Indians protest in Malaysia

[Atithee]

Any comments, especially from Malaysian readers or someone like PKB who has lived there for a while?  I am posting this here as we are discussing Kirsten's views about India in the cricket coach thread but didn't want to bring more mud-slinging in that thread.

Malaysia raps Karunanidhi for meddling

[PKBasu]

The remarks of the Malaysian acting justice minister are outrageous. His claim that Malaysian Tamils are better off than those in India is probably true (for the average). But then the average Indian in the US is much better off than the average Indian in India. And the average Malay in Malaysia is much better off than the average Malay in Indonesia.

The minister's argument is juvenile. The Indians (mainly Tamils) in Malaysia are citizens of that country. Most of their ancestors were brought there 3-6 generations ago as indentured labourers (as were Indians in Trinidad, Fiji, Guyana, South Africa, etc.). During the second world war, the population of Malaya was about 4 million, and Indians comprised about 20% of the total. They also dominated the civil service (although the majority of the Tamils at the top of the civil service -- particularly the Malayan Railways -- were from Jaffna), and the professions (doctors, lawyers, etc.).

Systematic racial discrimination has altered their position in Malaysian society. Today, the civil service is 90% Malay, an even higher proportion of government-linked company (GLC) employees are Malay, and Indians are much less dominant even in the professions. Malays receive favourable treatment in terms of admission to local universities (entry requirements being MUCH easier than for other races), scholarships abroad are almost exclusively reserved for Malays, and there is an extensive cradle-to-grave welfare system exclusively for Malays (paid for from the government's revenues collected from all races). In addition, if a non-Malay citizen of Malaysia wants to start a business with capital of more than RM 1 million (about US$300K), he/she needs to give a 30% stake (usually free of cost!) to a Malay partner.

This is the most outrageously racist policy framework in the world. (About 65% of Malaysia's population is Malay, 23% Chinese, 8% Indian; virtually every Malay middle-class man has 4-8 children, while the Chinese and Indians rarely have more than 2, and even these are increasingly choosing to migrate elsewhere). In the Arab world, there is discrimination in favour of local citizens (over foreigners, who often constitute the majority of the population in such countries as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, etc.) but systematic racial discrimination among local citizens is nowhere as widespread as in Malaysia. (Some African countries come close, but not on anything like as wide a scale...Burma did have several periods of ethnic cleansing of Indians between 1935 and 1962, so there is little further need for systematic discrimination there).     

[Kumar]

How about this lawsuit?


Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy

Waytha Moorthy Ponnusamy sometimes spelt Waythamoorthy (born July 16, 1966) is a Malaysian lawyer of Tamil origin who is currently suing the British Government. He is accusing the British government, which was then managing British Malaya of "abandoning minority Indians to the mercy of majoritarian Malay rule while granting independence on August 31, 1957". Ponnusamy is suing for the British Government to pay £1,000,000 to each Malaysian Indian for the "pain, suffering, humiliation, discrimination and continuous colonisation". This extraordinary lawsuit is being backed by HINDRAF or Hindu rights action force.

[arjun2761]

Looks like they have affirmative action for the majority is the opposite of the traditional understanding of what it is meant to accomplish.

[PKBasu]

In a wonderful riposte, the Malaysian electorate delivered a devastating setback to the 9-party coalition (Barisan National, or National Front) -- led by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) and Malayan Indian Congress (MIC) -- that has ruled Malaysia for the 51 years since its indpependence. In particular, the incarcerated leader of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) that had led the protest march last year was elected to parliament from prison (ie, without being able to meet his electorate), defeating the MCA's Chinese candidate in a Chinese-majority constitutuency. The MIC's corrupt leader, Samy Vellu, was defeated in the constituency he had represented for 34 years.

And the Barisan National lost 5 states, including Selangor (the area around KL, including such towns as Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, etc., where India's hockey triumphs of 1975 occurred...!). Selangor is the state where the Indian population is largest (about 24% of the population there), but the defeat of the ruling coalition in this state is indicative of a huge shift in Malaysian politics. The ruling coalition was also ousted in Penang, where there is a Chinese majority (and a coalition led by another Chinese ally of UMNO had ruled for the past three decades). The PM won his own seat in Penang, but will be severely weakened. Former DPM Anwar Ibrahim (still barred from politics on trumped-up charges) will surely emerge as a strong leader of the opposition (and likely PM of a broader, genuinely multi-ethnic coalition), and is committed to rolling back the institutionalised racism that has been the basis of Malaysian politics for the past 39 years. Interesting times!

[nupsig]

If some country think about discrimination to some Ras or religion, It would not be modern country..
And COuntry will get some trouble in their people. We all the same. WE born in this world same. God give life, freedom and happy.