Author: Anuja Prashar
Publication: Theindianstar.com
Date: December 15, 2008
URL: http://www.theindianstar.com/index.php?uan=9182
When we think of Malaysia, most of us would
invoke visions of a travel destination for beautiful beach holidays, affordable
glamorous shopping, spicy culinary splendour and with a reasonably effective
democracy.
However, the House of Lords briefing, hosted
by Rt.Hon.Baroness Sandip Verma on "Ethnic Minority Malaysian Indian
Issues" invoked many other types of images. The facts on the degree of
segregation and exclusion from civil society of the majority of Malaysian
Indians are startling.
The two-hour briefing was conducted as a panel
presentation by four International guests - Mr. K. Kabilan, Editor of Malaysiakini.com;
Ms.Tricia Yeoh, Director for the Centre for Public Policy Studies - Malaysia;
Ms. Ishani Chowdhury, Director of Public Policy for Hindu American Foundation
- USA and Mr. Waytha Moorthy, Chairman of Humans Right group in Malaysia.
The presentation started with a video on the
living and working conditions of Indian rubber plantation workers, accompanied
with a brief history of Indian migration to Malaysia. Mr. Kabilan told the
audience, that in 1901 the British colonial masters started to take Indians
to Malaysia, as bonded/indentured labour, to work on rubber plantations. They
were deemed to be suitable for this task, because of their hardworking and
docile cultural characteristics. In 1910, three quarters of all plantation
workers were of Indian origin; by 1957, 88% of all rubber plantation workers
were of Indian origin.
The video demonstrated that living and working
conditions on rubber plantations have not improved for Indian labourers and
their families, since the time of their ancestors. The Indian plantation workers
live in dire poverty, in accommodations with little or no sanitation and in
segregated spaces away from other sections of the labour force. Both men and
women have to work in order to sustain themselves and their families.
There are no medical, educational or social
facilities provided for plantation workers on the rubber estates. If a plantation
worker leaves the estate - for medical treatment such as maternity care or
snakes bites - they lose their wages. In other words, plantation workers and
their families live without basic social amenities and remain enslaved to
the estate for their whole lives, in order to earn a living.
A recent case study of two Indian bonded slaves
- Avadiar and Rosamah - highlighted the dilemma faced by Indian plantation
workers today. Avadiar and Rosamah have five children and have been working
for the same contractor since 1992. They told the Malaysiakini researchers,
when one of them does anything wrong the whole family is punished. They and
their children are stateless (not registered as citizens) and remain as servants
on the estate at all times. In 2006 the whole family together earned £15.00
per month working on the estate.
In 2002, YSS a Malaysian Think Tank carried
out a study that brought these problems to public attention. In 2006 another
study was carried out to assess the position of Indian Ethnic Minority in
Malaysia. In 2008 the Human Rights Minister of Malaysia, Dr. S. Suburmaniam
resourced a sample survey, of 1408 rubber plantations, that employed 15,201
Indian workers contracted by 1,066 Contractors, controlled by 9 companies
supplying workers to estates.
Key findings from all these studies tell us
that - 30% of Malaysian Indians do not own their own home; There are currently
300,000 displaced Indian people in urban centres; 40,000 Indian children were
found to have no registration and are declared stateless in the 2008 sample
survey of plantations - this figure would increase dramatically if you add
the adult population of Indian plantation workers. The number is alarming
if you consider that Malaysian Indians make up 7% of the total population.
Despite having migrated to Malaysia over a century ago, the majority of Malaysian
Indians do not have citizen status or citizens rights.
During the 2006 - 2008 Malaysian elections,
campaigns were conducted on promises that housing would be made available
to Indian minorities, however Kabilan states that, "On paper everything
looks right, but in reality things are very wrong. With no citizenship rights,
investment for education and skills development, 80% of Malaysian Indians
cannot help themselves change their own circumstances". The alienation
of Malaysian Indian youth is rapidly becoming a critical problem in urban
centres.
