Hindu activist sues Malaysia govt over terror claims: lawyer

Hindu activist sues Malaysia govt over terror claims: lawyer

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) — A Hindu rights activist Friday filed a 100-million-ringgit (30.5-million-dollar) libel suit against the Malaysian government for allegedly linking him to terror groups, his counsel said.

M. Manogar said the suit was filed in the Kuala Lumpur High Court on behalf of P. Uthayakumar who is being held along with four others under the Internal Security Act, which allows detention without trial.

The suit also names police chief Musa Hassan and attorney general Abdul Gani Patail, the counsel said.

"Both the police chief and the attorney general have gone on record to announce that Uthayakumar is a threat to national security because of his links with terrorist organisations.

"Where is the evidence? If there is any evidence, charge Uthayakumar in the open court. Uthayakumar is claiming 100 million ringgit for defamation," Manogar told AFP.

The five leaders of rights group Hindraf were detained after they enraged the government in November by leading a mass rally protesting at alleged discrimination against minority ethnic Indians in Malaysia.

They are being held at the Kamunting detention centre in northern Perak state, some 300 kilometres (190 miles) from Kuala Lumpur.

Police used tear gas, water cannon and baton charges to break up the Hindraf street protest which drew 8,000 people, and came just two weeks after another rare demonstration organised by electoral reform campaigners.

Religious and racial issues are sensitive in multiracial Malaysia, which experienced deadly race riots in 1969.

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Hindu woman loses Malaysia case

Subhasini's lawyer said the court made it clear a newly converted Muslim had recourse to the Islamic courts

A Hindu woman has had her attempt to stop her estranged husband from divorcing her in an Islamic court, and converting their youngest son to Islam, thwarted by Malaysia's highest court.

Subhasini Rajasingham's husband had already converted himself and their elder son, now four, to the religion in 2006.

Subhasini also wants a divorce but says it should be decided in a civil court.

The federal court rejected her request on a technicality, leaving the option of another attempt.

But it failed to clarify the status of Malaysia's minorities in marital disputes where the spouse is a Muslim.

The court said that as a principle, marital disputes involving a converted Muslim spouse and a non-Muslim partner should only be decided in a civil court and not in the sharia court.

But at the same time, the court said Subhasini's husband has the right to approach the shariah court to seek redress.

Civil-rights groups have voiced fears that minority rights have become subordinate to Islamic jurisprudence because of a series of rulings that have gone in favour of Muslim spouses.

Nik Hashim Nik Abdul Rahman, one of the two judges who dismissed the case, said: "The civil and sharia courts cannot interfere with each other's jurisdiction."

There was one dissenter.

Controversal family law

Family law is a controversal area in Malayia's courts. Non-Muslims complain that civil courts give up their responsbilty to their Islamic counterparts too easily in cases involving a Muslim conversion.

In Malaysia marriages between Muslims and non-Muslims are forbidden.

Therefore, once a spouse converts to Islam, the union is broken in the eyes of Islamic courts.

K Shanmuga, Subashini's lawyer, said the judges' comments made it clear they recognised the husband's right, as a newly converted Muslim, to have recourse to the Islamic courts.

In summing up the ruling's significance Shanmuga said: "The high court has jurisdiction to hear matters when this is a non-Muslim marriage but the husband also has a right to sharia court under Islamic law."

In the civil court Shanmuga cited a landmark ruling by the federal court in July which stated that if one party was a non-Muslim, the sharia court had no jurisdiction.

This was a rare ruling that went against a tide of decisions granting jurisdiction to the Islamic courts.

-Al Jazeera News.

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Global rights group accuses Malaysia of silencing minority after ethnic Indians' arrests

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): An international human rights group called on Malaysia Tuesday to release five ethnic Indian activists who have been detained without trial, and accused the Muslim Malay-dominated government of trying to silence a minority.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement that Malaysia should immediately free the five leaders of the Hindu Rights Action Force, or Hindraf, who were arrested Thursday under the Internal Security Act for alleged sedition and threatening national security.

The colonial-era ISA allows for detention without trial for an initial period of two years that can be extended indefinitely.

Elaine Pearson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the arrests were "an attempt to frighten into silence a minority community concerned about its rights."

"The government must allow all voices to be heard, including those from marginalized communities like Hindraf who are seeking equal access to basic rights," Pearson said.

The five activists had organized a demonstration last month where some 20,000 ethnic Indians participated to voice the community's demand for equal rights. Police used tear gas and water cannons to quell the protest, and charged 31 other people with attempted murder. The charge was dropped Monday.

Indians, who account for 8 percent and are at the bottom of the economic and social ladder, complain they face discrimination in education, job and business opportunities and their temples have been unfairly demolished. Muslim Malays make up 60 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people and dominate the government.

The government has denied that racial discrimination exists and has accused Hindraf of inciting racial hatred and unrest in this multiethnic country.

Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have called on the government to abandon the Internal Security Act - last used against political dissent in 2001 - and try those, mainly criminal and terrorist suspects, still held under the law.

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Malaysian Prosecutors Drop Attempted Murder Charges Against Ethnic Indians

Malaysian prosecutors dropped attempted murder charges against 31 ethnic Indians on Monday, a move likely to soothe minority Indians who say they are victims of discrimination in this Muslim-majority country.

Prosecutors said all charges were being dropped against five Indians, all students. Attempted murder charges—punishable by 20 years in prison—were dropped against the remaining 26 defendants. In exchange, they pleaded guilty to causing mischief and illegal assembly during a rally last month.

All 26 were freed on bail but could face up to five years in jail and a fine when they are sentenced on December 27, lawyers said.

The 31 were arrested on November 25 when more than 20,000 ethnic Indians demonstrated in the streets in an unprecedented public show of anger in defiance of a government ban. They were charged with attempted murder as a result of a head injury to one policeman, provoking an international outcry.

In the packed Sessions Court, cheers broke out when Attorney General Abdul Gani Patail told the judge he was dropping all charges against five Indians and attempted murder charges against the 26 others.

"I could be very strict but I don't think this is the time to be that strict," he said. "When we exercise the law ... we look at what is fair and just ... and in my judgment this is the fairest thing to do," he said.

Several ethnic Indian social groups as well as an Indian-based political party, which is part of the ruling coalition, had urged Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to drop the attempted murder charges.

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang of the Democratic Action Party called for charges against the 26 others to be dropped.

Five key leaders of the Hindu Rights Action Force, which organized the November 25 rally, remain in detention under the colonial era Internal Security Act that allows indefinite imprisonment without trial.

On Monday, rights groups staged a protest outside the government's National Human Rights Commission, urging the body to push for abolishing the ISA.

Ethnic Indians make up about 8 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people, and most are at the bottom of the country's social and economic ladder. Malay Muslims comprise about 60 percent of the population, and control the government. Ethnic Chinese account for about a quarter and dominate business.

Hindraf is demanding equality and fair treatment for Indians, saying an affirmative action program that gives preferential treatment to Muslim Malays is tantamount to racial discrimination. The Indians also complain their religious rights are being trampled.

Vasantarao Appasamy, 19, one of those released, said he is happy to be out of jail. "But I am just disappointed about this government."

By Julia Zappei/AP Writer/Kuala Lumpur December 18, 2007

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Whither Malaysia?

