Monday, May 24, 2010

Malaysiakini.com again publishes false news. Racist like MSM by blacking out critical Indian problems.

Way back in 2001 during their humble beginnings when all the mainstream print and electronic media including the three Tamil press blacked out the Kg Medan racial attacks specifically targeted at the Indian poor, only Malaysiakini.com dared and in fact carried the true newsreports that it was racial attacks and not racial clashes as had falsely been made out to be by Umno(the real but behind the scene perpetrators of this violence)But today Umno’s and the mainstream media’s(MSM)racism has spilled over even to Malaysiakini.com.

Malaysiakini.com has in fact gone one step forward by even publishing false news.

In their newsreport yesterday (22.5.10) Malaysiakini.com reported that there was a “fight” and that P.Uthayakumar had been referred to as an “extremist”. We had done our own video recording and inquiries but we did not capture this word “extremist” having been uttered.

The last time we were referred to as extremists was by the UMNO Utusan Malaysia and the other MSM just before and after the 25th November 2007 Hindraf Rally to lay the foundation and the eventual justification for the detention without trial under the ISA of the Hindraf lawyers.

Malaysiakini.com also reported that tempers flared as Helen Ang, the moderator had difficulty in controlling the session as there were verbal jostling for 15 minutes.

The fact was what was a boring session with the political rhetorics by the other two politician speakers had turned into a lively discourse when P.Uthayakumar had stated that the Bloggers hardly cover in their writings when the victims of UMNO’s atrocities were Indians and the critical Indian problems in Malaysia .And that their reporting should depart from being race based to being needs based and based on the gravity and severity of the atrocities. The latest and most obvious example was the shooting dead by the Malay-sian police of the two Taiping Indian brothers last month.Just because they were Indian victims they and hundreds of other such Indian victims plight was completely blacked out.But it was the obvious direct contrast in the cases of Teoh Beng Hock and Aminulrasyid’s brutal murder which had rightly caught headlines and extensive media coverage for weeks in a row and the as usual overwhelming championing by the supposedly multi- racial Opposition PKR,DAP,PAS party leaders,NGOs’,Indian elite,bloggers,Malaysian Civil Society, Malaysiakini.com etc.

But for pointing out and speaking up against this racism, we in turn repeatedly get accused of being racists initially only by UMNO as a means to divert attention away from the real racism but now also ably aped by PKR, DAP, PAS, NGOS’, Malaysiakini.com, Indian elite, Bloggers etc. And this brand and definition of racism only exists in Malaysia.

In the Western civil societies ,the majority communities take great pride in championing the causes of the minority communities. But in Umnos’ One Malay-sia and PKR, DAP, PAS, NGOs’, Indian elite, bloggers and malaysiakini.com’s “multi racialism” the majority and the minority would almost always bend backwards to champion the majorities, gallery and populist causes.

The unprecedented moving of an emergency motion in Dewan Negara by Senator Ramakrishnan to debate the police shooting of Aminulrasyid is the latest case on point.Hundreds of Indians had previously suffered the same fate as Teoh Beng Hock and Aminilrasyid but there has never been such a precedent or any other serious championing or serious reporting by Arokiasamy, Ahmad or Ah Chong in Parliament or at any other forums or any other serious news reporting when the victim has and had been an Indian.(Kugan’s case may be the exception and even then to only a limited extent as it was then at the height of the Hindraf rally aftermath, some 5,000 almost all Indians had protested and Kugan’s brutal grievous injuries by some luck unusually passed the police net and was made public and somehow “caught fire”.

Be that as it may we would continue with our struggle against racism by UMNO by commission and also racism by omission by PKR,DAP,PAS,NGOs’, Malaysiakini.com, Indian elite, Bloggers, the Malaysian civil society etc.

We can understand the Malaysiakini Sifu’s definition of “newsworthiness’ has now like the MSM departed to become what appeals to the majority 92% Malay, Chinese and Natives Malaysian population and/or what would appeal to the gallery and which almost always excludes atrocities against the Indians however serious the atrocities are against them.

