HIndraf Makkal Shakti: Sep 29, 2009

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

A Letter of support for the Hindraf request for debate with Lim Guan Eng

Dear YB Lim Guan Eng

I am Dr. Shan Narayanan from Ipoh, Perak. I have been following the Kampung Buah Pala Issue closely. Many of the villagers have been displaced and are homeless. Obviously the Penang Government especially DAP will not take responsibility. This has not surprised me as over time it is becoming very clear that DAP is not multiracial. DAP creates a perception that it is multiracial. In politics Perception is very important.

In Malaysia Today, Naragan. N on 24/9/09 has invited you for a debate:( I have cut and paste the invite here)

Invite to YB Lim Guan Eng for a debate on the Kampung Buah Pala Issue :

By Naragan N.
I write this with regards to your several invites to the Gerakan Party Politicians for a live debate on the Kampung Buah Pala issue. There is now a suggestion from the public that maybe you should debate this issue with other groups as well.
I would like to humbly invite you to a televised debate on the Kampung Buah Pala issue at any time on any of the Malaysian TV channels. I will represent the Villagers and a section of Malaysian society's point of view in the debate.
The debate will be in the English Language and can take a format we will establish once you accept this invitation.
If you will accept this invitation for the debate, it will be a great day for democracy in Malaysia. Thank You and I really look forward to your response.
Malaysia-Today.net - No Holds Barred, Corridors of Power and more @ mt.m2day.org
http://

I have not seen any response from you. Are you afraid to address the issue? If you have fully supported the Kampung Buah Pala folks, you have nothing to fear. If the perception that DAP has created that the Kampung Buah Pala Folks are greedy is true you should have nothing to fear. However, if the developers are you friends than you certainly need to fear an open debate.

The Indian Community is watching you and the DAP. We are watching to see if you are brave to accept the challenge. I get the feeling that DAP still believes they have the undivided support of the Indian Community? Barisan lost touch with the ground after 50years but DAP has lost touch in just over 1 year.

YB be a brave man and accept the challenge. The Community wants to know if you actually represent all races.

Dr.Shan Narayanan
Ipoh Perak

Waytha wants to come home

SAD FAREWELL: A picture of Waythamoorthy and his daughter,taken after their breakfast in Singapore, before he departed for UK yesterday

SINGAPORE: P. Waythamoorthy, exiled in the United Kingdom, wants the Malaysian government to give him back his passport so he can come home and, if need be, face the music.

“I’m prepared to take responsibility for my actions. They can detain me under the ISA if they want to. But first, I want my passport back. And the government owes me an apology.”

Waythamoorthy said that he is not begging for his passport.

“What has been taken from me dishonourably must be returned to me in an honorable manner.”

Waythamoorthy holds Tan Sri Syed Hamid Albar, the former Home Minister, responsible for revoking his passport.

“The government owes me an apology. What they did to me on April 19 last year was the most humiliating thing in my life,” he said.

That day at Gatwick Airport in London, returning from a conference in Geneva, the British immigration authorities informed Waythamoorthy that the Malaysian government had revoked his passport.

“I could not believe it. In fact, I had to ask the British authorities to seek a confirmation with the Malaysian government that my passport was, indeed, being revoked.

“They did and two days later, on April 21, I was forced — because of the revocation and my stateless position
— to seek political asylum, which was duly given to me.”

Waytha is sore that the former Home Minister had continued to deny having revoked his passport.

He has written to the government to reinstate his passport “but the current government and the current Home Minister” have remained silent about it.

According to Amnesty International Director in Washington, Waythamoorthy was the first human rights lawyer to have his passport revoked while out of the country.

Waythamoorthy was in Singapore when he spoke to Malay Mail. He said he travels under the Geneva protocol now.

“I can go anywhere, including Israel, but I can’t return home to Malaysia.”

He spent nearly two weeks here when we secured the telephone interview. His family — wife, seven-year-old
daughter and his twin sister — had travelled from Malaysia to be with him in Singapore.