How much trouble is the government’s leadership actually in, given the continuing protests and arrests?

malays-badawiWith Malaysia in the midst of a crackdown on political dissent with the first use of the draconian Internal Security Act in at least half a decade and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi under fire from both domestic and international human rights organizations, where does the country stand today? Will dissent increase? Is Abdullah Badawi in electoral trouble? Will unrest spread outside of the opposition parties to the populace at large? What do the demonstrations mean for investors?

The answers are mixed. Despite a general feeling of malaise over the economy, it actually grew at the fastest pace since 2005 — 6.7 percent in the third quarter — on rising domestic demand and investment as well as commodity exports, although manufactured exports declined somewhat. So far, unrest appears to have been contained largely within the opposition despite widespread grumbling, particularly on the Internet, and does not appear to be concerning investors. The Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro) said in its 2008 Economic Outlook for East Asia, released this week, that reduced corporate taxes are expected to continue to lure foreign investment. Nobody is particularly nervous about the protests.

Unless there is a dramatic change, it is inconceivable that the Barisan Nasional, the collection of ethnically-based political parties that make up the national ruling coalition, would lose an election when it is called, expected to be sometime next year. But by Malaysian standards the electorate may deliver a blow to the Barisan, which has ruled the country since independence in 1957. Ethnic Chinese, who make up 23.7 percent of the population according to the CIA World Factbook, have been disenchanted by rising Malay bellicosity and widespread reports of corruption.

Rural Malays can largely be expected to continue to support the Barisan and the United Malays National Organisation, the leading ethnic party in the coalition because of the benefits delivered to them by the National Development Plan, the successor to the New Economic Policy or NEP in the form of schooling, redistribution of wealth and other assistance. Commodity prices, because of China’s voracious appetite, are up, particularly for palm oil and rubber.

Although urban professional Malays in Kuala Lumpur and other cities appear to be increasingly unhappy with what they regard as the hijacking of NEP by rent-seeking cronies and a series of events involving local corruption, nothing has galvanized them into real action against the Barisan. For one thing, their options are relatively limited. The jeans-wearing BMW drivers and their companions in the urban areas who have forsaken strict Islamic dress have little in common with the ascetic Islamic foundations of Parti Sa-Islam Malaysia, the biggest Malay opposition party outside the coalition.

There appears to be little trust for the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and Parti Keadilan Malaysia despite his charisma, partly because he is perceived to be too close to the International Monetary Fund and the Washington Consensus. A recent statement by the US Department of State calling on Malaysia to respect human rights was perceived as an effort to help restore Anwar to the power he lost when he was fired as deputy prime minister by Mahathir Mohamad and subsequently jailed on charges of corruption and sexual misconduct. The charges of sexual misconduct were later reversed. The charges have been widely viewed as trumped up. However, in recent weeks, an internet site perceived as favorable to Abdullah Badawi’s son-in-law has begun to sprout with other tales of sexual misconduct, including a 10-year-old videotape of a woman filing a police complaint against him for attempting to fondle her breast.

Demonstrations organized by opposition parties and civic organizations, particularly Bersih, which brought out as many as 30,000 people on Nov. 10, energized a surprising number of urban, middle-class Malays as well as the fundamentalists organized by Parti sa-Islam Malaysia, or PAS, the Islamic opposition party. Urban Malays talk of “teaching the Barisan a lesson,” but it is not likely to be a lesson that will sink the coalition. Some key urban areas could go to the opposition, particularly cities dominated by the Chinese such as Penang.

Penang looks shaky because the Chinese there are very unhappy because of a controversial project in the prime minister’s home state, the Penang Global City Centre. It is being built on a 104-hectare site now occupied by the Penang Turf Club by an entrepreneur named Patrick Lim, who has been nicknamed Patrick Badawi because of his close ties to the prime minister. While cronyism is nowhere near the levels it reached during the reign of the previous prime minister, the project has stirred criticism, which has been exacerbated by what many people consider the inappropriate use of Abdullah Badawi’s name by his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin.

One well-connected analyst told Asia Sentinel that because Chinese and Indian voters are increasingly frustrated by the political situation and leaning towards voting for the opposition, particularly in major cities including Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh and Johor, UMNO leaders see their path to preserving their majority as playing to ethnic tensions. “You are going to see a lot more keris-waving before the election,” he said, a reference to the wavy-bladed dagger that forms a part of Malay ceremonial costumes. UMNO leaders have occasionally got carried away and waved the daggers, vowing to bathe them in Chinese blood.

The demonstrations themselves have caused massive traffic jams in Kuala Lumpur, the latest on Tuesday as police sought to keep opposition leaders away from the Dewan Rakyat, or Parliament building where they sought to present a petition for electoral reform. They have been largely organized by opposition parties and it is unclear how far participation has spread outside the opposition. Malaysians are particularly averse to demonstrations. The traumatic 40-year-old events of May 1969, when hundreds of people died in ethnic riots in Kuala Lumpur and other cities, seem to Malaysians — partly because the government keeps reminding them — to have happened only yesterday. Consequently, urban residents, while sympathetic to the need for change, have very little patience for the disruption of their daily lives.

They have particularly little patience with Hindraf, the Hindu Rights Reaction Force, five of whose members were detained Thursday under the ISA and which organized a demonstration on Nov. 25 that drew another 30,000 protesters, all Indians, protesting that Indians were the lowest-income ethnic group in the country. Hindraf sent a petition to the Queen of England, asking for redress of US$4 trillion — US$1 million for every Indian resident of Malaysia — for bringing the Indians from India to work in rubber plantations, build roads and do other tasks during the colonial period. The assertion of Indian poverty was quickly contradicted by Malaysia’s Economic Planning Unit director-general, Sulaiman Mahbob, who said that average household income for Indians in 2004 stood at RM3,456 a month, while Malays’ monthly average household income was RM2,711. For the Chinese, monthly average household income was RM4,437.

On balance, while there seems to be general irritation on the part of voters, it is concentrated in pockets and it doesn’t seem to extend to the population at large. If the election were to cost the coalition some of the bigger cities, and especially if the coalition’s balance of power in the Dewan Rakyat fell below its historic two-thirds margin, Abdullah Badawi would be in trouble.

Not with the electorate at large, but in the country’s real election — the UMNO party elections that may be held in 2008 or 2009. If Abdullah Badawi is perceived to still be in trouble, the man waiting in the wings is Najib, despite the hot breath of scandal over allegations of the purchase of submarines and jet fighters that appeared to guarantee fat commissions for friends, and for the alleged involvement of his bodyguards and best friend who are now on trial for the gruesome murder of a Mongolian translator.

Najib is the man who has been delivering the bacon to the Malay rank and file. So far, barring dramatic announcements, he appears to be the beneficiary of Abdullah Badawi’s troubles.


(Imran Imtiaz Shah Yacob 13 December 2007 asiasentinel.)

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US looks on as Malaysia wobbles

Protests for greater democratization have spurred a strategic Muslim ally of the United States to clamp down and prioritize security concerns over civil liberties. Opposition parties have promised more protests, while the government states it will not tolerate any more public demonstrations that it deems a threat to national security. All of this takes place with critical democratic elections on the horizon.