Now that Malaysiakini.com has like the MSM decided to black out UMNO’s atrocities against the Indian victims, the least they could do is not to come in the way of our struggle by publishing false news like in this present case.

S.JAYATHAS

Information Chief
Posted by barred at 4:28 AM

The Height of Racism in Malaysia – Educational Discrimination

The Height of Racism in Malaysia – Educational Discrimination!
Sangatha (1) It is so heart-wrenching to watch Sugentha Subramaniam’s interview  carried on Human Rights Party Malaysia website today. The tears swelling in her mum’s eyes and the pain of discrimination on her face was not unnoticed! Yes! It is that time around again, when we get to hear all the heart breaking stories of Indian students being denied scholarships and university places despite the fact that they are equally bright or far brighter than their Malay counterparts!
Year in year out, for the past twenty years or so, it is the same story! It is an annual phenomenon for the Indian students. Deserving Indian students are denied their rightful places in the local universities. Nevertheless, ironically, Malaysian public universities are offering thousands of places to foreign students from Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bosnia, Africa and many other Islamic countries. Many of these students are here on some Islamic scholarships, grants and fellowship awards offered by Malaysian government! Subsequently, there are many Muslim lecturers from around the world in the Malaysian public universities whose places were robbed off the Indians, pushed to the private educational institutions! Where do the Indian students stand in their own soil? What is MIC doing, what is PKR, DAP and PAS doing, GOD knows! I have no words to console Sugentha and many other such bright and imagedeserving Indian students whom have been denied their rightful places in the higher learning institutions in Malaysia.
Who will not be in tears and pain over such blatant educational discrimination in a country that has flourished in every direction possible, except racial equality! No study will be able to examine all the nuances of racial discrimination taking place in the Malaysian education system. Discrimination in education is so blatant on the Indians! From Tamil schools being denied lands to transform them into fully-aided government schools, to denial of university places for the bright Indian students, name it, all forms of educational discrimination is there for them!
Education is one of the many important civil rights issues affecting the Malaysian Indians today! Racial discrimination in education arises from actions of institutions or individual state actors, their attitudes and ideologies, or processes that systematically treat students from different racial/ethnic groups disparately or inequitably.
The effect is detrimental to the lives of the victims as one can imagine! Access to good education is the key to good jobs, quality housing, healthy life and political influence. Such discriminatory policies in education will limit or bock all opportunities for intellectual growth among Indians in all fields! The UMNO-led BN government has very systematically, and very deliberately, written and implemented educational policies to massacre the bright Indian community from flourishing, to subsequently end up as factory workers and private company clerks with yet another form of blatant discrimination to prosper and grow! They will be completely wiped out from the mainstream development in this country in no time soon!
Zafiris Tzannatos (2009) in his journal, “Reverse racial discrimination in higher education in Malaysia: Has it reduced the inequality and what cost to the poor?” reported that in the last twenty years, economic and social policy in Malaysia has been dominated by discrimination in favour of the Bumiputras and against the Chinese and the Indians. The preferential treatment of the Bumiputras is pursued in association with other objectives. In no other area of public policy has reverse discrimination been more acute than in higher education. His paper shows that past and present educational policies in Malaysia have resulted in allocation inefficiency. The prime beneficiaries of such policies have been better-off Bumiputras!
That’s right! The better-off Bumiputras, UMNO Bumiputras precisey!
By definition and purpose, education is the development of human capital towards meeting the individual and social needs of learners and their societies (Apple, Michael W., 2009). Sugentha and many other such bright Indian students with straight As could have well been the most precious human capitals for this country they call home! Alas! Higher education has now become limited to the fiscally advantage portion of the society, the better-off UMNOputras and financially sound Chinese, certainly not poverty stricken Indians! Hence, an Indian student like Sugentha can only dream of becoming a doctor!