He left for London, where he is now based, yesterday, after seeing off his family to Malaysia.

Waythamoorthy also met P. Uthayakumar, another ringleader of the banned Hindraf, on Saturday night.

Uthayakumar was detained under the ISA for his role in a massive antigovernment demonstration in 2007
and a highly-provocative memorandum from Hindraf to the UK government alleging ethnic cleansing of Indians in Malaysia.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak released him and two other Hindraf leaders in May, a month after becoming Prime Minister.

Najib & the Makkal Sakhti Party - a loss cutting, money-greased ploy to split votes?

by Nathaniel Tan

There are no less than 5 articles on MIC and the Makkal Sakhti Party this morning on Malaysiakini - a large part of the interest garnered by how Najib himself is set to launch the party.

I suppose Ben Suffian is closest to the money:

“Perhaps this strategy is meant to stem the flow of Indian votes to the opposition. If it means diluting the vote (in a three-corner fight), then so be it.”

We might even look at this positively. Perhaps no less than the PM himself has seen the futility of winning back the Indian vote, and has opted to try and split it instead.

I think it’ll get real interesting if we see him starting to prop up alternative Chinese parties with the same goal :P

Well, I’ll always support the right of any group to organise politically and pursue their agenda.

It’s obviously a bit sad to see ex-Hindraf elements suddenly cosy up to BN, but I think in my ‘older’ age, these things become less unexpected.

It may be my ‘older’ age as well that has a better appreciation of how easily people fall to temptation.

This picture of spic and span, suit-clad Thanethiran looks so different from his orange street fighting days.

I know not the insides of any man’s heart, and will be the first to admit that the following is all pure speculation, but I somehow find it easy to imagine conversations in some cozy office, with Najib saying all the right things about the Indian interest (to put the perhaps slightly guilty feeling man more at ease), making vague allusions to sums that would be confirmed by underlings later.

After Perak and all, one gets the feeling that Najib is a master of this game. Many suspect sums of money that the individuals involved would never, ever have comprehended before in their lives. I guess it’s not an easy thing to refuse (often, along with the carrot, there is also the stick - think MACC investigations).

So, we have another community crusader who has likely fallen. It’s sad, but we leave them behind and press on I guess.

I think there can be no compromise - all race based political movements must eventually go if the country is ever to really be united. Anyone who genuinely hopes Najib, Umno and gang will give two hoots about the genuine interests of others (while being part of an entire generation steeped in supremacist thinking) beyond fishing for votes, is in for a sad awakening.

I know it’s often more difficult in the Indian community, being the smallest minority on the Peninsular - but purely defensive, siege-mentality communal instincts will never surpass a certain limit of achievement.

Needless to say, Pakatan could do a *whole* lot more to address issues concerning such minorities, and put their house in better order to build a more overreaching confidence in the coalition and its prospects.

Uthayakumar Presses On To Disqualify Judge

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 (Bernama) -- The Sessions Court hearing a sedition charge against lawyer P. Uthayakumar was all riled up on Monday when his counsels continued to insist that Judge Sabariah Othman recuse herself from hearing the case, despite being repeatedly told to file an application.

One of the counsels, N. Surendran, was also engaged in a heated exchange with Deputy Public Prosecutor Noorin Badaruddin after he asked whether the prosecution was instructed to ensure Uthayakumar was convicted to prevent him from contesting in the next general election.

After lengthy arguments, Sabariah allowed Uthayakumar and his counsels, Surendran and M. Manogar, to submit why she should disqualify herself.

She said she would decide by noon tomorrow whether to allow the application or order the hearing to continue.

Uthayakumar said Surendran had filed an application at the High Court Criminal Registry on Sept 10 for the sedition trial to be transferred to the High Court.

He claimed the High Court was more competent to hear the case, citing the allegation against him involved complicated issues.

Another application was filed on Sept 23 to obtain more documents under Section 51A of the Criminal Procedure Code on police investigations into the 1999 Kampung Medan issue.

"So far, we did not receive any document from the prosecution on the Kampung Medan issue and this court should wait for the High Court to hear the application for the transfer of the case before continuing with the trial.

