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HINDRAF has joined forces with a group representing the interests of indigenous groups from Sabah and Sarawak in London to lobby British legislators, reported Tamil Nesan.

Hindraf chairman P. Waythamoorthy and adviser N. Ganesan made the case for Hindraf at the House of Commons, while Sabah and Sarawak were represented by Common Interest Group Malaysia (Cigma) activists Daniel John Jambun and Nicholas Bawin Anggat.

Both groups insisted that Britain had a historical, legal and moral obligation towards former subjects in its ex-colonies.

Ganesan alleged that the Indian community, largely the descendants of indentured plantation labourers brought into Malaya by the British from Tamil Nadu, were being systematically marginalised by the Government.

The parting of ways between Hindraf and Pakatan Rakyat means that the opposition pact will not have an easy ride in the next general election

THE Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf), which was Pakatan Rakyat’s best friend in the 2008 general election, has turned into its worst enemy, staging a demonstration against the coalition outside the PKR office of Pakatan leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

They chose the PKR office in Merchant Square because Pakatan, as a pact, does not yet have an office for its former supporters to vent their anger.

Human rights lawyer and Hindraf founder P. Uthayakumar led the protesters, numbering about 300 and carrying banners and placards, alleging that Indian woes were not being addressed in Pakatan-ruled states despite the promises made in the run-up to the March 8, 2008 general election.

“We wanted to submit a memorandum to Anwar personally but he did not turn up to meet us,” an infuriated Uthayakumar said.

“We don’t trust them (Pakatan) any more. We are charting our own course and will contest under our own banner in the next general election.”

Uthayakumar’s main grouse is that Pakatan has yet to alleviate Indian poverty with affirmative action programmes and failed to alienate land for Tamil schools and Hindu temples, two subjects close to the Indian community, as it had promised in the election campaign.

“If they issue land titles to Tamil schools in Pakatan-ruled states, then the schools become eligible to be classified as fully-aided and qualify for financial support from the federal government,” he said.

“They can do it with one stroke of the pen but they have not. We are very disappointed.” Uthayakumar has gathered all his former Hindraf supporters under the yet-to-be-registered Human Rights Party (HRP).

Their disappointment with Pakatan has grown in intensity ever since the coalition failed to successfully resolve the Kampung Buah Pala issue in Penang.

The Sunday demonstration was the final act in the parting of ways between Pakatan and Hindraf, which has splintered into numerous factions.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that Uthayakumar still has influence over what is left of the Hindraf movement, perhaps not directly, but at least emotionally.

“Our weakness is not lack of grassroots support but we are weak financially,” Hindraf’s diehard supporters said. Pakatan rode the Hindraf movement to victory and used the Tamil phase Makkal Sakthi or People Power as its rallying cry.

Ironically, two of Uthayakumar’s colleagues, P. Vasantha Kumar and V.S. Ganapathi Rao, who were in Kamunting under the Internal Security Act with the founder, have joined forces with Pakatan and strongly condemned the demonstration.

“He is out of his mind,” said Vasantha Kumar who is with PKR. “His actions will split the Indian vote and benefit Barisan Nasional.”

“If he continues like this, he will hurt Pakatan,” said Ganapathi Rao, who is with the DAP.

Both were critical of Uthayakumar’s plan to field Hindraf/HRP candidates in about 30 parliamentary and state constituencies where Indians voters comprise about 30% – constituencies critical to Pakatan’s success in the 2008 general election.

Uthayakumar is also beefing up Indian voters in these targeted constituencies by organising voter registration exercises and persuading Indian voters from elsewhere to move to the selected constituencies.

For a start, he is focusing on parliament and state seats in “frontline” states like Selangor, Perak and Penang.

Uthayakumar has also chosen seats considered “critical” to Pakatan and held by senior Pakatan leaders, like the Prai state and Batu Kawan parliamentary seats, both now held by Penang Deputy Chief Minister Dr P. Ramasamy.

Another critical seat HRP is targeting, Uthayakumar said, is Ipoh Barat in Perak, held by DAP assistant secretary-general M. Kulasegaran.

Likewise in Selangor, the party is eyeing the Sri Andalas state seat held by PKR heavyweight Dr Xavier Jeyakumar and Kota Raja parliamentary seat held by PAS’ Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud.

While few political experts believe HRP/Hindraf, on their own, can win any of the seats they contest simply because of their Indian-only orientation, they fear HRP/Hindraf can split the Indian vote in a three-cornered contest that is more likely to take votes away from Pakatan than Barisan.

“Barisan stands to do better in a tight race in a three-cornered fight,” a DAP leader said. “Indian grievances are for real and remain unresolved despite the Pakatan rhetoric.”

