Saturday, April 3, 2010

Push for Sabah, S'wak's independence: Next stop UN

By Athi Shankar - Free Malaysia Today

GEORGE TOWN: A group of prominent politicians and social activists from East Malaysia are seriously contemplating pulling out Sabah and Sarawak from the Federation of Malaysia.

They are planning to take up their case to the United Nations to hold a referendum on the status of the Borneo states as independent nations.

They no longer want their states to be under the clutches of the Umno-led Putrajaya administration.

The group has already sought legal advice from the international community to explore all orderly and democratic means to legally declare Sabah and Sarawak as separate sovereign states.

Sources said the group was keen to avoid any civil unrest, bloodshed and armed conflict with the central government, features usually associated with separatist movements.

“They want to resolve the pressing issue by peaceful and civilised means,” said the source.

It’s learnt that about seven representatives from the group met London-based Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) chairman P Waytha Moorthy in Indonesia early this week to discuss the matter.

Sources close to the group said the activists sought Waytha Moorthy’s help to facilitate their imminent representation in the UN.

It’s learnt that Waytha Moorthy had agreed to assist them, with the help of several influential international organisations.

Waytha Moorthy recently facilitated a group of activists to air their grouses and grievances against the federal government at the UK Parliament.

'Systematic looting and plundering'

The group of activists are deeply perturbed by the federal government’s alleged violations of the states’ rights, interests and benefits for more than four decades since the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963.

“The group is angry over the systematic looting and plundering of the states’ wealth by Umno and its cronies,” said a source.

Sabah, Sarawak, Malaya and Singapore formerly joined Malaysia in 1963. However, Singapore left the Federation in 1965.

The Sabah and Sarawak activists believe that just like Singapore, their states too can pull out from Malaysia.

Sabah and Sarawak are two natural resources rich provinces in Malaysia, with massive wealth potentials in oil reserves and forestry.

However, Sabahans and Sarawakians are convinced that they have remained poor due to the federal government's “manipulation and usurpation” of their power to self-determine their own affairs.

Unhappy over petro dollars

They are crying foul over the mere five percent royalty cut received for their own oil, while the Putrajaya administration “steals” 95 percent of petro dollars.

“People from both Sabah and Sarawak realise that they are being short-changed. They know there has been daylight robbery of their god-given richness,” said a source.

Another contentious issue is the existence of an estimated 1.7 million illegal immigrants as rightful citizens in Sabah.

Sabahans termed the illegal immigrants, mostly Filipino and Indonesian Muslims, as former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s legacy.

“The government since under Mahathir has systematically brought in these aliens and granted them citizenships. These aliens are now legal MyKad holders in Sabah. It’s absolutely outrageous and ludicrous,” said the source.

The illegal immigrant issue in Sarawak is not as disturbing as in Sabah although it is equally damaging.

'Raping of forest wealth'

The major issue in Sarawak is the “raping of state forest wealth” by the Umno-backed Taib Mahmud’s government at the expense of the indigenous population.

The natives are also disgruntled by the usurpation of their customary land rights by the authorities despite a recent apex court ruling against it.

Sabahans and Sarawakians are also said to be peeved with the “Malay-nisation and Islamisation” process of their states’ bureaucracy and political systems.

Activists claimed that the federal government had appointed native Muslims to helm various ministerial portfolios and government departments to hasten and fasten this process.

“These Muslim leaders and bureaucratic heads are puppets dancing to the tune played by their masters in Putrajaya,” said the source.

Norizan shot by police gets Home Minister’s attention but PKR abandons hundreds of such Indians

Norizan

Norizan deserves all the attention from the Home Minister (see The Sun 2/4/2010 at page 6). The policemen who had shot her must be prosecuted for attempted murder. Then and only then will these atrocities stop.

While Norizan is lucky to tell her story the fact remains that up to 95% of the local victims shot dead by the police are Malaysian Indians.

If and only if PKR MPs’ had similarly made such arrangements for these Indians to see the Home Minister, scores of innocent lines would have been saved, injustices, miseries and loss of human lives spared.

A victim of police abuse is a victim. The ethnicity should not matter.

In one of the latest cases of police shooting dead five Indians in Klang including three coffins in one family, one of the victim’s sister Seetha committing suicide after also giving poison to her three children who somehow survived. But this case never saw the light of the day in meeting the Home Minister even though it is a thousand times more serious than Norizan’s case. This case involving Indians being police victims are just the tip of the iceberd. Every day scores of Indians are unlawfully arrested, beaten up, who cannot afford lawyers, and are forced to plead guilty and serve jail sentences for crimes they may or not have committed.

Has racial consideration become such a factor in Malaysia to this extent?

When we start speaking up for these such victims who suffer the most but gets the least attention even Opposition and PKR Leader Anwar Ibrahim says Hindraf is having a racist agenda. Raising human rights issue can never be racism!

In any civilized country the majority will most often bend backwards to champion minority interests because the majority and the powerful minorities will somehow be taken care of.

