The BN government promised a lot but public protests showed that the opportunities are slim and small

..Following a reply by Internal Security Deputy Minister Datuk Mohd Johari Baharum on the percentage of Indians in the police force, Devamany asked:  

“The Government has promised a lot of things – in Vision 2020 development policy, Ninth Malaysia Plan, on the recruitment for the civil service, training opportunities, entry into public universities and for financial aid. 

“But the reaction yesterday (Sunday), nearly tens of thousands showed that there is frustration at the lower levels. 

“Youths and the middle class joined the demonstration and this showed that the opportunities have been slim and small.

“Where is the failure? What are the actions to show the sincerity and resolve to overcome poverty and the limited of opportunity for the Indians?” 

Source: The Star

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Where has this Barisan Nasional government steered Malaysia to ?

In Malaysia, racism is allowed but protest against racism is not

…The Malaysian government banned the demonstration on the ground that the protest may create “racial tensions”. Obviously, State-sponsored racism and racial preferences are allowed but any protest against such racism and racial discrimination is classified by the State as “seditious” and “criminal”.

I. Racism and its impact on minorities in Malaysia

Under Article 2(2) of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, State parties can “when the circumstances so warrant, take, in the social, economic, cultural and other fields, special and concrete measures to ensure the adequate development and protection of certain racial groups or individuals belonging to them, for the purpose of guaranteeing them the full and equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms”. It further states, “These measures shall in no case entail as a consequence the maintenance of unequal or separate rights for different racial groups after the objectives for which they were taken have been achieved”.

These measures are intended towards the oppressed groups. But in 1971, the Malaysian government introduced New Economic Policy (NEP) to perpetuate the rule of the majority Malays. The NEP provided affirmative action programmes for the majority “Bhumiputras” (sons of the soil) i.e. the ethnic Malays in business, education and the civil service. Within two decades, the NEP had crippled the Indian and Chinese origin Malaysians. Yet, in 1991, the NEP was revised under the New Development Plan (1991-2000) to achieve further socio-economic upliftment of the Bhumiputras. The same preferential treatment of the majority Malays continues under the New Vision Policy (2001-2010).

The statistics of the devastating impact of the pro-Bhumiputra policies are telling.

Today, Malaysia is one of the South-East Asia’s most vibrant economies and the socio-economic conditions of the majority Malays have improved exponentially. But there has been little improvement of the conditions of the Indian origin Malaysians.

In 1970, the overall share of wealth of the ethnic Indians stood at 1.1 percent but three decades later, their overall share of wealth increased only slightly to about 1.5 percent which is disproportionately less in relation to their population.

Indian origin Malaysians constitute about 8% of the total population. But, they also constituted 15 percent of juvenile delinquents, about 50 percent of all convicts in prisons in 2004,  and 41% of the beggars in 2003. According to Hindu Rights Action Force, the percentage of Indians in the civil service fell from 40% in 1957 to less than 2% in 2005. According to official records, 30-35 Indian origin Malaysians per 100,000 committed or attempted to commit suicide annually as compared to 10-12 Malaysians per 100,000 in 2006.

In education, Indian origin Malaysians made up of less than 5% of the total university intake of over 45,000 annually. Nearly half of the 523 Tamil vernacular schools do not receive any government funds although they are in shambles.

In addition, their religious freedoms are violated. Under Article 3 (1) of the Constitution of Malaysia, Islam is the religion of the Federation. According to the Hindu Rights Action Force, there is an “unofficial policy of Hindu temple cleansing in Malaysia”. At least three Hindu temples were demolished, one was partly destroyed and two others had been served demolition notices in Kuala Lumpur and neighboring Selangor state since February 2006.

II. Repression to silence protest against racism

Malaysia remains a truly Police State. It resorted to high-handedness to bludgeon the protestors on 25 November 2007. The Malaysian riot police broke up the rally by using disproportionate force – using batons, tear gas and water cannon against unarmed protestors.

The state also invoked the Sedition Act though on 26 November 2007, police had to release three Hindu Rights Action Force leaders including its President, Waythamoorthy, legal advisor, P. Uthayakumar and V.S. Ganapathi Rao for failing to produce any evidence of their alleged seditious statements. On 27 November 2007, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi stated that the draconian Internal Security Act, whch allows suspects to be detained for indefinite period without charge or trial, could be used against the demonstrators arrested on 25 November 2007. More than 70 people are currently detained without trial under the Internal Security Act and some of them have been detained for more than six years.