The importance of education is clear to people from all over the world. And most certainly, the UMNOputras know the value of good education! Thus, they have hijacked most of the universities’ and other higher learning institutions’ places for mostly Malay-Muslims only! They know, if they allow too many Indians to graduate as doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, chemists, scientists, accountants, etc…..they will become too smart to control! It is better to keep them stupid in cow-shade like Tamil schools and block all opportunities for their further education, including derecognising the universities where they are furthering their (medical) studies and denials of loans for courses famous among Indian students!
Education is an essential human right and every child in the world is entitled to it, EXCEPT Indian children in Malaysia. UNICEF strongly believes that education, like all human rights, is universal and inalienable—everyone, regardless of gender, religion, ethnicity or economic status, is entitled to it. It is critical to our development as individuals and as societies, and it helps pave the way to a successful and productive future. Education enhances lives. It ends generational cycles of poverty and disease and provides a foundation for sustainable development. A quality education better equips girls and boys with the knowledge and skills necessary to adopt healthy lifestyles, and take an active role in social, economic and political decision-making as they transition to adolescence and adulthood. In addition, a rights-based approach to education can address some of societies’ deeply rooted inequalities. These inequalities condemn millions of children, to a life without quality education – and, therefore, to a life of missed opportunities.
Indians in this country must wake-up! Wake-up to the reality that good education is not free for their children in this country anymore! They face a very powerful and pernicious discrimination in all areas of education. In Tamil schools, they struggle to get chairs and tables from their own pockets for their children to sit and study, as the UMNO government or MIC, DAP, PAS or PKR couldn’t care less! What more to say on the pathetic land for Tamil schools issue. In secondary, their children need to battle all sorts of racism, from being called ‘Keling / black’ to being slapped or head shaved for some petty offences! Then, if at all they didn’t drop out and pull through, higher education, especially, good courses like medicine, engineering, pharmacy, accounting, teaching, computer studies, English courses, etc. will be just a dream! They can only make it a reality if and only if, they have good bank-balance to finance their children’s education or some properties to sell or mortgage in the bank! Good education is not free for the Indian children, the most disadvantaged, excluded and vulnerable, in this country!
To realise the educational benefits, and to bring about essential structural changes that are necessary to achieve social justice and equal education for the Indian children, Indians must get together and make HRP’s Indian Political Empowerment Strategy a reality! There is no other political party or NGO or social movement that looks into the nuances and nitty-gritty of the educational discrimination on Indians in Malaysia and offers a solution to it as HRP/Hindraf do!
Yes, the ONE and ONLY solution to all these acute discriminations practised by the UMNO-led government is Indian Political Empowerment Strategy! Empower your own selves and elect Indian lawmakers on Indian majority votes and send them to parliament to fight for your rights, failing which, you can kick them off the next time around! Absolutely practical strategy and you, the vast majority Indians, whom the ‘masters’ ought to duly serve, will have the power in your hands, as per the Indian Political Empowerment Strategy! You vote for your own selves!
Education is our unalienable right and we do not need to beg the authorities to give it to us! Nor is it begging to demand our birth rights! Only some so called ‘elite group fools’ will question us on why we are begging the government to help us instead of us helping ourselves by tapping the financial resources readily available from the ‘rich Indians’ whom we have never heard of. Why are they not coming forward to help students like Seguntha? What are they waiting for? Where are they? Who are they?
The truth is UMNO or MIC or DAP, PKR or PAS politicians or any other rich Indians will never care two hoots about the poor and downtrodden Indians nor will they make any effort to amicably solve the critical Indian issues to compensate for the past and present injustices towards Indians!
We have to empower ourselves and pursue our happiness on our own! We do not want any more Seguntha stories! Let this be the last! It is only possible with the Indian Political Empowerment Strategy!
Thank you!
Iraiputtiran
Posted by barred at 4:27 AM

