UMNO’s Institutionalized racism – a curse we all need to rid this nation of.

                                           

Racism as defined by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V Hamilton in their seminal book “ Black Power” in 1967 is still very applicable 40 odd years on and here in Malaysia. Their definition of racism is “ the predication of decisions and policies on considerations of race for the purpose of subordinating a racial group and maintaining control over that group.” Racism they go on to add is both overt and covert. Acts by individuals they call individual racism is overt and acts committed collectively, they call institutionalized racism is less overt, and in most instances covert.

The first type , individual racism is the sort we see in the likes of utterances of the School Heads, Senior BTN officials and the Mufti of Perlis and the most recent case of a former police PIBG head taking 6 Indian students to the police station who were interrogated for 10 long hours because they rejected the racist book “Interlok”. This type of racism can be easily captured by reports, by the phone or other cameras and displayed in the youtube, in blogs and such other devices and generally it is brought out by acts of commission. There is generally more public condemnation of this type of racism.

The second type, institutional racism is less overt, is subtle, but systematic and many orders of magnitude more pervasive. It is less identifiable in terms of specific individuals committing the acts. This second type originates in the operation of established and respected forces in society and is far less recognizable and it generally receives little public condemnation.

When scores of Indian youth are killed in custody, there is little uproar, for after all they are the scum of society. When there is widespread statelessness among the Indian poor, too bad these stupid people do not know how to take care of themselves, that is their damned fault. When in desperation Indian individuals and families perish in suicides there is public sympathy and derision at the same time for the dead but not the acknowledgement of the impact the system has had on them. When the primary schools that Indian children go to are in shambles, well they have a choice to go the national schools don’t they. This is after all the natural order of things..is it not, so argue the beneficiaries of the racist system.

Institutionalized racism manifests itself in oppression of multiple forms within every sphere of social relations – economic exploitation, political subordination, cultural devaluation, psychological violation,verbal abuse, police harassment, etc. These operate so normally and naturally and are so much part of the existing institutions of our society that the common people are barely conscious of their operation. Casual racial prejudices have over time transformed into a systematized and codified ideology and practice of racial subordination.

Najib, however in his UMNO general assembly speech on the 15^th of October 2009 said, “If Malays are truly racist as alleged we would not have compromised on the cultures of other ethnic groups being practiced here……..We would also not have allowed vernacular schools to be established, …..The true meaning of racism would be like apartheid as previously practiced by South Africa..”.

So, Najib the leader of the beneficiaries of the system denies the existence of anyhting like institutionalized racism?

To answer this let us take Najib’s suggestion and compare with what existed in the Apartheid regime of South Africa which no one will argue was not a prime example of institutionalized racism.

Here are some key features of South Africa’s Apartheid (Apartness) system:

1) A central feature of the Apartheid rule was the categorization of all the South African People into Whites, Coloreds, Indian and Blacks – their Bangsa. Everything else was built on this categorization.


2) Using this racial categorization it decided where each category of people lived, who they married, who they had sex with, where they worked and how they moved about.


3) The Group Areas Act of 1950 partitioned the country into areas allocated to different racial groups. Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 created separate government structures for blacks and was the first piece of legislation established to support the government’s plan of separate development in the Bantustans


4) They segregated education, medical care, and other public services on the basis of this racial categorisation .


5) They all had to carry Identity cards which indicated their “Bangsa” so to speak.


6) They had the apartheid laws – The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949, Immorality Act of 1950, The Population Registration Act of 1950 and so on. And they had laws of repression. Laws such as Suppression of Communism Act of 1950, The Public Safety Act of 1953 and the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1953, The Riotous Assembly Act, The Terrorism Act to name a few of the notorious ones.


7) To oversee the apartheid implementation, the bureaucracy expanded, and, by 1977, there were more than half a million white state employees.


Blacks were not allowed to run businesses or professional practices in those areas designated as “white South Africa” without a permit.


9) Each of the 4 categories of South Africans had their own education system.


Now let us look at comparative situations in the Malaysian rgime:

1) A central feature of our system is also our categorization into Bumiputras, Chinese, Indians and Others from birth to death.Everywhere we go we have to declare Bangsa, Ugama – at birth, at school registration, in all the applications we make, at marriage, at death and in many many more situations.

2) Large areas of most cities and towns are segregated not by law, but by practice and without the need for such segregation laws. Clear example is in Penang the Island is mainly populated by Chinese, and the Malays mostly prefer to live on the Mainland. In Shah Alam it is mainly Malays. In Seremban it is mainly Chinese in locations like Seremban Garden, and Malays in Ampangan or Paroi areas. In Kuching you have South and North Kuching for the Chinese and the Malays. In practice but not in law.