Moreover, many students face suspension under the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 which prohibits undergraduate students from taking part in demonstrations. Under this Act, those arrested and charged in court are suspended and are allowed to resume their studies only if the cases against them are dropped or if they are acquitted. Hence, those who participated in the rally on 25 November 2007 could face suspension of their studies.

It is high time that the international community protested against the racist policies and practices of the Malaysian government and the use of the Internal Security Act against those who protest against the policies and practices of the “racism and racial discrimination”.

Source: Asian Center for Human Rights

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Where has this Barisan Nasional government steered Malaysia to ?

Malaysia’s Biggest Liability Is Racial Discord

For a country that abhors public protests and suppresses them with strict rules against illegal assembly, Malaysia has had two big demonstrations in Kuala Lumpur just this month.

With elections expected to be held next year, a certain rise in political temperature isn’t surprising.

However, two large street rallies within a month may also be a sign that the 50-year-old code defining the rules of engagement between the state and the three main ethnic groups — the “social contract” of Malaysia — is fraying.

The biggest source of discontent is race, a four-letter word in a country where three-fifths of the 27 million people are Malays, about a quarter of the population is Chinese and 10 percent is Indian.

Many in the minority Chinese and Indian communities are disenchanted with economic policies that favor the Malays.

And while privileges granted to the Malay Bumiputeras — or “sons of the soil” — can’t be taken away abruptly, the case for separating entitlements from racial identity is building.

There are, of course, limits to how far Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi may be prepared to go and how soon.

To the extent affirmative-action policies make Malaysia unattractive to foreign investors, Abdullah has already shown a willingness to respond. The government has said that companies setting up tourism or logistics businesses in the Iskandar Development Region of Johor won’t need to comply with a rule requiring foreign companies to have at least 30 percent ethnic Malay ownership.

Investments, Trade

This is a welcome step because Malaysia received just $6 billion of foreign direct investment last year. Thailand got $10 billion and India received $17 billion.

Ending preferential treatment for Malays in lucrative government contracts is going to be more problematic.

Free-trade talks with the U.S. and Australia have been delayed and the ones with New Zealand have had to be suspended primarily because Malaysia’s policy of discouraging non-Malays — including foreigners — from bidding on government tenders is unacceptable to these countries.

The same issue might also jeopardize a free-trade deal between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — of which Malaysia is a member — and the European Union.

1969 Riots

The Federation of Malaya’s 1957 constitution, which was drafted as the British were leaving, recognized that the indigenous Malay community needed special help, including quotas in government jobs, business permits and university places, to improve their abject economic standing.

The acceptance of this arrangement by the minority Chinese and Indian communities — “foreigners” in the land of the ethnic Malay Muslims — was seen as the basis of their citizenship and participation in a grand political coalition that has ruled Malaysia uninterrupted since independence.

Following bloody race riots in 1969, the New Economic Policy of 1970 made it an avowed goal of state policy to lift the share of corporate ownership for the Bumiputeras to 30 percent, from just 2 percent.

There was an uproar last year when a Malaysian economist argued in a study that the goal may already have been more than met and it was time to dismantle economic policies based on race.

`Sacred’ Arrangement?

The political rhetoric is still staunchly against any such dilution of affirmative action. At his party’s annual congress this month, Abdullah described Malay interests and the social contract between communities as “sacred.”

However, the economic reality is different.

Malaysia’s annual per-capita income has jumped an impressive 26-fold in the past 50 years to 20,900 ringgit ($6,200). But the decades of sustained, rapid growth in prosperity are now history.

The rise of China and India is forcing Malaysia to discover new sources of competitiveness; in such an environment, the policy of race-based discrimination is increasingly untenable.

The area where Malaysia has paid the heaviest price is education. In the 1980s, government policy reduced national schools to “Malay enclaves,” in the words of University of Sydney political scientist Lily Zubaidah Rahim; as a result, the Chinese opted out in large numbers.

Thus, the ideal place to integrate the races became the starting point of segregation.

While ethnic quotas in higher education were removed in 2002, university entrance norms for non-Malays are still significantly tougher. Talent that Malaysia badly needs to build a knowledge-driven economy is forced to migrate.