Although this scenario could apply to Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror", it applies equally to Malaysia, a country that in recent years has been on the periphery of US foreign policy and now suddenly is at risk of becoming another regional political hot spot. Malaysia is important both strategically and economically as the world's 34th largest economy and currently the US's 10th-largest trade partner.

Geographically, Malaysia straddles the Strait of Malacca through which approximately 50% of the world's oil supply flows, including over 70% of China's imports. The US navy has pushed to play a larger role in patrolling the strategic waterway, including protecting against possible seaborne terror attacks.

Malaysia is also home to the Southeast Asia Regional Center for Counterterrorism, which has trained over 1,000 police and military personnel on strategies to combat terrorism in the region. Multilateral security agreements between Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore have recently helped to hobble Indonesia-based terror group Jemaah Islamiyah and other al-Qaeda-linked operations in Southeast Asia, including in the southern Philippines.

On the surface, Malaysia is precisely the type of moderate and modern Muslim country that the US should prioritize for improving relations. The current prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, is a third generation Islamic scholar and has advanced a concept known as "Islam Hadhari", which focuses on progressive values, moderation, and social justice in Islam. He is currently the chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the premier global forum for Muslim country leaders.

Abdullah was appointed to power in 2003, ending the autocratic reign of the previous prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, who had earlier anointed Abdullah as his eventual successor. In 2004, his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) won an overwhelming majority, winning 198 of 220 parliamentary seats and gaining electoral ground against a radical Islamist party, though the polls were somewhat tainted by restrictions that prevented full participation by opposition parties.

Although it has many blessings, Malaysia also suffers from a growing number of dire domestic problems. Mahathir's 22-year reign saw dramatic economic growth, but at the same time entrenched social discrimination, with preferential government policies drawn on ethnic lines that pit the majority ethnic Malays against the minority Chinese and Indians. As a result, endemic corruption, ethnic tension and uneven economic development now threaten to overwhelm Abdullah's once popular administration.

While Malaysia is relatively prosperous compared to other countries in the region, many areas of the country are still impoverished. The sharp ethnic and religious divide between Muslim Malays, Buddhist and Christian Chinese and Hindu Indians has clearly been accentuated by recent events. Earlier, a high-profile court case pitting the state against a Malay woman who attempted to officially convert from Islam to Christianity stirred fundamental tensions over ethnic identity, religion, and civil liberties. (By law Muslims in Malaysia are not allowed to change their faith).

Most importantly, the government remains largely unresponsive to these mounting tensions. Proposed anti-corruption measures have stalled, the police are still largely unaccountable and electoral barriers for opposition parties remain in place. All of these problems have in recent months fueled some of the largest protests in Malaysia's history. The government has responded by cracking down hard on peaceful demonstrators and banning further protests - an order that the political opposition and non-governmental organizations have defied.

Further instability could imperil US interests, as well as the security of key neighboring US strategic allies, including Singapore.

The US has a surprisingly large lever to push for democratic change in Malaysia. The two sides have been engaged since June 2006 in extensive talks about signing a new free trade agreement (FTA), which if implemented would give Malaysian export products preferential treatment in US markets. Because exports represent roughly 130% of Malaysia's gross domestic product, potential greater access to US markets is a big economic deal.

The administration of US President George W Bush has made it clear that it is committed to successful negotiations, but could also use the talks to wring important political concessions from Abdullah, in particular towards good governance and democratic change, reforms that could help to relieve the pressure surrounding the ongoing protests and government crackdowns.

For instance, a US push for a gradual easing of electoral restrictions on opposition parties and greater freedom for non-governmental organizations to put a check on government would allow some of the pressure now building on the streets to be vented in parliament. Abdullah's UMNO party, which has ruled the country uninterrupted since achieving independence in 1957, currently enjoys an overwhelming majority in parliament.

The US could also pressure Malaysia to more effectively implement its anti-corruption legislation. Endemic corruption continues to weaken the Malaysian state and provides a big hurdle to US investors who must abide by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In return, the US could offer preferential concessions in an FTA to groups that increasingly are being left behind by Malaysia's development, including fisher-folk and agricultural workers.

Pakistan serves as an increasingly grim example of what can go wrong when the US fails to engage a strategic ally by lobbying for democratic and economic reforms that could go to redress underlying socio-economic problems. And the US could also arguably enhance its ongoing fight against terrorism by improving and re-engaging its relationship with Malaysia. Indeed, a more democratic, prosperous and religiously moderate Malaysia could serve as a valuable conduit for future US engagement with the broader Muslim world.

Tony Wilson is an intern with the national security team at the Center for American Progress in Washington DC. He is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.

--www.atimes.com--

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Ethnic Indians held in Malaysia under security law

Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia): Malaysian authorities arrested five ethnic Indian activists on Thursday under a security law that allows indefinite detention without trial, a lawyer said.

The activists are key officials in the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF), which held a street protest November 25 that drew about 20,000 ethnic Indians complaining about alleged racial discrimination.

''They were told that they're being detained under the ISA,'' lawyer N Surendran said, referring to the Internal Security Act, a law that has occasionally been used by the government to detain suspects regarded as threats to national security.

Two police officials, who declined to be identified, citing protocol, confirmed that several HINDRAF activists had been arrested. They declined to elaborate.

The arrests escalate a government crackdown on HINDRAF since it organised last month's rally - the biggest protest involving ethnic Indians in more than a decade and one that triggered fears of ethnic unrest in this multiracial country.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi earlier this week said the government will not tolerate street demonstrations because they could lead to violence. He warned that if necessary, he would invoke the ISA.

HINDRAF has demanded equality and fair treatment for Indians, saying an affirmative action program that gives preferential treatment to the Muslim Malay majority in business, jobs and education is tantamount to racial discrimination.

The government denies it discriminates against Indians and has accused HINDRAF leaders of trying to create ethnic trouble.

Ethnic Indians make up about 8 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people and are at the bottom of the social and economic scale. Malays make up about 60 percent of the population and control the government. Ethnic Chinese are about a quarter of the population and dominate business.

(Associated Press; Thu, Dec 13, 2007 )

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Hindraf chief released in Malaysia

HONG KONG: Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader P Uthayakumar was released from police custody in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, without being formally charged.

The firebrand lawyer had been arrested twice on Tuesday, the second time within minutes of his having posted bail for an earlier arrest on sedition charges.

News of Uthayakumar’s release came as a surprise to his lawyers and supporters, who had been waiting in court for him to be produced to face fresh charges.

Under law, the Malaysian police were required to bring formal charges against him within 24 hours of arrest.

A throng of supporters gathered at the remand centre in Kuala Lumpur, from where Uthayakumar, who had mobilised over 10,000 ethnic Indians on November 25 to protest race-based discrimination and economic marginalisation, was released at about 5 pm local time (2.30 pm IST), Hindraf sources told DNA. He was garlanded and cheered, and slogans were raised in his praise.

Hindraf supporters with diyas in hand had also held a vigil outside the remand centre until midnight on Tuesday/Wednesday. Uthayakumar’s lawyer M. Manoharan speculated that police authorities may have been “frightened” by the extent of popular support for the arrested leader, and had therefore released him.

Speaking to supporters and mediapersons immediately after his release, Uthayakumar said he had been questioned in connection with some “seditious” statement he had allegedly made following the arrest of ethnic Indians on November 25, but that he had refused to answer them.

