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Media Statement         
by Lim Kit Siang  
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(Petaling Jaya, Sunday): The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi flew into a royal rage yesterday at the Hindraf allegation that the Malaysian Government was carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of the Indians in Malaysia.

Abdullah was referring to a Hindraf memorandum to the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown asking for the intervention of the UK government over the “ethnic cleansing” of Indians in Malaysia.

This Hindraf memorandum to Brown was dated 15th November 2007, the same day as the demolition of the Mariaman temple in Padang Jawa, Shah Alam, Selangor.

I did not know about this Hindraf memorandum until I read about it on the blog, http://rockybru.blogspot.com/, on Monday, 26th November 2007 and I do not agree with such an allegation. I have no doubt that the overwhelming majority of the 30,000 Indians who rallied to the Hindraf demonstration in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 25th November 2007 were not aware of Hindraf memorandum to the British Prime Minister and that they would not have agreed with the term.

Abdullah should not just rage over the Hindraf allegation of “ethnic cleansing” but must pay heed to the “cry of desperation” of 30,000 Indians from all over the country at last Sunday’s Hindraf demonstration over the marginalization of the Malaysian Indian community – political, economic, educational, social and cultural.

I recommend the heart-searing email by a Malaysian Indian, Ananthi, who is currently a Rhodes Scholar in Oxford University reflection by the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and all Barisan Nasional leaders for them to understand why law-abiding and peaceful loving Malaysian Indians have rallied in support of the Hindraf demonstration – not over any accusation of “ethnic cleansing of Indians in Malaysia” but to call for an immediate halt to the long-standing marginalization of the Malaysians Indians which have reduced them into a new underclass in the country.

Ananthi did not fully agree with all the things said and done by Hindraf. She said however that “it would be duplicitous” for her not to support last Sunday’s Hindraf rally, adding:

“Because I, like many of you, know that that is not what this rally was about.

“It was about being neglected, about not having a seat at the table to bargain, about having a national and communal leadership that we do not trust and is utterly discreditable. It is about saying no to being the forgotten Indians, and not enough of us in our comfortable houses, those of us who managed to work the system to our benefit - stood with the other Indians, who are not so different from us.”

Ananthi’s agony was the agony of the 30,000 Malaysian Indians from all over the country who congregated in Kuala Lumpur last Sunday to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Prime Minister, Cabinet, Parliament and government – which they do not want to continue to be the “forgotten” and marginalized Malaysians.

It is sad and tragic that a week after the 30,000-strong Hindraf demonstration, there seems to be neither awareness nor consciousness in top government circles that this unprecedented and largest gathering of Malaysian Indians must be treated as a “wake-up” call by the Cabinet and government policymakers to adopt immediate measures to formulate to a New Deal for Justice to Malaysian Indians to end their marginalization from the mainstream of national development.

The government response to the “cry of desperation” of the Malaysian Indian community to end their marginalization is one so rooted in denial or so puny that they have only aggravated the sense of alienation and deprivation of the Indians as a forgotten and marginalized community.

MIC President, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said on Thursday that the Prime Minister had asked the MIC to set up a special committee to analyze and address socio-economic problems faced by the Indian community. He also announced that the MIC will set up a hotline as soon as possible to handle all problems faced by the Indian community.

These responses are so ridiculous and laughable that they only illustrate the continuing government irrelevance and MIC impotence in ending the marginalization of the Malaysian Indian community in the country.

Samy Vellu would have set up scores if not a century of committees to study the problems of the Indian community in his more than 28 years as MIC President and Cabinet Minister – and if they had been totally useless in checking the marginalization of the Indian community, how is another MIC committee going to make any difference?

The whole idea of a hotline to resolve the problem of the Indian community is utterly absurd as what is needed are structural, institutional and policy changes in government and nation-building strategies – which no number of hotlines can achieve.

Tomorrow, the MIC Cameron Highlands Member of Parliament S. K. Devamany is to appear before Deputy Prime Minister and Barisan Nasional chief whip, Datuk Seri Najib Razak for his remark in Parliament that the Hindraf demonstration, which he put at 50,000, reflected government failures in nation-building.

I had berated Devamany for his Aljazeera interview the day before during the Hindraf demonstration in belittling and questioning the bona fides of the tens of thousands of Malaysian Indians who had gathered in Kuala Lumpur to convey their “cry of desperation” for justice to the government.

I had told Devamany that he should apologize for the contemptuous language he had used when referring to the tens of thousands of Indians who had turned up in Kuala Lumpur to support the Hindraf demonstration to prove that he was not being opportunistic.

However, if Devamany is prepared to stand by his parliamentary remark that the Hindraf demonstration was proof of the government’s failures in nation-building and “a cry of desperation” by the marginalized Indian community which must be heard and acted on by the government, then he must be supported by the MIC President, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and all other MIC members of the administration – whether Deputy Minister, Parliamentary Secretary or MP.

In fact, Samy Vellu and all MIC members of the administration should accompany Devamany to meet Najib to demonstrate that they support Devamany that the Hindraf demonstration showed the government’s failures and was a “cry of desperation” of the Indian community for justice and that the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz was wrong in labeling the demonstrators as “crooks” (penyangak).

Furthermore, the MIC team should extract a commitment from Najib that Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting will give top priority to address the “cry of desperation” of the 30,000 Indians at the Hindraf demonstration by giving top priority to the agenda for a New Deal for Justice to end the marginalization of the Malaysian Indians.

(02/12/2007)