RM 2 Billion of computer purchase. But PKR mandores give Tamil schools two computers each and blows trumpet in Tamil Press.

( See UM 14/5/2010 at page 3).
manikavasagam1 But PKR Indian mandores go around dishing out not RM 2 Billion worth computers and get maximum coverage from all three Tamil newspapers.
Mandorism at it’s height.
And ably inherited from UMNOs’ MIC mandores and now very liberally practices by the PKR, DAP and PAS mandores.
Karunai Nithi @ Compassionate Justice

RM 2 Billion
Posted by barred at 4:27 AM

Poverty leads to 10 year old Indian girl’s suicide.


hanged Because of poverty, N. Kusheri father is forced to leave the family in Penang and to work in Singapore while her mother is a factory worker.
The suicide rate in the Indian community is 600% higher than in the Malay community.
These are the effects of UMNOs’ low wages, no monthly wages very little business, educational upward mobility opportunities and poverty in particular for the Indian community which has led to both parents being forced to work with very little time for their children and with very little hope for upward mobility unlike in the Malay community.
P. Uthayakumar

Poverty leads 2 Poverty leads 1
Posted by barred at 4:27 AM

PKR “Tuan” MBs’ peanuts politics spectacles for poor Indian school chidren.

pkr selangor Khalid After over two years in power in Selangor and with a RM 9.1 Billion annual state Budget this is all what PKR can offer the poor Indians?
Karunai Nithi @ Compassionate Justice
PKR Tuan
Posted by barred at 4:26 AM

Pemudah gets 90% of work permits within seven days. Zero ringgit even by P.M Najib of the RM 100 Million flow down to Tamil schools in 2008.


MOTO NAJIB1 (See The Star 14/5/2010 at page N 41)
This is despite One Malay-sia Prime Minister Najib Razak who is the chairman of the Task Force on the Indians promising RM 100 Million to Tamil schools in 2009 but zero ringgit flowing down to any of the said 523 Tamil schools nationwide. (The Star 30/9/2009).
Despite our letter of protest to no other than the Prime Minister himself on this matter, he cares a damn but continues with his One Malay-sia kosong propaganda.
But the Special Task Force to facilitate business can get their job done within seven days.
The tip of the iceberg of UMNOs’ racist to the core is in this latest newsreport.
P. Uthayakumar
pemudah
Posted by barred at 4:26 AM

If Utusan slants news, well so does Malaysiakini.com

BUM I was there for the BUM 2010 forum in which Uthayakumar, Teresa Kok and Dr Zul were the speakers. It was a rather boring event till Uthayakumar presented. And I thought it was a very lively exchange between the speakers on the floor in the spirit of a debate . When I returned home and turned on Malaysiakini I was surprised to see Malaysiakini report that a fight had taken place in the event in their report BUM 2010: Uthayakumar sparks row
Quote from the Malaysiakini report “A fight broke out – the verbal kind – at a bloggers meeting in Subang Jaya today when Hindraf founder P Uthayakumar was hit with claims that his struggle borders on extremism“
This is an outright lie. I think the bloggers there will attest to this. Ask any of the bloggers who were there including Harris Ibrahim to come out and say in their blogs or in Malaysiakini that what Malaysiakini reported was a true reflection of what transpired . An exchange and a fight are quite different things.
Besides the words “borders on extremism” were never mentioned. This is an interpretation on the part of Malaysiakini.
Further quoting Malaysiakini ”Panel moderator Helen Ang appeared to have a difficult time getting the situation under control as the verbal jousting continued for almost 15 minutes.”
I think Helen Ang needs to come out in the open and  refute this. This is another terrible lie.I do not know of any fifteen minutes where she was trying to hold the meeting together. In fact she invited me from the floor to comment on a point that was being made by Salahudin. I made an appeal for an open mind on the part of the bloggers if that event was to mean anything. At worst, it was a lively exchange between the participants. To say that the situation was out of control is an outright lie and is terribly mischievous on Malaysiakini’s part.
Malaysikini is becoming Mainstream Media 2 distorting to the advantage of their benefactors. Malaysiakini has thrown objectivity and professionalism out of the window and are everyday proving our point that they do not anymore stand for real change, they only play to the gallery and to their benefactors – this is not the kind of stuff a media organization supposedly working in the cause of democracy and freedom of the press should indulge in.
Malaysiakini is no better than the tabloids. I do not know where else or what else they distort to deceive.
If Utusan slants news, well so does Malaysiakini.com. The difference is only in the direction of the slant. So much for new democracy.
N.Ganesan
Posted by barred at 4:26 AM

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Top student denied varsity entrance

Posted by barred at 4:34 PM

Indian top SPM student denied Matriculation University and JPN Government Scholarship: UMNO Malay-sia Truly Racist.