“I told them they were criminals, and that I refuse to answer your questions,”

Uthayakumar said. He added that he would not be intimidated from “speaking the truth” despite the series of sedition charges planned against him.

Earlier on Wednesday, a police team raided Uthayakumar’s office, evidently looking for “seditious material”, and to seize cyberdata from office computers.

Also on Wednesday, the besieged government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi came under pressure from a broad-based coalition of Opposition parties and NGOs to end the crackdown on political dissenters, including leaders of ethnic Indian communities, and open negotiations.

At a press conference, former Deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim read out a joint statement on behalf of the coalition, which called for a meeting with Badawi “to pursue the agenda of national unity and reconciliation among all Malaysians regardless of race and religion, press demands for free and fair elections and work towards resolving the serious problems we face.”

Recent events caused cracks in unity, and civil liberties were being eroded by the crackdown against civil society and political leaders, the statement added.


(Published in DNA dated 13 December 2007)

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Hindraf leader arrested after bail

SINGAPORE: Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) leader P. Uthayakumar was arrested, granted bail and rearrested under Malaysia’s Sedition Act on Tuesday, amid the continuing crackdown on opposition leaders and civil liberty activists.

Mr. Uthayakumar was first arrested in Kuala Lumpur while he was on way to his office in the morning. He was soon charged, in a Sessions Court, for having posted a “seditious” statement on the website, in the guise of a letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the alleged “ethnic cleansing” of Malaysian Indians.

In that letter, the Hindraf leader had appealed to the U.K. to refer Malaysia to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court. The U.K. was also requested to pilot an emergency resolution against Malaysia in the United Nations Security Council. The Hindraf had earlier held the U.K. responsible for its colonial-era actions that led to ethnic Indian settlements, as a minority group, in the Malaya region.

Pleads not guilty

With Mr. Uthayakumar pleading not guilty, he was granted bail by judge Sabariah Othman, who ordered a five-day trial from January 7 next year. When contacted by The Hindu, Mr. Uthayakumar said he was rearrested shortly after he posted bail and that he was, at that very moment, being held by police. His counsel M. Manoharan later said he was not yet informed of the new “sedition charge.” He clarified that the new move was said to be related to the Sedition Act and not the tougher Internal Security Act that could be used for detention without trial.

The charges are a sequel to the ruling by a High Court on Monday that trial be held, in a different case under the Sedition Act, in respect of two other Hindraf leaders — P. Waytha Moorty and V. Ganapati Rao also. A Sessions Court had earlier discharged all three.

On the wider and multi-racial opposition front, the former Deputy Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, said in a statement he was briefly detained at the immigration counter of the Kuala Lumpur airport on his arrival from abroad in the morning. Late at night, the national news agency reported that the Immigration Department denied that he was detained.

Mr. Anwar said he was told that his name was on a list of suspects. He led an anti-government rally on November 10 under the banner of Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (locally known as Berish). At least 12 activists of Bersih, including Opposition leaders, were arrested on Tuesday for organising an “illegal rally” outside the heavily-barricaded Parliament complex in Kuala Lumpur. They were opposing the move, later endorsed by Parliament, to grant an extension to the Chairman and members of the Election Commission.

For some time during the day, reports circulated, suggesting that an Indian citizen, identified as Ashraf Ali Sadakatullah, was among those arrested and granted bail for having participated in the “illegal” march by some lawyers and other activists, who demanded “freedom of assembly.” However, neither the Malaysian Bar Council, one or two of whose members defended the accused, nor the Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur could immediately confirm the identity of this person.

(Online edition of India's National Newspaper THE HINDU Wednesday, Dec 12, 2007)

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Special Article: Malaysian Indians: New Delhi Must Tread Cautiously

Malaysia, which celebrated 50 years of independence from British colonial rule on 31 August this year, had a fairly good record of communal harmony all these years. With creeping Islamisation by the ruling United Malays National Organisation led by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and attempts to convert Malaysia into a one-party Islamic state, many Malaysians, mainly people of minority Chinese and Indian origins, are getting restive. The Malaysian population consists of 67 per cent Malays, Bhumiputras or sons of the soil who are Muslims, 25 per cent people of Chinese origin and about eight per cent people of Indian origin.

The Malaysian Constitution adopted at the time of the country’s independence from British colonial rule in 1957 provided for special treatment to the Bhumiputras in government employment and admission to educational institutions. After the violent anti-Chinese riots of the late 1960’s during the Cultural Revolution and backed by the Chinese authorities, there has been no major ethnic violence in the country. Beijing has been more careful and scrupulously avoided giving any room for suspicion of interfering in the internal affairs of the country.

Genuine grievances

The quick response of New Delhi to the 25 November rally in Kuala Lumpur organised by the Hindu Rights Action Force (HindRAF) which was put down with teargas shells and water cannons evoked a sharp retort by Malaysian ministers who wanted India to lay off.

Of the eight per cent Malaysians of Indian origin, 80 per cent are Hindus, 15 per cent Muslims and the rest are Christians or Sikhs. The current agitation in Malaysia by its citizens of Indian origin against discrimination and violation of human rights is not by the entire Indian origin Malaysian citizens but by the Hindu members of the community. They have a genuine grievance. Apart from the economic hardships they face due to the Bhumiputra policy of the government, their immediate concern is the large-scale demolition of Hindu temples. The government justifies the demolition on the ground that these temples were built on municipal or public land without official sanction. Some of the demolished temples, like the Malaimel Sri Selva Kaliamman Temple in Kuala Lumpur, was in existence for the last 100 years. It was demolished when about 300 devotees were inside, offering prayers. Last month, the Sri Mahamariamman Temple in Selangor, which had a huge following of Tamils, was demolished along with the squatter colony surrounding it.

When slavery was abolished in the 19th century, the British, to circumvent the abolition, came out with the ingenious system of indentured labour, which is nothing but a form of slavery, to work in plantations in their far-flung colonies. India was the recruitment ground for this new form of slavery. For almost all the recruits, it was a one-way journey which meant a terminal break with their motherland. As India faced cholera and smallpox and endemic famine in the second half of the 19th century, vulnerable people were duped into migrating to the distant colonies with the promise of a bright future. The culture of migration was sustained by potent economic conditions at home. What was then the Madras Province contributed the most number of people to work in Malaysia. The British rulers allowed these indentured labourers to erect temples wherever they fancied without let or hindrance in their adopted country which explains the numerous Hindu temples in Malaysia.

Descendants of these immigrants who are fourth or fifth generation Malaysians had lived through the last 50 years of independence without facing any serious religious persecution. They are suddenly faced with demolition of their places of worship. The British, while handling over power to the Malays, failed to provide adequate safeguards for the minority communities. Belated realisation of this lacuna had led HindRAF to sue the British government for $4 trillion as compensation which works out to $2 million each for every Malaysian Indian, for bringing their forefathers as indentured labourers and failing to protect their rights and interests at the time of granting independence to Malaysia.

No one seriously expects Britain to honour this claim. A memorandum submitted to the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur at the end of the 25 November HindRAF rally urged the British government to move a resolution in the UN condemning the “ethnic cleansing” taking place in Malaysia. It also demanded the issue be taken to the World Court and the International Criminal Court of Justice.