"I don't understand why this court is insisting to go on with this case where the High Court might decide in favour of my application," said Uthayakumar who spoke, in addition to his counsels.

This earned him a ticking off from Sabariah who pointed out that the trial had been postponed several times for various reasons since he was charged on Dec 11, 2007.

"This case is fixed for hearing for three days and the case is still within jurisdiction of this court and I will continue with the hearing," she said.

Noorin told the court the prosecution had handed over more than 160 documents to the defence and that she was not aware of the two applications filed by Uthayakumar's counsel.

"We were not informed about these applications and the court should not allow the case to be postponed since there are four witnesses present in court, with two who had to travel from Sarawak," she said.

Noorin submitted that under Article 154 of the Federal Constitution, the Attorney-General had the power to prosecute anyone and there was nothing extraordinary about Uthayakumar's trial to be heard before the High Court.

Even before the first prosecution witness, Bukit Aman deputy management director DCP Datuk Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani appeared in court, Uthayakumar told the court that he had another verbal application for stay of hearing.

Uthayakumar, 48, is charged with publishing a seditious letter on a website, an offence which carries a fine of up to RM5,000 or maximum three years' jail or both.

The letter dated Nov 15 was from the Hindu-based activist group, Hindraf, addressed to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown at No 10, Downing Street, London

MESSAGE FROM TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN'S GREAT GRAND DAUGHTER

Tunku Abdul Rahman's great granddaughter
Sharyn Lisa Shufiyan, 24
Conservationist

"Both my parents are Malay. My mum's heritage includes Chinese, Thai and Arab, while my dad is Minangkabau. Due to my skin colour, I am often mistaken for a chinese.

I'm happy that I don't have the typical Malay look but I do get annoyed when people call me Ah Moi or ask me straight up "Are you Chinese or Malay"

Like, why does it matter? Before I used to answer "Malay" but now I'm trying to consciously answer Malaysian instead.

There's this incident from primary school that I remember till today. Someone told me that I will be called last during Judgement Day because I don't have a Muslim name. Of course, I was scared then but now that I'm older, I realise that a name is just a name. It doesn't define you as a good or bad person and there is definitely no such thing as a Muslim name. You can be named Rashid or ALI and still be a Christian.

I've heard of the 1Malaysia concept, but I think we don't need to be told to be united. We've come such a long way that it should already be embedded in our hearts and minds that we are united. Unfortunately, you can still see racial discrimination and polarisation. There is still this ethno-centric view that the Malays are the dominant group and their rights must be protected, and non Malays are forever the outsiders.
For the concept to succeed, I think the government should stop with the race politics. It's tiring, really. We grew up with application forms asking us to tick our race. We should stop painting a negative image of the other races, stop thinking about 'us' and 'them' and focus on 'we', 'our' and 'Malaysians' .

No one should be made uncomfortable in their own home. A dear Chinese friend of mine said to me once, "I don't feel patriotic because I am not made to feel like Malaysia is my home, and I don't feel an affinity to China because I have never lived there.
I know some baby Nyonya friends who can trace their lineage back hundreds of years. I'm a fourth generation Malaysian. If I am Bumiputra, why can't they be, too? Clearly I have issues with the term.

I think the main reason why we still can't achieve total unity is because of this 'Malay rights' concept. I'd rather 'Malay rights' be replaced by human rights. So unless we get rid of this Bumiputra status, or reform our views and policies on rights, we will never achieve unity.

For my merdeka wish, I'd like for Malaysians to have more voice, to be respected and heard. I wish that the government would uphold the true essence of parliamentary democracy. I wish for the people to no longer fear and discriminate against each other, to see that we are one and the same.

I wish that Malaysia would truly live up to the tourism spin of Malaysia truly Asia. Malaysians to lead - whatever their ethnic background. Only ONE NATIONALITY -MALAYSIAN. No Malays, No Chinese, No Indians - ONLY MALAYSIANS. Choose whatever religion one is comfortable with.