HRP to meet Hilary Clinton in KL: Help stop Islamaphobia and Indian minorities denied constitutional rights to statehood, education, employment, business opportunities, upward mobility opportunities etc.
Date: 22nd October 2010
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
US Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Dear Secretary Clinton,
We are the Human Rights Party of Malaysia and we represent the interests and rights of the marginalized minority Indian Malaysians. We write this letter to your goodself as the Secretary of State of the United States of America who supports causes around the world for political renaissance and for democratic, economic and social reforms. We wish to bring to your attention some aspects of life in Malaysia to clarify the true state of human rights and minorities rights here. As you prepare to make your first trip to Malaysia as Secretary of State from the 1st to the 3rd of November 2010, we urge you to make human rights and minorities rights issue a prominent topic in your public and private discussions with the Malaysian leadership with the clarity we hope to provide.
Your visit will certainly shape the relationship between Malaysia and the United States of America for the years to come. The long established trade and commercial ties is now to be enhanced by increased defence and diplomatic ties in the Obama administration. This effectively represents a deepening of the relationship between the two countries. Malaysia is a frontline state in Asean, which itself is a frontline region for the United States vis-à-vis US strategic interests. This position makes it imperative for Malaysia to rise up to the standards and norms of a frontline state and ally of the United States of America. Malaysia however, has fallen short of that high standard in not living up to universally accepted human rights norms, especially in its treatment of minorities in the country. We attach a detailed Malaysian Indian Minority and Human Rights violation Annual Report 2009 and as is reported on a day to day basis in our website www.humanrightspartymalaysia.com for your further understanding.
We understand from the pronouncements of the Malaysian Government that the United States would like to use the model of Malaysia as a moderate and progressive Muslim state to the rest of the Muslim world and for Malaysia to be used to the rest of the world to deal with Islamophobia.. The advancement of human rights and minority rights indeed becomes even more imperative if that is an additional strategic dimension that the United States of America sees in this relationship. In this context let me quote Barrack Obama’s proclamation to the world in his Presidential Inaugural Speech:
“To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”—President Barack Hussein Obama’s Inaugural Address (January, 2009)
Before embarking substantially on this path it is necessary first that the model chosen be indeed the model the United States of America wants. By reviewing the many details in the Report we attach, it will become clear to you that there is a tacit, subtle and strong move away from the universally recognized democratic values. The movement rather, is towards what would be considered a racist and religious supremacist apartheid type of regime. Tacit, we say, because it is not commonly visible as a result of the state
policy of suppression of information. Subtle we say because it is pervasively woven into state policies in ways that what is constitutionally guaranteed is procedurally denied to the minorities. All with tacit State support. The trajectory of this tendency is more rather than less of these abuses. Looking into the future, it will not exactly be the model that the United States of America seeks without some intervention to change this performance by the Government of Malaysia.
Let me give you two specific examples of this tendency. The first is the slow encroachment of the Syaria court into the precincts of the Constitutionally sanctioned Civil Courts. The Federal Constitution clearly only established the Civil courts. It was amended in 1988 to recognise the existence of the Muslim Syariah Courts which were set up to be inferior courts to the Civil High Courts with intent to adjudicate on Islamic family and property matters. However the Syariah Courts have crossed their boundaries and jurisdictions and are now significantly usurping the powers and duties of the Civil High Courts, in so many recent incidents. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as this slow and systematic Islamisation of the country has spread in steady terms for the last 30 years, not only with the Syaria Legal system but in so many other aspects of common life, a deeper study will reveal. The second example is the fact that the civil service is almost entirely of the majority Malay ethnic group. Through this overwhelmingly monoethnic composition of the administration the Government operationalises what we call its near apartheid policies of depriving the minorities of their constituionally guaranteed rights in all spheres of life – staehood, education, employment, business opportunities, development programs, discrimination in all affairs between minorities and the
Government. These are detailed in the attached report.
As much as these issues may be sensitive given the intricacies of international diplomacy, we feel that unless there is positive intervention,
there will not be adequate political will to make the changes necessary to rise to the occasion. We can see some rhetorical movements in the position of the Government in response to some of the pressure that has been mounted on them recently in various for and from this we do know that they will respond to the right kinds of suggestions from the right quarters.
In specific we urge that you raise on this visit the following issues:
· Authority of Civil Courts: The return of the rights of the Civil Courts as enshrined in the Malaysian Federal Constitution and the resetting of the authority of the Syaria Courts according to the laws of the country as a first requirement to promoting a true democracy in a multiethnic and multi religious national setting needs to happen.
· Equal rights and equal opportunities for Minorities in the country: The minorities of the country whether ethnic or religious be accorded equal right as citizens of the country and the Government of Malaysia to recede from a regime of dual levels of citizenship akin to the separation in the apartheid regime in the areas of statehood, education, employment, freedom of religion, land matters and development programs to name a few key areas. The government must change its policies on equal rights and equal opportunities to reflect true equality.
· Abuses against Human Rights Defenders: P. Uthayakumar of our party has been charged in court under the Seditions act for having raised Human Rights issues in very forthright terms. He has already spent 514 days in prison under the draconian Internal Security Act for that same charge. Such abuses against Human Rights defenders must be stopped
· The violations of the Malaysian Federal Constitution: The use of extraconstitional methods to deny what is guranteed in the constitution has been a facet of Malaysian life which accelerated greatly from the 1980s during Dr.Mahathir’s tenure. This needs to be stopped. Article 153 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution clearly states that the King has the responsibility for safegurading the special position of the Malays and also the legitimate interests of all the rest of the nation. What has been operationalised and emphasised is the safegurading of the special position of the Malays and what has been conveniently ignored and consciously neglected is the legitimate interests of in particular the ethnic minority Indians in Malaysia especially of the marginalised Indians, resulting in the emergence of what we call the near apartheid regime.
We strongly urge that you raise these issues during your visit here, dear Secretary. We are aware that the US’s agenda with Malaysia is a broad one, but we believe that the mutual goals of the people of the United States of America and Malaysia can be attained through this meaningful intervention.
We would like to make a request for a delegation of 3 to meet with you during your visit to Malaysia on any of the days from the 1st to the 3rd of November. We would like to present you our views in some more detail. We will appreciate if you will grant us this request.
Thank You
Yours faithfully,
P. Uthayakumar
Secretary General (Pro-Tem)
Human Rights Party Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
cc. Paul W Jones
United States of America Ambassador-designate to Malaysia
US Embassy
376, Jalan Tun Razak,
Fax : 03-21489192
50400 Kuala Lumpur
E-mail: mariatimy@state.gov
Kurt Campbell
Assistant secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific affairs
US Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Jim Steinberg
Deputy Secretary of State
US Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Mr. James Bangert
Malaysian Desk Officer
Fax : 202-647-7350
US department of State E-Mail: BangertJ@state.gov
2201, C Street NW
Washington DC 20520
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