Sever trade ties with Malaysia, India told

FMT Staff | January 8, 2011

Hindraf wants the Indian government to terminate all present and future business projects with Malaysia.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) has urged the Indian government to terminate all present and future business projects with Malaysia.

According to a report in The Times of India yesterday, the call was made based on Hindraf’s Malaysian Indian Minority and Human Rights Violations annual report 2010.

The report claimed that Malaysian Indians were suffering grave human rights violations committed by the Malaysian government.

Hindraf activists had distributed copies of the report at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Overseas Indians Conference) in New Delhi, which commenced yesterday.

Based on news reports published by the Malaysian media, the Hindraf report alleged that 95% of those killed by the Malaysian police were Indians.

The report stated that 90% of custodial deaths and 80% of those who experienced “police harassment, unlawful arrests, frivolous and malicious prosecutions”, were Malaysian Indians.

The report added that 48% of prisoners in 28 prisons in Malaysia were ethnic Indians and in 2010 alone, 5,000 Indians were arrested and detained under the Emergency Ordinance, which allowed for detention without trial.

Furthermore, Hindraf quoted the Malaysian Human Resources Ministry’s as stating that 200,000 Indian youths in Malaysia were involved in crime.

“There are about 100,000 ethnic Indian gangsters operating in Malaysia. The acute problem which requires multi-faceted intervention to address the issue, is understood to have low priority with the government, which lacks the political will to avert the situation.

“The only known current policy towards the social problem is the alarming increase in police killings,” read the report.

Issue note of censure

In view of this, Hindraf chairman P Waythamoorthy asked the Indian government to issue a note of censure against its Malaysian counterpart in a language consistent with the serious and urgent nature of the problem.

He also wanted the Indian government to urge the Malaysian government to reverse the marginalisation of the people of Indian origin in Malaysia.

Hindraf, which was outlawed by former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s government, landed in the spotlight after organising a massive rally in 2007, which saw tens of thousands of disgruntled Malaysian Indians flooding the streets in Kuala Lumpur.

The rally, touted as the political awakening of Malaysian Indians, was also acknowledged as one of the main factors which led to the community voting for the opposition in the 2008 polls.

Following the rally, five Hindraf leaders, including Waythamoorthy’s brother, Uthayakumar, were detained under the Internal Security Act.

While Hindraf called for an end to trade ties between India and Malaysia, former MIC president S Samy Vellu, however, was also present at the conference with a 150-strong delegation to explore new business opportunities.

Samy Vellu, who was recently appointed Malaysia’s special envoy on infrastructure to India and South Asia, would hold talks with high-ranking Indian officials on the sidelines of the four-day conference to open up more opportunities for Malaysian businessmen to venture into India.