fight over greed.

The eleventh hour of human existence and our emergence in this world has brought about destruction as a consequence of our inability to mediate differences based on race, colour, creed, class and national origin. Each ethnic group thinks that it is more socially-dominant than the other. Each does not know the basis of its ‘self’. Each fails to realise its DNA-make up or gene map.

Life is an existential state of beingness, so must history be conceived as such. Nationalism can evolve into a dangerous concept - that was what happened to Europe at the brink of the two World Wars. It happened in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and in Indonesia when Suharto fell.

I argue that we must evolve in the historical presence of historical constructions. The past and the future is in the present. Let us no argue any more over this or those rights. Let us instead treat each other right.