Sangatha (2) HRP/HINDRAF Seri Andalas Highlights the plead of a smart 10 A’s Indian student ,
Sugentha Subramaniam, age18, student from MRSM Terendak, Melaka whom was denied
place for Matriculation. She is the only Indian top student among the 7 other
students whom scored straight 10 A’s at MRSM Terendak. She has good track records on
her academy , co curriculum and other school activities.
Being a citizen of this country, she was been denied her rights to deserve the
matriculation. She has put in all her effort to always be the best among the best
and now all her dreams has been shattered down by the UMNO led government .SugenthaSangatha (1)
had always wanted to be a Cardiologist and if she was given Matriculation we are
sure she will be the one of the best cardiologist in Malaysia .
In MRSM Terendak, together with Sugentha there were 107 students, which 97 were
muslims and 10 were non muslims . Almost 95 % of the 97 muslim students were
accepted into both Matriculation and UPU but none of the 10 non muslims was accepted
in both the Matriculation and UPU.
Are Indian not part of the PM’s one Malaysia Program.?Why is she denied a place in
the Matriculation program?? She claims that Muslims students obtained lower results
Sangatha (3) then her is granted a place in Matriculation, she wishes them good of luck but she
is still puzzled why she is denied?? What else has she need to do to be granted a
place?? Could the Education Ministry assist to answer her??
Coming from the middle class living family, her parents can’t afford her to continue
her studies in the Private university . What is going to happen to the future of
this smart indian student ?? This is a classical racial discrimination in Malaysia.Sagentha
HRP/Hindraf would like to re- iterate that Sugentha deserves a place in the
Matriculation for her hardwork. This is not begging scheme but this is her rights .
Just like Sugentha, there are many Smart indians students denied entry into
Matriculation , JPA Scholarship denied and we want this marginalization to be
stopped immediately . 
This is UMNO Prime Minister’s Najib Razak’s One Malay-sia.
P.Latha
Bilik Gerakan HRP Tawan Seri Andalas & Kota Raja Selangor
Posted by barred at 4:33 PM

INDIAN COMMUNITY----Where are we heading to?

By Dinesweri Puspanadan,

Few days ago I attended a meeting with an organization(NGO) to discuss about one of my projects which focuses on low achievers among Indian students. Many issues regarding the community were discussed and it was really a fruitful discussion. Literally the discussion ended there but that discussion contributed to the 'discussion in my mind' One particular question sticks in my mind up to date--What actually hinders the growth of Indian community? A cliche question yet many prefer to not answer. So I decided to answer

1.) We are not really good in prioritizing things(sounds vague perhaps). In Malaysia we have 523 Tamil schools and temple--more than 100,000(not including temples which are not registered). Why do we need to spend so much of money in building more temples while our Tamil schools are lacking basic facilities. For a 'kumbaveshegam' in a temple, thousands of money spent but for the school next to the temple, not even few hundreds donated. Even if donate, some Tamil schools' organizations misuse it. How to achieve financial stability if the situation continues to be like this?

2.)Early childhood education among our children;for a group of them precisely fails. We are 7 percent of the population and yet surprisingly 60 percent of the crime is committed by our people. The worst, 14 percent of the prisoners is also our people. In education, 15 % of our students are top achievers and this group usually settle down at overseas while 30 % of our students are IPTA and IPTS students. Apart from that 40 % students belong to the below average achievers and remaining students turn out to be 'hardcore' gangsters who commit heavy crimes. The low achievers group seem to suffer the most and these students are the one who are not certain where they are heading to. What become their choice is the 'hardcore' s choice where they choose their way to live the live; shooting up the crime rate. What do these statistics suggest to us? Some where a long the way has failed our students. Some literature reviews suggest that early childhood education is the root. So we need to look back at that. At the same time, as how we have plenty of plans for top achievers, we also need to focus on low achievers