3) In several housing areas State Consent is required if one wants to sell the property especially if it is in a predominantly Malay area. It is quicker to get consent for inter Bumiputra sale than it is for a sale across the Bumiputra /Non-Bumiputra divide. Again in practice but not in law.


4) Malaysia has repressive laws like the Internal Security Act to put away who UMNO considers to be trouble makers without having to go through the court processes, the Official Secrets Act to blot out all decisions made by the UMNO controlled Administration from public view, The Printing Presses and Publications Act to control the print media from publishing too much anti UMNO news, The Seditions Act to shut people up from speaking up againts UMNO policies – to name a few of the repressive laws that helps maintain the current regime.


5) The bureaucracy is entirely made up of largely one ethnic group , Bumiputras – eight hundred thousands of them, all implementing UMNO Policy. The Police force is almost entirely Malay, the armed forces are almost entirely Malay. The judicial system is almost entirely Malay. The public Universitieis are almost entirely Malay. The GLC managements are entirely Malay. Again in practice but not in law.


6) Most Government and Government linked businesses are off limits to non- Bumiputras. There is a complete system of screening vendors that limits vendors to almost entirely Bumiputras.


7) Business licences are largely awarded to Bumiputras or must have mandatory minimum Bumiputra participation – Bank Licences, Educational Institutions Licences, Permits in the Transportation businesses and so many more.


8 ) Participation in all government development schemes are entirely for Bumiputras – MARA, FELDA, FELCRA, RISDA, PERDA, KESEDAR, KEJORA to name a few. In practice but not in law.


9) Educational opportunities in Public Educational Institutions are grossly in favour of Bumiputras.


10) Cross religious relationships between Non muslim Malaysians and Muslim Malaysians is a complicated affair, especially if a problem develops along the way.

If we consider these two sets of situations it is apparent that there are significant number of similarities between the apartheid system and the Malaysian system created, developed, finetuned by UMNO from 1957 to 2011. The key difference seems to be the lack of ambiguity in the South African expression in all its laws. In Malaysia a lot of the racism is in practice not in the law. To any right thinking person it is so obvious, the racism that underlies our daily life. Therefore it is really audacious for Najib to say UMNO is not racist – the party that is responsible for this terrible state of affairs. He is in a terrible state of denial still..

Allowing the practice of cultures of the Indians or the Chinese in Malaysia or allowing Chinese Medium and Tamil Medium schools in Malaysia, or of allowing the use of Chinese and Indian names does not in any way define the character of the regime in Malaysia. Allowing all this actually now becomes convenient argument for UMNO to take everything else away, it seems. It is the structure of the economic political system that defines the character of our system. And it is blatantly racist.

I do not say the Malay people are racists. I am saying that UMNO, the political party is. It is indeed a blue blooded racist party – the entire cause for the racism that is so rampant in Malaysia.

Racism is “the domination of one ethnic group over other ethnic groups on the basis of some claimed superiority”. In South Africa – White Supremacy, In Hitler’s Germany – the Superiority of the German race, In the British Empire – the Civilizing Burden of the White Man, in Malaysia, Ketuanan Melayu or Malay Supremacy.

Do we need to say more.

Let us all wake up and in solidarity fight this curse of institutionalized racism. We have no choice if we all Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Dusuns, Muruts, Dayaks want a vibrant prosperous and robust nation in Malaysia.





Naragan
HRP.com

An open letter to all HINDRAF supporters

I refer to the various press releases issued by various quarters today in all 3 Tamil Dailies on the saga affecting HINDRAF.

For many Malaysians HINDRAF only gives an impression of a struggle on November 25th and the power of people's Makkal Sakti displayed on the day. It was a proud day for all Malaysian Indians as for once Indians in Malaysia were united for a single cause ie to make their plight known to the world.

But what people did not know that HINDRAF was initiated on a serious issue affecting the rights of non-muslims as a result of the M.Moorthy case in December 2005.

I myself was not directly involved in public life or on the forefront of defending Human Rights though Uthayakumar was well known then. At the most I was involved on the background in helping Uthayakumar in his cases particularly in the death in Police custody and the shoot to kill policy. I was a member of a social organization called Vivekananda Youth Movement in Seremban.