Uthayakumar, however, is indifferent to the outcome, even if Barisan shines. “We are confident we can win where we contest and use the victories as leverage to get as much benefit as possible for the Indian community,” said Uthayakumar.

“We are ready to talk terms with either of the coalitions for the benefit of the Indian community,” he added.

“We have our Indian political empowerment strategy and we will march towards it, come what may.”

“We need to fight our own battles,” he said. “We cannot rely on Pakatan or Barisan.”

The big question is how much clout Hindraf still enjoys in the Indian community, where political leadership is deeply splintered between the traditional MIC on one side and on the other, the PKR, DAP and numerous other new actors.

Will Hindraf’s influence, which has waned since the famous Nov 25, 2007 protest, rise to tip the balance in the upcoming contest?

Whatever the outcome, one thing is sure, Pakatan will not have an easy ride as in 2008.

Joe Fernandez & Chen Yi Ling  (Malaysiakini)

It was a historic first in London on Tuesday when Hindraf joined forces with an indigenous group from Sabah and Sarawak to lobby legislators on issues still lingering from the British colonial period in Malaysia.

Hindraf chair P Waythamoorthy and advisor N Ganesan made the case for their Hindu Rights Action Force at the House of Commons, while Sabah and Sarawak were represented by Common Interest Group Malaysia (Cigma) activists Daniel John Jambun and Nicholas Bawin Anggat.

Both Cigma and Hindraf reiterated the case that Britain had a lingering historical, legal and moral obligation towards its former subjects in its ex-colonies.

“We are only asking for our rights under the federal constitution,” stressed Hindraf advisor Ganesan in highlighting 15 areas of human rights violations by the Malaysian government. “We want our place in the Malaysian sun.”

Ganesan (right standing) went on to allege that the Indian community, largely the descendants of indentured plantation labour brought in by the British from Tamil Nadu, were being systematically marginalised by the ruling BN government.

“The various issues causing marginalisation are not individual aberrations or decisions gone wrong but are systematic and repeated in many specific instances,” said Ganesan in summing up several case histories and studies.

“The problem with the Indian poor is multiplying and this has been illustrated with clear evidence.”

Ganesan is also advisor to the Human Rights Party, helmed by P Uthayakumar, the elder of the Hindraf brothers.

The special privileges for the Malays and natives, in its original form, covered only four areas – reasonable representation for the Malays and natives in the civil service; intake into government institutions of higher learning; government scholarships; and a share of government-created opportunities to do business.

However, Hindraf alleges that the government had unilaterally extended it to every facet of life in Malaysia.

KL not abiding to Malaysia Agreement

Meanwhile, Cigma senior activists Jambun from Sabah and Nicholas Bawin from Sarawak, made the case for Malaysian Borneo by urging the British government to return to a revived Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) on the Malaysia Agreement.

Other members of the IGC are the governments of Sabah, Sarawak, Malaysia and Singapore.

The IGC, pointed out both activists, was a permanent institution meant to monitor the Malaysian government’s compliance with the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.

The Malaysian government, in the absence of the IGC, has been in non-compliance, according to both activists.

“Kuala Lumpur could easily impose proxies, stooges and traitors in Sabah and Sarawak and ignore the legitimate aspirations of the people.”

Jambun said that over the past 50 years “various modifications and adjustments” to the Malaysia Agreement have eroded the rights and privileges of Sabahans.

“Forty-six years after independence, Sabah is now the poorest state despite its abundant natural resources,” he lamented.

Bawin (left) gave a brief history of the Abdul Taib Mahmud government in Sarawak which, according to him, has been a proxy for the last 30 years for the ruling elite in Kuala Lumpur.

“Land, timber, oil and gas are all resources which are not benefitting the people of Sarawak,” said Nicholas.

Both Bawin and Jambun pointed out that Brunei stayed out from Malaysia at the 11th hour and Singapore left two years after.

The two countries, it was stressed, are light years ahead of Sabah and Sarawak “who were forced into a bad idea called Malaysia”. The statistics on poverty, it was pointed out, tell the whole story.

Sabah facing new threats

The Sabah activist, in his presentation on behalf of Cigma chair Jeffrey Kitingan, detailed the threats to the security and sovereignty of Sabah since Malaysia in 1963.

The thrust of his case was that the indigenous majority were being overwhelmed by hordes of illegal immigrants from neighbouring nations.

“We acknowledge that Sabah has labour needs and especially in an increasingly globalised economy,” said Jambun. “But what we cannot accept is illegal immigrants being issued with Malaysian personal documents via the back door and being placed on the electoral rolls.”

