HINDRAF MAKKAL SAKTHI TO PETITION MALAYSIAN KING IN CONJUNCTION WITH INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR THE ELIMINATION OF RACIALDISCRIMINATION.

PETITION TO SET UP A ROYAL COMMISSION WITH VIEW TO MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS TO DISMANTLE AND END ALL MALAYSIA’S   INSTITUTIONALISED RACIST POLICIES.

HINDRAF MAKKAL SAKTHI will hand over a memorandum to the Yang Dipertuan Agong in conjunction with the annually observed International Day for the Elimination of Racism on the 21st March 2011 to make recommendation for a Royal Commission on Institutionalised racism perpetrated by the UMNO government.

It is a fact that racism is deeply entrenched and Institutionalised by the racist UMNO government. The concern of racial discrimination, which began from the need to eradicate poverty irrespective of race ended up in the neo-colonisation of the UMNO Government. Today the minority communities are perpetually wounded and been neglected in their ability to live a free and equal life amongst the majority through UMNO’s Institutionalised racial policies.

The first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.

The United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, adopted in 1963, states

Discrimination between human beings on the grounds of race, color or ethnic origin is an offence to human dignity and shall be condemned as a denial of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, as a violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as an obstacle to friendly and peaceful relations among nations and as a fact capable of disturbing peace and security among nations.

We would implore upon  the King that it is now time to confront racism  and to take   comprehensive measures against them. Racism, racial discrimination and all kinds of related intolerance may have gone away elsewhere but it is accelerated in an alarming rate in Malaysia through institutionalised racism.

We all constitute one human family. Instead of allowing diversity of race and culture to become a limiting factor for political gain, now is the time to refocus our understanding and provide equality and freedom with policies that are colour blind to race and ethnicity. 

Every human is equal and free in the eye of the GOD. The International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reminds us of our collective responsibility for promoting and protecting this ideal. With that spirit, we at HINDRAF MAKKAL SAKTHI would appeal to  the Agong, who is the King for his subjects to  strongly recommend for a Royal Commission to report on the damage racism has caused and make recommendations to dismantle and end all Malaysia’s Institutionalised Racist policies and propose new policies and legislations to embrace all citizens as equals as enshrined in Article 8 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution. 

P.Waytha Moorthy

Chairman

HINDRAF 

The Bonded labourers in our midst (Documentary)

41 more HRP members face court charges

(Malaysiakini) A total of 41 members from the Human Rights Party (HRP) were charged today in magistrate courts in Kuala Lumpur and Seremban with taking part in an illegal organisation.

The charges were laid as leaders and members of the HRP were organising a convoy under the banned Hindraf Movement.

HRP members were organising convoys nationally to protest against the use of novel Interlok in schools.

In Kuala Lumpur, 21 HRP members, 16 men and five women, two of them university students, were accused of committing the offence under Section 43 of the Societies Act 1996, by taking part in an HRP-organised convoy at Jalan Tun Sambanthan, Brickfields, on Feb 13.

The prosecution was led by DPP Hazariah Siri and all 21 accused were represented by lawyers M Raman and P Uthayakumar, who is also HRP's secretary-general.

Uthayakumar (right) said that the 21 charged in Kuala Lumpur pleaded not guilty and were released on RM2,000 bail each.

April 6 has been fixed for mention of the case, he said.

Among the 21 are HRP Kuala Lumpur coordinator K Balakrishnan and central executive committee members V Lurdge Mary and S Thiagarajah.

Uthayakumar told Malaysiakini that Lurdge was harassed and humiliated by police early this morning, about which he made an official complaint to magistrate Zulkply Abdullah.

"At 2am today, my client (Lurdge) called me in a state of panic as the police knocked on her door, demanding that she go to the station with them.

"How could this happen? Why are the police intimidating us? Intimidating her like that? After all, she had already agreed to turn up in court today. She had informed an investigating officer that she will be attending court this evening...

"So, why create the commotion?" Uthayakumar asked.

20 charged in Seremban

In Seremban, 20 HRP members, 15 men and five women, were also charged with a similar offence in a magistrate's court.

Among them was Negri Sembilan HRP coordinator S Sivakumar.

They are alleged to have committed the offence under Section 43 of the Societies Act 1996 while partipating in an HRP-organised convoy at Jalan Rahang, Seremban, on Feb 13.

The prosecution was led by DPP Mahmood Abdullah and all 20 were represented by lawyers S Karthigesan, E Ramasamy and Norliana Ali Othman.

Contacted by Malaysiakini, Karthigesan said all of them pleaded not guilty and were released on bail of RM1,700 each.

April 11 has been set for mention of the case, he added.

Karthigesan also said a husband and wife were absent from the Seremban magistrate's court today due to illness and they would be charged at a later date.

On Tuesday, five HRP leaders and members were also charged with similar offences at a magistrate's court in Selayang, but they refused to post bail, which was set at RM2,500.

Yesterday, six more pleaded not guilty to similar charges at a magistrate's court in Ipoh, and were released on RM2,000 bail each.

The six are Perak HRP chief P Ramesh, vice-president S Nagroon, Taiping coordinator K Sivakumar, and three members, R Mohan, S Jayakumar and V Lingam.