But the way the M.Moorthy issue was handled by NGO's in Malaysia including the MCCBHS was appalling that I decided that I was not going to let this pass like any other issues that went unnoticed and swept under the carpet. That was when with the help of Ramaji about 30 organisation representatives gathered at P.Uthayakumar's office and HINDRAF was formed as a coalition but unfortunately most of these organisations left within 2 weeks and I was left in the lurch without a committee. Despite this, single handedly I campaigned on the rights of non Muslims to practise their religion at the International level when I went on an international campaign in January 2006. I was the first person in Malaysia to raise these serious violations of Human Rights particularly religious freedom at the International Forum i.e. at the US State Department, US Foreign Relations Committee, US Human Rights Caucus, various Senators and Congressman, Human Rights Watch (the most powerful human rights organisation in USA). From there I came to London to lobby support from the Amnesty International which had its International Headquarters in London, UK Parliament and met various MP's. I made sure all these campaigns were published in the Malaysian mediabut because religion was a sensitive issue in Malaysia only malaysiakini carried the news.

All these I did at the expense of scarifying my legal practice for more than a month, and at my own expenses with the help of an individual who was kind enough to understand my financial burden. Most Indians never knew what and how I single handedly struggled during these times and the risk of being arrested under ISA for raising the matter at International level.

In March 2006 just after I returned I was approached by a small temple in Bangsar which was more than 100 years old which was demolished on 26th March 2006. Upon receiving call I attended to this temple and worked on the issue for more than 20 hours non stop and made sure this small poor working class temple demolition should not be swept under the carpet as usual and it became international news when wire agencies throughout the world picked up the news.

It was after this that Uthayakumar offered to help me and together we raise issues of thousands of Hindu temples being demolished in Malaysia. At the height of this I did a second International lobby for the issue. I and Uthayakumar can prove that we had written hundreds of letters/appeals/memorandums to the Agong,Sultans,PM,Attorney General,IGP, and world organisations. All these were done at our own expense which went into thousands of Ringgit. No one came forward to help us then. Demonstrations and protests were then pathetic with a handful of people beginning with about 20 people including me uthayakumar and my family members which included my only daughter who was only about 3 years old then. Demonstrations and protests were at its infancy stage.

Demonstrations in front of Bukit Aman were unthinkable. Demonstrations in the office building of the Attorney General (not outside) must have taken a lot of guts and to convince the handful of people to do it was a greater challenge. I can go on with the feats at Istana, sultans palace parliaments ect. Standing in front of the bulldozers at demolition of temple sites and getting manhandled by police and arrested was a norm then and we had good sympathisers like Manickavasagam and Jayathas who were equally roughed up. Where was the man who has been claiming he was the FOUNDER of Hindraf and where was the so called Secretary. I have evidence of photographs and video of these protests. On one occasion they attended, one was standing at the end of the crowd and another claimed he had headache and was sitting on the ground. It is only fair to say that while all these new kind of challenge was thrown at the Malaysian Government both Uthayakumar and myself had the genuine sympathy of two great personalities M.Manoharan and R.Kengadharan who had offered their legal services as their contribution to the cause. We were relieved that one big burden was taken off our shoulders by these 2 lawyers and wecould concentrate on the main issues.

But the point is most Malaysians never knew this history of HINDRAF. November 25th never came on its own. It came after I had decided to gamble all within myself to file a class action against the UK Government. Road shows we conducted throughout the country attended by thousands of curious supporters who wanted to know what the suit was about. The thousands who attended were impressed that we had a plan and vision for the Indian community. I had maintained that HINDRAF never had any political intentions, however we had political friends like Manoharan, Manickam, Jayathas and. It was during this time when suddenly Uthayakumar said we have the services of 2 new personalities Ganapathi Rao and Vasanthakumar. They joined us from September 2007 onwards (before we started the Roadshows) enthusiastically and we believed their sincerity. Ganapathi Rao being a lawyer was given opportunities to speak at our road shows on Malaysian Budget. Vasanthakumar had helped to organise printing and other ground work. Upon his suggestion I later appointed him (upon my honest trust) as the pro tem Treasurer after which he opened a bank account under HINDRAF ENTERPRISE.

So in total the contributions of these 2 personalities were for 2 ½ months prior to their arrests under the ISA. They were not even there at the forum which adopted the 18 points demand that were to be submitted to the PM on 12th August 2007.

If their contributions are more than this then they should put it in writing for all to see what they had actually contributed.

This doesn't mean I do not appreciate their contributions. They have no doubt done their part. Though inJanuary 2008 I discovered Vasanthakumar was planted by Police special branch to infiltrate HINDRAF I still took it upon me to campaign for his release as well for I appreciated whatever he had done during this short period. I had concealed the fact to protect the integrity of the new freedom movement which found genuine support from the masses who had placed their hope on this organisation to advocate their rights.

The two great personalities Manoharan and Kengadharan merely acted as Counsels and lawyers for Uthayakumar, I and the hundreds others who were later arrested on November 2007. For this there had to pay a high price i.e. arrest under the ISA. These were the information I had given to all my International lobby including the International Bar Association i.e. that Lawyers are detained for performing their duties.