While the grievances of the Malaysian Indians are justified, this is not a matter on which India can do much without jeopardising the good relations between the two countries. Thirty-one leaders of the agitation have been arrested on attempt to murder charge for allegedly causing injury to a policeman during the rally. Sessions judge Azimah Omar refused bail to the accused and remanded them in custody. If convicted, they face imprisonment for 20 years. Open expression of Indian concern by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee, and the Tamil Nadu chief minister, Muthuvel Karunanidh, can only lead to polarisation between the Malays and the Malaysian Hindus and between Malaysian Hindus and Muslims of Indian origin in that country.

Many of the Indian origin Muslims, in fact, have adopted the Wahabi form of Islam and merged with the Malays. They are known as Mamaks. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who was in power from 1981 to 2003, traces his ancestry to Kerala. In his book titled Islam and the Muslim Ummah, he wrote: “Today Islam has become different from the religion of peace and tolerance that was brought by Prophet Muhammad,” and that “Islam has become a rigid, intolerant and seemingly an unjust religion to the faithful and to others because of the fanaticism and misplaced orthodoxy of people with vested interest.” Anwar Ibrahim, former deputy Prime Minister, is of Tamil descent.

Disturbing trend

The present Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, makes no bones about Islam being the official religion of Malaysia and Bhumiputra the state policy. For Muslims, marriage, divorce and property are governed by Sharia courts. They are prohibited from converting to any other religion. But what is disturbing to India is news emanating from Malaysia in recent times. A Hindu was forcibly given a Muslim burial amidst protests by his family. A child was snatched from its Hindu mother for refusing to bring it up as a Muslim. Just before last Dipavali, the Sharia Department of the Malaysian government issued instructions to Muslims not to greet Hindus on the occasion of the festival of lights. Sami Velu, leader of the Malaysian Indian Congress who has been a minister in successive Malaysian governments, is more interested in promoting business deals between the two countries than address the plight of the Hindus who call him “Uncle Tom.”

HindRAF, either deliberately or mistakenly, has given a communal colour to its agitation against the state’s entrenched discriminatory policy, making it difficult for India to intervene. Perhaps Malaysian Hindus can take a leaf from their Chinese counterparts and learn the art of coexisting with the Malays.

By Sam Rajappa.
The author, a veteran journalist who retired from The Statesman, is based in Chennai.

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Malaysia Gets Tough

Following through on a threat, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has decided to get tough. Authorities Monday filed three legal actions against organizers of recent protests and threw one lawyer in jail overnight for displaying protest signs on private property Saturday.

The charges were condemned by human rights organizations and the opposition. Some opposition figures and lawyers also were arrested and kept in jail overnight Sunday for attempting to organize another protest. Earlier, eight people, including two opposition party leaders, were arrested for taking part in a banned Nov. 10 rally in Kuala Lumpur. Later Monday, police issued a restraining order to stop the electoral reform group Bersih from gathering at Malaysia's Dewan Rakyat, or Parliament, to hand in a protest memorandum asking for a constitutional amendment on electoral reform.

Abdullah Badawi added another threat Monday in a speech to business leaders in which he said he would sacrifice public freedoms for the sake of national stability.

“If the choice is between public safety and public freedoms, I do not hesitate to say here that public safety will always win,” he said. “I will not sacrifice my sense of accountability to the greater public, especially in the face of police intelligence about planned fighting or other violent intent," Abdullah Badawi said. "We must never ever take our peace for granted."

The rising tension makes it difficult to predict when Abdullah Badawi will call national elections, which under Malaysia’s parliamentary system can come sometime next year, largely at his discretion. The government is believed to want to call elections shortly after the first of the year. However, Fazil Mohamad Som, an analyst with the World Islamic Economic Forum, told AFP: "Given the rallies, racial issues and the expected fuel price hikes, general elections appear unlikely until after the middle of next year."

This week’s flash point was an attempt by lawyers and others to march from downtown Kuala Lumpur to the Bar Council building. They were denied a police permit and ignored a police order to disperse. The crowd of about 50 people included lawyers and activists. Court hearings Monday were thronged by supporters of the jailed individuals and opposition leaders who condemned the actions.

A Kuala Lumpur-based analyst, who asked that his name not be used, said that “strong rumors” are circulating of a wider crackdown, with the use of the Internal Security Act, a tough colonial-era law put into effect by the British government in an effort to thwart a Communist rebellion in the 1960s.

“Those who think they will be arrested, I am made to understand, have prepared themselves and their families,” the analyst told Asia Sentinel. “While it is not a certainty that the government will invoke the ISA, the fact that we have even come to this point alters the positive dimensions of this administration."

As evidence of the toughening government stance, last Friday government officials told Malaysia’s newspapers not to “sensationalize” arrests of ethnic Indians following an unprecedented rally against racial discrimination.

However, several high-ranking Malaysian government officials at an official dinner in Hong Kong last Thursday said that while Abdullah Badawi might threaten use of the ISA, it was doubtful that he would actually condone its use.

Another analyst minimized the government’s action, saying that “There have been arrests, but only two from the (Nov. 10) rally last month and another few lawyers from yesterday’s march. Not a real crackdown. Until they do a sweep like Operation Lalang and detain everybody under the ISA, that’s not a crackdown.”

Operation Lalang, ordered by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in October 1987, resulted in the jailing of 116 people and the closure of two newspapers. Opposition leaders and social activists were jailed for as long as two years.

The prime minister came into office in 2003 publicly opposed to the use of the ISA, which allows for preventive detention and denial of a lawyer to any person deemed a threat to public security. The detention order can be renewed indefinitely.

But he has been beset by protest demonstrations, and he faces the possibility of more this month, with de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibraham and the clean government organization Bersih threatening marches in all 13 of Malaysia’s state capitals.

Two weeks ago, the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) organized demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur to protest the treatment of Malaysia’s 2 million ethnic Indians. The demonstration turned violent and one policeman was injured. Some 31 ethnic Indians now have been charged with sedition and attempted murder over the incident. Hindraf has subsequently been alleged by the Inspector General of Police to be receiving information and armed support and training from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which the group denies.

Abdullah Badawi’s increasing problem is a public perception that he is detached from his duties and in thrall to his son-in-law, Kairy Jamaluddin, who is resented for allegedly having gained inordinate power. Originally regarded as a reformer when he followed Mahathir to power, Abdullah Badawi said he would wipe out corruption “without fear or favor” and vowed to rid the country of its long-running racial and religious polarization between the ethnic Malay majority, and Chinese and Indian minorities. In recent months, however, members of the United Malays National Organisation, the dominant ethnic political party, have made increasingly inflammatory statements about the right of Malays to dominate the political process.

Abdullah Badawi himself is widely regarded as decent and honest. An October poll by the New Straits Times newspaper, which is owned by UMNO, put his popularity rating at 76 percent. The question, however, is not the perception among rank-and-file voters as much as it is inside UMNO itself. Despite the crowds that opposition parties are drawing, it appears almost impossible that any ruling coalition parties could be defeated. Part of his problem, analysts say, is that he has had to modify his anti-corruption rhetoric to keep the party’s old guard in line.

Indeed, an UMNO official, Mohd Ali Rustam, demanded Sunday that the authorities invoke the ISA or withdraw the citizenship of some of those arrested, calling them traitors to their country.