Renegotiating the Contract

The Nov. 10 protests called for an improvement in the electoral process so that the next polls are free and fair; the second rally, however, had an overt racial tone.

The Hindu Rights Action Force, which organized the demonstration, is suing the British government for not protecting the rights of the minority Indian community at the time of independence. The colonial rulers had brought in Indians as indentured labor to work on rubber plantations.

The real purpose of the protesters is, of course, to draw attention to the unfairness of the 1957 constitutional arrangement and to show that the Malays aren’t the only underclass in Malaysia.

..

A renegotiation of the Malaysian social contract so that entitlements are realigned with real economic needs will be a slow, challenging process, though nothing short of it can really heal the wounds festering for half a century.

Source: Bloomberg

 

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Where has this Barisan Nasional government steered Malaysia to ?

US defends peaceful protests in Malaysia

The United States underscored Wednesday the rights of Malaysians to hold peaceful protests, after Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s government swiftly suppressed mass rallies and threatened to use a draconian law to detain protestors indefinitely without trial.

“We believe citizens of any country should be allowed to peacefully assemble and express their views,” a US State Department official said when commenting on the crackdown of unprecedented street protests in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur this month.

One called for electoral reform which drew some 30,000 people, and another by at least 8,000 ethnic Indians last Sunday was aimed at highlighting racial discrimination.

The rallies were the biggest in a decade and took place despite bans ordered by police, who broke up the gatherings with tear gas, water cannons and baton charges.

…

The protests led to a veiled threat by Abdullah on Tuesday to use the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA) that allows for detention without trial to stem the dissent.

Rights groups, who have campaigned to have the ISA abolished, cautioned the prime minister against using such laws.

“It is a huge mistake for Prime Minister Abdullah to even consider using this unjust law to crack down on peaceful demonstrators,” said T. Kumar, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific advocacy director in Washington.

“We strongly urge him not to use it.”

Amnesty has also called on the US authorities to check whether excessive force was used in quelling the recent demonstrations and to oppose any use of the ISA against peaceful protests, he said.

Abdullah argued that the ISA was “a preventive measure to spare the nation from untoward incidents that can harm the prevailing peace and harmony and create all sorts of adverse things.”

“So, I don’t know (when to invoke the ISA), but ISA will be there. When it is appropriate to use it, it will be used,” he said.

Malaysia is holding more than 100 people under the ISA, about 80 of them alleged Islamic militants. Rights groups have long campaigned for them to be freed or brought to trial.

The legislation allows for two-year detention periods that can be renewed indefinitely. The government maintains that detention without trial is needed as a first line of defence against terrorism.

US intelligence consultancy Stratfor, in a bulletin to clients this week, said the Malaysian demonstrations signaled “instability” ahead of national elections expected early next year.

“The recent demonstrations signal chaos and unpredictability to come before elections are announced, but Badawi’s grip on internal security is not going to loosen any time soon,” it said.

Source: AFP, Times India

 

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Malaysia under the BN government, better or worse ?

Nazrin: Nurture human capital or risk losing the the best and brightest

Countries, including Malaysia, must change with the aspirations of their citizens or risk losing their best and brightest, said Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah. 

“There are countries today whose citizens are highly educated and whose scientists and engineers are at the leading edge in their fields but who want nothing more than to leave their countries. 

“It is time that we reunite these disparate parts into our development story,” he said in his speech at the National Economic Outlook Conference 2008/2009 organised by Malaysian Institute of Economic Research yesterday. 

Source: The Star

 

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Does the Barisan Nasional government cherish human capital ?

Indian discontent in Malaysia

 

…While some blame Malaysia’s racial policies as the barrier to Indian social wellbeing, with Malays betting on the country’s affirmative action policy and the Chinese being formidable in commerce and business, others blame the Indians themselves. The Malaysian Indian Congress, the ethnic-based party that represents the Indian minority in the ruling coalition, is widely looked upon as ineffective if not corrupt.

 Race is the big divide in Malaysia. During his 20 years as prime minister, Mahathir sought to uplift Malays, guaranteeing them a large share of business opportunities. The Chinese, the biggest minority, were supposed to lose their disproportionate share of the country’s economy. But the real losers were Indians. Due to their colonial legacy, they are generally seen as providers of cheap labor in plantations and construction sites, their political and social mobility has been thwarted.