3.)UNITY is another big big big problem. Why on earth Indians are not united? I do not think I need to elaborate more on this. Think for yourself

Many of us then to blame the others for our current situation. Personally, I believe that the fault is within us. However,I believe that the problem should be tackled from the root. Time to do some 'cleansing' in our community and restructure the whole thing. We are now at a point where we need to do something for our community. If not, there is no turning back . If mothers in the family stop watching Tamil serials and fathers stop loitering at restaurants to talk about politics and divert their mind to concentrate on their children, the situation will change.Financial stability is the key for the betterment of our community. We are the minority and supposedly we should be strong. Unfortunately there are some of use here for political purpose. Community work is not genuine. Events are organized for community by some organization, associations for a cheap advertisement. NO FOLLOW UP. So how? Every individual needs to wake up and bring the change in him or her. Depending on one particular association or organization will bring us nowhere. Time to rectify ourselves and establish our own financial in dependency.
Posted by barred at 4:33 PM

Indian Villagers without power and water for 52years (The Star 22/5/2010)

one-malaysia3 RM530 Million to supply water to 16,000 house and RM825 Million for electricity to 30,000 homes as per the 2010 National Budget. (Our letter to Prime Minister Najib Razak dated 27/10/2009) refer link- http://www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com/2009/10/27/1-rm-1915-billion-2010-budget-but/
But how come these Millions for even the very basic necessity water and electricity does not ever reach these Indian poor homes? Why? This level of racism and supremacy does not happen in any other part of the world.
Who speaks for these Indian poor? PKR? DAP? PAS? NGO’s? Malaysiakini.com? Indian elite?
P.Uthayakumar.
Indian Villagers without power
Posted by barred at 4:32 PM

P.Uthayakumar’s presentation at Bloggers Universe Malaysia, BUM 2010: Blogger’s roles to bridge religious divide.