(Asia Sentinel 10 December 2007)

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US asks Malaysia to allow freedom of expression

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States on Monday called on Malaysia to allow freedom of expression and assembly as the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi widened its crackdown on dissent.

"We have repeatedly raised with Malaysian authorities our belief that citizens of any country should be allowed to peacefully assemble and express their views," department spokeswoman Nancy Beck told AFP.

"We also stated in our annual human rights report our belief that the Malaysian government places significant restrictions on the right to assemble peacefully," she said.

Police permits are required under Malaysia law for public assemblies, defined as a gathering of five or more persons, but the State Department's rights report says senior police officials and political leaders influenced decisions on granting or denying some permits.

It said "a more restrictive policy" was applied with government critics, opposition parties, and human rights activists.

Beck's remarks on Monday came after Kuala Lumpur widened a crackdown on dissent following two mass rallies last month, with three legal actions taken Monday that rights groups and opposition leaders condemned as anti-democratic.

Ahead of elections, dozens of Malaysian government critics have been rounded up and now face trial on counts including attempted murder and sedition.

Abdullah has threatened to invoke draconian internal security laws that allow detention without trial, citing past racial violence in the multicultural nation dominated by Muslim Malays as reason for restricting street protests.

"If the choice is between public safety and public freedom, I do not hesitate to say here that public safety will always win," he said in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

The United States often hails Malaysia as a moderate Muslim democracy but the image took a knock when a series of indiscriminate destruction of Hindu temples were highlighted by some groups recently.

A US Congress-appointed commission expressed concern last week at the destruction of the temples and other alleged discrimination faced by religious minorities in Malaysia, one of Southeast Asia's more developed economies.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom also urged the administration of President George W. Bush to raise the matter with Kuala Lumpur and "insist that immediate measures be taken to protect sacred sites and prevent further destruction."

The government, which cracked down on two mass rallies last month, took three separate legal actions Monday that rights groups and opposition leaders condemned as anti-democratic.

Among them was a revival of sedition charges against three leaders of ethnic Indian rights group Hindraf, which organised a November anti-discrimination protest that drew 8,000 people. The court had earlier allowed them to walk free on the charges, which carry a penalty of three years in jail.

Lawyers and their supporters were also charged in connection with a human rights march that they mounted in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday which was broken up by police.

Another prominent lawyer, Edmund Bon, was also charged with obstructing a city official who tried to remove protest banners from Malaysia's Bar Council building.

Twelve opposition figures were rounded up over the weekend in connection with an electoral reform rally last month which drew nearly 30,000 people who police dispersed with tear gas and water cannons.

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The travails of the Indian diaspora in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur's imaginative 'Malaysia truly Asia' campaign emphasising the country's multicultural society has taken a hit following the recent violence involving local Indians, many of whom are Tamil Hindus.

Although the outbreak was brought under control fairly quickly, the fact that the agitation was spearheaded by the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) was a disturbing sign. Though small, such outfits can remain active for a long time if the grievances of its ethnic supporters are not adequately addressed.

Since the so-called Hindraf claims to be articulating the complaints of Indians about discrimination and was able to bring a fair number of demonstrators on the streets, it will be unwise to write it off as a group of troublemakers peddling 'lies', as Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed Badawi has said.

The organisation adopted a curious stand by demonstrating outside the British High Commission, demanding a $4 trillion compensation from London for bringing Hindus as indentured labourers to the then Malaya in the colonial period. But everyone knew that its main target was the Malaysian government.

It is unfortunate that the Indian diaspora can now be said to be living a troubled existence in two countries not far from the Indian shores - Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Considering that the Indians have spread all over the world from Fiji to the Gulf countries to Africa, Europe and North America, there has to be a greater endeavour on their part at integration and on the part of host countries to assimilate them.

Before the present outbreak, Malaysia experienced disturbances in 1969 when there were race riots between the Malays and the Chinese. Since then, the country's increasing prosperity has defused ethnic tensions to some extent, but they evidently continue to simmer under the surface.

Even if minorities are usually believed to carry a chip on their shoulders and are over-sensitive to their treatment by the majority, there is always a grain of truth in their grouses, which a government can only ignore at the peril of the country's integrity and stability.

Since Malaysia takes pride in projecting the composite nature of its society comprising three main groups - the Malays, the Chinese and the Indians - the authorities should not be too eager to dismiss the charges of unfairness. Instead, they should hasten to talk to the complainants and take palliative measures if they want to avoid the unhappy fate of countries like nearby Sri Lanka or distant Kosovo.

Such a prompt and sympathetic response is advisable since all too often, the authorities delude themselves into believing that tough measures are the only solution till they find that the attitude of the ethnic dissenters have hardened with unforeseeable consequences. The denial of bail to the Hindraf activists is a case in point.

All multi-ethnic polities face problems of integration, not least because the size of the cake is rarely large enough for all to be pleased with their share. In Malaysia, the problem may have been compounded by the special privileges accorded to the bumiputeras or sons of the soil, who are the indigenous Malays.

As the builder of modern Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, had said, 'The Malays are not only the natives, but also the lords of this country and nobody can dispute this fact.' More recently, Badruddin Amiruldin, a leader of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), said that 'no other race has the right to question our privileges, our religion and our leader'. Evidently, such boastful assertions are not aimed at winning the hearts and minds of the 'outsiders', viz. the Chinese and the Indians.

Although the government recently tried to modify its policy of affirmative action by introducing the concept of meritocracy in keeping with modern trends, such efforts have obviously not been enough to satisfy the Indians.

(Posted : Sat, 08 Dec 2007 04:28:05 GMT; Author : Amulya Ganguli; http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/155211.html)

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Malaysian PM issues fresh warning to Indians

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has warned the ethnic Indians that they could be held under the Internal Security Act if their actions threatened national interest and asked the police to monitor their movements.

Abdullah's warning came following allegations by authorities that the members of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which is spearheading the anti-government agitation against the alleged marginalisation of ethnic Indians, are linked with "terrorists" groups including LTTE.

"My instructions to the police is that the group should be monitored. Internal Security Act is an option. I will decide when the time is right. If they are deemed (as a threat to national security) we will know what to do," the New Straits Times quoted Abdullah as saying.

ISA allows for years of detention without trial. Abdullah, who is also the internal security minister, said he was aware of Hindraf canvassing for support and help from terrorist groups and local gangsters.

Meanwhile, a senior leader in the prime minister's department has said the Malaysian government had Sri Lanka's LTTE and India's RSS as the overseas groups linked to Hindraf.

Mohamed Nazri Aziz was quoted by another newspaper as saying that this was deduced from statements of Hindraf leaders, who went abroad to garner support, that they would meet LTTE leaders.

"As we know, the LTTE has been declared a terrorist group by the United Nations and the United States. If it is true that Hindraf leaders have links with them, Hindraf is also a terrorist group," he said.

The paper did not make any further reference to Nazri's comments on RSS.

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Commentary: Malaysia's beleagured Indian community

NAGERCOIL, India, Dec. 6; It seems that historical injustices permeate the existence of all humanity. What happens when a section of humanity is violently plucked from its motherland and transplanted to another region in dreadfully subhuman conditions? It is unthinkable.

But what if that community, now reduced to an ethnic and religious minority in the country where it is has been transplanted without a choice, is further reduced to desperation through the denial of economic and religious freedom? Does it produce terrorists? Suicide bombers?