…

Sarala Sukumaran, 40, a Malaysian Indian entrepreneur who runs an IT firm, says: “”I know many Indian families who want to get out of Malaysia. There are two main reasons behind the backwardness of Indians. One is that we are a minority here, and two, the politicians who represent us do not promote our cause.”

Sukumaran is a third generation Malaysian Indian. Her grandparents came to Malaysia in the 1930s to work in the plantations in Penang.

“I feel that we are not aggressive enough as a community in terms of unleashing our entrepreneurial potential. That’s why our evolution has been very slow. Comparatively, look at the Tamils from Sri Lanka,” she said. “They have a more close-knit community feeling, they help uplift each other and they are certainly doing much better than the Indians.”

After the racial riots of May 1969, Malaysian leaders emphasized the establishment of a united nation and a national culture transcending ethnic identities. The dominant culture in this set-up is Malay with some elements from other cultures supporting it.

Even some new Indians, want to get out. “Being non-bumiputras in Malaysia, we can never settle down here,” says Nishant Upadhyay, 30, an instructional designer. “We know that getting a permanent residency is next to impossible so we are looking at opportunities in countries like Singapore and Australia where we can easily settle down and start a family.”

Many Indian IT professionals have still not gotten over the mistreatment of 300 Indian citizens in March 2003 in Kuala Lumpur, which was widely reported in the Indian press. Security agencies reportedly interrogated them rudely in a search for illegal immigrants, but all the Indians possessed valid residency documents. Subsequently Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, then the deputy prime minister, apologized for the incident.

But there are frequent reports of abuse of Indian workers and Bumiputra politics disadvantage Indians in education and work opportunities. Local university seats and scholarships are awarded under a racial quota system, and even after getting a degree, many say that discrimination is commonplace. Indian doctors, for instance, complain that they are often excluded from lists of approved doctors whom civil servants or company employees can patronize.

The conversion of rubber plantations to housing estates and golf courses also has displaced plantation workers who have drifted to urban centers. As a result, urban Indian ghettos have emerged and crime has escalated.

…

Indian Malaysians discover themselves in a bind. Most have resigned themselves to their plight while discontent simmers within the community. But how long can Malaysia afford to allow 8 percent of its population to feel alienated?

Source: Asia Sentinel

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Malaysia after 50 years of independence, a better place ?

Indian protest rocks Malaysia

Malaysia’s ethnic Indian community staged its biggest anti-government street protest on Sunday when more than 10,000 protesters defied tear gas and water cannon to voice complaints of racial discrimination.

The sheer size of the protest, called by a Hindu rights group, represents a political challenge for the government as it heads toward possible early elections in the next few months.

Ethnic Indians from around the country swarmed into Kuala Lumpur for the rally, despite a virtual lock-down of the capital over the previous three days and warnings from police and the government that people should not take part.

“Malaysian Indians have never gathered in such large numbers in this way…,” said organizer P. Uthaya Kumar, of the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf).

“They are frustrated and have no job opportunities in the government or the private sector. They are not given business licenses or places in university,” he said, adding that Indians were also incensed by some recent demolitions of Hindu temples.

Riot police fired at the protesters with sustained volleys of tear gas and jets of water laced with an eye-stinging chemical, but it took more than five hours to finally clear the streets of downtown Kuala Lumpur.

It was the second crackdown this month on a demonstration critical of the government, as speculation grows that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will call snap elections early next year. The next election is not due until May 2009.

Veteran journalists and analysts could not recall a bigger anti-government protest by ethnic Indians, who make up about 7 percent of the population.

Political columnist Zainon Ahmad said the protest would shake the Indian community’s establishment party, the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC), a junior member of the ruling coalition.

“The MIC is severely challenged on this matter,” he said.

MIC leader S. Samy Vellu, who is also works minister, denied the protest spelt trouble for his party. “We represent the Indian community and will remain so,” he said in a statement.

But Vellu, who has himself voiced unease over a recent Hindu temple demolition by local authorities outside the capital, added: “There is still a lot to be done for the Indians and we will continue with our struggle.”

…

Source: China Post

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Malaysia after 50 years of independence, a better place ?