IMG_0707 P.Uthayakumar’s presentation at Bloggers Universe Malaysia, BUM 2010 on 22/5/2010 at 6.00pm to 7.30p.m
Venue : Lake View Club, SubangIMG_0690
Organiser : bum4msia.wordpress.co
Blogger’s roles to bridge religious divide.
Good evening to all of you present here this evening.
I often drive up and down the north south highway, as I am sure many of you do. As we drive down that highway, we see trees, oil palm trees, rubber trees, that line the sides of the highway and our thoughts ,very likely wonder at the order and beauty in all of that,….. and we go on. But, we do not think of what goes on behind the neat lines image of these trees, let alone deep inside those lines – the history, the socio-political processes, the struggles, in short, about the lives of people that cause these trees.
I stand here today to present, to represent the views from deep inside behind those trees. And often times these views are not pretty. I present them with candor and I present them with some anger.
Now let me share some of those thoughts with you.
Let me take you a hundred years back. These tree that line the highway today were first planted then as trees of commercial profit. The imperative of the profit flow from these trees needed a large stable workforce.
History has it that the poorest from South India were targeted and millions plucked out and brought here and supplanted deep behind those trees. To make this workforce stable and sustainable, deriving from the profit flow imperative, their villages in India were mimicked and rural Indian communities were image built up here deep inside the Malaysian forests. And so it has gone on throughout Malaya, a social phenomenon driven by the imperatives of profit –rural Indian communities came to be a significant part of the social landscape of our country.
And then all of a sudden with the change of ownership of the plantations in the last 50 odd years, these communities had to go, to give way for what we all call development. These people just had to go.
Given the logic and the laws of those in power, these people had no rights to the lands whatsoever on which they had lived for image generations, creating profit flow for the elites of our country . By the law, they cannot make any claims to ownership of land that had formed their villages, they had no rights to any of the infrastructure in and around the village – their places of worship do not belong to them , their burial grounds do not belong to them, the schools do not belong to them, none of the community facilities belong to them. There is nothing left for them. The law now dictates that all of that is sitting illegally on someonelse’s land.
By these brazen laws, which completely lack morality ,the entire fabric of the social life of the Indian poor has been smashed. They are atomized into a new wilderness of the urban spaces. In the cities, they try to recoup in the shanties, in the squatter colonies and in image the low cost settlements and try to rebuild their communities. They own nothing here, either. The long arm of the logic and the law extends here too
So net, net…..
image image1 ) places of worship continue to be demolished – till today. This is a well documented phenomenon. I do not need to go into the specifics but to say that several hundred temples have been demolished in the last few years.
2) burial grounds continue to be destroyed with impunity all over the country.
When all of this happens to a marginalized community, it just does not seem to matter to the rest of Malaysia. They are superfluous anyway. They are a society outside of society. They don’t exist, the phenomenon never happened. Each vertical community has its own way of discounting all of image this. I do not want to get into that here.
Again I remind you, I am speaking of the views from deep inside behind those neat lines of trees that line the highway. Not of the neat highways nor of the trees that line the highways.
Iimage n an era of plenty and prosperity for many in the country, it is time that this issue be addressed squarely and with candour. We need to get this into the mainstream of discussion, so these dispossessed and abandoned poor will be able to get back on to the national agenda. The thought that this has gone on for so long, with utter and sometimes purposeful neglect and with impunity gives me my anger.
Now, on the question of religious divide let me add these perpectives
The forces that are demolishing the Hindu poor way of life are doing so without any care or responsibility to understand or appreciate image the rights and needs of this impoverished community. And this then creates the divide because those that choose to demolish are not Hindus. And the intensity and impunity with which this demolition has happened causes the the divide to grow. Then neglect not only by the political elite – Malay, Chinese Indian without distinction, but also by all of civil society, NGOs, Rights organizations and the image Media adds to the growing divide.
The econ0omic imperative over the years has also set in motion two other critical tendencies exacerbating the situation. They are the ethnocentrism or to put it more bluntly – racism, that is steadily growing and religious intolerance of the Islamists in ruling elite against the religious rights of the minorities.
These two tendencies converge in the national policies and are most evident at the periphery where most of the Indian poor live. The Indian poor are powerless against the onslaught from the ruling elite encompassing the poltical elite, big business of all shades, the image image aimage dministration, the judiciary and the police.
1) The NEP is an expression of this onslaught. Opportunities are blocked for those that do not count in the political reckoning of the elite. With opportunities blocked this way and because of the many exigencies of life, many from among the Indians convert to Islam. Opportunities open up for such converts, though it may not be the same as for the Muslims by birth, but new opportunities do open up. temple_padangjawa1
2) They then run into the second of the emerging trends of religious intolerance, that of the Islamist extremists among the ruling elite. Even as opportunities open up for the converts, it opens up a Pandora box of problems in the lives of the people they leave behind. The entire ruling elite then gets together to force the issue. Recent incidents of body snatching are testament to this tendency. Example ;
moorthy M. Moorthy, the Malaysian hero who climbed Mount Everest, died in December 2005.
