Letter Of Complaint To The UN High Commissioner For Human Rights
Denial Of Fundamental Right Of Primary Education To Malaysian Indian Children
I write this complaint of a serious violation of fundamental Human Rights on behalf of a community of plantation workers, former and current, in a rubber plantation called Ladang Batu Kawan in the State of Pulau Pinang in Malaysia.
This community has resided in this vicinity for over one hundred years, since being brought here to man the plantation from South India. At least 6 generations of school children have been brought up in the little estate school called SJK(T) Ladang Batu Kawan, prior to it being destroyed in a fire in 2002. The school moved to its current location close-by. At this current location the school is housed in a small house of a former estate clerk topped up with 4 units of transportation containers. There are a total of 134 students as of Oct 2010 in this school. The school has eleven Teachers plus a Headmaster.
The Human Rights violation and the content of our complaint is that the young of this community, one of many such communities in Malaysia has been systematically denied their basic rights to sound Primary education as a result of racist Government Policies. The lopsided application of the national resource away from communities such as these is driven by racial motivation on the part of the Malaysian Government. We have no recourse within the country to effectively address this problem, so we raise it to the United Nations and we hope that the UN will intervene on our behalf. Equality is not treated as a natural order in Malaysia. This complaint is a cry for help. We do hope that your Office as a Supervisor for worldwide human rights will rise to the occasion and help us in our need.
The Malaysian Federal Constitution states that:
Article 8. (1) All persons are equal before the law and entitled to the
equal protection of the law.
Article 12. (1) Without prejudice to the generality of Article 8, there shall be no discrimination against any citizen on the grounds only of religion, race, descent or place of birth—
(a) in the administration of any educational institution maintained by a public authority, and, in particular, the admission of pupils or students or the payment of fees;
or
(b) in providing out of the funds of a public authority financial aid for the maintenance or education of pupils or students in any educational institution (whether or not maintained
by a public authority and whether within or outside the Federation).
As you can make out from the above, the Malaysian Government is in serious violation of these Constitutional guarantees. This school, like so many others like it, has been in this state of dilapidation for over 53 years, since independence. Yet, the Malaysian Government feels no compulsion whatsoever to redress this situation, in spite of the guarantees given in the Constitution at the formation of the nation.
There is a large allocation of National Annual budget towards education. That allocation has been mostly directed to schools other than these former estate schools. As an indication of this bias, in the period 1995 to 2000 the allocation to these schools was just 1% of the total allocation for Primary schools. 50 % of the Malaysian Indian children or about 100,000 Indian children attend such schools. 50 % of the future of a community is in jeopardy and all the social indicators point to a devastating future if nothing is soon done about this problem of foundational education. As it stands, Indian youth involvement in crime is the highest among the three main ethnic groups, Indian youth are underemployed and human capital is wasted in very low value adding vocations, suicide rate is highest among the three ethnic groups. These are but some indicative statistics of the dire nature of the situation and very clearly point to a community in distress.
Our specific complaint is that this is all a systematic result of the racist policies of the Malaysian Government where the minority Indian poor in Malaysia continue to be considered immigrant laborers and treated as second or even third class citizens – much like the colored and black people were treated by the Apartheid South African regime in the heydays of Apartheid. As a result of this National Policy of conscious neglect, this school in Batu Kawan Estate has been totally starved of development funds leaving it in this dilapidated condition – it has no library, it has no playing field, it has no proper canteen, it has no computer, the children sit in sultry and hot cabins during class and there is no room for any growth, it does not sit on its own land. The Batu Kawan School is but one sample of the 370 partially aided Tamil Primary schools throughout the country, whose fates are not much different. I believe the young Indian children derive their self worth from this foundational education. This systematic deprivation hits them and the future of the entire minority Indian community at the core. Something must be done soon.
In addition, we want to raise to your attention that Malaysia is signatory to the following key UN conventions and has treaty obligations to observe these Conventions. Malaysia is in breach of the following covenants of the conventions below;
1) Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1.
* All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
* Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.
Article 26.
* Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2) Convention on the Rights of the Child
Article 2
* States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.
Article 28
* States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:
o Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;
Given this sordid state of affairs, it is our humble request that the United Nations intervene in this situation in a manner appropriate to relations between the UN and member countries and provide the motivation to the Malaysian Government to urgently and seriously address this acute problem of deprivation of sound Primary education to the minority Indian citizens of Malaysia. For what is at stake is more than funds and hardware, it is the future of a significant minority community of the country.
We are available for any further information that you may require and we can be contacted at the above address. We are forwarding this letter to you through the office of the United Nations Development Program Office in Kuala Lumpur and we will appreciate a positive response from you.
Thank You.
Yours sincerely,
Kalai Selvan
The Human Rights Party of Malaysia
State Committee Chair (Pro Tem)
State of Pulau Pinang
Penang Address: D1 – 3 -15 Bandar Perai Jaya 3,
13600 Perai,
Pulau Pinang,
Malaysia
Handphone No: 60125637614
Email: kalay1210@gmail.com
Cc: Hon’ble Ban Kim Moon
Secretary General Of the United Nations
Cc: Mr. Kamal Malhotra
Country Officer
UNDP office
Kula Lumpur
By FMT Staff
As soon as the enforcement officers arrived, Puchong MIC division information chief M Gunaseelan tried to stop them from proceeding with the demolition.
FMT learnt that the school wants to build a kindergarten on the plot of land where the two structures stood. The temple, however, has its own plan to convert that spot to build a marriage hall.
MIC Youth chief and Puchong division leader T Mohan told FMT that the matter could have been settled amicably between the school and the temple.