Nazri: We will not consult Bar Council, government happy with present system of judge appointment

…The terms of reference for the royal commission of inquiry was up to the government, Nazri said.
“It is not for the Bar Council to decide, but the government.
“We won’t consult them and we will not give up our right to decide.”
Nazri said the terms had not been finalised.
“We (the cabinet) have given our opinions, but the prime minister has not finalised anything yet.”
He also said the government was happy with the present system of appointing judges and would not be changing it, despite calls to set up an independent judicial appointments and promotions commission.

Source: New Straits Times

 

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Nazri, the eminent law minister?

The Lingam video clip scandal

Clash in Kuala Lumpur highlights ethnic divisions

Police used tear gas and water cannons Sunday to crush a banned rally by more than 10,000 ethnic minority Indians – a rare street clash that exposed deep divisions in the Muslim dominated society of Malaysia.

Slogan-shouting protesters hurled water bottles and stones at police, who chased them through streets surrounding the famous Petronas Twin Towers and doused them repeatedly with tear gas and chemical-laced water for more than eight hours.

Witnesses saw people being beaten and dragged into trucks by police. Shoes and broken flower pots littered the scene after protesters scattered to hide in hotels and shops.

…

The rally – rooted in complaints that the ethnic Malay Muslim-dominated government discriminates against minorities – was the largest protest in at least a decade involving ethnic Indians, the country’s second-largest minority population after ethnic Chinese. The ethnic Indians are generally the most underprivileged.

“This gathering is unprecedented,” protest leader P. Uthayakumar said. “This is a community that can no longer tolerate discrimination.”

It was the second street protest in Kuala Lumpur this month. A Nov. 10 rally that drew thousands of people demanding electoral reforms was also broken up with similar force after only a few hours.

Street demonstrations are extremely rare among the multiple ethnic groups in Malaysia, which prides itself on its communal and political stability. The two protests indicate that Malaysians are becoming bolder about venting their frustrations publicly against a political system that concentrates power and influence in the hands of the Malay ruling elite.

…

Ethnic Indians say discrimination continued after Malaysia’s independence in 1957 because of an affirmative action policy favouring Malays, who comprise about 60 per cent of the country’s 27 million people.

Samy Vellu, the government’s top ethnic Indian politician, denounced Sunday’s protest as “an opposition ploy to smear the government’s image.”

Malaysia has maintained racial peace since 1969, when some 200 people were killed in riots sparked by Malay frustration over the economic clout of Chinese. The violence spurred the creation of programs that give Malays privileges in government jobs, contracts and education.

Source: The Globe and Mail, Canada, The Independent, UK

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Malaysia after 50 years of independence

Malaysian sues Britain over ethnic Indians’ woes

An ethnic Indian in Malaysia is using an audacious strategy to highlight the plight of his mostly impoverished community by suing Britain, the country’s former colonial ruler, for $4 trillion (1.9 trillion pounds).

The Malaysian government dismisses the case as baseless, but lawyer Waytha Moorthy is determined to pursue it, even vowing to appeal to the Queen to appoint lawyers for the Indian community, which he says is too poor to find its own.

…

“We are seeking compensation because we were permanently colonised during British rule, and now, under the government of the ethnic Malays,” Moorthy told Reuters.

…

In colonial times, many impoverished Indians and Chinese flocked to work and settle in Malaysia, drawn by government schemes meant to attract cheap labour for the country’s then lucrative rubber estates and tin mines, he added.

…

But the episode highlights a very real dilemma: after 50 years of independence, ethnic Indians, most of whom are Hindu, own just 1.5 percent of the country’s national wealth.

The group, which forms about eight percent of Malaysia’s 26 million people, says a decades-old affirmative action plan for the country’s Malay Muslim majority has deprived it of opportunities, and the government has done little to improve living standards.

The affirmative action plan, adopted after deadly race riots in 1969, favours politically dominant Malays in housing, education, businesses, jobs and state contracts. Ethnic Indians say the policy is discriminatory.

Poor education further cripples their chances of upward social mobility, forcing them to continue being labourers, although some are now losing out to cheaper foreign workers.

“Indians have suffered under the Muslim-majority Malay government and also during British government rule for the past 200 years,” said Moorthy.

…

Source: Reuters Africa

 

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Malaysia after 50 years of independence