If the community happens to be a pacifist one like the Hindu Tamil community in Malaysia, it may wave pictures of Mahatma Gandhi in the face of water cannons and eye-stinging chemicals, as happened during a peaceful protest in Kuala Lumpur last month.

The protesters started by chanting Vedic hymns. Peacefully they defied the ban on the rally. Tactfully they petitioned the Queen of England, for it was British colonial rulers that brought them as indentured laborers to Malaysia over a century ago.

Today they see the state marginalize them. They see the state destroy their temples with bulldozers. They see their families split by a state that practices what can only be called religious apartheid.

Decades of discrimination and humiliation forced thousands of men and women into the streets despite the ban order. Peacefully they faced the water cannons. They sat cross-legged in the lotus position, braving the streams of water laced with chemicals.Women were chased by police who caught and chained them. Men were beaten mercilessly. Even the sacred temple at Batu Caves faced police wrath. Even though police denied firing teargas inside, photos posted on the Internet say otherwise.

Whether it is the posthumous conversion and forced Muslim burial of Hindu mountaineering hero M. Moorthy, or the forcible removal of her child from a mother charged with apostasy from Islam, or the demolition of scores of temples belonging to Hindus -- all have made the minority Tamil Hindus feel very insecure.

Couple with this the fact that Indians have the lowest share in the country's corporate wealth and the highest rates of suicide and detention. The pattern that emerges is clearly that of an ethnic and religious minority facing discrimination socially, economically and culturally. Worse, with the increasing clout of Shariah courts the apartheid is gaining a legal dimension.

The public rally was the expression of Indians' insecurity and righteous anger at the injustice and humiliation meted out to them. By petitioning the Queen of England with pictures of Mahatma Gandhi, the Malaysian Hindus have also sent a subtle message that they do not pin their hopes on India, the nation to which they should rightfully have turned. But can Indians blame them?

The Indian prime minister who lost sleep over the arrest of an Indian terror suspect in Australia is maintaining a slumber-like silence over the Malaysian incidents. Despite its ritual invocation of Gandhi's name, the ruling Congress Party seems unmoved by the violence meted out by the Malaysian government to Gandhian protestors of Indian origin.

In Tamil Nadu the chief minister wrote a letter to the prime minister. Hindu nationalist organizations have made complaints to the Malaysian Embassy. But the Indian media -- with the notable exception of the Times of India -- have maintained a cold silence on the subject.

Certain newspapers have even tried to water down the entire issue. For example The Hindu, a Chennai-based English daily, reported thus on Nov. 26: "A group, called the Hindu Rights Action Force, on Sunday defied a court order and staged a rally in Kuala Lumpur, protesting against the alleged 'marginalization' of the ethnic Indian minority in Malaysia. Police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the agitators at one or two places in the city in the morning. The group had mobilized at least a few thousand activists in a rare show of defiance by the members of the community."

Compare this with the way the Telegraph, a British newspaper, reported the same event: "Malaysian police attacked thousands of peaceful protesters with tear gas and water cannon yesterday as they attempted to present a petition to the British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur."

Is there any wonder that the Malaysian Tamil Hindus are petitioning the British Queen and not the Indian High Commission? The silence of the Indian government is a measure not only of its insensitivity but also a manifestation of how far the Indian pseudo-secular state has moved from the values that resonate with Indic hearts everywhere. Now it is up to the people of India, and the duty of Hindu nationalists, to take up the cause of the Malaysian Tamil Hindus and demand that the Indian government speak up for them.

(S. Aravindan Neelakandan is a social scientist working with an ecological NGO called Vivekananda Kendra -- Natural Resources Development Project in Nagercoil, India. He is also a freelance writer and author of the Tamil-language "God and 40 Hz.")

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Malaysian media told to self-censor reports on ethnic Indian crackdown

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysia's government has told the mainstream media not to sensationalize a crackdown on ethnic Indians following an unprecedented rally against racial discrimination in Muslim-majority Malaysia, officials said.

Che Din Yusoh, a senior official with the Internal Security Ministry, said newspaper editors had been given "verbal advice" not to highlight sensitive issues related to the Nov. 25 rally by at least 20,000 ethnic Indians that police broke up by force.

"Don't sensationalize what police are doing. Don't give a very negative picture ... We have guidelines on publication, and they have to implement (self) censorship," he told The Associated Press late Wednesday.

Malaysiakini, an independent Internet news portal, reported Wednesday that top editors of all dailies were summoned by the government for a meeting, and were told not to give prominence to Hindu Rights Action Force, or Hindraf, the group that is leading the Indian unrest.

An editor of a Tamil-language daily, catering to Indians, confirmed the meeting took place Tuesday. He told the AP that the government advised all chief editors to be "very careful" about "sharp wordings," especially in headlines. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Che said he could only confirm guidelines were issued but gave no details.

Most Malaysian newspapers and electronic media outlets are controlled by the government or political parties in the ruling coalition. They also operate with a government license, which must be renewed annually. Internet news sites do not have these restrictions.

Traditionally, Malaysia's mainstream media have been pro-government but some newspapers have become bolder in recent years and have openly discussed issues such as race relations that were previously taboo.

Newspapers gave wide coverage to the Hindraf rally and the court hearings of 31 Indians charged with attempted murder for a head injury sustained by a policeman during the demonstration. The Indians were denied bail Thursday.

Che said the media were told not to play up Hindraf's claims — debunked by most Malaysians — that Indians are victims of ethnic cleansing in Malaysia.

"Instead of trying to tarnish the image of the government ... the media should use their common sense and discretion to refute this kind of allegations," he said.

Che said his ministry monitored the media all the time to make sure their coverage did not endanger national security interests or create social unrest.

Last month's protests have shaken the government and raised fears it would destroy the fragile peace between the country's three main communities - Muslim Malays who form 60 percent of the country's 27 million people, the ethnic Chinese who are a quarter of the population and ethnic Indians who are 8 percent.

Malays control the government and the Chinese dominate the business. The Indians complain they are at the bottom of the society with little wealth, education or job opportunities because of government policies that give preferential treatment to Malays.

The Associated Press; Published: December 6, 2007

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HINDRAF Rally Report

In my opinion this video depicts the most acurate representation of HINDRAF rally dated 25.11.2007 in KL, Malaysia.

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MALAYSIA: Opposition spills over into Facebook

MALAYSIA: Opposition spills over into Facebook

Facebook, the social networking site used around the world for having fun with friends, is becoming a popular avenue for political dissent in Malaysia.

To circumvent the muted coverage of opposition politics in Malaysia's mainstream media, an increasing number of people are using the site to discuss issues and announce upcoming meetings.

It adds to the growth of political blogs that are hotly debating two mass rallies in Kuala Lumpur last month, and photo-sharing websites that showed close-ups of the street protests.

Indeed, the Bersih coalition, which is calling for free and fair elections in Malaysia, created an event posting on Facebook to publicise its Nov 10 mass rally.

'The Bersih rally may be over but these Facebook groups are growing by the day, with many still active,' wrote Chua Sue-Ann in her column in online newspaper Malaysiakini. 'It's all pretty exciting stuff!'