HINDRAF's struggle is noble. I have always maintained my personal belief that this is a dharmic war and if it is indeed a dharmic war we would win eventually albeit all the backstabbing and badmouthing.

From September 2007 (road shows) thousands of well wishers had approached me for membership forms. I had always told them that if they were a true believer in the 18 point demands that we had submitted to the PM on 12th August 2008 and are willing to fight for their rights without fear or personal gain then they were members and there was no need for a registration form and subscription.

Though I left the country upon my release on 28th November 2008 I had done and am still doing all within my strength and capability to seek the release of the 5 detained. I had used my personal funds to travel throughout India UK Europe Geneva. The issue of the 5 HINDRAF leaders has been raised in the Tamil Nadu Parliament immediately upon my arrival in India thereafter in Parliament In New Delhi, Indian PM and Foreign Minister, Leaders of the opposition House of Parliament, Madam Jayalalitha, Vaico, The Dalai Lama, UK Parliament, British MP's, House of Lords, The Parliament at Scotland,The Foreign and Commonwealth Office,the Commonwealth Secretariat, Amnesty International., Human Rights Trusts UK, Minority Rights International, International Bar Association, UK Bar Association, Law Society for England and Wales, World Organisation against Torture based in Geneva, United Nations Human Rights Council, International Red Cross, FIDH in France, Human Rights Commission in Brussels, Human Rights Commission in Holland, European Parliament to name some of the work I have done.

By using my base in England I managed to get abriefing organised for the first time at the US Congress on 8th April 2008 which was attended by Senators and Congressman, Civil and Human Rights organisations in US and the Malaysian embassy which was severally embarrassed. This was seen as an act of betrayal by the UMNO Government and hence they revoked my passport immediately. I am now a stateless person for doing what I felt right for Malaysian Indians.
While doing all the above I also manage HINDRAF from London and wherever I travelled. I plan the campaigns in Malaysia for the release of the 5 and for the basic rights of Malaysian Indians as per the 18 point demands submitted. I not only plan but execute the campaign in Malaysia from where I am. For this I have thousands of well wishers on the ground who take instructions from me and my 10 member interim committee which I formed in February 2008.

Today we have been stabbed by many within us. To cover himself Vasanthakumar has made accusations via his wife attacking me as a coward who ran away from problems and Raidu who had accused me of using children.

I sympathise for Mrs Vasanthakumar and her family for the naive hope and belief that has been placed before the truth by sinister. I offer my apologies to her for having to expose her husband at this stage.

As for Raidu he is not worth my effort to respond as his statements are sheer evil and ominous statements. He was a boy sitting in the front row of every road shows and enthusiastically clapping hands whenever each speaker made their points as if he was enlightened for the first time.

I urge all genuine HINDRAF supporters to remain calm, focussed and let us maintain our phase to seek ourdemocratic rights. I maintain HINDRAF is not a membership seeking organisation nor is it keen to mislead the people.

We are here to advocate our basic rights even if it means permanent incarceration.

P.Waytha Moorthy

Chairman HINDRAF

Currently in London

Syed Hamid denies revoking Waytha's passport

The government today once again denied that it had revoked Hindraf chairperson P Waythamoorthy's passport.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has been informed by the Immigration Department of Malaysia that the Malaysian international passport issued to Waytha Moorthy s/o Ponnusamy is still active in our passport and travel document system.

"In other words, the Malaysian government has never made any cancellation to the mentioned travel document," said Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar Syed Hamid in a statement today.

"Waythamoorthy is now believed to be overseas and is still free to travel internationally," added the minister.

The issue erupted on May 16 when Waythamoorthy, presently in self-imposed exile in London, and Amnesty International said that the Malaysian government had revoked former's passport to force him to return to Malaysia.

Waythamoorthy had said that he was informed of the status of his passport when he returned to London from Zurich on April 21.

"I was informed by the UK immigration officer at Gatwick Airport that the Malaysian government had revoked my passport," he had said then.

Passport to expire in 2010
In an immediate reaction then, Syed Hamid suggested that Waythamoorthy's passport could have expired and shrugged off the issue by saying that a misunderstanding could have occurred over the status of the passport.

However Waythamoorthy clarified later that his passport was only due to expire in 2010.

Waythamoorthy has been away from Malaysia since the government's crackdown on Hindraf last November.

He had claimed that the government was seeking to lure him back to this country to detain him under the Internal Security Act.

Five other Hindraf leaders, including the movement's most popular face and Waythamoorthy's brother Uthayakumar, are presently being held without trial since Dec 13.