On Feb 13, 59 HRP members and supporters in Selangor, Perak and Kuala Lumpur were arrested for being part of a nationwide convoy to protest against the novel Interlok, which is used in secondary schools as a Malay literature textbook.

Controversy ballooned following the Education Ministry's decision to use the novel, written by national laureate Abdullah Hussein, for Form Five students, with several parties claiming it contains words insensitive to the Chinese and Indian communities.

Indian NGOs decry the book's description of Indians in Malaysia as being from the lower caste, among other racial stereotyping.

HRP takes its case to foreign diplomats

Hindraf Interlok Rally

Video: 6 Perak HRP members released with post bail (Anti UMNO Racism Car Convoy) 2/3/11

Photos: 21 Hindraf Activist charged for Anti UMNO Racism Car Convoy & Sec.43 of Society Act @ KL Court. 3/3/2011

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HINDRAF : Tamizha Tamizha

Photos: Foreign and Diplomatic missions keen line of questioning on plight of Indian poor in Malaysia vis a vis UMNO racism.

A total of thirteen countries’ diplomats confirmed participation but only nine countries ie, United Nations, Indonesia, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Norway, European Union, Chezh Republic and France were in attendance at the HRP H.Q today from 10.00 a.m to 12.00p.m.

Jeevindra Kumar, A. Sukumaran and Dr. Paraman made their presentations on the Malaysian Indian Minority & Human Rights Violations Annual report 2010, slide show on UMNO racism from womb to tomb, Higher Education denial and Project 15/38 respectively.

P. Uthayakumar answered all questions from the floor. Although we had allocated only half an hour, it extended to well up to just over one hour. Unlike last year a lot more questions were asked about Hindraf, the Indian poor, UMNO racism etc.

In his concluding remarks P. Uthayakumar finally said that the diplomats would know how to take it from here bearing in mind that Malaysia is sensitive to International scrutiny.

S.Jayathas

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Dr.Paraman’s speech at annual briefing on Malaysian Indian minority & Human Rights Violations 2010 for foreign embassies on 3/3/2011.

  

Dr.Paraman – Education and Project 15/38

A glaring point evidently visible as the primary cause of all the critical Malaysian indian problems is that they do not have proper political representations.

Even though being the third largest ethnic composition in Malaysia, the Indians only have a single constituency where they are a majority.

Even Sabahan and Sarawakians that constitute less than the population of the Indians in Malaysia in total, do have a much larger representations in Parliament and could exert more influence than the Indians.

Even though there maybe Indian Parliamentarians and State assemblymen but in reality they are very existence and future re – election chances is dependent on the majority of other races like Malays and Chinese. Therefore critical Indian issues will always never be raised or addressed to the actual gravity of the problem for fear that they may never get re elected again.

Whenever general elections looms, Indians will be referred to as king makers but soon after they will be referred to as insignificant. We used to wonder why? Until the 2008 general election that when we realized why. In November 2007 100,000 Indians participated in the Hindraf Rally to voice out their frustration of being systematically marginalized and deprived of all the basic needs that might colleagues had mentioned earlier. You must understand 100,000 Indians coming from a composition of 7 to 8% of the country’s population, to give a true reflection of how large that number really is, is equivalent to 1 million Malays on the streets. This effect spilt over and reverberated to all other races and therefore in 2008 general election the opposition unprecedented gains.

The Indians who have been traditionally BN supporters had swung to PR. And the results were seen clearly. Therefore the Indians are indeed kingmakers but only during a general election. After that they become insignificant. Over the years the Indians in general just accepted this predicament that they were in. This is known as the “Stockholm Syndrome”.

If I am allowed to draw an analogy the Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feeling towards their captors that happier irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims, essentially mistaking a lack of abuse from their captors as an act of kindness. Meaning all the marginalized issues example birth certificate, citizenship, no proper schools, no university places, no scholarships, no jobs….. it is all eventually considered acceptable.

While Mr.Uthayakumar was spending “ quality time” in prison he managed to compartmentalize this problem and came out with a logical solution.

The Indians do not necessarily need Indian parliamentarians or Indian State Assemblymen. They need Parliamentarian and State Assemblymen who are dependent on Indian majority constituencies.

Because just having Indian Parliamentarian etc, and we have had many over the years since independence, but they are toothless to bring up critical Indian issues.

Therefore we narrow down areas that composed of around 20% Indians and we are trying to get other Indians from other areas to register in these areas so that the Indian composition in the area can be raised to more than 50% of the total electoral population of that area. That is how 15/38 was born. And mind you, my distinguish friend it is not just for HRP’s benefit, but for all Indians in this country.

It is going to be a low process, but we have no other way. Eventually this is going to be the best solution. Because it is only during a democratic process such as a general election that the Indian vote is equal to another. One for One.

For starters we will be standing in these targeted areas come the next general elections, against Barisan Nasional. Whether Pakatan Rakyat chooses to be spoiler to us is really up to them. Our aim is to use this opportunity to traverse nationwide during the general election campaign period to enlighten the mass public of the principled stand that we are taking as well as to instill the values of our election manifesto to all.

Generally our election manifesto deals with equality to all. Our theme is “equality is not a privilege, it is your right, your human right”. It is based on clear and unambiguous commitment to the principles of equality for all as stipulated in article 8 of the Federal Constitution.