Top names in the opposition are also using Facebook, on top of their blogs, to spread their message. They include former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, who has 1,169 friends in Facebook, Mr Tian Chua of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Ms Teresa Kok of the Democratic Action Party.

Rights lawyer Amer Hamzah Arshad shared photos of a lawyers' march held in September and the Nov 10 rally with his friends on the site.

They add to a cacophony of voices that have bypassed the mainstream media, which has been cajoled and threatened by Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin not to publicise events that he said could cause 'disunity'.

The bloggers and photo-sharers scored a big victory recently.

When police said no teargas or water cannon were used on protesting Hindu crowds at the holy Batu Caves temple on Nov 25, photos on the Internet revealed otherwise.

Mainstream media covered Hindraf's mass rally in downtown Kuala Lumpur later that day but did not publish any photos of the temple protest, which happened before dawn.

The police changed their tune over the next few days, but insisted that although teargas and water cannon were used, those inside the temple were not attacked.

Mr Chua of PKR said: 'The Internet is becoming more and more important, particularly for the voiceless people who do not have access to mainstream media.'

The government line on last month's mass rallies was that the protesters were unruly and violent.

And the police said the protesters pelted them with bricks and bottles, resulting in injuries to six policemen.

But bloggers quickly disputed the government claim.

Blogger Puvanan Nadaraja wrote that witnesses were 'stunned by the heavy-handed police action'.

Another blogger, Kee Wai, said: 'The major newspapers in the country totally said nothing about the excessive force and violence that the police forces had used... I'll let the photos talk.'

The Internet buzz has helped to spread news about the rallies far beyond Malaysian shores.

As political analyst Farish Noor put it: 'While the government wrestles with yet another instance of people's power taking to the streets, another local demonstration has gone global.'

(The Straits Times Thursday, December 6, 2007; By Hazlin Hassan Date Posted: 12/6/2007)

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Malaysia's fraying racial compact

HONG KONG: The informal racial compact that has worked so well for Malaysia since the bloody riots of 1969 is unraveling under domestic and international pressure.

Two anti-government demonstrations in Kuala Lampur last month - one on Nov. 10 demanding election reform and another on Nov. 26 that drew 10,000 ethnic Indians protesting discrimination - erupted in violence and ended in arrests as protesters clashed with the police. The demonstrations, the biggest in a decade, were illegal because the authorities had not granted permission for them to take place.

The essence of the compact is that the mainstream political representatives of the non-Malay minorities - mostly Chinese and Indians - accept not merely the political supremacy and special position of the Malays, who make up three-fifths of the country's 27 million people, but also massive affirmative action programs to raise the Malays' economic and social status.

In broad terms this policy has been successful. Racial peace, if not harmony, has been maintained and the relative economic position of the Malays has risen dramatically. Formal equality targets may not have been met. But unless there is drastic scaling back of affirmative action, an intensification of racial animosities is likely, along with Malay assumptions of entitlement to a perpetual subsidy.

The Indian demonstration was significant for two reasons. First, it drew attention to the fact that Indians, not Malays, are now the most economically disadvantaged group. While Malaysia has a significant Indian professional elite, the mostly Tamil descendents of indentured workers brought in by the British as plantation laborers remain at the bottom of the ladder.

Second, the protest saw an attempt to internationalize the race issue with appeals to India and Britain - a move that angered many Malaysians.

In India, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu state demanded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh help the cause of Malaysian Indians. The Hindu Rights Action Force, which organized the demonstration, is also bringing a legal case against Britain, asserting that it failed to protect Indian rights at the time of independence.

Meanwhile Beijing, which has often avoided identifying with its ethnic brethren overseas, may be starting to change its stance as Chinese pride rises and its leadership comes under domestic pressure to play uncle to Chinese everywhere.

On Malaysia's domestic front things are changing too. Gradually, perhaps irreversibly, class is beginning to assume a role in political discourse long dominated entirely by race. Years of strong economic growth and the urbanization of a once largely rural Malay population mean that low-income people of all races are seeing some common interests. Low-income Malays may become more aggrieved than non-Malays if they see the benefits of affirmative action mainly going to the conspicuously consuming elite.

Even at the mundane level of trade, the issues of preferences is an obstacle to a free trade agreement with the United States and could run into difficulties within the Asean free trade area.

In practice, Malaysia has taken a very pragmatic approach to foreign investment, granting waivers in special zones and for export projects. But for non-Malay local businesses, that has merely underlined the extra burdens they face and explains the continued exodus of non-Malay private capital and talent.

Another factor that is putting pressure on informal compact is Islam, which has assumed a larger role in the Malay political consciousness than was the case in 1969. In many respects it has become more conservative. The increased identification of race with religion has added to the racial divides created by preferential policies. In the case of Indians, injury has been added to insult by the destruction of Hindu temples to make way for new development projects.

What is also beginning to trouble an often complacent, Malay-led elite that has been in power for half a century, is the surge of discontent at a time of rapid economic growth driven by the high price of Malaysia's export commodities. This should help the well-meaning but so far ineffectual prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, to a victory in the election, expected in early 2008, large enough to cement his leadership of the governing party. This would provide an opportune time to lead Malaysia away from permanent racial preferences.

(By Philip Bowring Published: December 6, 2007 International Herald Tribune)

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US panel concerned at Malaysian temple destruction

WASHINGTON (AFP) — A US Congress-appointed commission expressed concern Thursday at the destruction of Hindu temples and other alleged discrimination faced by religious minorities in predominantly-Muslim Malaysia.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the administration of President George W. Bush to raise the matter with Kuala Lumpur and "insist that immediate measures be taken to protect sacred sites and prevent further destruction."

The commission said it was "concerned" by recent Malaysian government actions against the ethnic Indian Hindu minority "curtailing their human rights, including the freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

"Continued discrimination against members of the ethnic Indian Hindu minority, including the destruction of sacred places and images, only fuels religious unrest and intolerance," said commission chairman Michael Cromartie.

At least 8,000 ethnic Indians protested in the streets of Kuala Lumpur about two weeks ago to highlight racial and religious discrimination by the Muslim Malay-dominated government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The Hindu Rights Action Task Force, a Malaysian rights group which organized the rally, claimed one temple was being demolished every three weeks.

Police dispersed the crowd with water cannons and tear gas, and witnesses said some demonstrators were beaten with batons.

Abdullah accused ethnic Indian activists of stirring up racial conflict and threatened to use a draconian law to detain protestors indefinitely without trial.

The US commission, a non-partisan panel appointed by the US president and leaders of Congress, noted that in late October, Malaysian authorities demolished a 100-year-old temple and reportedly assaulted its chief priest.

Just this week, another temple in Malacca state was demolished by local authorities despite having received a "stay order" from state officials, the commission said.

It asked the Bush administration to get an assurance from the Malaysian authorities that no charges would be filed against the organizers of the demonstrations.

"Malaysia should ensure that internationally protected rights to peaceful assembly, expression, and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion are protected," it said.

The commission also said that Kuala Lumpur's Islamic courts have expanded their jurisdiction in recent years, threatening secular Malaysia's civil courts and the country's commitment to religious pluralism.

"Because the (Malaysian) constitution deems that all Malays are Muslim, the sharia courts have weighed in on a number of high-profile cases involving conversion, marriage, divorce, child custody, and burial rights of non-Muslims," it said.

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