Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: Vijayvaani.com
Date: January 7, 2011
URL: http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=1575
Indians are generally recognized as a vibrant
and successful community wherever they migrate, and even the poor indentured
labour of the colonial era managed to elevate itself to positions of status
and wealth in countries like Fiji, Mauritius, Trinidad, Africa, and the Caribbean
nations, through sheer dint of hard work and education. In independent India,
the educated middle class opted to send its children to the west in search
of better professional opportunities, and Indians in general made a mark in
the professions there as well, though of late racism is again becoming overt
in these countries, as witnessed by the ugly Indian-bashing in Australia.
Islamic Malaysia, however, has been less than
fair to its Indian-origin citizens, and even after being embedded in that
soil for up to five generations, Malaysian Indians are tormented in various
ways by an overtly racist and religious extremist Government. Malaysian Indians
are routinely robbed of their fundamental rights and denied equal opportunities
in every facet of life.
The current ruling coalition, dominated by
the United Malay National Organization party, by explicit State policies excludes
the vast majority of Malaysian Indians from the national mainstream, violating
Articles 8 and 12 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution. The result is that
as much as 70% of Indian Malaysians have been made to be and/or remain hardcore
poor, with 90% being in daily or monthly wage-earners only. This poverty is
caused by exclusion from proper basic life facilities, from education at all
levels, from economic, social and cultural development programs, from equal
opportunities in employment, and so on.
This is further catalyzed by a system called
Mandorism. It involves the cooption by the ruling elite (UMNO at Federal level
and Pakatan at State level) of a small layer of successful Indian Malaysian
entrepreneurs, professionals and politicians to subjugate the rest of the
Indian Malaysian community. This encourages human rights activists from other
groups to ignore the horrendous abuse of human rights of Indians under their
very nose.
To begin with, the government's decision to
outlaw Hindraf, a Minorities and Human Rights movement championing the poor
and marginalized Indians, in October 2008, has not been rescinded. Malaysia
is the current current Chair of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).
Malay Muslim Supremacy Agenda
Malaysia's racist system is perpetuated is
through the Administration which is effectively manned by Malays, the majority
of whom are members or supporters of UMNO. It is akin to the discredited Apartheid
of South Africa which once had a 500,000-strong all white administration!
For example, as the largest employer in the nation, the government has 1.2
million employees. Excluding teachers of Chinese and Tamil, over 95% employees
would be Malays. The administration is indoctrinated with Malay supremacist
ideology by an indoctrination arm - the Biro Tata Negara. It ensures the blocking
of non-Malay Indians and promotion of Malays. UMNO-controlled Malay daily,
Utusan Malaysia, continuously spouts racist distortions of events, and influences
social polarization.
Discrimination is rampant. Instances of racism
include:
- Rejecting applications for entitlements
on petty grounds
- Blocking information on entitlements from
eligible Indians
- Making it difficult for poor Indian Malaysian
to register as citizens
- Ensuring that lower level policies are in
line with the overall racist bent of higher-level policies
- Ensuring statistics of disbursements or
acceptance or selections are not known to non-Malay Indians
- Ensuring interpretation of policies is such
as to disfavour Indians, and
- Making procedures for various applications
in respect to Government unduly complicated for Indians.
Worse, steps are being taken to deepen the Malay-Muslim Supremacy agenda by
tampering with the education system again, this time in the SPM examinations
where a candidate now must get a credit in History for a First grade in the
SPM and a pass in history for a pass in SPM.
Extra-Judicial killings and Police abuse
Indians are the main victims of police shootings
and custody deaths in Malaysia, and the racial profiling of Indian Diaspora
and steady increase in crime rate reflects the corruption in the law enforcement
agencies and their ineffectiveness as in upholding law. Corrupt officers are
ever willing to act as cohorts of the government and overlook misdeeds perpetrated
by the authorities. In return, the police force is immune from prosecution
in crimes committed, a vicious circle. The situation is aggravated by marginalisation
of Indians, which aggravates poverty, and perpetuates crime - something well
known in the country.
Ignoring the larger context, Police resort
to brutal methods to extract confessions from detainees. Nearly 90% Malaysians
killed in Police custody are ethnic Indians suspected of committing crimes.
There is also an unofficial policy of 'shoot to kill' codename 'Operasi copperhead'.
On the basis of national newspaper reports,
Human Rights Party has collated the some of the following facts for the year
2010:
- The Star newspaper (16 March 2010, p. 40) published information obtained
by the Selangor Hindu Sangam which confirmed that 48% of prisoners in the
28 prisons nation-wide continue to be ethnic Indians.
- Utusan Malaysia (20 September 2010, p. 5)
reported that in just four months in 2010, 300 ethnic Indian youths were arrested
and detained under Emergency Ordinance in the state of Selangor. Another 900
Indian youth were arrested in Selangor and a total 5,000 countrywide.