The presence of illegal immigrants on the electoral rolls, especially in marginal seats, has been at the expense of the indigenous majority, stressed Jambun, “and compromised the security and sovereignty of Sabah”.

For the first time, a Sabah leader openly alleged that the state was now a safe haven for terrorists on the run, rebels and kidnappers. “JI or Jemaah Islamiyah, a terror network, has been identified as having its presence in Sabah,” disclosed Jambun. “So has Darul Islam Sabah.”

Hence, with the presence of “armed foreigners on our soil”, thundered Jambun, Sabah is no longer a secure state. “Where is the security promised us by the Federation of Malaysia in 1963?” he asked the British.

Hindraf chair Waythamoorthy in summing up for both his movement and Cigma alleged that Malaysia has been re-colonised by a ruling elite with the departure of the British.

“Independence has brought us a raw deal. The promises have not materialised whether for the indigenous people in Sabah and Sarawak or for the Indian community and others in Peninsular Malaysia,” said Waythamoorthy.

“The New Economic Policy was supposed to eradicate poverty irrespective of race. Instead, the benefits have gone to an elite minority.”

Statelessness, continued Waythamoorthy in elaborating on a point earlier raised by Ganesan, continues to plague not only the Indians but also the indigenous peoples in Sabah and Sarawak and others.

Labour MP chairs meeting

British Labour MP Virendra Sharma for Ealing Southall, a community known as ‘Little India’ in London, chaired the meeting.

Speaking on behalf of his peers, he expressed their dismay at the alleged serious violations of human rights by the Malaysian authorities detailed by Hindraf and Cigma.

“I will bring this up to my government,” he assured. “We will also initiate a committee at the parliamentary level to further deliberate on what we have heard here today for follow-up measures and action.

‘We can certainly set up a group in Parliament to talk about the plight of marginalised Malaysians.”

He said that overseas Malaysians can lobby their local MPs to exert pressure on the Foreign Office in Malaysia.

Isabel Tay, a Malaysian who attended the briefing, said, “I’m now a lot more aware on how the minority communities view the situation in Malaysia.”

HINDRAF & East Malaysia natives at House of Common UK on

     March 9, 2010 

A forum have been organized to raise awareness before the House of Common in UK parliamentary by HINDRAF in partnership with Monitoring Group (UK) to address the marginalization and discrimination faced by Malaysian Indians as well as the indigenous natives in East Malaysia under the patronage of Mr Virendra Sharma, a member of Parliament in United Kingdom.

The purpose of this forum is to continue to highlight and enhance the awareness to the international arena on widespread discrimination on human rights that prevails in Malaysia on UMNO’s totalitarianism led Malaysian government against its own citizen.

Amongst the discussion will be issues related to human rights violations, human liberty, equal opportunity that have been deprived or suppressed for certain segment of Malaysian society to exercise their basic rights and freedoms to which all human races is entitled to.     

The objective of this forum is to underline and emphasize to the international community that a human rights issue is transculent beyond any comminity and should not be solely based on the relations or community of people similar to a bourgeois system but one that the humanity race will prosper with a just and equitable purpose for the human race.  

The international world has witnessed apartheid in South Africa, yet aparthied is practised against Malaysian citizens through unfair and unjust policies of the UMNO totalitarianism along with their coalition partners. The international community can participate to ameliorate the grievances of the destitude Malaysians in Malaysia when they start voicing out for the voiceless in Malaysia as they are also a part of the human race that we all try to create.  

HINDRAF with its international partners will continue and pursue their objectives in pursing such goals to ensure that humanity is paramount besides petty politics that eradicate and subject the human race to such marginalization and discrimination that is prevalent for the Malaysian Indians similar to one that is faced by the natives of Malaysia.

The event will include guest speakers from HINDRAF, East Malaysia representatives and other independent experts on the marginalized and discriminated state of several segments of the Malaysian society.

Hindraf proposes, P.R destroys – after 2 years in power

Having no or very little alternative, an estimated  90% of the Indians voted for change for PKR, DAP and PAS. On the basis and hope that they transform society and eradicate inequality at least in the PKR, DAP and PAS ruled states.

It is widely acknowledged  by all except PKR, DAP and PAS that the Hindraf movement sparked the March 8th revolt and on which Pakatan rode to victory.

But today the very same PKR, DAP and PAS does worse than UMNO by sending their lowest level, unknown and MIC turncoats after BN fell in Selangor and who now “cari makan” in PKR Selangor state government and an ex MIC Puchong gangster to hear the grouses of this very same Hindraf which proposed but destroyed by PR.

P. Uthayakumar