The Islamic religious authorities obtained a Syariah Court order, in his widow S. Kaliammal’s absence, declaring him a Muslim when he died.
Kaliammal tried to have her deceased husband declared a Hindu at the time of his death by the High Court
Cases of conversion of children by one parent against the wishes of the second and the subsequent endorsement by the civil courts or the abdication of the responsibilities by the Higher civil courts to the inferior Sharia courts are nothing but further testament to this significant trend. Examples
Shamala is a Hindu Mother whose husband converted to Islam after 4 years of marriage.They had two children from the marriage. image
Husband converted them to Islam without the knowledge
of Shamala
The Civil High Court did not recognise Shamala’s
rights as Mother of the children
image3) The Administration has a bias to force conversions to Islam or to be partial to issues relating to conversions to Islam. There are many reported cases of forced conversions in government run or sponsored welfare homes. Example four year old Darshini whose name was changed to Darshini binti Selvarajoo.
There are cases where a non- Muslim married to a Muslim cannot have a legal wedding without conversion. If such marriages are not registered their children lose their statehoods if they are all not Muslims. Example
Menachi 61 years old from Butterworht lived her life with Jamal till Jamal died. They lived as a Hindu and as a Muslim. Their marriage image was not registered in the civil registry because of the interfaith marriage.Menachi has no IC because she ran away from home when she was 12 or 13.
They had 5 chiildren. 3 boys and two girls. The boys were brought up as Muslims and they have all their Identity documents intact. The Mother wanted to bring up the daughters as Hndus and till today they do not BCs and ICs.
The NRD officers keep telling her all her problems would be solved if she just converted.
The religious divide continues to grow because of these and other related issues. Are we to just accept all of this, those of us that are in the know, and then let the affected live a life of shameful indignity?image
This is the question I pose to you all. Are we, the bloggers, the so called people in the know, to just accept all of this, and let the affected live a life of shameful indignity. Are we?
We the bloggers are supposed to be concerned citizens. We are the intellectuals of this society. There is much that is not understood by people at large, because it just fits the purpose of the greedy elite to maintain that ignorance and mistaken and harmful beliefs among the people. Now, with technology so readily available, the intellectual becomes the blogger. The intellectuals must lay the picture out clearly and objectively to the people so they can see the truth, that has been obscured to them by the elite of the country. We have to undo what the mainstream media has done. We have to help people understand the situation objectively, so we can contribute to closing the divide, not only the religious divide, but also the ethnic divide.
But first the problem of the religious divide has to be understood by us,for what it really is. The bloggers have a role to understand the socio-political mechanisms that contribute to this divide. Bloggers must play an active role in the discourses that go to understand the objective basis of these phenomena. We must not become victims of narrow belief systems ourselves.
For instance, in this presentation of mine, I do not how many of you are receiving what I am saying objectively and not being judgemental or dismissing what I am saying because of some previous notions, based on a belief system that rather tends to reinforce status quo.. If we all had the answers from where we stand, we will not need this kind of discourses. The bloggers have to be educated before they can educate.
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Many accuse me of being sectarian, of only raising Indian and Hindu religious issues. If the blogging community, or the so called opposition parties really do their jobs of raising issues based on the gravity of the situation rather than on its ethnicity, then I would not at all have to take the position that I take, I would be unemployed. But the fact is this – the political opposition parties and the civil society members of whom the bloggers are an integral part do not rise to this occasion. The bloggers all have become victims of the sectarianism and the ethnocentrism that runs so deep within our system – again let me reiterate, this is the view from deep inside and behind those neat lines of trees.
The history of our country has not been written in an objective manner that there is a general agreement on what has happened. That gives for many and different interpretations and a very poor starting point for the building of a great nation. The current entrenched greedy elite further aggravate matters by feeding ethnocentric and religious extremist tendencies within our society and live off the polarization that occurs. Polarization feeds the elite. Clearly this is all not the stuff by which a great country will be built.
imageThe bloggers therefore have a role to play to bring about unity of understanding within our society to start with or to put it in the words of this seminar, the bloggers must play an objective and learned role to narrow the ethno-religious divide that besieges our society.
This is my summary on the role that bloggers need to play in bridging the religious divide.
With that I would like to thank BUM for having given me an opportunity to address all of you here today, maybe to begin an era of better understanding.
Posted by barred at 4:32 PM

Zero Indians in government food courts. Indian Roadside stalls immediately demolished (See UM 4/5/2010 at page 26).

610x A poor Indian without much education who is prepared to work hard and earn a decent living is not allowed to open up a roadside stall unlike the malay muslim as per the photo here.
Their stalls would be confiscated or demolished within days if not weeks.
But the Malays are given a leeway even for ten years or even twenty years like in Kg. Kerinchi until they are relocated to some food court or other or make enough money to open up their own food shops.
And these poor Indians are denied by UMNO almost 100% of the stalls in government build lower rental food courts. Why? And PKR, DAP and PAS will never question this racism but would instead allege HRP & Hindraf to be racist for pointing out this grave racism.

S.JAYATHAS
Zero Indians 1 Zero Indians 2
Zero Indians 3
Posted by barred at 4:31 PM
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