We call upon the PKR MPs to similarly also bring Seetha’s and other such cases to the relevant UMNO Minister so that justice would also reach the doorsteps of these Indian victims.



After all PKR is a “multi-racial” party with no racist agenda.

P. Uthayakumar

UMNO & PKR

UMNOs’ 13th general election kosong propaganda of One Tamil school land

Primary school education is a basic necessity in any country in the world except in Malaysia. In Malay-sia the allocation of land let alone the building of this one Bukit Katil Tamil School is a cause celebre (cause to celebrate), so thinks UMNO by using the Tamil newspapers in their propaganda.

But we have never heard of this kind of cause celebre propaganda when multi-storey Malay and Chinese buildings are build. When almost 99.9% Malay muslim Mara Junior Science College in Trolak, Perak (MRSM) costing RM 120 million and there being 42 such MRSM nationwide (NST 5/4/09) with 12,440 students (BH 21/11/09 page 4), there is zero announcement by UMNO.

Yet when one Tamil School land is even ‘IDENTIFIED’, UMNO goes by the ‘ayam telor sebiji rioh sekampong’ propaganda.

This clearly proves that UMNO has become obsolete as they still think they can get by their “wayang kulit” politics and refusing to realize that this kind of propaganda does not work anymore since the 25th November 2007 Hindraf Rally.

P. Uthayakumar

PKR Selangor estate workers denied Felda like land

99.9% of the 442,000 ten acre land ownership schemes in Felda, Felcra, Risda, Fama, Mardi, Agropolition schemes where the Malay settlers earn up to RM 4,000.00 per month (The Sun 2/4/2010 page 22), the Selangor equivalent of Felda has been denied to the Selangor Indians.

And now with the low wages given to foreigners (see Star Metro 2/4/2009 at page M9) and the rapid development in Selangor these unskilled Indian workers have been pushed out their estates and have become displaced

This PKR Menteri Besar in his two years rule has done zero to implement the Estate Workers Housing Scheme and to allocate Felda like ten acre land ownership schemes to the Indian poor. But for the (Malay Muslim) Yayasan Basmi Kemiskinan Selangor 526 hectres of land had been alienated in Serendah (NST 2/2/2010 at page 13).

The least the Selangor PKR state Selangor government could do to undo the injustices of the 50 year UMNO rule in Selangor is to offer agricultural land to 1,000 poor Indians, and loans and provide assistance in animal husbandry.

This way 1,000 of the poorest Indians in Selangor could have a farm house, a decent livelihood and be raised out of poverty.

But PKR will never do this but when we raise this proposal for the Indian poor the PKR Supremo will say that this is the “Hindraf racist agenda”.

P. Uthayakumar

No history of PKR, DAP and PAS MPs suspended, walked out of Parliament, filed motions and emergency motions or filed parliamentary questions on critic

Today’s NST 2/4/2010 at page 15 sub headlines is, “Two MPs ordered out of house” and “Opposition MPs stage walkout”.

Today there are 78 PKR, DAP and PAS Opposition MPs’ in Parliament. With the Hindraf Rally on 25th November 2007, even UMNO’s 50 year old history of two thirds majority was broken. But despite the critical Indian problems having accumulated for 50 long years under the UMNO regime, it is not deemed fit by “multiracial” PKR, DAP and PAS to walk out, file motions emergency motions, file Parliamentary questions, let alone get suspended, or ordered out of Parliament to draw attention on a single critical Indian problem as for example outlined in “Human Rights Violations Against the Ethnic Minority Malaysian Indians” – HRP Briefing for foreign and diplomatic missions in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia on 26/3/2010.



For example the issue of 10,000 Tamil school pupils enrolling in standard one cannot read and write at all because they did not attend kindergarden because of poverty (The Star 15/3/2010 at page N46). Nothing was done on this issue by the ‘multi-racial” 78 PKR, DAP and PAS MPs’ and their leaders. But when we ask why is this so PKR Supremo Anwar Ibrahim replies that this Hindraf’s agenda is racist.

P. Uthayakumar

History

UMNO: Once hardcore poor Felda settlers are taking home RM 3,000 to RM 4,000 a month ( The Sun 2/4/10 at page 22)

UMNO: Once hardcore poor Felda settlers are taking home RM 3,000 to RM 4,000 a month ( The Sun 2/4/10 at page 22)

Felda was formulated in 1956 as a means to eradicate poverty.

Today there are 442,000 (BH 25/2/2010 at page 4) ten acre plantation land ownership schemes but we estimate that 99.9% of the lot owners are Malays and Indian poor have been excluded from these land ownership schemes. Especially the pre-existing Indian plantation workers who were displaced with conversion of estates for housing and industrial use.

Under UMNOs’ racist, religious extremist and supremacist policies hundreds of thousands of Indians have slipped into or remain in the hardcore poor category.

“Multiracial” PKR, DAP and PAS has an almost zero record of raising these injustices because PKR is “above” the Hindraf’s racist agenda.

P. Uthayakumar