Tricia Yeoh, presented some possible reasons
for the evolution of the magnitude of this problem. Ms. Yeoh suggested that
structural institutional problems are the source of uneven development of
ethnic minorities in Malaysia. The population is made of 60% Islamic "Bhumiputra"(sons
of the soil), with the remaining 40% made up of Chinese, Indians and some
others indigenous tribes. The state structures are exclusionary in nature
according to Ms.Yeoh. In Article 153 of the Malaysian constitution the Bhumiputra,
E. Malaysians and "tribal others of the land" are the only people
recognised as 'legitimate' communities, with a social contract entitled to
full citizenship rights.
Historically, Yeoh explains, labour was divided
according to ethnicity. ie. Indians assigned to plantations, Chinese into
Business and Trade and Malays into government bureaucracy. In 1980, with the
advent of Industrialisation, plantation land was acquired for development
of manufacturing and 300,000 Indian plantation workers became displaced over
time. Their stateless condition has left them dis-empowered and disengaged
from public life, largely within urban squatter settlements.
In 2006, representation of Indians within
the civil service was 7.2% and today it is 2.8%. Less than 5 % of Indian Malaysians
go to university. Corporate equity ownership is measured according to ethnicity,
and supersedes the measure of poverty. Thus, according to official Malaysian
statistics, Indian Malaysian wealth is high, relative to their percentage
population - this is based upon corporate ownership of a few Indian Malaysian
business houses.
Yeoh described the constitution of Malaysia as defining the term "Malay"
as a Muslim and commonly refers to the "Bhumiputra" section of society.
According to Ishani Chaudhry, although Malaysia has been viewed as a religiously
harmonious country, , there has been a recent shift where by the two court
system has given over increasing jurisdiction to Sherya Law Courts - "These
Laws do not recognise the Religious Rights for Death, Marriages and Family
for non-Islamic religions". Chaudhry gave two examples where cremation
was denied to a Indian Hindu Malaysian on his death and Hindu mother who may
lose custody of her child, because her husband recently converted to Islam.
Ms. Chaudhry was also clear on how the Law
is biased towards the majority Muslim Malays (Bhumiputras) who benefit from
an affirmative action policy for education, housing, government jobs etc.
The Law also is biased in economics and business, where 30% of Bhumiputra
corporate ownership is required for all corporations registering on the Malaysian
Stock Exchange.
Ms. Yeoh explained later that although there
had been several attempts to forge an National Inter-Faith Council, but the
Muslims would not attend and the project has been abandoned. According to
Ms. Yeoh, Muslims also never attend the annual multicultural event held in
Kuala Lampur.
Ms. Chaudhry presented the facts on rapidly
deteriorating state of religious relations within Malaysia today. According
to recent monitoring, 76 Hindu Temples were demolished in 2006 alone. In the
past couple of years thousands of Indian Malaysian families have fought the
authorities to save 100 to 200 year old temples and shrines built by their
ancestors. They were unable to save any of them.
Mr. Moorthy told the subdued audience, while
they watched a video of a Hindu Temple being demolished as Lawyers and Indian
families were man handled by Malaysian police, that in the most recent incident
on 25th November saw five members of HINDRAF detained under the Internal Security
Act (ISA) for organising a protest against the many years of discrimination,
neglect and denigration.
According to THE OBSERVATORY (Swiss based
Human Rights organisation) review of the ISA shows this to be a draconian
Act, that does not provide adequate provisions for the detainees, as mandated
by International Law and the Declaration of Human Rights. The reduction of
Human Rights jurisdiction in any country is lamentable and should be completely
unacceptable when it goes on generation after generation after generation.
In a globalising world, where Indian Identities
are most often associated with democratic secularism, religious peaceful co-existence
and hardworking achievement, the Malaysian story gives us great pause for
thought. Baroness Sandip Verma concluded that "Trouble does not take
long to travel and so it is up to the worldwide Indian community and her leaders,
to stand up and say unequivocally - Enough is Enough."