- The same newspaper (22 September 2010, p.
10) reported that there were about 100,000 known ethnic Indian gangsters operating
in Malaysia.
- News Straits Times of Malaysia (25 March
2010, p. 20) said 36,000 prisoners nationwide including 17,256 Indians are
serving a custodial sentence for minor crimes.
- Babu (28), an orphan who surrendered to
Police in Jempol on a suspected petty robbery case on 24 Jan. 2010 was found
dead in Police lock up a week later. He allegedly hanged himself but Police
refused to disclose the findings of a CCTV linked to the cell to NGOs representing
Babu's family (Malaysiakini, 3 Feb.)
- On June 14, A. Gnanapragasam, 53, died in
Police custody. He had complained to a Magistrate during remand proceedings
of beating in custody. His wife met him the Friday before and noticed beating
marks. The Police said he would be released on Monday, but he died mysteriously
on Sunday. Police said it could be drug abuse [how this could happen in prison
was not explained]. No inquest was held to determine cause of death.
- Investigation and prosecution of the unlawful
killing of Kugan remains unchanged at the time the Human Rights Party prepared
its report for Pravasi Bharat Divas in Delhi, India. In this high profile
prosecution, only one police officer was prosecuted after much public pressure
for use of unlawful force to extort confession from a 22-year-old ethnic Indian
detainee.
- On July 16, police arrested R Gunasegaran,
who died at the Sental Police Station with 2-3 hours of his arrest. An initial
autopsy found Gunasegaran died of a drug overdose, but many witnesses claimed
he was beaten in custody. At his family's request, the high court ordered
a second post-mortem and inquest, which was said to be inconclusive despite
the presence of various wounds and injuries to the body. An eyewitness to
the above inquest was later arrested in the presence of his family and beaten
by the police.
- On 8 November 2010, police shot and killed
five ethnic Indian youths aged 17 to 24. They were alleged to be members of
a criminal gang who fired first; but the Indian community protested the 'shoot
to kill' policy. Till the end of the year there was no official inquiry into
the matter
- On 22 Nov. K. Kalaiselvan (21) was believed
to have been murdered by Malay members of the police force at Kota Tinggi,
Johor police station. The cover up says lung congestion (New Straits Times,
17 Dec. p. 22).
- Mahalingam (35) was believed to have been
killed by police at Nibong Tebal police station on 23 Nov. but in an alleged
cover-up the police placed the blame on five other fellow detainees and sent
them to Simpang Renggam Prison without trial for two years and thereafter
indefinitely (see Makkal Osai 7 Dec. p. 7).
- Two brothers from Taiping were shot dead
by the Malay police force in what is believed to be a shoot to kill policy
of Indian suspects (humanrightspartymalaysia.com 4 May). The road where the
two brothers were travelling was cordoned off and baklava-wearing Special
Action Forces simply murdered them in cold blood.
- On 6 Jan. Isaikumar Sathieyananthan reported
being beaten by several policemen with rubber hose while a policewoman stuffed
her booth into his mouth and took pictures of his private parts. He was slapped
and kicked by her. He was arrested for suspected theft and released 8 days
after the police realised he was not involved. (NST 7 Jan 2010). Federal CID
Director promised full investigations but nothing has happened so far.
- 14 year old Mugilan was slapped on the spot
for accidentally touching a young Malay girl in an open area swimming pool.
He will now be forced to plead guilty for an offence he did not commit as
he cannot afford the bail of RM 1,700 (USD 485). Currently he is serving a
two-month jail without even being found guilty in a Court of law (see Free
Malaysia Today 6 Aug.).
- 13 year old G. Karpagam who complained to
the police that her brother was stabbed was in turn locked up with adults
at Ipoh police station (see Makkal Osai 13 Dec. p. 13).
- In the sedition trial of human right lawyer
P. Uthayakumar on 30 Nov. (humanrightspartymalaysia.com 1 Dec.) the Deputy
Federal police criminal investigations department Director DCP Acryl Sani
Abdullah Sani testified in effect that Indians are disproportionately 60%
higher in comparison to locals killed in police lock ups and shot dead by
police!
- In another written parliamentary reply to
Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj (PSM-Sungai Siput) on 28 June 2010, Home Minister
Hishammuddin revealed that police shot dead 82 suspects in 2008 and 88 in
2009.
- Although 5 million Malaysian Ringgit has
been allocated to the legal aid foundation, 80% defendants appear unrepresented
at trial (The Star, 30 July, p. 24). News Straits Times (24 Jan. 2010, p.
20) reported that 80% of accused involved in theft and assault were unrepresented
when charged in court.
Segregation and exclusion of Indian poor from
the national mainstream development of Malaysia has forced thousands into
a world of crime.
