Author: Editorial
Publication: The Hindu
Date: December 7, 2007
URL: http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/07/stories/2007120753791000.htm
Human rights violations are everybody's concern.
Nation states must not hide behind exclusivist notions of national sovereignty
and take umbrage at expression of such concern by governments or political
parties or citizens of other countries. In over-reacting to political India's
show of anxiety over the treatment of Malaysians of Indian origin, Kuala Lumpur
committed an error of conceptual judgment. Bilateral relations between India
and Malaysia have been excellent. But India and Indians were well within their
rights to communicate their disquiet over Malaysia's harsh handling of political
demonstrations by Malaysian Indians with legitimate grievances. The demonstrators,
who were met with tear gas shells and water cannons and are now facing serious
criminal charges, were protesting the failure of colonial Britain, at the
time of Malaysian independence, to protect the rights of ethnic Indians brought
in as indentured labourers. Organised under the umbrella of the Hindu Rights
Action Force, they were trying to link their "marginalisation" in
Malaysia directly to that failure. Hindraf could not have been serious about
the monetary compensation, $4 trillion, sought through British courts for
this failure, but the demand, and the demonstrations last month, served to
highlight longstanding grievances. These include the absence of equal opportunities
for ethnic minorities, affirmative action in favour of the majority Malays,
a bigoted unofficial policy of temple demolition, and the increasing adoption
of laws based on the Sharia.
Instead of addressing these vital issues,
the Malaysian government picked on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi
who had merely sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's moral and diplomatic
engagement on behalf of the Indian community, a majority of whom are Tamils.
Malaysian Minister Nazri Aziz, in asking Mr. Karunanidhi to "lay off,"
was not just uncivil; he ended up exposing his regime's double standards on
rights issues. As a member of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference,
Malaysia has often criticised other countries, including India, for perceived
anti-Muslim bias in policy. There is little doubt about Indian Tamils being
a disadvantaged ethnic group or minority in Malaysia. True, Hindraf, either
mischievously or mistakenly, sought to give a religious, if not a communal,
colour to the state's entrenched discrimination against a most vulnerable
minority. But the fact remains that ethnic minorities, both Chinese and Indian,
have suffered under the Bumiputera ('sons of the soil') policy instituted
in the 1970s in the wake of Malay-Chinese racial riots. Instead of pointing
fingers at a friendly and well-meaning country, Malaysia, a dynamic economic
performer, needs seriously to address and resolve issues of equality, discrimination,
and minority rights.
